Sunday, December 9, 2018

Rolf Degen‏ summarizing: People were willing to sell football tickets at a lower price to those who shared their political leanings, with partisanship beating team preference

Grand Old (Tailgate) Party? Partisan Discrimination in Apolitical Settings. Andrew M. Engelhardt, Stephen M. Utych. Political Behavior, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11109-018-09519-4

Abstract: Recent work in political science demonstrates that the American public is strongly divided on partisan lines. Levels of affective polarization are so great, it seems, that partisanship even shapes behavior in apolitical settings. However, this literature does not account for other salient identity dimensions on which people make decisions in apolitical settings, potentially stacking the deck in favor of partisanship. We address this limitation with a pair of experiments studying price discrimination among college football fans. We find that partisan discrimination exists, even when the decision context explicitly calls attention to another social identity. But, importantly, this appears to function mostly as in-group favoritism rather than out-group hostility.

Keywords: Polarization Partisanship Social identity theory Experiments

Fear of death: Nature, development and moderating factors

Menzies, Ross G and Menzies, Rachel E. Fear of death: Nature, development and moderating factors [online]. In: Menzies, RE (Editor); Menzies, RG (Editor); Iverach, L (Editor). Curing the Dread of Death Theory, Research and Practice. Samford Valley, QLD: Australian Academic Press, 2018: 21-39. https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=911350014779621;res=IELHSS

Abstract: How do we come to a mature view of death? Does it emerge in stages and, if so, what do these involve? Does anxiety arise as soon as a child can conceptualise death, or does it only appear with a fully developed, adult understanding of the concept? And what do we regard as an adult conception of death? Slaughter (2005) argues that the defining characteristic is to recognise death as a biological event caused by the failure of body systems. In contrast, young children may claim that the 'bogey man' or some other punishing agent is the cause of death. But would all adults pass Slaughter's (2005) test of death comprehension? After all, as Hoffman, Johnson, Foster, and Wright (2010) point out, adults can't agree on when life begins let alone why we take our last breath. Some will maintain that God has called a person home, and that God is the ultimate cause of death (and its creator, punishing us for the sins in the Garden of Eden). Clearly, death is a complex notion and religious and spiritual positions complicate the matter considerably.

Moralizing of Income Inequality: More liberal ideology was associated with less tolerance for diverging opinions on the issue in one’s social circle

O'Donnell, Michael and Chen, Serena, Political Ideology, the Moralizing of Income Inequality, and Its Social Consequences (September 22, 2018). http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3253666

Abstract: Income inequality is at its highest level in decades and is a key political and social issue in the U.S. today. However, there is a stark partisan divide on whether and how to address income inequality. We propose one reason for this: ideological differences in viewing the issue of income inequality in moral terms. Across five studies, involving more than 3,000 participants, conservative relative to liberal ideology was associated with a disinclination to see inequality as a moral issue and a dampened tendency to see it as morally wrong. Moreover, more liberal ideology was associated with less tolerance for diverging opinions on the issue in one’s social circle. Finally, although conservatives were reliably disinclined to moralize inequality, we found that they can be induced to view it as a more serious issue and express support for inequality-reducing political policies.

Keywords: Income Inequality, Morality, Political Ideology, Social Class

Women lowered both voice pitch parameters toward men who were most desired by other women & whom they also personally preferred

Voice pitch modulation in human mate choice. Katarzyna Pisanski et al. REBY Proceedings, http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/80518/1/__smbhome.uscs.susx.ac.uk_sc328_Desktop_Papers%20for%20SRO_REBY_Proceedings_B_NOV_2018_accepted_version.pdf

Abstract: Inter-individual differences in human fundamental frequency (F0, perceived as voice pitch) predict mate quality, reproductive success, and affect listeners’ social attributions. Although humans can readily and volitionally manipulate their vocal apparatus and resultant voice pitch, for instance in the production of speech sounds and singing, little is known about whether humans exploit this capacity to adjust the nonverbal dimensions of their voices during social (including sexual) interactions. Here, we recorded full-length conversations of thirty adult men and women taking part in real speed dating events, and tested whether their voice pitch (mean, range, and variability) changed with their personal mate choice preferences and the overall desirability of each dating partner. Within-individual analyses indicated that men lowered the minimum pitch of their voices when interacting with women who were overall highly desired by other men. Men also lowered their mean voice pitch on dates with women they selected as potential mates, particularly those who indicated a mutual preference (matches). Interestingly, although women spoke with a higher and more variable voice pitch toward men they selected as potential mates, women lowered both voice pitch parameters toward men who were most desired by other women and whom they also personally preferred. Between-individual analyses indicated that men in turn preferred women with lower-pitched voices, wherein women’s minimum voice pitch explained up to 55% of the variance in men’s mate preferences. These results, derived in an ecologically valid setting, show that individual and group-level mate preferences can interact to affect vocal behaviour, and support the hypothesis that human voice modulation functions in nonverbal communication to elicit favourable judgments and behaviours from others, including potential mates.

Keywords: mate choice, sexual selection , speed dating, nonverbal communication, fundamental frequency, vocal control