The nematode worm C. elegans chooses between bacterial foods exactly as if maximizing economic utility

The nematode worm C. elegans chooses between bacterial foods exactly as if maximizing economic utility. Abraham Katzen, Hui-Kuan Chung, William T. Harbaugh, Christina Della Iacono, Nicholas Jackson, Stephanie K. Yu, Steven W. Flavell, Paul W. Glimcher, Shawn R. Lockery. bioRxiv Jul 2 2021. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.25.441352

Abstract: In value-based decision making, options are selected according to subjective values assigned by the individual to available goods and actions. Despite the importance of this faculty of the mind, the neural mechanisms of value assignments, and how choices are directed by them, remain obscure. To investigate this problem, we used a classic measure of utility maximization, the Generalized Axiom of Revealed Preference, to quantify internal consistency of food preferences in Caenorhabditis elegans, a nematode worm with a nervous system of only 302 neurons. Using a novel combination of microfluidics and electro-physiology, we found that C. elegans food choices fulfill the necessary and sufficient conditions for utility maximization, indicating that nematodes behave exactly as if they maintain, and attempt to maximize, an underlying representation of subjective value. Food choices are well-fit by a utility function widely used to model human consumers. Moreover, as in many other animals, subjective values in C. elegans are learned, a process we now find requires intact dopamine signaling. Differential responses of identified chemosensory neurons to foods with distinct growth potential are amplified by prior consumption of these foods, suggesting that these neurons may be part of a value-assignment system. The demonstration of utility maximization in an organism with no more than several hundred neurons sets a new lower bound on the computational requirements for maximization, and offers the prospect of an essentially complete explanation of value-based decision making at single neuron resolution.

Replication results that strongly contradict an original finding do not necessarily nullify its credibility but we'd at least expect the replication results to be acknowledged & explicitly debated; this happens much less than it should

Hardwicke, Tom E., Dénes Szűcs, Robert T. Thibault, Sophia Crüwell, Olmo Van den Akker, Michele B. Nuijten, and john Ioannidis. 2021. “Citation Patterns Following a Strongly Contradictory Replication Result: Four Case Studies from Psychology.” MetaArXiv. February 9. doi:10.31222/osf.io/wt5ny

Abstract: Replication studies that contradict prior findings may facilitate scientific self-correction by triggering a reappraisal of the original studies; however, the research community's response to replication results has not been studied systematically. One approach for gauging responses to replication results is to examine how they impact citations to original studies. In this study, we explored post-replication citation patterns in the context of four prominent multi-laboratory replication attempts published in the field of psychology that strongly contradicted and outweighed prior findings. Generally, we observed a small post-replication decline in the number of favourable citations and a small increase in unfavourable citations. This indicates only modest corrective effects and implies considerable perpetuation of belief in the original findings. Replication results that strongly contradict an original finding do not necessarily nullify its credibility; however, one might at least expect the replication results to be acknowledged and explicitly debated in subsequent literature. By contrast, we found substantial citation bias: the majority of articles citing the original studies neglected to cite relevant replication results. Of those articles that did cite the replication, but continued to cite the original study favourably, approximately half offered an explicit defence of the original study. Our findings suggest that even replication results that strongly contradict original findings do not necessarily prompt a corrective response from the research community.

 Check also Only 54pct of newspapers than published erroneous research findings published the retraction; the retraction stories were balanced, but shorter than those on the article’s publication and often lacking in context & detail:

Dissemination of Erroneous Research Findings and Subsequent Retraction in High-Circulation Newspapers: A Case Study of Alleged MDMA-Induced Dopaminergic Neurotoxicity in Primates. Brian S. Barnett & Richard Doblin. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, Nov 26 2020. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2020/12/only-54pct-of-newspapers-than-published.html

Women’s Sexual Health During the Pandemic of COVID-19: Many women also experienced declines in sexual function, sexual satisfaction and relationship satisfaction

Women’s Sexual Health During the Pandemic of COVID-19: Declines in Sexual Function and Sexual Pleasure. Leonor de Oliveira & Joana Carvalho. Current Sexual Health Reports, Jul 3 2021. https://rd.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11930-021-00309-4

Abstract

Purpose of the Review: The World Health Association declared COVID-19 a pandemic more than 1 year ago. We conducted a systematic review of the literature on the topic of women’s sexual health during the pandemic, with a focus on sexual function and sexual pleasure. Our aim is to describe current findings and to discuss implications for women’s sexual health during this period.

Recent Findings: Thirty-four articles, from 18 countries, were identified. These studies addressed topics ranging from individual aspects, such as cognitive, emotional, and personality factors affecting sexuality during the pandemic, to contextual factors, including relationship, childrearing, and employment status in this period.

Summary: Research identified a deterioration of women’s sexual function across countries, with an emphasis on sexual desire. Most studies found decreases in the frequency of sexual intercourse during the pandemic and increases in solitary sexual behavior. Many women also experienced declines in sexual satisfaction and relationship satisfaction. Findings suggested that gender inequalities contributed to lower indices of sexual function and satisfaction, and might have exacerbated the pleasure gap between men and women.

Discussion

This review suggested that women’s sexual health and well-being might have been disproportionately affected during the COVID-19 pandemic throughout 2020, as predicted. According to our findings, women experienced more sexual problems than men, including low sexual desire and low sexual satisfaction [e.g., 32, 35, 48]. Most studies found decreases in the frequency of sexual intercourse during the pandemic, but also found increases in solitary sexual behavior [e.g., 28, 39, 43], which may imply that the declines in sexual desire were affecting mostly partner relationships. While the fact that there was an increase in masturbation and pornography use fits the media narratives described by Döring [2], the speculated “coronavirus babyboom” seems unlikely considering the drops in sexual intercourse, and in intention to conceive during 2020 [59]. This does not mean, however, that this trend is carried on in 2021. As for the prevision of the rise of the new genre of coronavirus themed pornography, this proved to be correct [48].

Research found negative relationships between some individual aspects and sexual function, such as age, level of stress, anxiety, and depression, and negative sexual cognitions and emotions [28, 30, 37, 43, 55]. These do not appear to be pandemic specific, considering that previous research has established that anxiety and depression and their treatments contribute to higher rates of sexual dysfunction [61, 62]. As well, dysfunctional sexual beliefs and emotions were also proven to negatively affect women’s sexual health [63, 64]. Nevertheless, the fact is that during this period, many people experienced higher levels of stress, and this seems to have put them at greater risk for sexual dysfunction.

This review also found that higher boredom was related with increased sexual activity and sexual function [27, 54] and that some individuals used sex to cope during lockdown [56]. Some researchers suggest that sex can be a coping mechanism for managing boredom, which has been linked to masturbation and hypersexuality [65, 66]. Boredom was identified as an important stressor for those in isolation during the pandemic [67]. Possibly, for some individuals feeling bored due to isolation, sex was welcomed as a positive distraction. As for individuals who score highly on measures of sociosexuality, who were unable to pursue sex on their terms, including casual sex, they perceived higher impact of lockdown on their well-being [49]. On the other hand, sociosexuality and physical attraction to the partner were associated with introducing new sexual practices during this period [58]. In fact, improvements in sex life during the pandemic were related with higher sexual desire overall and for partner, and with incorporating new sexual activities [27, 57]. Pre-pandemic studies found that sexual novelty was inversely correlated with sexual boredom [68] and that the inability or unwillingness to engage in novel sexual behavior was positively correlated with sexual boredom [69]. In a recent qualitative study with a large community sample, participants described sexual boredom as the sexual monotony and/or lack of sexual interest that is often linked to the interpersonal aspects of long-term sexual relationships [70]. During COVID-19, many couples changed their lifestyles to comply with restrictions and were forced to face monotony. It seems as if this did not necessarily send them to sexual boredom, as some seemed to have reacted to feelings of boredom by introducing new sexual activities and enhancing sexual desire. Nevertheless, some individuals might not have had the tools to fight pandemic induced boredom and sexual boredom, and this could have affected their sexual function. Yet, that assumption was not investigated.

Relationship factors are known to affect sexual health [71,72,73]. However, the extent to which the pandemic impacted relationship quality is unclear. This is especially relevant for women in sexual violent relationships, who became more vulnerable and isolated during this pandemic [2, 9]. Yet, this review did not focus on sexual violence. Additionally, this review found that women living with their partners and having more free time and better opportunities for partnered quality time [30, 54], or women having higher relationship satisfaction, felt more sexually satisfied [46, 55] and had less sexual dysfunction [39, 43]. On the other hand, those experiencing conflict in their relationship had sex less often [40, 60]. Also, negative changes in relationship satisfaction during COVID-19 were related with having dyadic conflict, poor coping [74], and with having children at home for school, irrespectively of work status [75]. Although the current review did not include studies examining same-sex couples, other research has identified that in the pandemic context, being a person of color and having higher internalized homophobia exacerbated the pandemic’s negative effects on relationship satisfaction [76]. Thus, it seems highly relevant that these populations are investigated.

Working was one of the life areas where individuals faced more changes. Many people had to adjust their routines to work from home, while essential workers had to manage additional risk at their workplaces. These shifts impacted on individuals’ sexual health [31, 33], particularly in subjects who were, or who became, unemployed [31, 44], or in healthcare workers [36, 41], possibly due to increased stress levels. Conversely, those working from home also saw declines in sexual health [31], specifically those who struggled with anxiety, depression, and somatization, although for women, this was not related with their level of confinement [28].

Some authors [41, 44, 51] speculated that the declines in sexual function and sexual activity were a result of the level of education or information on the virus of COVID-19. That is, well-informed or educated individuals were more afraid and/or compliant with social distancing, experiencing higher dysfunction and less sexual activity. Even though we might consider that access to information may have privileged solitary sexual behavior at some level, we are not sure whether it was a major factor determining sexual function. In reality, research shows that interventions aiming at sexual education favor women’s sexual function and pleasure [78, 88]. In addition to possible spillover effects, the declines in the sexual function of women with more access to education or information seem to us a more likely result of lack of parity between men and women. There were several authors who alerted that the advent of teleworking would exacerbate gender inequalities [9, 89, 90]. This review suggests that these inequalities, including childrearing, contributed to lower indexes of sexual function and satisfaction, which in turn provide evidence of pleasure inequality. Because some women may struggle with negotiating sexual pleasure and tend to favor men’s sexual pleasure [91, 92], it is possible that during this pandemic, these women engaged in sex in the absence of sexual desire or in the presence of sexual pain. This is likely to have resulted in pleasureless sex and, consequently, to even have lowered levels of sexual function. Although not many studies used measures of sexual pleasure, and rather of sexual satisfaction, the findings of this review leave one to guess that the pandemic may have had stretched the pleasure gap between men and women.

Implications

Because pleasure is an important dimension of sexual health [93], equality in sexual pleasure is not just relevant, it is essential. The fact that women’s sexual pleasure might have been particularly affected due to COVID-19 related downfalls, it is a symptom of gender inequality in sexuality. Although it seems impossible to determine at this stage if there will be long-term negative effects of the pandemic in women’s sexual health, this matter should be further investigated as the effects of pandemic are still felt globally. An important note on this topic is that studies were mainly focused on women from western cultures, masking the specific challenges of women from developing countries, who have probably faced additional difficulties. In addition, there is a big gap in research regarding sexual minorities, as we did not find any studies focused on LGBTQIA+ or non-monogamous populations. Research on COVID-19-related sexual problems also raises questions on whether sexual dysfunctions should be diagnosed when they are likely caused by identifiable external factors. The main opportunity stemming from the ongoing pandemic might be that the current lack of resources for meeting with the community may lead to the improvement and dissemination of e-Health tools as applied to the context of sexual health and pleasure, and finally reach a wider population.

Surveilling Surveillance: Estimating the Prevalence of Surveillance Cameras with Street View Data

Surveilling Surveillance: Estimating the Prevalence of Surveillance Cameras with Street View Data. Hao Sheng et al. AIES ’21, May 19–21, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1145/1122445.1122456

Abstract: The use of video surveillance in public spaces—both by government agencies and by private citizens—has attracted considerable attention in recent years, particularly in light of rapid advances in face-recognition technology. But it has been difficult to systematically measure the prevalence and placement of cameras, hampering efforts to assess the implications of surveillance on privacy and public safety. Here we present a novel approach for estimating the spatial distribution of surveillance cameras: applying computer vision algorithms to large-scale street view image data. Specifically, we build a camera detection model and apply it to 1.6 million street view images sampled from 10 large U.S. cities and 6 other major cities around the world, with positive model detections verified by human experts. After adjusting for the estimated recall of our model, and accounting for the spatial coverage of our sampled images, we are able to estimate the density of surveillance cameras visible from the road. Across the 16 cities we consider, the estimated number of surveillance cameras per linear kilometer ranges from 0.1 (in Seattle) to 0.9 (in Seoul). In a detailed analysis of the 10 U.S. cities, we find that cameras are concentrated in commercial, industrial, and mixed zones, and in neighborhoods with higher shares of non-white residents—a pattern that persists even after adjusting for land use. These results help inform ongoing discussions on the use of surveillance technology, including its potential disparate impacts on communities of color.

Keywords: Computer vision, privacy, urban computing

Emotional responses to likes and comments regulate posting frequency and content change behaviour on social media: Positive emotions mediate the effects of more engagement than expected on posting frequency

Emotional responses to likes and comments regulate posting frequency and content change behaviour on social media: An experimental study and mediation model. Kseniya Stsiampkouskaya et al. Computers in Human Behavior, Jul 4 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106940

Highlights

• A within-subject experimental study on how likes and comments drive photo sharing.

• Emotions mediate the effects of engagement on posting frequency and content change.

• Users post more frequently if they feel excited after receiving likes and comments.

• Users change content if they feel sad after not receiving expected engagement.

• Likes and comments have direct effects on posting frequency and content change.

Abstract: Online photo sharing and the associated engagement from other users, defined as number of likes and comments received for a post, is a key function of modern social media. However, little is known about emotional responses of social media users to the received engagement, and how such responses might drive social media photo sharing. In this study, we present a model of emotional mediation of the effects of social media engagement on posting frequency and content change. To test our model, we conducted a within-subject online experiment with 248 social media users. During the experiment, the participants were exposed to three conditions following a photograph sharing scenario: their usual pattern of engagement, more engagement than expected, and less engagement than expected. In each condition, the participants reported their emotions, estimated the time until their next post, and chose a photo for their next post. The results of the study indicated that high-arousal positive emotions mediate the effects of more engagement than expected on posting frequency. Both high-arousal and low-arousal negative emotions mediate the effects of less engagement than expected on content change. The practical implications for creating effective social media campaigns and improving user experience are discussed.

Keywords: Social media engagementLikes and commentsPhoto sharingEmotionsPosting frequencySocial media content

Most research into autism spectrum disorder focuses on difficulties and challenges, potentially overlooking abilities; evidence strongly suggests that individuals with ASD display enhanced rationality

Enhanced rationality in autism spectrum disorder. Liron Rozenkrantz, Anila M. D’Mello, John D.E. Gabrieli. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, July 2 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2021.05.004

Highlights

*  Most research into autism spectrum disorder (ASD) focuses on difficulties and challenges, potentially overlooking intact and even enhanced abilities.

*  Empirical evidence strongly suggests that individuals with ASD display enhanced rationality: judgments that are more objective and decision-making that is less biased than that of neurotypical individuals.

*  Enhanced rationality may confer distinct strengths to individuals with ASD and may provide insights into the mechanism or ‘irrationality’ in neurotypical individuals.

Abstract: Challenges in social cognition and communication are core characteristics of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but in some domains, individuals with ASD may display typical abilities and even outperform their neurotypical counterparts. These enhanced abilities are notable in the domains of reasoning, judgment and decision-making, in which individuals with ASD often show ‘enhanced rationality’ by exhibiting more rational and bias-free decision-making than do neurotypical individuals. We review evidence for enhanced rationality in ASD, how it relates to theoretical frameworks of information processing in ASD, its implications for basic research about human irrationality, and what it may mean for the ASD community.

Keywords: autismdecision-makingskillsrationality

Strength can be measured from both speech & roars, & strength is more reliably gauged from roars; the acoustic structure of roars explains 40-70% of the variance in actual strength within adults of either sex

Predicting strength from aggressive vocalisations versus speech in African bushland and urban communities. Karel Kleisner et al. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, in press Jun 2021. https://jdleongomez.info/es/publication/kleisner2021b/Kleisner2021b.pdf

Abstract: The human voice carries information about a vocaliser’s physical strength that listeners can perceive, and that may influence mate choice and intrasexual competition. Yet, reliable acoustic correlates of strength in human speech remain unclear. Compared to speech, aggressive nonverbal vocalisations (‘roars’) may function to maximise perceived strength, suggesting that their acoustic structure has been selected to communicate formidability, similar to the vocal threat displays of other animals. Here, we test this prediction in two non-WEIRD African samples: an urban community of Cameroonians and rural nomadic Hadza hunter-gatherers in the Tanzanian bushlands. Participants produced standardised speech and volitional roars and provided handgrip strength measures. Using acoustic analysis and informationtheoretic multi-model inference and averaging techniques, we show that strength can be measured from both speech and roars, and as predicted, strength is more reliably gauged from roars than vowels, words or greetings. The acoustic structure of roars explains 40-70% of the variance in actual strength within adults of either sex. However, strength is predicted by multiple acoustic parameters whose combinations vary by sex, sample and vocal type. Thus, while roars may maximally signal strength, more research is needed to uncover consistent and likely interacting acoustic correlates of strength in the human voice.

Keywords: nonverbal vocalisation; acoustic communication; Hadza; handgrip strength, aggression

4. Discussion

Our results support the prediction that vocal signals to physical strength in humans are maximised in aggressive nonverbal vocalisations (‘roars’) compared to speech. While this prediction has been supported in a Western population (UK drama students: [25,26]), here we extend this research to two African samples, one from the relatively urbanised municipality of Buea (students at the local university), the other from a rural and nomadic small-scale population of Hadza hunter-gatherers. Applying a bottom-up information-theoretic modelling approach, we show that the nonverbal acoustic structure of roars best predicts physical strength. Indeed, predicted strength based on vocal parameters in roars explained the most variance in actual strength for Cameroonian men and women (explaining 40% of the variance in measured hand grip strength) and for Hadza men (explaining 63% of the variance), and explained generally two to four times more variance in strength than did speech (vowels, words, or phrases). While roars relative to greetings predicted strength better in men than in women, roars produced by Hadza women explained an impressive 71% of the variance in their actual physical strength, though this was comparable to the predictive power of their greeting speech (77%). Thus, in contrast to speech, nonverbal roars appear to most effectively encode functional cues to physical strength, as also observed in nonhuman mammals [29]. However, despite our finding that roars and, to a lesser extent, speech, encode information about physical strength in non-WEIRD samples of men and women of African origin, our analyses did not identify a single vocal parameter nor a consistent combination of vocal parameters that predicted strength in both sexes and in both speech and roars. The complex combinations of acoustic predictors revealed by our models, and their high variability across sex, sample, and vocal stimulus type, corroborates the discrepancies of past studies conducted in Western samples [20,22–24,26]. In an attempt to overcome the mixed and null results of this past work, we (1) employed an information-theoretic approach [61,66,67] in order to more extensively explore potential acoustic predictors of strength; (2) examined these predictors in both speech and roars, wherein the latter was predicted to carry more information about physical formidability [25,26]; and (3) tested for acoustic indices of strength in two non-WEIRD African samples. In both samples, but particularly among the Hadza, physical strength may significantly contribute to the biological fitness of an individual given that it positively affects hunting outcomes [44]. Therefore, acoustic communication may be an optimal way to mediate social dominance hierarchies and maintain resource-control without engaging in risky physical confrontation. Indeed, we found that Hadza men and women were physically stronger than our more urban sample of Cameroonian men and women (on average by 16-31%) and that roars predicted strength better in Hadza men and women than in Cameroonian men and women. However, we also found that acoustic predictors of actual strength were more difficult to identify and less stable in the Hadza sample. The reasons for this could be ecological. For instance, Hadza are bush-living people who often communicate at long distances using loud vocalisations or speech, whereas our Cameroonian sample are urbanized, and more often communicate at shorter distances and at a lower volume. The two samples also speak different languages. While Cameroonians from Southwest and Northwest regions speak fluent English, alongside a variety of local native languages, the Hadza speak Swahili and/or Hadzane, a click language consisting of three types of click consonants that may be produced in voiceless oral, voiced nasal, or voiceless nasal, and glottalised variant [60]. Despite these differences, we cannot rule out the possibility that sample-level differences emerged due to a small sample size in the Hadza. Indeed the small sample size of the Hadza is a key limitation of this study. While data from extreme non-WEIRD samples are rare and difficult to obtain, the small sample size may have contributed to inconsistencies in the predictive power of vocal parameters and these results thus should be interpreted with caution. Regarding specific acoustic parameters, it is difficult to derive a clear generalisation of their independent contributions due to the lack of consistency in the pattern of acoustic predictors included in each final average model. However, unlike in studies based on assessments of formidability in voice perception (e.g., [72]), and evidence that relatively low fo can predict strength in the speech of peri-pubertal Bolivian Tsiname males (but not females; [22]), we did not find a consistent relationship between low male fundamental frequency (fo) and strength across samples and different vocal types. In fact, in several cases, for example in the short speech and roars of Hadza men, higher mean fo signalled strength. As increased subglottal pressure will cause an increase in voice pitch [73] this result could be due to greater lung capacity and/or louder vocalisations produced by stronger men, a prediction that can be directly tested in future work. Notably a recent meta-analysis showed, using data from 8 studies and 845 adult men, that mean fo explains a mere 0.005% of the variance (r = -0.07) in men’s upper-body strength [24]. The present study is, to our knowledge, the first to examine whether nonlinear acoustic phenomena (NLPs) predict strength in human roars. While we find preliminary evidence to support this, the positive relationship between NLPs and strength was most evident in Cameroonian women’s roars. In order to reduce the number of terms in our statistical models, we computed a single cumulative proportion (%NLP) combining side-bands, subharmonics and deterministic chaos. This cumulative proportion has previously been shown to reliably index ostensible pain level in volitional human pain vocalisations [74]. However, we cannot rule out the possibility that specific NLP sub-types (e.g., deterministic chaos, which is typically the most strongly associated with affective intensity [33]) may predict strength more effectively than others. This possibility can be tested in future studies that employ larger samples of vocalisers to ensure adequate sampling of various sub-types of nonlinear phenomena in nonverbal vocalisations, and adequate statistical power to test their relative roles. 

Communists @ the Fourth International: Hannah-Jones’ oeuvre consists of reports, essays and commentaries for the New York Times Magazine which would barely pass as personal journal entries, much less serious journalism

1619 Project creator Nikole Hannah-Jones granted tenure after weeks of media furor. Niles Niemuth. International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), Jul 1 2021. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/07/02/hann-j02.html

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) Board of Trustees voted 9-4 in a closed session Wednesday to grant tenure to Nikole Hannah-Jones, New York Times journalist and architect of the 1619 Project. Hannah-Jones, who has a master’s degree in journalism from UNC, will have a position as the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism in the Hussman School of Journalism and Media. [master's degree 2003... tenure at 2021 with no doctorate]

Hannah-Jones has been given a lifetime sinecure—a position with immense financial benefit requiring little actual work—amid a relentless campaign to promote her and the racialist falsifications of the 1619 Project. With the institutional backing of the New York Times, she has been elevated into superstar status, despite the vast disconnect between the accolades which have been piled on her and what she has accomplished.

This latest episode makes clear the heavy political investment of the Democratic Party and powerful sections of the ruling class in the effort to make race the central aspect of political discourse in the United States.

“Today’s outcome and the actions of the past month are about more than just me,” Hannah-Jones declared in a statement released through the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. “This fight is about ensuring the journalistic and academic freedom of Black writers, researchers, teachers, and students. We must ensure that our work is protected and able to proceed free from the risk of repercussions, and we are not there yet.”

The vote comes after weeks of fulmination and accusations of racism in the media and among Hannah-Jones’ supporters after it came to light in May that the board had postponed a decision on her tenure application. In the face of the delay, Hannah-Jones had instead accepted a 5-year tenure track position which did not require board approval.

However, once the details of the delay in her tenure application came to light, Hannah-Jones, who has an African American father and a white mother, threatened to sue the university for discrimination and declared that she would accept nothing less than immediate tenure. Her attorneys claimed that the delay was the result of viewpoint discrimination in violation of her First Amendment free speech rights, race and sex discrimination and illegal political interference.

“The reasons for UNC’s denial of tenure to Ms. Hannah-Jones can only be understood as the product of political and racially discriminatory backlash against her life’s work investigating, documenting, reporting, and uplifting Black Americans’ fight against generational subjugation through racial oppression and structural injustice,” a letter sent by her attorneys to UNC claimed.

A public campaign was waged to secure tenure for Hannah-Jones. Over 200 professors, writers and other cultural figures signed a letter published by The Root which decried the failure to grant her tenure as part of a “growing wave of repression” which seeks to block the teaching of the history of slavery. The letter also declared that the UNC board had “failed to uphold the first order values of academic freedom and the free exchange of ideas.”

The provost and other leaders at UNC intervened on her behalf, appealing to the board to approve her tenure application. A back-channel intervention by the Biden administration cannot be ruled out.

The demands that Hannah-Jones be granted tenure come in the face of withering criticisms of the 1619 Project, the central work for which she has become known, and the exposure of the falsifications upon which its central thesis is based. The response of preeminent American historians Gordon Wood, James McPherson, James Oakes, Clayborne Carson, Victoria Bynum and others exposed the New York Times’ effort to reinterpret American history as one of eternal struggle between blacks and whites.

The World Socialist Web Site, in addition to interviewing these historians, has thoroughly refuted the falsifications of the 1619 Project’s lead essay written by Hannah-Jones, including her claims that the American Revolution was fought to defend slavery and that African Americans have been alone in fighting for civil rights.

Hannah-Jones’ historical falsifications would be enough to disqualify her for tenure. However, there is also the matter of her journalistic qualifications for the position of professor, which do not exist.

A review of the New York Times’ archive shows that Hannah-Jones has bylined just 23 articles for the newspaper since December 2014 and nothing since June of last year. It is not uncommon for professional journalists to produce one hundred or more articles in any given year. This is not limited to lower-level beat reporters, but includes well-known columnists and journalists who generally produce several columns per week.

Hannah-Jones’ oeuvre consists of reports, essays and commentaries for the New York Times Magazine which would barely pass as personal journal entries, much less serious journalism.

Through stories framed by her own personal experience, Hannah-Jones presents race and racial division as the fundamental problem of American society, informed by a racist outlook directed against whites. She replaces individuals and historical forces with her own personal feelings.

In one column from 2016, “The Grief That White Americans Can’t Share,” she declared that whites are incapable of understanding the pain of seeing a black person killed by the police. “For white people, who have been trained since birth to see themselves as individuals, the collective fear and collective grief that black Americans feel can be hard to grasp,” she wrote.

Hannah-Jones’ defenders point to the fact that she is highly laureled—a 2016 George Polk Award, a 2017 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship “genius grant” and a 2020 Pulitzer for Commentary—and therefore qualified to teach about journalism. In reality, this says more about the way such awards are used to bolster those who serve the interests of the ruling elite than it does about the quality of her work.

The racial identity politics which define Hannah-Jones’ work has nothing to do with challenging economic inequality or oppression, but serves to advance the economic interests of members of the upper-middle class. She has discovered that there is a lot of money to be made in promoting a divisive racial narrative, securing a lucrative book and television deal out of the 1619 Project.

A final note on the issue of tenure. The increasingly difficult conditions in academia are well known, with tens of thousands of graduate students and adjuncts toiling under immense pressure with little economic and job security. While tenure was once relatively common, reaching a peak of 57 percent of faculty in 1975, according to Tufts Magazine, the American Association of University Professors reports that only 21 percent of the academic workforce in the United States is currently tenured.

The overwhelming majority of academic staff today are non-tenure track, often working paycheck to paycheck and from one contract to the next. It is rare for someone to enter academia with a tenured professorship position, since most universities require a years-long probationary period.

This is all of little concern to Hannah-Jones, who has been offered a permanent position, not because of the quality of her journalistic output, but because of her celebrity and the political role of the racialist narrative that she promotes.

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The New York Times’ 1619 Project and the Racialist Falsification of History. https://mehring.com/product/the-new-york-times-1619-project-and-the-racialist-falsification-of-history/

A left-wing, socialist critique of the 1619 project with essays, lectures, and interviews with leading historians of American history.

The left is thought to be dominant for the processing of positively valenced stimuli (stimuli inducing approach behaviors), & negatively valenced stimuli (inducing withdrawal behaviors) would be processed in the right hemisphere; this is too rigid a belief

A short review on emotion processing: a lateralized network of neuronal networks. Nicola Palomero-Gallagher & Katrin Amunts. Brain Structure and Function, Jul 3 2021. https://rd.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00429-021-02331-7

Abstract: Emotions are valenced mental responses and associated physiological reactions that occur spontaneously and automatically in response to internal or external stimuli, and can influence our behavior, and can themselves be modulated to a certain degree voluntarily or by external stimuli. They are subserved by large-scale integrated neuronal networks with epicenters in the amygdala and the hippocampus, and which overlap in the anterior cingulate cortex. Although emotion processing is accepted as being lateralized, the specific role of each hemisphere remains an issue of controversy, and two major hypotheses have been proposed. In the right-hemispheric dominance hypothesis, all emotions are thought to be processed in the right hemisphere, independent of their valence or of the emotional feeling being processed. In the valence lateralization hypothesis, the left is thought to be dominant for the processing of positively valenced stimuli, or of stimuli inducing approach behaviors, whereas negatively valenced stimuli, or stimuli inducing withdrawal behaviors, would be processed in the right hemisphere. More recent research points at the existence of multiple interrelated networks, each associated with the processing of a specific component of emotion generation, i.e., its generation, perception, and regulation. It has thus been proposed to move from hypotheses supporting an overall hemispheric specialization for emotion processing toward dynamic models incorporating multiple interrelated networks which do not necessarily share the same lateralization patterns.

Looking into the future: the need for hemispheric functional-equivalence hypotheses

Function-location meta-analyses have been applied in an attempt to quantitatively integrate results from multiple studies belonging to a specific cognitive or emotional domain. E.g., in a meta-analysis of over 100 functional magnetic resonance imaging studies addressing the mechanisms underlying processing of emotional faces (Fusar-Poli et al. 2009a, b), the authors first tested regional activation differences for an effect of laterality independently from the valence of stimulus, and found the components of the emotion network to be bilaterally activated, thus providing no support for the right-hemispheric dominance hypothesis. The authors then searched for possible lateralization patterns based on both the motivational and the drive variants of the valence lateralization hypothesis. When testing for the emotional valence of the stimulus, a laterality was only to be induced by the processing of faces expressing negative emotions. However, contrary to what is predicted by the model, the activation was localized in the left hemisphere. Finally, when grouping stimuli according to their corresponding approach/withdrawal category, a left-lateralized activation was found in the inferior frontal gyrus during the processing of faces encoding approach emotions, and right-lateralized activations occurred in the medial frontal and middle frontal gyri during the processing of faces encoding withdrawal emotions. A meta-analysis addressing the neuroanatomical structures underpinning emotional experiences demonstrated that the basic emotions happiness, sadness, fear, anger and disgust are associated with distinct regional brain activation patterns (Vytal and Hamann 2010). A lateralization could only be associated with the processing of fear, since most prominent clusters are located in the right cerebellum and insula, as well as bilaterally in the amygdala. For each of the remaining basic emotions, largest activation clusters were found in both the left and right hemisphere (Vytal and Hamann 2010). Specifically, happiness is associated with activations in the right superior temporal gyrus and the left anterior cingulate cortex, sadness with clusters in the left caudate nucleus and medial frontal gyrus, as well as in the right inferior frontal gyrus. Anger is associated with activations of the left inferior frontal gyrus and right parahippocampal gyrus, and disgust with bilateral insular activations (Vytal and Hamann 2010). Finally, results of a multi-center study evaluating functional connectivity in resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans from over a thousand subjects also highlight the existence of both left- and right-dominant intrinsic connectivity hubs rather than that of a global hemispheric lateralization in the human brain (Nielsen et al. 2013). In this context, it has been postulated, that the right-hemispheric dominance and the valence lateralization models may reflect different aspects of emotion processing, thus highlighting the need to move away from the concept of an overall hemispheric specialization and to elaborate on the hypothesis that emotions are the result of activations in networks which are interrelated, but may have differential lateralization patterns (Fusar-Poli et al. 2009a; Killgore and Yurgelun-Todd 2007; Neumann et al. 2008).

Along such lines of argument, a hemispheric functional-equivalence hypothesis has recently been formulated to explain lateralization associated with the perception of emotional and neutral faces (Stankovic 2021). It is a dynamic model proposing the existence of an initial default setting in which the brain would be right-biased in emotional and neutral face perception, and this lateralization pattern would be maintained as long as environmental task demands remain low. However, since emotion perception should be viewed as a multi-layered phenomenon, increasing task demands would result in a redistribution of activity among the hemispheres as an adaptive mechanism to ensure continued accurate and prompt responses (Stankovic 2021). Since environmental requirements are known to modulate psychological modulators, this hypothesis would also explain how altered conditions such as acute stress could even result in a reversed lateralization. By proposing the functional-equivalence of both hemispheres, the model also accounts for intersubject variability in lateralization patterns, as it has been demonstrated that not all individuals display the asymmetry predispositions identified at the population level (Frasnelli and Vallortigara 2018).

Finally, a recent data-driven meta-analysis revealed that the perception, experience and expression of emotion are each subserved by a distinct large-scale network (Morawetz et al. 2020). Furthermore, three of these networks are composed of left-lateralized of bilaterally activated areas, whereas the fourth one contains left-lateralized, right-lateralized and bilateral activations. This is particularly interesting, given that the hemispheric functional-equivalence hypothesis of emotional face perception assumes an initial right-biased lateralization (Stankovic 2021), whereas the network that Morawetz et al. (2020) found to be associated with the perception of emotion (albeit not specifically in facial expressions) exhibits left-lateralized or bilateral activations. It thus appears necessary to not only abandon hypotheses supporting the concept of an overall hemispheric specialization, but to also move away from a global model of lateralization in emotion processing.

Humans are probably the only species in which parents try to influence who their children mate with

Parental Influence and Sexual Selection. Menelaos Apostolou. June 2021. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/352710406

Abstract: This chapter addresses how the genetic relatedness between parents and their children results in the two parties having converging as well as diverging interests. In the domain of mating, these interests, along with other factors such as the trade-offs inherent in mating, give rise to an opportunity cost of free mate choice: Parents have much to lose if they allow their children to exercise choice freely. This opportunity cost provides a strong incentive to parents to influence their children's mate choices. In preindustrial societies, parents manage to exercise direct control, which is predominantly manifested in the institution of arranged marriage. In postindustrial societies, parents exercise influence indirectly through manipulation. Ultimately, parental influence over mating gives rise to a sexual selection force, namely parental choice, which may be unique to the human species.

Sexual Selection Under Parental Choice—Implications

Sexual selection under parental choice does not constitute a theoretical possibility, but an actual phenomenon: The ethnographic and historical records make a clear case that, in the preindustrial context, mating is typically regulated by parents who are driven by well-defined preferences and who choose spouses for their children accordingly. It follows that genes that code for traits which make individuals more likely to be selected as in-laws have a greater likelihood of being represented in future generations than alternative genes. Parental choice has only recently been proposed as a sexual selection force (Apostolou, 2007), and so far specific adaptation shaped by parental choice has not yet been identified. Even so, the effects of parental choice can be observed indirectly.

In particular, as discussed earlier, there are good reasons to believe that, until the onset of the Industrial Revolution and the transition to postindustrialism, parents exercised considerable influence over their children’s mating decisions. Accordingly, many adaptations involved in mating have been shaped by parental choice. The transition from preindustrial to a postindustrial context has severely weakened parental choice and strengthened individual mate choice, as people in the latter are generally free to choose their own partners. However, as the transition to postindustrialism has occurred very recently, there has not been sufficient time for selection forces to adjust adaptations to work effectively in the contemporary context. That is to say, people carry adaptations which may have enabled them to be selected as in-laws by parents, but which may not be equally effective in enabling them to be selected as partners by their children. In addition, they may lack adaptions which are required to be effective in a contemporary mating market.

For instance, in an arranged marriage context, people do not need to actively flirt with prospective partners, which means that selection pressures on developing good flirting capacity were weak in the ancestral context. In consequence, many people today may lack good flirting skills, which are important in contemporary postindustrial societies in which people have to find mates on their own. Recent studies have found that poor flirting skills are one of the most frequently reported reasons for being single (Apostolou, 2017b, 2019).

Accordingly, due to mismatch between ancestral conditions, where parents dominated mate choice, and modern ones, where they do not, it could be predicted that a considerable proportion of people living in postindustrial societies would experience difficulties in attracting mates. Consistent with this prediction, recent studies have found that about one in two people experience poor performance in the domain of mating (Apostolou et al., 2018). As a consequence of such poor performance, a considerable proportion of individuals are involuntary single: They want to be in a relationship, but they face difficulties in doing so. One recent study found that about one in four in the Greek cultural context are involuntarily single as are more than one in five in the Chinese context (Apostolou & Wang, 2019).

Overall, developing a more accurate understanding of how sexual selection works in our species could enable us to better understand phenomena such as poor mating performance and involuntary singlehood. Such an endeavor requires acknowledging parental choice as a sexual selection force and taking into consideration the ancestral human condition. It requires also a more thorough understanding of parental choice, which could be achieved by augmenting our understanding of in-law preferences as well as by identifying specific adaptations been shaped by parental choice.

The effect of testosterone on economic risk-taking: A multi-study, multi-method investigation shows no consistent relationship between T and economic decisions

The effect of testosterone on economic risk-taking: A multi-study, multi-method investigation. Steven J. Stanton et al. Hormones and Behavior, Volume 134, August 2021, 105014. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2021.105014

Highlights

• In 3 studies, we tested if testosterone affected economic decision making.

• Multiple methodological approaches were used: correlational and T administration.

• Dependent measures included loss aversion, risk-taking, and temporal discounting.

• Results suggest no consistent relationship between T and economic decisions.

Abstract: Testosterone has been suggested to influence individuals' economic decision making, yet the effects of testosterone on economic behavior are not well-understood and existing research is equivocal. In response, in three studies, we examined the extent to which testosterone affected or was associated with several different facets of economic decision making. Study 1 was a double-blind, placebo-controlled, within-subjects study examining loss aversion and risk-taking (N = 26), whereas Study 2 was a larger double-blind, placebo-controlled, between-subjects study examining loss aversion and risk-taking behavior (N = 117). As a methodological compliment, Study 3 was a larger correlational design (N = 213) with a highly accurate measure of endogenous testosterone examining a wider range of economic behaviors and trait-like preferences. Broadly, the results of all three studies suggest no consistent relationship between testosterone and financial behavior or preferences. Although there were significant effects in specific cases, these findings did not replicate in other studies or would not remain significant when controlling for family-wise error rate. We consider potential contextual moderators that may determine under what circumstances testosterone affects economic decision making.

Keywords: TestosteroneHormoneDecision makingLoss aversionNeuroeconomicsDecision neuroscienceRisk-taking