Inbred males should have lower reproductive success than outbred males among other things because of inbreeding depression in attractiveness to females & a reduced lifespan; an inbred male of a given age is more motivated to seize a current mating opportunity than an outbred male

An experimental study: Does inbreeding increase the motivation to mate? Raïssa A. de Boer, Marcel Eens, Wendt Müller. PLOS One, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0199182

Abstract: Inbreeding is a central topic in evolutionary biology and ecology and is of major concern for the conservation of endangered species. Yet, it remains challenging to comprehend the fitness consequences of inbreeding, because studies typically focus only on short-term effects on inbreeding in the offspring (e.g. survival until independence). However, there is no a priori reason to assume that inbreeding has no more effects in adulthood. Specifically, inbred males should have lower reproductive success than outbred males among other things because of inbreeding depression in attractiveness to females and a reduced lifespan. Such differences in future reproductive value should affect male mating behaviour, such that an inbred male of a given age should be more motivated to seize a current mating opportunity than an outbred male of the same age. We used an inventive experimental set-up that enabled us to assess male behaviour in relation to an apparent mating opportunity while excluding potential confounding effects of female preference. Age-, weight-, and size-matched inbred and outbred male canaries (Serinus canaria) were presented with a female that only one male at a time could access visually via a ‘peephole’ and thus when both males were equally interested in seizing the apparent mating opportunity this would result in contest. We find that inbred males spent more than twice as much time ‘peeping’ at the female than outbred males, suggesting that inbreeding indeed causes different behavioural responses to an apparent mating opportunity. Our study is among the first to highlight that inbreeding affects male mating behaviour, and therewith potentially male-male competition, which should be taken into account in order to understand the full range of inbreeding effects on fitness.

More intelligent people are more rational (consistency between attitudes and preferences) in their political preferences, except the economic attitudes

Intelligence and the rationality of political preferences. Yoav Ganzach. Intelligence, Volume 69, July–August 2018, Pages 59-70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2018.05.002

Highlights
•    We show that in political behavior intelligence is related to rationality.
•    Intelligence is operationalized as achievement in standard mental ability tests.
•    Rationality is operationalized as consistency between attitudes and preferences.
•    Political attitudes are measured on a conservative-liberal dimension.
•    Political preferences are measured by party affiliation.

Abstract: I study the relationship between intelligence and the rationality of political preferences. Intelligence is operationalized as achievement in standard mental ability tests, rationality as consistency between political attitudes and political preferences and consistency as the effect of the interaction between intelligence and political attitudes on political preferences. Political preferences are measured by party affiliation – support for the Democratic versus the Republican Party in the US – and political attitudes are measured on a conservative-liberal dimension. I analyze three large representative American databases and find that for global political attitudes and for specific social attitudes, but not for specific economic attitudes, intelligence is associated with a considerable more attitude-preference consistency (ΔR2 of 2.7% 0.9%, and 0.9%, in Study 1, 2 and 3, respectively, corresponding to f2 of 0.014, 0.011 and 0.035, respectively). I conclude with a discussion of possible causal processes underlying the observed relationship between intelligence and consistency of political attitudes.

Same-sex courtship behaviors in male-biased populations: Found more male-male sexual interactions in male-biased populations and a significant decrease of these behaviors after consecutive days of observation

Same-sex courtship behaviors in male-biased populations: evidence for the mistaken identity hypothesis. Anthony Macchiano, Imran Razik, Maria Sagot. acta ethologica, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10211-018-0293-8

Abstract: Same-sex sexual behaviors (SSSB) have been recorded in nearly all major animal groups and are often found in populations with skewed sex ratios (SR). Here, we study the role of sex ratios in the frequency of SSSB to better understand the conditions that give rise to such puzzling behaviors. We observed SSSB in multiple populations of the common fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) after manipulation of sex ratios. We also recorded male responses after being pursued by other males. We found more male-male sexual interactions in male-biased populations and a significant decrease of these behaviors after consecutive days of observation. Males pursued by other males reacted to such encounters. Our results provide support for the mistaken identity hypothesis, in which males are unable to differentiate between sexes at first encounter. With this work, we help elucidate possible social conditions that facilitate the appearance of such intriguing behaviors in nature.

Keywords: Same-sex interactions Homosexual behavior Sex ratios Drosophila melanogaster

Sex-based divergence of mechanisms underlying pain and pain inhibition: The female is more sensitive and less tolerant of pain

Sex-based divergence of mechanisms underlying pain and pain inhibition. Jeffrey S Mogil. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, Volume 23, October 2018, Pages 113–117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2018.05.005

Abstract: Whether there are sex differences in pain sensitivity is a topic of enduring interest. This question has essentially been answered, with a clear consensus emerging in the direction of the difference in humans. More importantly, though, there is also much evidence for robust qualitative differences in pain mechanisms between the sexes, in both rodents and humans, predictive of the eventual sex-specific treatment of pain. This review details some of the known differences in pain circuitry between males and females, and asks whether pain is unique in featuring such divergence.

Social observation promoted deontological judgments especially for moral dilemmas involving direct physical harm (i.e., the personal moral dilemmas), yet with an overall decrease in decision confidence and significant prolongation of reaction time

Social observation increases deontological judgments in moral dilemmas. Minwoo Lee, Sunhae Sul, Hackjin Kim. Evolution and Human Behavior, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2018.06.004

Abstract: A concern for positive reputation is one of the core motivations underlying various social behaviors in humans. The present study investigated how experimentally induced reputation concern modulates judgments in moral dilemmas. In a mixed-design experiment, participants were randomly assigned to the observed vs. the control group and responded to a series of trolley-type moral dilemmas either in the presence or absence of observers, respectively. While no significant baseline difference in personality traits and moral decision style were found across two groups of participants, our analyses revealed that social observation promoted deontological judgments especially for moral dilemmas involving direct physical harm (i.e., the personal moral dilemmas), yet with an overall decrease in decision confidence and significant prolongation of reaction time. Moreover, participants in the observed group, but not in the control group, showed the increased sensitivities towards warmth vs. competence traits words in the lexical decision task performed after the moral dilemma task. Our findings suggest that reputation concern, once triggered by the presence of potentially judgmental others, could activate a culturally dominant norm of warmth in various social contexts. This could, in turn, induce a series of goal-directed processes for self-presentation of warmth, leading to increased deontological judgments in moral dilemmas. The results of the present study provide insights into the reputational consequences of moral decisions that merit further exploration.

Keywords: Reputation concern; Moral dilemma; Social observation; Deontology; Warmth

Collective Narcissism: Americans Exaggerate the Role of Their Home State in Appraising U.S. History

Collective Narcissism: Americans Exaggerate the Role of Their Home State in Appraising U.S. History. Adam L. Putnam et al. Psychological Science, https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797618772504

Abstract: Collective narcissism—a phenomenon in which individuals show excessively high regard for their own group—is ubiquitous in studies of small groups. We examined how Americans from the 50 U.S. states (N = 2,898) remembered U.S. history by asking them, “In terms of percentage, what do you think was your home state’s contribution to the history of the United States?” The mean state estimates ranged from 9% (Iowa) to 41% (Virginia), with the total contribution for all states equaling 907%, indicating strong collective narcissism. In comparison, ratings provided by nonresidents for states were much lower (but still high). Surprisingly, asking people questions about U.S. history before they made their judgment did not lower estimates. We argue that this ethnocentric bias is due to ego protection, selective memory retrieval processes involving the availability heuristic, and poor statistical reasoning. This study shows that biases that influence individual remembering also influence collective remembering.

Keywords: collective memory, availability bias, egocentrism, narcissism, judgment, open data, open materials, and preregistered

Beneficial effects of education on cognitive abilities of approximately 1 to 5 IQ points for an additional year of education. Moderator analyses indicated that the effects persisted across the life span and were present on all broad categories of cognitive ability

How Much Does Education Improve Intelligence? A Meta-Analysis. Stuart J. Ritchie, Elliot M. Tucker-Drob. Psychological Science, https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797618774253

Abstract: Intelligence test scores and educational duration are positively correlated. This correlation could be interpreted in two ways: Students with greater propensity for intelligence go on to complete more education, or a longer education increases intelligence. We meta-analyzed three categories of quasiexperimental studies of educational effects on intelligence: those estimating education-intelligence associations after controlling for earlier intelligence, those using compulsory schooling policy changes as instrumental variables, and those using regression-discontinuity designs on school-entry age cutoffs. Across 142 effect sizes from 42 data sets involving over 600,000 participants, we found consistent evidence for beneficial effects of education on cognitive abilities of approximately 1 to 5 IQ points for an additional year of education. Moderator analyses indicated that the effects persisted across the life span and were present on all broad categories of cognitive ability studied. Education appears to be the most consistent, robust, and durable method yet to be identified for raising intelligence.

Keywords: intelligence, education, meta-analysis, quasiexperimental, open data

Microworkers who are paid less tend to exaggerate the importance of their participation; express greater enjoyment and experience lower tension; expend lower effort and are more likely to drop out

Microworkers as Research Participants: Does Underpaying Turkers lead to Cognitive Dissonance? Bingjie Liu, S.Shyam Sundar. Computers in Human Behavior, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.06.017

Highlights
•    Turkers who are paid less tend to exaggerate the importance of their participation.
•    Turkers who are paid less express greater enjoyment and experience lower tension.
•    Turkers paid less expend lower effort and are more likely to drop out.
•    Underpaying microworkers undermines ethical practice of scientific research.

Abstract: Social science researchers increasingly rely on microworkers to serve as study participants, paying them very little compared to participants recruited from other venues. This has raised ethical concerns and questioned the validity of research based on microworkers. Informed by cognitive dissonance theory, we conducted two between-subjects experiments to examine the effects of underpaying Amazon Mechanical Turk workers (Turkers) on their perceptions and their actual performance on criteria crucial to online social science research. Data show that underpaid Turkers experienced ‘cognitive dissonance’ such that those paid as low as $0.25 said that their participation was more important (than subjects who were paid higher), which was positively associated with other positive perceptions and demand characteristics. Nevertheless, underpaying Turkers increased dropout rate, reduced their level of effort in answering open-ended questions and undermined perceived agency. We discuss the ethical and practical implications of underpaying microworkers.

Keywords: Amazon’s Mechanical Turk; underpayment; cognitive dissonance; enjoyment; effort

Speculations on the Evolutionary Origins of System Justification (justifying system's harsh or unfair results)

Speculations on the Evolutionary Origins of System Justification. John T. Jost, Robert M. Sapolsky, H. Hannah Nam. Evolutionary Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1177/1474704918765342

Abstract: For centuries, philosophers and social theorists have wondered why people submit voluntarily to tyrannical leaders and oppressive regimes. In this article, we speculate on the evolutionary origins of system justification, that is, the ways in which people are motivated (often nonconsciously) to defend and justify existing social, economic, and political systems. After briefly recounting the logic of system justification theory and some of the most pertinent empirical evidence, we consider parallels between the social behaviors of humans and other animals concerning the acceptance versus rejection of hierarchy and dominance. Next, we summarize research in human neuroscience suggesting that specific brain regions, such as the amygdala and the anterior cingulate cortex, may be linked to individual differences in ideological preferences concerning (in)equality and social stability as well as the successful navigation of complex, hierarchical social systems. Finally, we consider some of the implications of a system justification perspective for the study of evolutionary psychology, political behavior, and social change.

Keywords: system justification, ideology, political neuroscience, amygdala, hierarchy, evolutionary psychology

Sexual disgust sensitivity was associated with increased odds of voting for Donald Trump vs each other major presidential candidate, as well as with increased odds of affiliating with the Republican vs the Democratic or Libertarian parties

Sexual Disgust Trumps Pathogen Disgust in Predicting Voter Behavior During the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election. Joseph Billingsley, Debra Lieberman, Joshua M. Tybur. Evolutionary Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1177/1474704918764170

Abstract: Why is disgust sensitivity associated with socially conservative political views? Is it because socially conservative ideologies mitigate the risks of infectious disease, whether by promoting out-group avoidance or by reinforcing norms that sustain antipathogenic practices? Or might it be because socially conservative ideologies promote moral standards that advance a long-term, as opposed to a short-term, sexual strategy? Recent attempts to test these two explanations have yielded differing results and conflicting interpretations. Here, we contribute to the literature by examining the relationship between disgust sensitivity and political orientation, political party affiliation, and an often overlooked outcome—actual voter behavior. We focus on voter behavior and affiliation for the 2016 U.S. presidential election to determine whether pathogen or sexual disgust better predicts socially conservative ideology. Although many prominent aspects of Donald Trump’s campaign—particularly his anti-foreign message—align with the pathogen-avoidance model of conservatism, we found that pathogen-related disgust sensitivity exerted no influence on political ideology, political party affiliation, or voter behavior, after controlling for sexual disgust sensitivity. In contrast, sexual disgust sensitivity was associated with increased odds of voting for Donald Trump versus each other major presidential candidate, as well as with increased odds of affiliating with the Republican versus the Democratic or Libertarian parties. In fact, for every unit increase in sexual disgust sensitivity, the odds of a participant voting for Trump versus Clinton increased by approximately 30%. It seems, then, that sexual disgust trumps pathogen disgust in predicting socially conservative voting behavior.

Keywords: disgust sensitivity, social conservatism, voter behavior, pathogen avoidance, sexual strategies

Unconventional Consumption Methods and Enjoying Things Consumed: Recapturing the “First-Time” Experience

Unconventional Consumption Methods and Enjoying Things Consumed: Recapturing the “First-Time” Experience. Ed O’Brien, Robert W. Smith. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin,  https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167218779823

Abstract: People commonly lament the inability to re-experience familiar things as they were first experienced. Four experiments suggest that consuming familiar things in new ways can disrupt adaptation and revitalize enjoyment. Participants better enjoyed the same familiar food (Experiment 1), drink (Experiment 2), and video (Experiments 3a-3b) simply when re-experiencing the entity via unusual means (e.g., eating popcorn using chopsticks vs. hands). This occurs because unconventional methods invite an immersive “first-time” perspective on the consumption object: boosts in enjoyment were mediated by revitalized immersion into the consumption experience and were moderated by time such that they were strongest when using unconventional methods for the first time (Experiments 1-2); likewise, unconventional methods that actively disrupted immersion did not elicit the boost, despite being novel (Experiments 3a-3b). Before abandoning once-enjoyable entities, knowing to consume old things in new ways (vs. attaining new things altogether) might temporarily restore enjoyment and postpone wasteful replacement.

The Real Reason Liberals Drink Lattes

The Real Reason Liberals Drink Lattes. Diana C. Mutz and Jahnavi S. Rao. Political Science & Politics, https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096518000574

Abstract: Are liberals truly more likely to drink lattes than conservatives? In this study, we first use a representative national survey to address this unanswered question. On confirmation, we examine three hypotheses about why this relationship exists. Our results led to a fundamental reinterpretation of what it means to be a “latte liberal.”

Despite the centrality of technical innovation to our daily lives, most people rarely if ever innovate new products; we gravitate toward rewarding social rather than technical solutions to our problems, related to engineers & physical scientists as less socially oriented but more innovative

Did humans evolve to innovate with a social rather than technical orientation? William von Hippel, Thomas Suddendorf. New Ideas in Psychology, Volume 51, December 2018, Pages 34–39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2018.06.002

Abstract: The quality and frequency of human technical innovation differentiates us from all other species, and has played a primary role in creating the cognitive niche that we occupy. Yet, despite the centrality of technical innovation to human culture and our daily lives, most people rarely if ever innovate new products. To address this discrepancy we consider our evolutionary history, and how it might have created a species whose members are both highly innovative and highly unlikely to invent new products. We propose the social innovation hypothesis, which suggests that our minds evolved to innovate, but with a social rather than a technical orientation. Because people find social relations rewarding, they gravitate toward social rather than technical solutions to their problems. Thus, it may primarily be people who are less socially oriented who innovate technically. Consistent with this possibility, 1) engineers and physical scientists are less socially oriented and more likely to innovate new products than people in the humanities and social sciences, and 2) men are less socially oriented and more likely to innovate new products than women.

Keywords: Innovation; Human evolution; Sociality; Gender differences

Sex, Salad, Rivalry: Women’s Evaluation of other Women Based on their Food Selection

You are What You Eat: Women’s Evaluation of other Women Based on their Food Selection. Hannah Hunter, Maryanne L. Fisher, & Charlotte De Backer. EvoS Journal, http://evostudies.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Hunter-et-al_Vol9SpIss2.pdf

ABSTRACT: Past research has shown that women who eat unhealthy foods are rated as less attractive and are perceived to have a less desirable personality than women who eat healthy foods. However, eating too healthily is also perceived negatively. Framing these past findings using an evolutionary perspective, we investigated if and how ratings of women changed when participants learned the target had allegedly consumed primarily healthy, unhealthy, or a balanced diet of healthy and unhealthy foods within the last day. We not only focused on perceived attractiveness and personality ratings, but included a measure of perceived rivalry as well. Results show that getting dietary information about a target woman changes other women’s perceptions of the target’s attractiveness, personality and capacities as a sexual rival. Keeping with our predictions, women portrayed with unhealthy diet choices received the poorest overall ratings. In contrast to recent findings that eating only healthy foods leads to poorer ratings too, our results show that women who exclusively ate healthy foods within the last day received the most favorable ratings and were seen as the most threatening. Women paired with a balanced diet choice received in-between ratings that were significantly different from both other conditions, except for some specific personality traits. In sum, these results show that studying food choice behavior is an avenue worthy of further exploration in the domain of evolutionary psychology.

KEYWORDS: Diet, Attractiveness, Social Impressions, Intrasexual Competition, Women

We judge faces in incomplete photographs as physically more attractive; this positivity bias is replicated for different types of face incompleteness, mostly specific to aesthetic judgments, stronger for male participants, & specific to human faces (as opposed to pets, flowers, & landscapes)

Orghian, Diana and Hidalgo, César, Worse Than You Think: Positivity Bias in Evaluations of Human Facial Attractiveness (April 13, 2018). http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3162479

Abstract: Attractive people are perceived to be healthier, wealthier, and more sociable. Yet, people often judge the attractiveness of others based on incomplete facial information. Here, we test the hypothesis that people fill in the missing information with positive inferences when judging others’ facial beauty. To test this hypothesis, we conducted five experiments where participants judged the attractiveness of human faces in complete and incomplete photographs. Our data shows that — relative to complete photographs — participants judge faces in incomplete photographs as physically more attractive. This positivity bias is: (i) replicated for different types of face incompleteness, (ii) mostly specific to aesthetic judgments, (iii) stronger for male participants, (iv) specific to human faces (as opposed to pets, flowers, and landscapes), (v) sensitive to participants’ prior expectations about the facial beauty of the people being evaluated, and, (vi) it involves a holistic processing of the faces.

Keywords: positivity bias, inference, face processing, attractiveness, configurational processing, expectations