Monday, October 5, 2020

Are there dedicated female neurons for saying no to sex? In the sophisticated fly Drosophila, there are.

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Neuroscience: The Female Art of Saying No. Anne C.von Philipsborn. Current Biology, Volume 30, Issue 19, October 5 2020, Pages R1080-R1083. ...

Contrary to the common impression, the U.S. public is largely uninformed rather than misinformed of a wide range of factual claims verified by journalists

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The Value of Not Knowing: Partisan Cue-Taking and Belief Updating of the Uninformed, the Ambiguous, and the Misinformed. Jianing Li, Michael...
Sunday, October 4, 2020

Adolescents with stronger religiosity earn better grades, are less truant in secondary school, and complete more years of higher education, [but] conservative Protestants are among the least educated religious groups

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Religion and Academic Achievement: A Research Review Spanning Secondary School and Higher Education. Ilana M. Horwitz. Review of Religious R...

“And the Male Is Not like the Female”: Sunni Islam and Gender Nonconformity

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“And the Male Is Not like the Female”: Sunni Islam and Gender Nonconformity (Part I). Mobeen Vaid. Muslim Matters, Jul 24. https://muslimmat...

Latent genetic traits explain a nontrivial amount of variance in two news use motives (surveillance & entertainment), as well as frequency of consumption across news sources, mainly ideological ones (Fox News & CNN)

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Exploring Genetic Contributions to News Use Motives and Frequency of News Consumption: A Study of Identical and Fraternal Twins. Chance York...
Saturday, October 3, 2020

Sexual orientation change therapies: Not efficacious in altering sexual orientation, & are associated with more depression, relationship dysfunction, and increased homonegativity

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A systematic review of the efficacy, harmful effects, and ethical issues related to sexual orientation change efforts. Amy Przeworski  Emily...

Sadness is a common symptom in the general population; it is an intermediate state on a continuum from well-being to major depressive disorder

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Sadness and the continuum from well-being to depressive disorder: a replication study in a representative US population sample. Sarah Tebeka...

Rats & mice show comparable levels of emotional contagion, & an equivalent contagion response to familiar and unfamiliar conspecifics

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Towards a unified theory of emotional contagion in rodents—A meta-analysis. Julen Hernandez-Lallement, Paula Gómez-Sotres, Maria Carrillo. N...

Italy: War, Socialism and the Rise of Fascism

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War, Socialism and the Rise of Fascism: An Empirical Exploration. Daron Acemoglu, Giuseppe De Feo, Giacomo De Luca, Gianluca Russo. NBER Wor...
Friday, October 2, 2020

Studies found that condom-use discounting is elevated in high-risk substance use populations & is sensitive to context (e.g., partner desirability); administering cocaine & alcohol increased condom-use discounting

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Johnson, M. W., Strickland, J. C., Herrmann, E. S., Dolan, S. B., Cox, D. J., & Berry, M. S. (2020). Sexual discounting: A systematic re...

Social media use seems to hinder rather than enhance an individual’s learning about politics, because it fosters the perception that one no longer needs to actively seek news in order to stay informed (i.e., news-finds-me perception)

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Probing the Mechanisms Through Which Social Media Erodes Political Knowledge: The Role of the News-Finds-Me Perception. Sangwon Lee. Mass Co...

Spiritual training intends to reduce self‐enhancement, but the self‐enhancement motive is so powerful & deeply ingrained that it hijacks methods intended to transcend the ego, boosting superiority feelings

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An Exploration of Spiritual Superiority: The Paradox of Self‐Enhancement. Roos Vonk  Anouk Visser. European Journal of Social Psychology, Oc...

Those who fear being single generally do not have difficulty attracting prospective partners; is this so because daters cannot detect fear of being single, or because detected fear of being single does not hinder desirability?

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Detectability and Desirability of Fear of Being Single in Online Dating Profiles. Stephanie S. Spielmann  Kevin P. Gahman. Journal of Person...
Thursday, October 1, 2020

This paper identifies the degree to which scientists are willing to change the direction of their work in exchange for resources

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American Economic Journal: Applied Economics. Oct 2020, Vol. 12, No. 4: Pages 103-134. The Elasticity of Science. Kyle Myers. https://pubs.a...

Multiple genome-wide significant loci and genes were identified and polygenic score prediction of suicide death case-control status was demonstrated

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Genome-Wide Association Study of Suicide Death and Polygenic Prediction of Clinical Antecedents. Anna R. Docherty et al. The American Journa...

Mates high in physical attractiveness are in short supply, which means that not all people are able to find mates who are sufficiently attractive

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Mating Decisions in the Absence of Physical Attraction. Kaitlyn P. White, Peter K. Jonason & Laith Al-Shawaf. Adaptive Human Behavior an...