The 2000s should be seen as an exceptional period in the global economy during which multinational firms benefitted from reduced labour costs through offshoring, while capitalising on existing firm-specific intangibles (brand names) at little marginal cost

Factor Incomes in Global Value Chains: The Role of Intangibles. Wen Chen, Bart Los, Marcel P. Timmer. NBER Working Paper No. 25242, https://www.nber.org/papers/w25242

Abstract: Recent studies document a decline in the share of labour and a simultaneous increase in the share of residual (‘factorless’) income in national GDP. We argue the need for study of factor incomes in cross-border production to complement country studies. We define a GVC production function that tracks the value added in each stage of production in any country-industry. We define a new residual as the difference between the value of the final good and the payments to all tangibles (capital and labour) in any stage. We focus on GVCs of manufactured goods and find the residual to be large. We interpret it as income for intangibles that are (mostly) not covered in current national accounts statistics. We document decreasing labour and increasing capital income shares over the period 2000-14. This is mainly due to increasing income for intangible assets, in particular in GVCs of durable goods. We provide evidence that suggests that the 2000s should be seen as an exceptional period in the global economy during which multinational firms benefitted from reduced labour costs through offshoring, while capitalising on existing firm-specific intangibles, such as brand names, at little marginal cost.

Altruistic indulgence: people voluntarily consume high-calorie foods to make other people feel comfortable and pleasant instead of guilty

Altruistic indulgence: people voluntarily consume high-calorie foods to make other people feel comfortable and pleasant. Youjae Yi, Jacob C. Lee & Saetbyeol Kim. Social Influence, https://doi.org/10.1080/15534510.2018.1546616

ABSTRACT: We explored a novel phenomenon where people in certain social contexts voluntarily consume high-calorie foods with the altruistic motive of making other people feel comfortable and pleasant. We hypothesized that people are likely to choose a high-calorie food, especially around others with whom they have communal relationships (e.g., friends), because of the desire to induce in others feelings of pleasantness rather than guilt. A field study at a café shows that this phenomenon emerges in the real world, and a scenario-based experiment supports our altruistic account with mediation analyses. The alternative explanation of a social acceptance account is ruled out.

KEYWORDS: Indulgence, altruism, decision making for others, social eating, social influence

Aging and Decision-Making: A Conceptual Framework for Future Research

Aging and Decision-Making: A Conceptual Framework for Future Research - A Mini-Review. C E Löckenhoff. Gerontology 2018;64:140-148. https://doi.org/10.1159/000485247

Abstract: Age differences in decision-making are of theoretical interest and have important practical implications, but relevant lines of work are distributed across multiple disciplines and often lack integration. The present review proposes an overarching conceptual framework with the aim of connecting disjointed aspects of this field of research. The framework builds on process models of decision-making and specifies potential mechanisms behind age effects as well as relevant moderators including task characteristics and contextual factors. After summarizing the extant literature for each aspect of the framework, compensatory mechanisms and ecological fit between different components of the model are considered. Implications for real-life decision-making, remaining research gaps, and directions for future research are discussed.

Psychoanalytic as well as cognitive-behavioural long-term treatments lead to significant and sustained improvements of depressive symptoms of chronically depressed patients exceeding effect sizes of other international outcome studies

Outcome of Psychoanalytic and Cognitive-Behavioural Long-Term Therapy with Chronically Depressed Patients: A Controlled Trial with Preferential and Randomized Allocation. Marianne Leuzinger-Bohleber et al. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, https://doi.org/10.1177/0706743718780340

Abstract

Objective: For chronic depression, the effectiveness of brief psychotherapy has been limited. This study is the first comparing the effectiveness of long-term cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) and long-term psychoanalytic therapy (PAT) of chronically depressed patients and the effects of preferential or randomized allocation.

Methods: A total of 252 adults met the inclusion criteria (aged 21-60 years, major depression, dysthymia, double depression for at least 24 months, Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptoms [QIDS] >9, Beck Depression Inventory II [BDI] >17, informed consent, not meeting exclusion criteria). Main outcome measures were depression self-rating (BDI) and rating (clinician-rated QIDS [QIDS-C]) by independent, treatment-blinded clinicians. Full remission rates (BDI ≤12, QIDS-C ≤5) were calculated. An independent center for data management and biostatistics analyzed the treatment effects and differences using linear mixed models (multilevel models and hierarchical models).

Results: The average BDI declined from 32.1 points by 12.1 points over the first year and 17.2 points over 3 years. BDI overall mean effect sizes increased from d = 1.17 after 1 year to d = 1.83 after 3 years. BDI remission rates increased from 34% after 1 year to 45% after 3 years. QIDS-C overall effect sizes increased from d = 1.56 to d = 2.08, and remission rates rose from 39% after 1 year to 61% after 3 years. We found no significant differences between PAT and CBT or between preferential and randomized allocation.

Conclusions: Psychoanalytic as well as cognitive-behavioural long-term treatments lead to significant and sustained improvements of depressive symptoms of chronically depressed patients exceeding effect sizes of other international outcome studies.

Keywords: chronic, treatment-resistant depression, psychoanalytic psychotherapy, cognitive-behavioural therapy, long-term psychotherapy, remission, outcome

Propaganda & Nation Building: Those exposed to government propaganda have lower salience of ethnicity, increased inter-ethnic trust & show more willingness to interact face-to-face with members of another ethnic group

Arthur Thomas Blouin and Sharun W. Mukand, "Erasing Ethnicity? Propaganda, Nation Building and Identity in Rwanda," Journal of Political Economy, https://doi.org/10.1086/701441

Abstract: This paper examines whether propaganda broadcast over radio helped to change inter-ethnic attitudes in post-genocide Rwanda. We exploit variation in exposure to the government’s radio propaganda due to the mountainous topography of Rwanda. Results of lab-in-the-field experiments show that individuals exposed to government propaganda have lower salience of ethnicity, increased inter-ethnic trust and show more willingness to interact face-to-face with members of another ethnic group. Our results suggest that the observed improvement in inter-ethnic behavior is not cosmetic, and reflects a deeper change in inter-ethnic attitudes. The findings provide some of the first quantitative evidence that the salience of ethnic identity can be manipulated by governments.

Popular derogatory terms are associated with trait Antagonism, as well as other behaviors that comprise Antagonism’s nomological network (bullying, psychopathy, etc.)

The anatomy of an insult: Popular derogatory terms connote important individual differences in Agreeableness/Antagonism. Courtland S. Hyatt, Jessica L. Maples-Keller, Chelsea E. Sleep, Donald R. Lynam, Joshua D. Miller. Journal of Research in Personality, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2018.11.005

Highlights
•    Insults are commonly used, but less is known about what they connote.
•    Asshole, dick, and bitch are the most commonly used insults.
•    Self-endorsement of insults is associated with trait Antagonism.
•    Insult endorsement is also related to antisocial behavior (e.g,. aggression).
•    Colloquial phrases appear to convey important personality-related information.

Abstract: In the current series of studies, we investigate the psychosocial connotations of common insults. In Studies 1 and 2, we investigated the most frequently used insults to denigrate men and women (asshole, dick, bitch), and generated trait profiles that can be considered prototypical of each insult. In Studies 3 and 4, we examined how these insults are relevant to other key indicators of interpersonal functioning, including aggression, social information processing, personality disorders, and substance use. We also gathered thin-slice and informant reports. Each of the insults was associated with trait Antagonism, as well as other behaviors that comprise Antagonism’s nomological network (e.g., bullying, psychopathy, etc.). Results are discussed in terms of the importance of everyday language to psychological research.

White dreams (feeling of having had a dream experience without being able to specify this experience any further): What studying contentless dreams can teach about the neural basis of dreaming & conscious experiences

White dreams are made of colours: What studying contentless dreams can teach about the neural basis of dreaming and conscious experiences. Peter Fazekas, Georgina Nemeth, MortenOvergaard. Sleep Medicine Reviews, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2018.10.005

Summary: Reports of white dreams, the feeling of having had a dream experience without being able to specify this experience any further, make up almost one third of all dream reports, yet this phenomenon—until very recently—had not yet been in the focus of targeted investigations. White dreams are typically interpreted as forgotten dreams, and are sidelined as not being particularly informative with regard to the nature of dreaming. In this review article, we propose a paradigm shift with respect to the status of white dreams arguing that focusing on this phenomenon can reveal fundamental insights about the neural processes that occur in the dreaming brain. As part of this paradigm shift, we propose a novel interpretation of what white dreams are. This new interpretation is made possible by recent advancements in three different though interrelated fields focusing on dreaming, mental imagery, and wakeful perception. In this paper, we bring these different threads together to show how the latest findings from these fields fit together and point towards a general framework regarding the neural underpinnings of conscious experiences that might turn out to be highly relevant not just for dream research but for all aspects of studying consciousness.

Use investigative powers to dramatize how policy rollbacks on clean air and water are hurting children’s health, leading to thousands more deaths and increased chronic pulmonary and heart disease

House Democrats Must Be Strategic To Win on Energy and Climate Change

By Paul Bledsoe, PPI Strategic Advisor

By all accounts, House Democrats return to Washington this week to begin planning their priorities for 2019 in an aggressive frame of mind. But on climate change and energy issues, rather than simply responding to Trump’s latest provocation (like those regarding California wildfires), they must step back and take a strategic approach.

This means Democrats must have the discipline to subordinate all other considerations to the key goal of creating the political and policy conditions needed to enact landmark energy and climate legislation after 2020, when they may well win back the White House and Senate. Indeed, how they handle energy and climate in the next two years will play a critical role in determining whether they gain the power to act.

Despite bright spots in Nevada and several Governors races, the mid-term elections held some cautionary lessons. The defeat in Washington State of a carbon tax referendum and several other climate-related measures in Arizona and Colorado, along with apparent state-wide losses in “ground-zero” climate impacts states of Florida and Texas, should be sobering.
The politics of climate change are complex, even for voters already suffering from its impacts. Swing voters will not respond to far-left ideological crusades or simple-minded attempts to rigidly impose “best” climate policies from above. Such approaches have largely failed as political matter for nearly 30 years now.
The good news is that winning House control allows Democrats to develop economically-framed climate change messages and policies that are powerfully in America’s self-interest and also popular with voters. Democrats must starkly contrast their cost-effective climate policies with the nihilistic and defeatist policy rollbacks of Trump Republicans, rollbacks that are putting our people, economy and security at risk.
But making climate action a popular mainstream political issue will require a strategy that integrates climate policies more coherently into broader economic, public safety and security messages and goals that the American people already share, setting the stage for policy action in 2021.
With these goals in mind, House Democrats should establish a set of basic principles to guide their approaches on climate and energy over the next two years, including:
Frame climate change as a kitchen table issue of rising economic costs, public safety and national security. Climate impacts are here and now, already costing thousands of American lives and hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars. Stop “debating” proven climate science, and focus less on technical issues. Discuss climate change in immediate, human, local, economic, safety and security terms. More dollars and sense, fewer charts and graphs.  Here and now, not about 2050.
Hold Trump accountable for policy rollbacks and the climate change impacts that are costing taxpayers billions, harming public health and worsening climate change. Focus oversight attention on the huge economic and human costs of climate impacts, including larger storms, bigger wildfires, sea-level rise, infectious disease and other impacts. Use investigative powers to dramatize how policy rollbacks on clean air and water are hurting children’s health, leading to thousands more deaths and increased chronic pulmonary and heart disease, and how freezing fuel economy is hitting drivers at the pump. Shine a spotlight on Trump’s arbitrary and capricious rollbacks of sensible regulations on super climate pollutants like methane and HFCs.
Integrate climate policy into infrastructure, tax reform, national security, and disaster-response bills, instead of standalone “climate” proposals. When climate action is included as part of overall pro-growth economic and security policies that benefit middle class and working-class Americans, it will be more popular. For example, do not pursue standalone carbon taxes legislation; such taxes should only be included as part of overall pro-growth tax reform proposals (and be voted on no earlier than 2021). Repeal the Republican tax giveaway and replacing it will tax policies that benefit the middle and working class. In other words, undertake climate action as part of pro-growth economic, job creation, infrastructure and security policy, not just environmental policy.
Don’t force Democrats to take purely symbolic but politically problematic votes. Keep your power dry. Save difficult votes for 2021 or whenever Democrats next have the actual power to make key climate legislation become law.
Invoke a can-do Democratic spirit: America can meet the energy and climate challenge and lead the world, if Democrats are in charge. Trump and Republicans are climate defeatists, who deny the very existence of climate change because they have no solutions to deal with it. Simply put, Trump and Republicans are climate wimps—the problem is just too tough for them. But not for Democrats. The party of John Kennedy’s Space Race and the Apollo Project must embrace the opportunity to create American Energy Abundance and Climate Protection together. We have the technology; now Democrats must inspire the country to provide the political will.
Most of all, create a DEMOCRATIC brand of economically-focused energy and climate action—separate and apart from national environmental groups. For too long, Democrats have ceded their climate messaging to green groups and alienated huge parts of the electorate. Embrace the full U.S. energy economy miracle that occurred under Obama, including renewable energy, efficiency, new advanced technologies and well-regulated natural gas and oil production. Use the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Climate Change to gain attention to the role of Democratic policies in creating the US remarkable clean energy economy boom, cutting US oil imports, creating millions of good new jobs, while transitioning to a much lower carbon economy.
The focus must be on creating policy measures and the political conditions that together will allow climate change to play a far larger, more advantageous role in the 2020 campaign against Trump, and that will lead to enactment of effective climate policy when Democrats win back all levers of federal power.
Just as war is too important for generals alone, climate change is far too sweeping and important an issue to be dealt with by far-left environmentalists. It is not, ultimately, even an “environmental issue” as we classically think of them. Instead, it is about protecting our safety, security, and economy, and providing ourselves and our children the more hopeful future that all Americans desire. Democrats have a chance to deliver on this promise in the near future, if they will be politically strategic, now.

Consistent Lying Decreases Belief in the Truth: Consistent false assents increased belief in those false events & consistent false denials decreased belief in those true events

Liar Liar: Consistent Lying Decreases Belief in the Truth. Danielle Polage. Applied Cognitive Psychology, accepted article, https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3489

Summary: This study investigated the effects of lying on belief ratings for autobiographical childhood events. Participants lied by trying to convince the experimenter that likely events had not happened and that unlikely events had happened. Participants consistently lied, consistently told the truth, and alternated lying and truth telling across two sessions. Results showed that consistent false assents increased belief in those false events and that consistent false denials decreased belief in those true events. False denials had a larger influence on belief than did false assents. False assents that were told first were more likely to increase in belief than were false assents told in the second session. False denials decreased belief in the true event regardless of when they were told. These results suggest that lying influences confidence ratings both by increasing belief in a lied about event and by decreasing belief in a true event.

The discomfort regarding sex between one’s partner & robot competitors is not explained by personal characteristics (self-esteem, subjective physical attractiveness) but rather by technology-related variables (negative attitude towards robots, anthropomorphism)

Jealousy 4.0? An empirical study on jealousy-related discomfort of women evoked by other women and gynoid robots. Jessica M. Szczuka and Nicole C. Krämer. Paladyn, Journal of Behavioral Robotics, https://doi.org/10.1515/pjbr-2018-0023

Abstract: While first empirical studies on sexual aspects of human-robot interaction mostly focus on male users’ acceptance, there is no empirical research on how females react to robotic replications of women. To empirically investigate whether robots can evoke the same kind of jealousy-related discomfort as do other women, we conducted an online study in which 848 heterosexual female participants from Germany reacted to the idea that their partner had sexual intercourse with either another woman, a human-like female-looking robot, or a machine-like female-looking robot. The results revealed dimensions in which the jealousy-related discomfort was higher for female competitors compared to the robotic ones (e.g., discomfort caused by the idea of sexual intercourse), whereas in others the robots evoked the same or higher levels of jealousy-related discomfort (e.g., discomfort caused by feelings of inadequacy, discomfort caused by shared emotional and time resources). The variance in the discomfort regarding sexual interactions between one’s partner and robotic competitors could not be explained by personal characteristics (such as self-esteem, subjective physical attractiveness) but rather by technology-related variables (e.g., negative attitude towards robots, a tendency towards anthropomorphism) and the attitude towards sexual non-exclusivity in relationships. The study provides first empirical insights into a question which is of relevance for a responsible handling of sexualized technologies.

Keywords: jealousy, human-robot interaction, sex robots

Role of relative intelligence in mate preferences: Equally intelligent partners were satisficing mates; women wanted long-term partners who were smart, men wanted short-term partners who were less smart

Is smart sexy? Examining the role of relative intelligence in mate preferences. Peter K. Jonason et al. Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 139, 1 March 2019, Pages 53-59, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.11.009

Highlights
•    Manipulated level of relative intelligence in potential partners
•    Equally intelligent partners were satisficing mates.
•    Women wanted long-term partners who were smart.
•    Men wanted short-term partners who were less smart.
•    Women's mate value predicted preferences for intelligence.

Abstract: There has been a recent surge of research on the role of intelligence in mate preferences. To advance this area of research, in two online studies (N = 743), we manipulated relative, as opposed to absolute, intelligence and examined desirability in long-term and short-term relationships. In Study 1, we also examined the role of mate value towards understanding differences in desirability and, in Study 2, we also manipulated target's level of physical attractiveness. The sexes found less intelligent partners less desirable, a more intelligent partner was no more desirable than partner who was equal in intelligence, and intelligence was particularly valued as a long-term mate. In addition, mate value was correlated with rejecting less intelligent mates and desiring more intelligent ones in women only. And, last, we found that once men and women found sufficient rates of attractiveness for their short-term partners, they care about the intelligence of their partner.

People Make the Same Bayesian Judgment They Condemn and Punish in Others

People Make the Same Bayesian Judgment They Criticize in Others. Jack Cao, Max Kleiman-Weiner, Mahzarin R. Banaji. Psychological Science, https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797618805750

Abstract: When two individuals from different social groups exhibit identical behavior, egalitarian codes of conduct call for equal judgments of both individuals. However, this moral imperative is at odds with the statistical imperative to consider priors based on group membership. Insofar as these priors differ, Bayesian rationality calls for unequal judgments of both individuals. We show that participants criticized the morality and intellect of someone else who made a Bayesian judgment, shared less money with this person, and incurred financial costs to punish this person. However, participants made unequal judgments as a Bayesian statistician would, thereby rendering the same judgment that they found repugnant when offered by someone else. This inconsistency, which can be reconciled by differences in which base rate is attended to, suggests that participants use group membership in a way that reflects the savvy of a Bayesian and the disrepute of someone they consider to be a bigot.

Keywords: judgment, accuracy, fairness, social cognition, base rates, open data, open materials

Participants talk about their personal past 2 to 3 times as much as their personal future (i.e., retrospective bias), in contrast to research showing a prospective bias in thinking behavior

Conversational Time Travel: Evidence of a Retrospective Bias in Real Life Conversations. Burcu Demiray, Matthias R. Mehl and Mike Martin. Front. Psychol.,  Nov 13 2018 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02160

We examined mental time travel reflected onto individuals’ utterances in real-life conversations using a naturalistic observation method: Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR, a portable audio recorder that periodically and unobtrusively records snippets of ambient sounds and speech). We introduced the term conversational time travel and examined, for the first time, how much individuals talked about their personal past versus personal future in real life. Study 1 included 9,010 sound files collected from 51 American adults who carried the EAR over 1 weekend and were recorded every 9 min for 50 s. Study 2 included 23,103 sound files from 33 young and 48 healthy older adults from Switzerland who carried the EAR for 4 days (2 weekdays and 1 weekend, counterbalanced). 30-s recordings occurred randomly throughout the day. We developed a new coding scheme for conversational time travel: We listened to all sound files and coded each file for whether the participant was talking or not. Those sound files that included participant speech were also coded in terms of their temporal focus (e.g., past, future, present, time-independent) and autobiographical nature (i.e., about the self, about others). We, first, validated our coding scheme using the text analysis tool, Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count. Next, we compared the percentages of past- and future-oriented utterances about the self (to tap onto conversational time travel). Results were consistent across all samples and showed that participants talked about their personal past two to three times as much as their personal future (i.e., retrospective bias). This is in contrast to research showing a prospective bias in thinking behavior, based on self-report and experience-sampling methods. Findings are discussed in relation to the social functions of recalling the personal past (e.g., sharing memories to bond with others, to update each other, to teach, to give advice) and to the directive functions of future-oriented thought (e.g., planning, decision making, goal setting that are more likely to happen privately in the mind). In sum, the retrospective bias in conversational time travel seems to be a functional and universal phenomenon across persons and across real-life situations.

The sleep regulatory paradigm invokes “top-down” imposition of sleep on the brain by sleep regulatory circuits, but many cases are difficult to explain using that paradigm, including unilateral sleep, sleep-walking, & poor performance after sleep deprivation

Local Sleep, James M. Krueger et al. Sleep Medicine Reviews, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2018.10.001

Summary: The historic sleep regulatory paradigm invokes “top-down” imposition of sleep on the brain by sleep regulatory circuits. While remaining conceptually useful, many sleep phenomena are difficult to explain using that paradigm, including, unilateral sleep, sleep-walking, and poor performance after sleep deprivation. Further, all animals sleep after non-lethal brain lesions, regardless of whether the lesion includes sleep regulatory circuits, suggesting that sleep is a fundamental property of small viable neuronal/glial networks. That small areas of the brain can exhibit non-rapid eye movement sleep-like states is summarized. Further, sleep-like states in neuronal/glial cultures are described. The local sleep states, whether in vivo or in vitro, share electrophysiological properties and molecular regulatory components with whole animal sleep and exhibit sleep homeostasis. The molecular regulatory components of sleep are also involved in plasticity and inflammation. Like sleep, these processes, are initiated by local cell-activity dependent events, yet have at higher levels of tissue organization whole body functions. While there are large literatures dealing with local initiation and regulation of plasticity and inflammation, the literature surrounding local sleep is in its infancy and clinical applications of the local sleep concept are absent. Regardless, the local use-dependent sleep paradigm can advise and advance future research and clinical applications.

We respond negatively to those who “say one thing but do another” when there is a high degree of misalignment (i.e., perceive low “behavioral integrity”), & interpret the misalignment as a claim to an undeserved moral benefit (i.e., interpret it as hypocrisy)

From inconsistency to hypocrisy: When does “saying one thing but doing another” invite condemnation? Daniel A. Effrona et al. Research in Organizational Behavior, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.riob.2018.10.003

Abstract: It is not always possible for leaders, teams, and organizations to practice what they preach. Misalignment between words and deeds can invite harsh interpersonal consequences, such as distrust and moral condemnation, which have negative knock-on effects throughout organizations. Yet the interpersonal consequences of such misalignment are not always severe, and are sometimes even positive. This paper presents a new model of when and why audiences respond negatively to those who “say one thing but do another.” We propose that audiences react negatively if they (a) perceive a high degree of misalignment (i.e., perceive low “behavioral integrity”), and (b) interpret such misalignment as a claim to an undeserved moral benefit (i.e., interpret it as hypocrisy). Our model integrates disparate research findings about factors that influence how audiences react to misalignment, and it clarifies conceptual confusion surrounding word-deed misalignment, behavioral integrity, and hypocrisy. We discuss how our model can inform unanswered questions, such as why people fail to practice what they preach despite the risk of negative consequences. Finally, we consider practical implications for leaders, proposing that anticipating and managing the consequences of misalignment will be more effective than trying to avoid it altogether.