Sunday, June 21, 2020

Growing collectivism: irrigation, group conformity and technological divergence

Growing collectivism: irrigation, group conformity and technological divergence. Johannes C. Buggle. Journal of Economic Growth volume 25, pages147–193, Jun 4 2020. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10887-020-09178-3

Abstract: This paper examines whether collaboration within groups in pre-industrial agriculture favored the emergence of collectivist rather than individualist cultures. I document that societies whose ancestors jointly practiced irrigation agriculture historically have stronger collectivist norms today. This finding holds across countries, sub-national districts within countries, and migrants, and is robust to instrumenting the historical adoption of irrigation by its geographic suitability. In addition, I find evidence for a culturally-embodied effect of irrigation agriculture on economic behavior. Descendants of irrigation societies innovate less today, and are more likely to work in routine-intensive occupations, even when they live outside their ancestral homelands. Together, my results suggest that historical differences in the need to act collectively have contributed to the global divergence of culture and technology.


Meal-time photographers were more likely to eat in response to external cues (e.g. the sight of palatable food) than to internal cues of hunger; no influence in the amount or enjoyment of food eaten

When the camera eats first: Exploring how meal-time cell phone photography affects eating behaviours. Joceline Y.Y. Yong, Eddie M.W. Tong, Jean C.J. Liu. Appetite, June 21 2020, 104787. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2020.104787

Abstract: Advances in cell phone technology have the potential to disrupt eating patterns. In this research, we focused on the camera function of a cell phone, characterizing: (i) the extent to which this function is used during meals; (ii) whether meal-time photographers show signs of pathological eating; and (iii) whether the act of taking food photographs alters the amount and enjoyment of food eaten. In the first study, we used the experience sampling method to track one week of meals from 137 young adults. Although we observed a low base rate of meal-time photography (5.44% of the 1140 meals captured), phone users who engaged in this practice had higher external eating scores than those who did not. That is, these meal-time photographers were more likely to eat in response to external cues (e.g. the sight of palatable food) than to internal cues of hunger. However, when participants were randomly assigned to take either food or non-food photographs within a lab setting (Study 2), we found no evidence that the type of photography influenced either the amount or enjoyment of food eaten. Taken together, our findings suggest a limited role for cell phone photography in an obesogenic environment.

Keywords: Screen timeCell phoneFood ritualsExternal eatingFood intakeExperience sampling



Factors Influencing Premarital Sexual Attitude among Adolescents in East Coast Malaysia

Factors Influencing Premarital Sexual Attitude among Adolescents in East Coast Malaysia. Misron, Siti Nor Fadhlina; Husain, Maruzairi. International Medical Journal . Jun2020, Vol. 27 Issue 3, p259-262. https://web.b.ebscohost.com/abstract?direct=true&profile=ehost&scope=site&authtype=crawler&jrnl=13412051&AN=143624433&h=Koj%2fMNf7RI%2brLSUtpZsE0fZURfHB7NKVaeKrMQApOs3gxWZVXH9ycuOd2vqQUBaykLBst3DZQwmwk7pZNvee7w%3d%3d&crl=c&resultNs=AdminWebAuth&resultLocal=ErrCrlNotAuth&crlhashurl=login.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26profile%3dehost%26scope%3dsite%26authtype%3dcrawler%26jrnl%3d13412051%26AN%3d143624433

Abstract
Background: Adolescence is a transitional period whereby a person attempts to try something new and risky including premarital sexual behaviour. Their attitudes are influenced by multiple factors that change over time.
Objective: This study highlights current factors influencing premarital sexual attitude among adolescents in East Coast Malaysia.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 150 adolescents in the East Coast of Malaysia. Self-rated questionnaire on Premarital Sexual Attitude Among Secondary School Students was used to determine the prevalence of sexual attitude.
Results: All participants were 18 years old and have completed secondary school. The majority were Malay and Muslim. The prevalence of poor sexual knowledge and permissive premarital sexual attitude stood at 40.7% and 42.7% respectively. All the variables concerned with high-risk sexual behaviour namely reading pornography, watching pornography, sexual fantasy, and masturbation have higher prevalence compared to others with the percentages being 40.0%, 46.7%, 32.0%, and 34.7% respectively. Protective factors against permissive attitude identified were being male, non-Malay, perceived as being loved by parents, and having parents who know their child's friends.
Conclusion: Permissive attitude among adolescents towards premarital sex is associated with risky sexual behaviours. Thus, it is very important to explore the changing factors to identify the recent target groups so that future intervention can be done by emphasizing more on these identified factors.


Anger expressions when shown by men tend to be more consistently attributed to the event that caused the expression; for women tend to be more strongly attributed to her (angry) character

Anger is a Positive Emotion – At Least for Those who Show it. Ursula Hess. ISRE Logo Emotion Researcher, May 2020. http://emotionresearcher.com/anger-is-a-positive-emotion-at-least-for-those-who-show-it/

Abstract: In this article, I am discussing the notion that anger can be considered a positive emotion for those who feel it and for society at large. Anger has the ability to motivate people to act against injustice and norm violations in general and it provides the actor with (physical) strength, but also with an optimistic tendency to take risks. However, as a caveat it should be noted that even though anger does this for both men and women, women who show anger are liked less.

One in five (22%) US Americans reported recently having “experienced anger a lot yesterday” (Gallup World Poll, 2019). That surely is a bad thing? Webster’s Thesaurus’ list of synonyms for anger includes animosity, antagonism, embitterment, enmity, hostility, malevolence, and virulence, all of which refer to strife and destruction (Merriam Webster, 2019).Berkowitz and Harmon-Jones (2004)define anger as: “a syndrome of relatively specific feelings, cognitions, and physiological reactions linked associatively with an urge to injure some target” (p. 108). It is in this sense that Gallup adds anger to its Negative Experience Index, together with such states as worry and stress. Interestingly, the question is related to feeling angry – that is, Gallup considers feeling angry a negative experience. But is it? In Gallup’s view feeling anger is negative because it signals that there are things out there that cause this feeling – negative things in fact. But is reacting with anger to a negative event necessarily a bad thing? And for whom?

Anger did not have a significant effect on depth of information processing for any of the emotional comparison groups; these complex results indicate that anger is an exceedingly nuanced emotion

A discrete emotion with discrete effects: effects of anger on depth of information processing. Meaghan McKasy. Cognitive Processing, Jun 20 2020. https://rd.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10339-020-00982-8

Abstract: There is relative paucity in the comprehensive study of anger and information processing. Emotions can impact the depth of information processing and anger is a powerful high-certainty emotion. Yet, the magnitude of the effects of anger on the depth of information processing has not been summarized. This scholarship performs a meta-analytic synthesis to report the effect of anger on the depth of information processing as compared to one of the four contrast groups: neutral control, sadness, happiness, and fear. A systematic search identified 26 articles with a total of 39 unique studies and 113 effect sizes. The evaluation revealed that anger did not have a significant effect on depth of information processing for any of the emotional comparison groups. Furthermore, the presence of publication bias was only found for one analysis. These complex results indicate that anger is an exceedingly nuanced emotion. The implications of the study and future scholarship are discussed.