Monday, March 1, 2021

Communicating extreme forecasts... Scientists mention uncertainty far more frequently than non-scientists; thus, the bias in media toward coverage of non-scientific voices may be 'anti-uncertainty', not 'anti-science'

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Apocalypse now? Communicating extreme forecasts. David C. Rode; Paul S. Fischbeck. International Journal of Global Warming, 2021 Vol.23 No.2...

Rolf Degen summarizing... Recent genome-wide association studies have shown that genetic influences on psychological traits are driven by thousands of DNA variants, each with very small effect sizes; effects of "the environment" appear to be as fragmented and unspecific

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From Genome-Wide to Environment-Wide: Capturing the Environome. Sophie von Stumm, Katrina d’Apice. Perspectives on Psychological Science, Ma...

Participants made less prosocial decisions (i.e., became more selfish) in different-gender avatars, regardless of their own sex; women embodying a male avatar were more sensitive to temptations of immediate rewards

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Bolt, Elena, Jasmine Ho, Marte Roel, Alexander Soutschek, Philippe N. Tobler, and Bigna Lenggenhager. 2021. “How the Virtually Embodied Gend...

US: Religiosity decreased over time at a similar rate for the heterosexual and sexual minority groups; spirituality significantly increased over time for the sexual minority group but not for the heterosexual youth

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Religious and Spiritual Development from Adolescence to Early Adulthood in the U.S.: Changes over Time and Sexual Orientation Differences. K...

Consensual non-monogamous relationships: Not necessarily less satisfying or less stable, some individuals can experience psychological need fulfillment and satisfying relationships with concurrent partners

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Wood J, Quinn-Nilas C, Milhausen R, Desmarais S, Muise A, Sakaluk J (2021) A dyadic examination of self-determined sexual motives, need fulf...

The Origins and Design of Witches and Sorcerers

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The Origins and Design of Witches and Sorcerers. Manvir Singh. Current Anthropology, Feb 2021. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10....

Unpopularity of atheists: National studies (US, Sweden) consistently show that disbelievers (vs. believers) are less inclined to endorse moral values that serve group cohesion (the binding moral foundations)

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The amoral atheist? A cross-national examination of cultural, motivational, and cognitive antecedents of disbelief, and their implications f...
Sunday, February 28, 2021

Rolf Degen summarizing... Atheism is as much a part of the original state of the human mind as is belief in god

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New Cognitive and Cultural Evolutionary Perspectives on Atheism. Thomas J. Coleman III, Kyle Messick, Valerie van Mulukom. In The Routledge ...

The average American user is increasingly integrating politics into social identities, adding political words to describe themselves; they are more likely to describe themselves by their political affiliation than their religious one

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Using Twitter Bios to Measure Changes in Self-Identity: Are Americans Defining Themselves More Politically Over Time? Nick Rogers; Jason J. ...

Individual Valuing of Social Equality in Political and Personal Relationships: We will sometimes prioritize equality over competing values, but the weight of social equality diminishes when moving from personal to political cases

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Individual Valuing of Social Equality in Political and Personal Relationships. Ryan W. Davis & Jessica Preece. Review of Philosophy and ...

Recent research on sexual orientation and sexual fluidity illustrates distinctions among subtypes of same-gender sexuality (such as mostly-heterosexuality, bisexuality, and exclusive same-gender experience)

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The New Genetic Evidence on Same-Gender Sexuality: Implications for Sexual Fluidity and Multiple Forms of Sexual Diversity The New Genetic E...

From 2016... Facial expressions and other behavioral responses to pleasant and unpleasant tastes in cats (Felis silvestris catus)

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From 2016... Facial expressions and other behavioral responses to pleasant and unpleasant tastes in cats (Felis silvestris catus). Michaela ...

Shoplift is common, we eat a few of the customer's fries when delivering food to them, we overcharge buyers in computer repairs or fish markets... New study: Field experiments on dishonesty and stealing

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Field experiments on dishonesty and stealing: what have we learned in the last 40 years? Hugo S. Gomes, David P. Farrington, Ivy N. Defoe ...

Study suggests that women may have greater cognitive reserve but faster cognitive decline than men, which could contribute to sex differences in late-life dementia

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Sex Differences in Cognitive Decline Among US Adults. Deborah A. Levine et al. JAMA Netw Open. 2021;4(2):e210169. February 25, 2021, doi:10....