Monday, November 12, 2018

Participants talk about their personal past 2 to 3 times as much as their personal future (i.e., retrospective bias), in contrast to research showing a prospective bias in thinking behavior

Conversational Time Travel: Evidence of a Retrospective Bias in Real Life Conversations. Burcu Demiray, Matthias R. Mehl and Mike Martin. Front. Psychol.,  Nov 13 2018 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02160

We examined mental time travel reflected onto individuals’ utterances in real-life conversations using a naturalistic observation method: Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR, a portable audio recorder that periodically and unobtrusively records snippets of ambient sounds and speech). We introduced the term conversational time travel and examined, for the first time, how much individuals talked about their personal past versus personal future in real life. Study 1 included 9,010 sound files collected from 51 American adults who carried the EAR over 1 weekend and were recorded every 9 min for 50 s. Study 2 included 23,103 sound files from 33 young and 48 healthy older adults from Switzerland who carried the EAR for 4 days (2 weekdays and 1 weekend, counterbalanced). 30-s recordings occurred randomly throughout the day. We developed a new coding scheme for conversational time travel: We listened to all sound files and coded each file for whether the participant was talking or not. Those sound files that included participant speech were also coded in terms of their temporal focus (e.g., past, future, present, time-independent) and autobiographical nature (i.e., about the self, about others). We, first, validated our coding scheme using the text analysis tool, Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count. Next, we compared the percentages of past- and future-oriented utterances about the self (to tap onto conversational time travel). Results were consistent across all samples and showed that participants talked about their personal past two to three times as much as their personal future (i.e., retrospective bias). This is in contrast to research showing a prospective bias in thinking behavior, based on self-report and experience-sampling methods. Findings are discussed in relation to the social functions of recalling the personal past (e.g., sharing memories to bond with others, to update each other, to teach, to give advice) and to the directive functions of future-oriented thought (e.g., planning, decision making, goal setting that are more likely to happen privately in the mind). In sum, the retrospective bias in conversational time travel seems to be a functional and universal phenomenon across persons and across real-life situations.

The sleep regulatory paradigm invokes “top-down” imposition of sleep on the brain by sleep regulatory circuits, but many cases are difficult to explain using that paradigm, including unilateral sleep, sleep-walking, & poor performance after sleep deprivation

Local Sleep, James M. Krueger et al. Sleep Medicine Reviews, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2018.10.001

Summary: The historic sleep regulatory paradigm invokes “top-down” imposition of sleep on the brain by sleep regulatory circuits. While remaining conceptually useful, many sleep phenomena are difficult to explain using that paradigm, including, unilateral sleep, sleep-walking, and poor performance after sleep deprivation. Further, all animals sleep after non-lethal brain lesions, regardless of whether the lesion includes sleep regulatory circuits, suggesting that sleep is a fundamental property of small viable neuronal/glial networks. That small areas of the brain can exhibit non-rapid eye movement sleep-like states is summarized. Further, sleep-like states in neuronal/glial cultures are described. The local sleep states, whether in vivo or in vitro, share electrophysiological properties and molecular regulatory components with whole animal sleep and exhibit sleep homeostasis. The molecular regulatory components of sleep are also involved in plasticity and inflammation. Like sleep, these processes, are initiated by local cell-activity dependent events, yet have at higher levels of tissue organization whole body functions. While there are large literatures dealing with local initiation and regulation of plasticity and inflammation, the literature surrounding local sleep is in its infancy and clinical applications of the local sleep concept are absent. Regardless, the local use-dependent sleep paradigm can advise and advance future research and clinical applications.

We respond negatively to those who “say one thing but do another” when there is a high degree of misalignment (i.e., perceive low “behavioral integrity”), & interpret the misalignment as a claim to an undeserved moral benefit (i.e., interpret it as hypocrisy)

From inconsistency to hypocrisy: When does “saying one thing but doing another” invite condemnation? Daniel A. Effrona et al. Research in Organizational Behavior, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.riob.2018.10.003

Abstract: It is not always possible for leaders, teams, and organizations to practice what they preach. Misalignment between words and deeds can invite harsh interpersonal consequences, such as distrust and moral condemnation, which have negative knock-on effects throughout organizations. Yet the interpersonal consequences of such misalignment are not always severe, and are sometimes even positive. This paper presents a new model of when and why audiences respond negatively to those who “say one thing but do another.” We propose that audiences react negatively if they (a) perceive a high degree of misalignment (i.e., perceive low “behavioral integrity”), and (b) interpret such misalignment as a claim to an undeserved moral benefit (i.e., interpret it as hypocrisy). Our model integrates disparate research findings about factors that influence how audiences react to misalignment, and it clarifies conceptual confusion surrounding word-deed misalignment, behavioral integrity, and hypocrisy. We discuss how our model can inform unanswered questions, such as why people fail to practice what they preach despite the risk of negative consequences. Finally, we consider practical implications for leaders, proposing that anticipating and managing the consequences of misalignment will be more effective than trying to avoid it altogether.

Norway: Both sexes are more satisfied in long-term relationships than short-term or intermediate ones, with no sex differences among singles; results are inconsistent with both sexual strategies theory & third wave feminism

Intermediate Relationships and a Nuanced, Feministic Evolutionary Psychology - A Quantitative Study of Relationship Status, Sexual Behavior and Emotions. Nina Charlotte Sølsnes. Master thesis, Institutt for psykologi, Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet. 2018. https://brage.bibsys.no/xmlui/handle/11250/2571153

Abstract: Many studies in evolutionary psychology (EP) make a major distinction between short-term vs. long-term relationship status. The current study suggests that relationships with low commitment and intermediate duration are frequent. There is reason to assume that; sexual strategies theory predicts that there will be sex differences in satisfaction depending on relationship status, where men in general are more satisfied with opportunities for short-term mating than women are. Possibly women in intermediate relationships are less satisfied due to low commitment from partners. Third wave feminism predicts that women in intermediate relationships will be more or equally satisfied than men, due to possible exploration of sexuality with greater safety than short-term allows. Participants (N=529) answered questions regarding relationship status, satisfaction and excitement, commitment and quality, and expectancies and sexual behavior. Sample were Norwegian students. 10% of the respondents belonged in the intermediate group. The results are inconsistent with both theoretical approaches. Both sexes are more satisfied in long-term relationships than short-term. There are no sex differences among singles, inconsistent with both perspectives. There were no sex differences in the intermediate group. The intermediates had the same levels of satisfaction as the singles, while excitement was similar to those in relationships. The implications of the findings in relation to both evolutionary psychology and third wave feminism, as well as implications for further research on sexual behavior, are discussed.