Thursday, May 23, 2019

Solving mate shortages thru compensatory mating tactics: Lowering standards, travelling farther to find a satisfactory partner, and abstaining

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Jonason, P. K., Betes, S. L., & Li, N. P. (2019). Solving mate shortages: Lowering standards, searching farther, and abstaining. Evoluti...

Humans can use an intuitive sense of statistics to make predictions about uncertain future events; some of these abilities can emerge in preverbal infants and non-human primates such as apes and capuchins

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Rhesus macaques use probabilities to predict future events. Francesca De Petrillo, Alexandra G. Rosati. Evolution and Human Behavior, May 23...

We assessed 10 individuals who reported abduction by space aliens and whose claims were linked to apparent episodes of sleep paralysis during which hypnopompic hallucinations were interpreted as alien beings

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Sleep Paralysis, Sexual Abuse, and Space Alien Abduction. Richard J. McNally, Susan A. Clancy. Transcultural Psychiatry, March 1, 2005. http...

Senegal: In urban areas, being a woman increases probability of a worker being informal by 8.5%; education is usually more relevant for women; having kids reduces men’s probability but increases women’s

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Informality and Gender Gaps Going Hand in Hand. Vivian Malta; Lisa L Kolovich; Angelica Martinez; Marina Mendes Tavares. IMF Working Paper N...

Fruit bats, social mammals, form seasonal bonds through producer-scrounger interactions; females mate with males from which they scrounge food; each female scrounges from a unique set of preferred males, & no male prevailed

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Food for Sex in Bats Revealed as Producer Males Reproduce with Scrounging Females. Lee Harten et al. Current Biology, May 23 2019. https://d...

People who posted health messages on social media subsequently became more likely to act on those, not wanting to appear as hypocrites

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When audiences become advocates: Self-induced behavior change through health message posting in social media. Robin L. Nabi et al. Computers...

Chimpanzees: A case of food storage shows some future-oriented cognition; we need for a more nuanced interpretation of their cognitive skills & an in-depth understanding of their unique socio-ecological niche

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Wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) exploit tortoises (Kinixys erosa) via percussive technology. Simone Pika, Harmonie Klein, Sar...

Consumers select and prepare foods with higher amounts of sugar when experiencing sadness relative to when they feel guilt

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The effects of guilt and sadness on sugar consumption. Sarah Lefebvre, Jonathan Hasford, Ze Wang. Journal of Business Research, Volume 100, ...

Shoplifted items, as advertised via ‘haul’ photographs on social media, would be those relevant for increasing mate value (cosmetic, skin and hair care products, perfumes, and products that signal luxury and financial status)

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The Five Finger Discount: Shoplifting as a Reproductive Strategy for Increasing Mate Value. Catherine A. Bourgeois, Geneva Reid, Maryanne L....

Tech heavy users are lower in well-being than less frequent users; tech nonusers are generally lower in well-being than light users of digital media, suggesting that limited use may be beneficial

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More Time on Technology, Less Happiness? Associations Between Digital-Media Use and Psychological Well-Being. Jean M. Twenge. Current Direct...

We say that olfaction is a very powerful thing, that we recognize some smells from our childhood when we find them again later in life, but we almost never dream smells.

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Olfactory perception in dreams: Analysis of a long dream series. Michael Schredl. International Journal of Dream Research,     Vol 12, No 1 ...

In the pre-Christmas shopping season prosocial subjects almost donate 50% less compared to prosocials in summer; the higher prosocials’ self-reported stress level, the lower the donations; no "donation fatigue" effect

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Müller Stephan, Rau HA (2019) Too cold for warm glow? Christmas-season effects in charitable giving. PLoS ONE 14(5): e0215844. https://doi.o...

Preoperative anxiety of hospitalized patients exposed to Spiritist “passe” showed greater reductions in anxiety & muscle tension & increases in well-being than those exposed Sham or standard medical care

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Effect of Spiritist “Passe” on Preoperative Anxiety of Surgical Patients: A Randomized Controlled Trial, Double-Blind. Élida Mara Carneiro e...

Does Fraternal Birth Order Predict Male Homosexuality, Bisexuality, and Heterosexual Orientation with Same-Sex Attraction? Evidence from a Greek-Speaking Sample from Greece

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Does Fraternal Birth Order Predict Male Homosexuality, Bisexuality, and Heterosexual Orientation with Same-Sex Attraction? Evidence from a G...
Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Coverture’s demise in the US: Women’s rights led to shifts in household portfolios; a positive shock to credit supply; & a reallocation of labor towards non-agriculture & capital intensive industries, aiding industrialization

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Women’s Liberation as a Financial Innovation. Moshe Hazan and David Weiss. October 23, 2018. https://m.tau.ac.il/~davidweiss/WomenRights.pdf...

Those assigned to the perspective taking intervention did not empathize more than subjects assigned to no intervention; instead, subjects assigned to the objective intervention down-regulated their emotions & empathized less

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Wondra, Joshua D., and Sylvia Morelli. 2018. “Limitations of the Evidence That Perspective Taking Increases Empathy.” PsyArXiv. October 13. ...

Memento mori, melancholy, and the resident ornamental hermit: A person paid to dress like a druid, serve wine and read poetry, living in your estate's grotto

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Before the Garden Gnome, the Ornamental Hermit: A Real Person Paid to Dress like a Druid. Allison Meier. Atlas Obscura, March 18, 2014. http...

We care about the minds of others, attempting to understand others' thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, intentions, & emotions; but perspective taking or increasing attention to behavioral cues increase accuracy only in very specific circumstances

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Through a looking glass, darkly: Using mechanisms of mind perception to identify accuracy, overconfidence, and underappreciated means for im...

Early-life family disruption (death or divorce of a parent) causes fund managers to be more risk averse when they manage their own funds

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Betzer, André and Limbach, Peter and Rau, P. Raghavendra and Schürmann, Henrik, Till Death (Or Divorce) Do us Part: Early-Life Family Disrup...

Crews would routinely return with whales that had been left to rot, “which could not be used for food. This was not regarded as a problem by anybody.”

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The Most Senseless Environmental Crime of the 20th Century. Charles Homans. Pacific Standard, Jun 14, 2017. https://psmag.com/social-justice...

Mate Choice in Visually Impaired and Blind People

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Are You Seeing Him/Her? Mate Choice in Visually Impaired and Blind People. Or Fekler, Ya’Arit Bokek-Cohen & Yoram Braw. International Jo...
Tuesday, May 21, 2019

How Eroticism and Nurturance Differs in Polyamorous and Monogamous Relationships

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Eroticism Versus Nurturance: How Eroticism and Nurturance Differs in Polyamorous and Monogamous Relationships. Rhonda N. Balzarini et al. So...

Better natural: Perceived attractiveness from the natural condition was 1.5 points higher than perceived attractiveness from the simulated upper lip filler injection, & 2.6 points higher than the simulated upper lip lift

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Perception of upper lip augmentation utilizing simulated photography. Gary Linkov, Elizabeth Wick, Dorina Kallogjeri, Collin L. Chen, Gregor...

Ideological migration: Observational Data on 150 Erstwhile Democrats

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Klein, Daniel B. and Fleming, Cy, WalkAway: Observational Data on 150 Erstwhile Democrats (May 17, 2019). Forthcoming, SOCIETY; George Mason...

I find no effect of political ideology or religiosity on women’s likelihood of faking orgasm, or men and women’s levels of sexual desire; neither political ideology nor religiosity comes close to reaching significance

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Ideological Correlates of Sexual Behavior: Linking political ideology, religiosity, and gender ideology with orgasm and desire. Emily Ann Ha...

The neural and genetic correlates of satisfying sexual activity in heterosexual pair‐bonds

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The neural and genetic correlates of satisfying sexual activity in heterosexual pair‐bonds. Bianca P. Acevedo et al. Brain and Behavior. 201...

Personality traits predict daily spatial behavior; extraversion positively related to daily spatial behavior, especially to the number of different places visited, the total distance traveled, and the entropy of movement

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Big Five personality traits predict daily spatial behavior: Evidence from smartphone data. Peilin Ai, Yuanyuan Liu, Xi Zhao. Personality and...

Psychology and morality of political extremists: They show a lower positive emotion & a higher negative emotion than partisan users, but their differences in certainty is not significant; we found no evidence for elevated moral foundations

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Psychology and morality of political extremists: evidence from Twitter language analysis of alt-right and Antifa. Meysam Alizadeh et al. EPJ...

They found that empathy increased across the life span, particularly after age 40, and more recent cohorts were higher in empathy

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Longitudinal Changes in Empathy Across the Life Span in Six Samples of Human Development. Jeewon Oh et al. Social Psychological and Personal...
Monday, May 20, 2019

Males with a mother living in their group have higher paternity success in bonobos (but not chimpanzees)

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Males with a mother living in their group have higher paternity success in bonobos but not chimpanzees. Martin Surbeck et al. Current Biolog...

The Illusion of Stable Preferences over Major Life Decisions: Desired fertility is very unstable, but that most people perceive their desires to be stable

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The Illusion of Stable Preferences over Major Life Decisions. Maximilian W. Mueller, Joan Hamory Hicks, Jennifer Johnson-Hanks, Edward Migue...

We forecast experiencing a greater amount of regret (both affective & cognitive) than we actually experience; predicting more affective regret coincides with lower well-being

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Predicting with your head, not your heart: Forecasting errors and the impact of anticipated versus experienced elements of regret on well-be...

Romantic initiation strategies: Men to a greater degree than women would use direct approaches & women would use indirect ones (having a friend introduce them, waiting for the other to do something)

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Men and women’s plans for romantic initiation strategies across four settings. Susan Sprecher, Stanislav Treger, Nicole Landa. Current Psych...

Compared with their lower-class counterparts, higher-class individuals were more overconfident, which made them appear more competent & more likely to attain social rank

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The social advantage of miscalibrated individuals: The relationship between social class and overconfidence and its implications for class-b...

Participants who played digital games more, spent more time logged to the internet, reported higher levels of internet addiction, but lower levels of depression

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Games We Play: Wellbeing of Players of Live and Digital Games. Tihana Brkljačić et al. Chapter 6 of Multifaceted Approach to Digital Addicti...

Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime over the Last Two Decades: The cumulative impact of legalized abortion on crime is roughly 45%, a very substantial portion of the roughly 50-55% overall decline from peak in the 1990s

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The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime over the Last Two Decades. John J. Donohue, Steven D. Levitt. NBER Working Paper No. 25863, May 20...

Shamans as healers: When magical structure becomes practical function. Comments on placebos and shamanism.

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Shamans as healers: When magical structure becomes practical function. Nicholas Humphrey. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Volume 41, 2018 , ...

Gender Differences in Stability of Brain Functional Connectivity: Female volunteers showed significantly higher temporal correlation coefficients than male volunteers, suggesting their brain FCs are more stable over time

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F116. Gender Differences in Stability of Brain Functional Connectivity. Yicheng Long, Jie Lisa Ji, Alan Anticevic. Biological Psychiatry, 74...

Both men & women found heroic targets to be more desirable than targets low in heroism (stronger effect for women than men); high heroic targets were rated as more desirable for long-term compared to short-term relationships

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Bhogal, Manpal S. 2019. “Further Support for the Role of Heroism in Human Mate Choice.” PsyArXiv. May 19. doi:10.31234/osf.io/2npfm Abstract...

Divine Placebo: Health and the Evolution of Religion

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Divine Placebo: Health and the Evolution of Religion. Patrik Lindenfors. Human Ecology, April 2019, Volume 47, Issue 2, pp 157–163. https://...
Sunday, May 19, 2019

Stress is experienced when an aspect of an individual's identity has the potential to be negatively evaluated; perceived appearance judgements contribute to psychological & biological stress

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The effect of perceived appearance judgements on psychological and biological stress processes across adulthood. Natalie J. Sabik et al. Str...