Friday, May 18, 2018

Engaging in a pre-eating ritual over a 5-day period helped reduce calorie intake; pairing a ritual with healthy eating behavior increased the likelihood of choosing healthy food subsequently; the positive effect of rituals in prosociality held even when ritualized gestures were not labeled as such

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Tian, A. D., Schroeder, J., Häubl, G., Risen, J. L., Norton, M. I., & Gino, F. (2018). Enacting rituals to improve self-control. Journal...

Affect in self‐generated thought is prevalent, positively biased, highly variable (both within & across individuals), & consistently recruits many brain areas implicated in emotional processing

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Affective neuroscience of self‐generated thought. Kieran C.R. Fox, Jessica R. Andrews‐Hanna, Caitlin Mills, Matthew L. Dixon, Jelena Markovi...

Partisan voters will be happier whenever a member of their party controls political office regardless of the policies; ideologues are happier when the politicians in power, regardless of party affiliation, enact their policies; those who hold extreme political views report higher levels of happiness

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Jackson, Jeremy, Happy Partisans and Ideologues: State versus National (March 27, 2018). http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3145282 Abstract: Th...
Thursday, May 17, 2018

What seems like negative affect toward the other party is, in fact, negative affect toward partisans from either side of the aisle and political discussion in general; many people do not want their child to marry someone from their own party if that hypothetical in-law were to discuss politics frequently

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Samara Klar, Yanna Krupnikov, John Barry Ryan; Affective Polarization or Partisan Disdain?: Untangling a Dislike for the Opposing Party from...

Health studies among humorists shows susceptibility to contagious diseases among improvisational artists: Found no evidence that humor positively contributes to health, and a career in a humor-related profession may be detrimental to one’s health

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Health among humorists: Susceptibility to contagious diseases among improvisational artists. Gil Greengross, Rod A. Martin. Humor, https://d...

Nonbelievers were less inclined to cheat than believers; prayer acted as a self-control enhancement for believers (but not nonbelievers), decreasing their cheating to the level of nonbelievers

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Alogna, V. (2018). The divergent effects of prayer on cognitive performance (Thesis, Doctor of Philosophy). University of Otago. http://hdl....

It is not democracy and its credible budgets leading to military strength, as in Lake 1992; rather, it is limited government leading to military strength, Weingast 1998

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Cox, Gary W. and Dincecco, Mark, The Budgetary Origins of Fiscal-Military Prowess (April 13, 2018). http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3162629 ...
Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Happiness and Longevity: Unhappy People Die Young, Otherwise Happiness Probably Makes No Difference

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Happiness and Longevity: Unhappy People Die Young, Otherwise Happiness Probably Makes No Difference. Bruce Headey, Jongsay Yong. Social Indi...

Meta-analysis of attempts to correct misinformation (k = 65). Results indicate that corrective messages have a moderate influence on belief in misinformation; however, it is more difficult to correct for misinformation in the context of politics & marketing than health

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How to unring the bell: A meta-analytic approach to correction of misinformation. Nathan Walter & Sheila T. Murphy. Communication Monogr...

Iraq is wasting its oil wealth for the adherence of the ruling parties to rule and the people under poverty

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Iraq is wasting its oil wealth for the adherence of the ruling parties to rule and the people under poverty, by Matin May xx, 2018 [your ...

Maternal Educational Attainment and Sex Ratio at Birth by Race in the US, 2007–2015: Supporting the Trivers–Willard hypothesis

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Maternal Educational Attainment and Sex Ratio at Birth by Race in the US, 2007–2015. Victor Grech. Journal of Biosocial Science, https://doi...

It could be argued that psychopathic personality traits may be adaptive in the military; interpersonal affective deficits seen in psychopathy are protective against the development of PTSD symptoms in a sample of combat-exposed soldiers

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Psychopathic Personality Traits in the Military: An Examination of the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scales in a Novel Sample. Joye C. An...

Lottery losers behave significantly more dishonestly than lottery winners; dishonesty monotonically increases with the size of loss incurred in the lottery; winning a lottery has not the same effect on dishonesty as winning a competition

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Losing a Real-Life Lottery and Dishonest Behavior. Erez Sinivera, Gideon Yaniv. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, https://do...
Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Are Sex Differences in Mating Strategies Overrated? Sociosexual Orientation as a Dominant Predictor in Online Dating Strategies

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Are Sex Differences in Mating Strategies Overrated? Sociosexual Orientation as a Dominant Predictor in Online Dating Strategies. Lara Hallam...

"Cousin Marriage Is Not Choice: Muslim Marriage and Underdevelopment"

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Edlund, Lena. 2018. "Cousin Marriage Is Not Choice: Muslim Marriage and Underdevelopment." AEA Papers and Proceedings, 108():353-5...

Unexamined assumptions and unintended consequences of routine screening for depression

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Unexamined assumptions and unintended consequences of routine screening for depression. Lisa Cosgrove et al. Journal of Psychosomatic Resear...

Research shows that “evidence-based” therapies are weak treatments. Their benefits are trivial. Most patients do not get well. Even the trivial benefits do not last.

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Where Is the Evidence for “Evidence-Based” Therapy? Jonathan Shedler. Psychiatric Clinics of North America, Volume 41, Issue 2, June 2018, P...

The neuronal circuitry associated with higher intelligence is organized in a sparse and efficient manner, fostering more directed information processing and less cortical activity during reasoning

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Diffusion markers of dendritic density and arborization in gray matter predict differences in intelligence. Erhan Genç, Christoph Fraenz, Ca...

Patients with troublesome alcohol history had a significantly lower prevalence of cardiovascular disease events, even after adjusting for demographic and traditional risk factors, despite higher tobacco use & male sex predominance

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Cardiovascular Events in Alcoholic Syndrome With Alcohol Withdrawal History: Results From the National Inpatient Sample. Parasuram Krishnamo...

Is Accurate, Positive, or Inflated Self-perception Most Advantageous for Psychological Adjustment? Better Inflated

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Humberg, Sarah, Michael Dufner, Felix D Schönbrodt, Katharina Geukes, Roos Hutteman, Albrecht Kuefner, Maarten van Zalk, Jaap J Denissen, St...

Testosterone may influence social behavior by increasing the frequency of words related to aggression, sexuality, & status, & it may alter the quality of interactions with an intimate partner by amplifying emotions via swearing

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Preliminary evidence that androgen signaling is correlated with men's everyday language. Jennifer S. Mascaro et al. American Journal of ...

The religiosity-moral self-image link was most strongly explained by personality traits and individual differences in prosociality/empathy, rather than a desirability bias; the link is minimally accounted for by impression management

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Religion and moral self-image: The contributions of prosocial behavior, socially desirable responding, and personality. Sarah J. Ward, Laura...
Monday, May 14, 2018

Sex differences in human brain pain pathways are present from birth: More sensitiviy in girls

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The distribution of pain activity across the human neonatal brain is sex dependent. Madeleine Verriotis et al. NeuroImage, https://doi.org/1...

Male Sexlessness is Rising, But Not for the Reasons Incels Claim

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Male Sexlessness is Rising, But Not for the Reasons Incels Claim. Lyman Stone. Institute of Family Studies, May 2018. https://ifstudies.org/...

Putting the “Sex” into “Sexuality”: Understanding Online Pornography using an Evolutionary Framework

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Putting the “Sex” into “Sexuality”: Understanding Online Pornography using an Evolutionary Framework. Catherine Salmon, Maryanne L. Fisher. ...

A model of the dynamics of household vegetarian and vegan rates in the U.K.: A persistent vegetarian campaign has a significantly positive effect on the rate of vegan consumption

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A model of the dynamics of household vegetarian and vegan rates in the U.K. James Waters. Appetite, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2018.05....

The Goldilocks Placebo Effect: Placebo Effects Are Stronger When People Select a Treatment from an Optimal Number of Choices

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The Goldilocks Placebo Effect: Placebo Effects Are Stronger When People Select a Treatment from an Optimal Number of Choices. Rebecca J. Haf...

How Many Atheists Are There? Indirect estimate is 26%

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How Many Atheists Are There? Will M. Gervais, Maxine B. Najle. Social Psychological and Personality Science, https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550...
Sunday, May 13, 2018

Elite chess players live longer than the general population and have a similar survival advantage to elite competitors in physical sports

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Longevity of outstanding sporting achievers: Mind versus muscle. An Tran-Duy, David C. Smerdon, Philip M. Clarke. PLOS, https://doi.org/10.1...

Gender differences in Everyday Risk Taking: An Observational Study of Pedestrians in Newcastle upon Tyne

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Gender differences in Everyday Risk Taking: An Observational Study of Pedestrians in Newcastle upon Tyne. Eryn O'Dowd, Thomas V Pollet. ...

From 2012, Status quo maintenance has several mechanisms; loss aversion, regret avoidance, repeated exposure, rationalization and assumption of goodness due to mere existence and longevity create a preference for existing states

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From 2012: Bias in Favor of the Status Quo. Scott Eidelman, Christian S. Crandall. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, https://doi.or...

From 2010: The longer something is thought to exist, the better it is evaluated

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From 2010: Longer is better. Scott Eidelman, Jennifer Pattershall, Christian S.Crandallb. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Volume ...

Yoga and meditation are highly popular. Purportedly, they foster well-being by “quieting the ego” or, more specifically, curtailing self-enhancement. We observed that, instead, they boost self-enhancement

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Gebauer, Jochen, Nehrlich, A.D., Stahlberg, D., Sedikides, Constantine, Hackenschmidt, D, Schick, D, Stegmaie, C A, Windfelder, C. C, Bruk, ...
Saturday, May 12, 2018

Adult Human Hippocampus: No New Neurons in Sight

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Adult Human Hippocampus: No New Neurons in Sight. Jon I Arellano, Brian Harding, Jean-Leon Thomas. Cerebral Cortex, bhy106, https://doi.org/...

75 years ago… New York Times debunks (vs. foments) a health scare

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75 years ago… New York Times debunks (vs. foments) a health scare.  By Steven Milloy From the May 9, 1943 edition, the New York ...
Friday, May 11, 2018

The sunk-cost fallacy—pursuing an inferior alternative merely because we have previously invested significant, but nonrecoverable, resources in it—, a striking violation of rational decision making, can appear when costs are borne by someone other than the decision maker

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The Interpersonal Sunk-Cost Effect. Christopher Y. Olivola. Psychological Science, https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617752641 Abstract: The su...

Tools do not erase but rather extend our intrinsic physical and cognitive skills; this extension is task specific because we found no evidence for superusers, benefitting from the use of a tool irrespective of the task

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Osiurak, F., Navarro, J., Reynaud, E., & Thomas, G. (2018). Tools don’t—and won’t—make the man: A cognitive look at the future. Journal ...
Thursday, May 10, 2018

The Napoleon Complex: When Shorter Men Take More

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The Napoleon Complex: When Shorter Men Take More. Jill E. P. Knapen, Nancy M. Blaker, Mark Van Vugt. Psychological Science, https://doi.org/...

China's Social Credit System: An Evolving Practice of Control

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Creemers, Rogier, China's Social Credit System: An Evolving Practice of Control (May 9, 2018). https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?a...

School Progress Among Children of Same-Sex Couples

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School Progress Among Children of Same-Sex Couples. Caleb S. Watkins. Demography, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13524-018-0678-...

Despite being more egalitarian, men with more education are more likely to have careers that give them privileged status in their marriages and may have “more to lose” in their career by changing their name. Men with less education than their wives are less likely to change their surname

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Emily Fitzgibbons Shafer et al, Flipping the (Surname) Script: Men's Nontraditional Surname Choice at Marriage, Journal of Family Issues...

Those applying for a qualified job emphasized their competence while downplaying their warmth; role-playing as crime witnesses, they attenuated their warmth relative to their competence; those in the role of suspects of a severe crime chose to downplay their competence

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Lindholm, T. & Yzerbyt, V., (2018). When Being Nice or Being Smart Could Bring You Down: Compensatory Dynamics in Strategic Self-present...

Age of Fathers, Mutation, and Reproduction

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Age of Fathers, Mutation, and Reproduction. In Evolution and Human Reproduction. Martin Fieder and Susanne Huber. In the Oxford Handbook of ...

An empirical, 21st century evaluation of phrenology: The most rigorous evaluation to date says it is bogus

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An empirical, 21st century evaluation of phrenology. O. Parker Jones, F. Alfaro-Almagro, S. Jbabdi. Cortex, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex...