192 Countries, 2001-2018: The strongest predictors of variation in entrepreneurial activity were normative, with social norms being the most strongly associated with entrepreneurialism & rates of organizational founding

Assenova, Valentina, Why Are Some Societies More Entrepreneurial than Others? Evidence from 192 Countries over 2001-2018 (January 25, 2019). SSRN: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3449762

Abstract: Why do societies vary in their rates of entrepreneurship and organizational founding? Drawing on the largest available longitudinal sample comprising 192 countries over 2001-2018, I examine the evidence in relation to several explanations, including variation in the density of established organizations, national investment in research and development (R&D), technology transfer to new companies, the quality of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education, venture capital (VC) availability, and governmental support and policies for entrepreneurship. Contrary to prevailing theories, there is limited empirical support for these explanations. Rather, the evidence shows that the strongest predictors of cross-national variation in entrepreneurial activity were normative, with social norms being the most strongly associated with entrepreneurialism and rates of organizational founding. This study further examines the relationship between norms and societal culture and finds that more gender-egalitarian societies and societies that value and reward performance and endorse status privileges had on average higher rates of organizational founding, net of differences in national income and economic growth. The paper discusses the implications of these findings in relation to research on the social determinants of entrepreneurship and organizational founding.

Keywords: entrepreneurship; organization theory; cross-national differences
JEL Classification: M13, L26, L53

Women and men differ in the perception of their technological capabilities, with women having a worse perception of their own skills, although they do not differ in goal achievement

Similarities and Differences between Genders in the Usage of Computer with Different Levels of Technological Complexity. Sabrina Sobieraj, Nicole C. Krämer. Computers in Human Behavior, September 25 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2019.09.021

Highlights
•    Women and men differ in the perception of their technological capabilities
•    Women and men do not differ in goal achievement
•    Women and men slightly differ in their affect depending on technologies’ complexity

Abstract: Research on technology usage and acceptance has demonstrated that women and men use technology differently, and also differ in their self-perception regarding technology (e.g., women see themselves as less capable). Gender role beliefs, according to which women are expected to be less interested in and less capable of using technologies than men, have been discussed as one major reason for these differences. Such differing attributions of women and men can induce negative experiences in terms of negative feelings and can reinforce the feelings of uncertainty experienced by women. We therefore assume that the usage of technology, especially with increasing complexity, may induce more negative experiences in women than in men. We conducted a 2 (male, female) x 3 (technological complexity) between-subjects lab experiment (N = 148) to examine the interaction between technological complexity and users’ gender. The analyses revealed that women and men differ in the perception of their technological capabilities, but not in goal achievement. Additionally, we found slight gender differences concerning positive affect, but not concerning negative affect, depending on technologies’ complexity.

Piloerection (goosebumps) Is Not a Reliable Physiological Correlate of Awe

McPhetres, Jonathon, and Andrew Shtulman. 2019. “Piloerection (goosebumps) Is Not a Reliable Physiological Correlate of Awe.” OSF Preprints. September 25. doi:10.31219/osf.io/72j4w

Abstract: In scientific and popular literature, piloerection (e.g. goosebumps) is often described as being related to the experience of awe, though this correlation has not been tested empirically. Using two pre-registered and independently collected samples (N = 233), we examined the objective physiological occurrence of piloerection in response to awe-inducing stimuli. Stimuli were selected to satisfy three descriptors of awe, including perceptual vastness, virtual reality, and expectancy-violating events. The stimuli reliably elicited self-reported awe to a great extent, in line with hypotheses. However, awe-inducing stimuli were not associated with the objective occurrence of piloerection. While participants self-reported high levels of goosebumps and “the chills,” there was no physical evidence of this. These results suggest that piloerection is not reliably connected to the experience of awe—at least using stimuli known to elicit awe in an experimental setting.

A large number of Americans believe their physical health has been harmed by their exposure to politics & even more report that politics has resulted in emotional costs and lost friendships

Friends, relatives, sanity, and health: The costs of politics. Kevin B. Smith, Matthew V. Hibbing, John R. Hibbing. PLoS ONE 14(9), e0221870, September 25, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0221870

Abstract: Political scientists have long known that political involvement exacts costs but they have typically defined these costs in relatively narrow, largely economic terms. Though anecdotal evidence suggests that the costs of politics may in fact extend beyond economics to frayed personal relationships, compromised emotional stability, and even physical problems, no systematic evidence on these broader costs exists. We construct and validate batteries of survey items that delineate the physical, social, and emotional costs of political engagement and administer these items to a demographically representative sample of U.S. adults. The results suggest that a large number of Americans believe their physical health has been harmed by their exposure to politics and even more report that politics has resulted in emotional costs and lost friendships.

Deception Detection: Emotion recognition training was not found to impact on accuracy

Zloteanu, Mircea. 2019. “Emotion Recognition and Deception Detection.” PsyArXiv. September 25. doi:10.31234/osf.io/crzne

Abstract: People hold strong beliefs regarding the role of emotional cues in detecting deception. While research on the diagnostic value of such cues has been mixed, their influence on human veracity judgments should not be ignored. Here, we address the relationship between emotional information and veracity judgments. In Study 1, the role of emotion recognition in the process of detecting naturalistic lies was investigated. Decoders’ accuracy was compared based on differences in trait empathy and their ability to recognize microexpressions and subtle expressions. Accuracy was found to be unrelated to facial cue recognition but negatively related to empathy. In Study 2, we manipulated decoders’ emotion recognition ability and the type of lies they saw: experiential or affective. Decoders either received emotion recognition training, bogus training, or no training. In all scenarios, training was not found to impact on accuracy. Experiential lies were easier to detect than affective lies, but, affective emotional lies were easier to detect than affective unemotional lies. The findings suggest that emotion recognition has a complex relationship with veracity judgments.

Male juvenile rats and laughter: There was evidence that tickling showed rebound and emotional contagion effects

Relationships between play and responses to tickling in male juvenile rats. Tayla Hammond et al. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, September 25 2019, 104879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2019.104879

Highlights
•    Solitary but not social play increased prior to and potentially in anticipation of tickling sessions
•    There were substantial differences between cohorts in their tickling responses and play behaviour.
•    Taking account of cohort there was evidence that tickling showed rebound and emotional contagion effects
•    Cohort effects may be explained by differences in physical condition prior to tickling.

Abstract: Play is a putatively positive experience and of key interest to the study of affective state in animals. Rats produce 50 kHz ultrasonic vocalisation (USVs) during positive experiences, including social play and tickling. The tickling paradigm is intended to mimic social play resulting in positively valanced ultrasonic vocalisation (USV) production. We tested two hypotheses on the relationship between tickling and play: that tickling would increase play behaviour or that play behaviour would increase in anticipation of tickling, and that tickling would share some specific properties of play (rebound and emotional contagion of unexposed cage mates). Male Wistar rats (N = 64, with 32 rats/cohort) of 28 days of age were housed in pairs with one rat assigned to be tickled and one as the non-tickled control. Production of 50 kHz USVs and hand-following behaviour was measured. Prior to handling, solitary and social play was recorded for 5 minutes in the home cage. A two-day break in tickling was used to assess a potential rebound increase in responses to tickling. Only one rat within each cage was handled to assess emotional contagion through changes in the behaviour of the cage-mate. Solitary but not social play increased prior to tickling relative to controls (p = 0.01). There were marked differences between cohorts; tickled rats in C2 produced less 50 kHz USVs than those in C1 (p  = 0.04) and overall, C2 rats played less than rats in C1 (social p =  0.04 and solitary p <  0.001) and had a lighter start weight on arrival (p =  0.009) compared with cohort 1 (C1). In C1, there was evidence of rebound in USV production (p <  0.001) and a contagious effect of tickling reflected by increased hand-following in cage mates (p = 0.02). We found a positive relationship between start weight and USV responses to tickling (Rs = 0.43, p < 0.001), suggesting that the divergence in USV production may be due to developmental differences between cohorts. The results suggest that the relationship between tickling and play is complex in that tickling only affected solitary and not social play, and that tickling responses showed rebound and contagion effects on cage-mates which were specific to cohort responses to tickling.

People in creative occupations and the entertainment industry – artists (both genders), musicians (males) and actors (males) – were at increased risk of suicide

Occupation-specific suicide risk in England: 2011–2015. Ben Windsor-Shellard and David Gunnell. The British Journal of Psychiatry, Volume 215, Issue 4, October 2019 , pp. 594-599. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.2019.69

Abstract
Background: Previous research has documented marked occupational differences in suicide risk, but these estimates are 10 years old and based on potentially biased risk assessments.

Aims: To investigate occupation-specific suicide mortality in England, 2011–2015.

Method: Estimation of indirectly standardised mortality rates for occupations/occupational groups based on national data.

Results: Among males the highest risks were seen in low-skilled occupations, particularly construction workers (standardised mortality ratio [SMR] 369, 95% CI 333–409); low-skilled workers comprised 17% (1784/10 688) of all male suicides (SMR 144, 95% CI 137–151). High risks were also seen among skilled trade occupations (SMR 135 95% CI 130–139; 29% of male suicides). There was no evidence of increased risk among some occupations previously causing concern: male healthcare professionals and farmers. Among females the highest risks were seen in artists (SMR 399, 95% CI 244–616) and bar staff (SMR 182, 95% CI 123–260); nurses also had an increased risk (SMR 123, 95% CI 104–145). People in creative occupations and the entertainment industry – artists (both genders), musicians (males) and actors (males) – were at increased risk, although the absolute numbers of deaths in these occupations were low. In males (SMR 192, 95% CI 165–221) and females (SMR 170, 95% CI 149–194), care workers were at increased risk and had a considerable number of suicide deaths.

Conclusions: Specific contributors to suicide in high-risk occupations should be identified and measures – such as workplace-based interventions – put in place to mitigate this risk. The construction industry seems to be an important target for preventive interventions.

Internet use resulted in better answers, but also in significant and persistent overestimation of information problem-solving ability and performance, even in more accurate postdictive metacognitive judgments

Will using the Internet to answer knowledge questions increase users’ overestimation of their own ability or performance? Stephanie Pieschl. Media Psychology, Sep 24 2019. https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2019.1668810

Abstract: Using the Internet is ubiquitous, but not all of the consequences of this habitual technology use are known. Theoretical models and related research suggest that the act of searching for information on the Internet itself may bias users toward overestimating themselves. The current study is the first direct empirical test of this assumption. In a two-by-two design, n = 184 participants were randomly assigned to between-subject Internet or NoInternet conditions in each of two phases: In the Induction Phase 1, participants made predictive metacognitive judgments about their ability to answer a first set of explanatory knowledge questions. In the Target Phase 2, they made predictive and postdictive metacognitive judgments about their ability to answer a second, entirely unrelated set of explanatory knowledge questions and answered two of these questions. Results show that Internet use affected tasks only in the same phase, but not in subsequent unrelated phases. Internet use resulted in better answers, but also in significant and persistent overestimation of information problem-solving ability and performance, even in more accurate postdictive metacognitive judgments. Potential consequences of this side effect of Internet use are discussed such as premature termination of information problem-solving and suboptimal performance.

Check also Illusion of Knowledge through Facebook News? Effects of Snack News in a News Feed on Perceived Knowledge, Attitude Strength, and Willingness for Discussions. Svenja Schäfer. Computers in Human Behavior, September 4 2019. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2019/09/illusion-of-knowledge-through-facebook.html

Laypeople Can Predict Which Social Science Studies Replicate

Hoogeveen, Suzanne, Alexandra Sarafoglou, and Eric-Jan Wagenmakers. 2019. “Laypeople Can Predict Which Social Science Studies Replicate.” PsyArXiv. September 25. doi:10.31234/osf.io/egw9d

Abstract: Large-scale collaborative projects recently demonstrated that several key findings from the social science literature could not be replicated successfully. Here we assess the extent to which a finding’s replication success relates to its intuitive plausibility. Each of 27 high-profile social science findings was evaluated by 233 people without a PhD in psychology. Results showed that these laypeople predicted replication success with above-chance performance (i.e., 58%). In addition, when laypeople were informed about the strength of evidence from the original studies, this boosted their prediction performance to 67%. We discuss the prediction patterns and apply signal detection theory to disentangle detection ability from response bias. Our study suggests that laypeople’s predictions contain useful information for assessing the probability that a given finding will replicate successfully.

Just 4% of participants appeared to use prior research to make probability estimates—most seemed to focus on the latest study, ignoring/discounting prior ones, even when they had more statistics classes

Is One Study as Good as Three? College Graduates Seem to Think So, Even if They Took Statistics Classes. m W Burt Thompson et al. Psychology Learning & Teaching, September 25, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1177/1475725719877590

Abstract: When people interpret the outcome of a research study, do they consider other relevant information such as prior research? In the current study, 251 college graduates read a single brief fictitious news article. The article summarized the findings of a study that found positive results for a new drug. Three versions of the article varied the amount and type of previous research: (a) two prior studies that found the drug did not work, (b) no prior studies of the drug, or (c) two prior studies that found the drug had a positive effect. After reading the article, participants estimated the probability the drug is effective. Average estimates were similar for the three articles, even for participants who reported more statistics experience. Overall, just 4% of participants appeared to use prior research to make probability estimates—most seemed to focus on the latest study, while ignoring or discounting prior studies. Implications for statistics education and reporting are discussed.

Keywords; Statistics education, statistics misconception, base rate neglect

Check also: Political partisans disagreed about the importance of conditional probabilities; highly numerate partisans were more polarized than less numerate partisans

It depends: Partisan evaluation of conditional probability importance. Leaf Van Boven et al. Cognition, Mar 2 2019, https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2019/03/political-partisans-disagreed-about.html

And: Biased Policy Professionals. Sheheryar Banuri, Stefan Dercon, and Varun Gauri. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 8113. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/08/biased-policy-professionals-world-bank.html

And: Dispelling the Myth: Training in Education or Neuroscience Decreases but Does Not Eliminate Beliefs in Neuromyths. Kelly Macdonald et al. Frontiers in Psychology, Aug 10 2017. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/08/training-in-education-or-neuroscience.html

And: Wisdom and how to cultivate it: Review of emerging evidence for a constructivist model of wise thinking. Igor Grossmann. European Psychologist, in press. Pre-print: https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/08/wisdom-and-how-to-cultivate-it-review.html

And: Individuals with greater science literacy and education have more polarized beliefs on controversial science topics. Caitlin Drummond and Baruch Fischhoff. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 114 no. 36, pp 9587–9592, https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/09/individuals-with-greater-science.html

And: Expert ability can actually impair the accuracy of expert perception when judging others' performance: Adaptation and fallibility in experts' judgments of novice performers. By Larson, J. S., & Billeter, D. M. (2017). Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 43(2), 271–288. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/06/expert-ability-can-actually-impair.html

And: Collective Intelligence for Clinical Diagnosis—Are 2 (or 3) Heads Better Than 1? Stephan D. Fihn. JAMA Network Open. 2019;2(3):e191071, https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2019/03/one-conclusion-that-can-be-drawn-from.html

Quashing the hopes of personalized antidepressants: "Our findings did not provide empirical support for individual differences in response to antidepressants"

Munkholm, Klaus, Stephanie Winkelbeiner, and Philipp Homan. 2019. “Individual Response to Antidepressants for Depression in Adults – a Simulation Study and Meta-analysis.” PsyArXiv. September 25. doi:10.31234/osf.io/m4aqc

Abstract
Background. The observation that some patients appear to respond better to antidepressants for depression than others encourages the assumption that the effect of antidepressants differs between individuals and that treatment can be personalized. To test this assumption, we compared the outcome variance in the group of patients receiving antidepressants with the outcome variance of the group of patients receiving placebo in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of adults with major depressive disorder (MDD). An increased variance in the antidepressant group would indicate individual differences in response to antidepressants. In addition, we illustrate in a simulation study why attempts to personalize antidepressant treatment using RCTs might be misguided.

Methods. We first illustrated the variance components of trials by simulating RCTs and crossover trials of antidepressants versus placebo. Second, we analyzed data of a large meta-analysis of antidepressants for depression, including a total of 222 placebo-controlled studies from the dataset that reported outcomes on the 17 or 21 item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale or the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale. We performed inverse variance, random-effects meta-analyses of the variability ratio (VR) between the antidepressant and placebo groups.

Outcomes. The meta-analyses of the VR comprised 345 comparisons of 19 different antidepressants with placebo in a total of 61144 adults with an MDD diagnosis. Across all comparisons, we found no evidence for a larger variance in the antidepressant group compared with placebo overall (VR = 1.00, 95% CI: 0.98; 1.01, I2 = 0%) or for any individual antidepressant.

Interpretation. Our findings did not provide empirical support for individual differences in response to antidepressants.

Adolescent drinking has declined across many developed countries from the turn of the century; we aim to explore existing evidence examining possible reasons for this decline; the main reason could be shifts in parental practices

Why is adolescent drinking declining? A systematic review and narrative synthesis. Rakhi Vashishtha et al. Addiction Research & Theory, Sep 23 2019. https://doi.org/10.1080/16066359.2019.1663831

Abstract
Background: Adolescent drinking has declined across many developed countries from the turn of the century. The aim of this review is to explore existing evidence examining possible reasons for this decline.

Methods: We conducted systematic searches across five databases: Medline, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Informit Health and Scopus. Studies were included if association between declining alcohol consumption and potential explanatory factors were measured over time. Narrative synthesis was undertaken due to substantial methodological heterogeneity in these studies.

Results: 17 studies met the inclusion criteria. Five studies found moderate evidence for changes in parental practices as a potential cause for the decline. Five studies that examined whether alcohol policy changes influenced the decline found weak evidence of association. Three studies explored whether alcohol use has been substituted by illicit substances but no evidence was found. Two studies examined the effect of a weaker economy; both identified increase in adolescent alcohol use during times of economic crisis. One study indicated that changes in exposure to alcohol advertising were positively associated with the decline and another examined the role of immigration of non-drinking populations but found no evidence of association. One study tested participation in organised sports and party lifestyle as a potential cause but did not use robust analytical methods and therefore did not provide strong evidence of association for the decline.

Conclusions: The most robust and consistent evidence was identified for shifts in parental practices. Further research is required using robust analytical methods such as ARIMA modelling techniques and utilising cross-national data.

Keywords: Drinking, review, decline, downward trend, adolescents

Hedonic responses to music are the result of connectivity between structures involved in auditory perception as a predictive process, & those involved in the brain's dopaminergic reward system

Musical anhedonia and rewards of music listening: current advances and a proposed model. Amy M. Belfi, Psyche Loui. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, September 23 2019. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.14241

Abstract: Music frequently elicits intense emotional responses, a phenomenon that has been scrutinized from multiple disciplines that span the sciences and arts. While most people enjoy music and find it rewarding, there is substantial individual variability in the experience and degree of music‐induced reward. Here, we review current work on the neural substrates of hedonic responses to music. In particular, we focus the present review on specific musical anhedonia, a selective lack of pleasure from music. Based on evidence from neuroimaging, neuropsychology, and brain stimulation studies, we derive a neuroanatomical model of the experience of pleasure during music listening. Our model posits that hedonic responses to music are the result of connectivity between structures involved in auditory perception as a predictive process, and those involved in the brain's dopaminergic reward system. We conclude with open questions and implications of this model for future research on why humans appreciate music.

Introduction

The capacity to perceive, produce, and appreciate music, together termed musicality,1 has been a growing topic of interest in the past 20 years of cognitive neuroscience. While most cognitive neuroscience studies on musicality focus on music perception and production skills, there has been a recent explosion of interest in the appreciation of music.2, 3 Multiple research programs in the cognitive neuroscience of music have involved comparing participants with different types and levels of musical training.4-7 However, to cognitive neuroscientists who are not particularly concerned with music, these studies may appear to be highly specialized and of limited interest as they seem to focus on a special population—highly trained musicians. In contrast, studies on the appreciation of music can be thought of as more general and inclusive, encompassing the vast majority of humans regardless of formal musical training.

Humans show knowledge of fundamental musical building blocks, such as rhythm and beat, from as early as 1 day old,8 and as shown from the success of the multibillion‐dollar music industry, humans around the world enjoy music. One of the most frequently reported reasons for listening to music is the overwhelming influence it has on feelings and emotions.9 Music has been deemed an ultimate group bonding activity;10, 11 this is supported by structural features of melody, harmony, and scales that are observed across many cultures,12 as well as the ubiquity of songs that serve social functions, such as lullabies, dance songs, healing songs, and love songs, across cultures.13 Singing and making music together enhance social interactions and group bonding14, 15 and elicit physiological effects that are observable from infancy.16 Even in the few cultures where music is not produced in groups, members of these cultures nevertheless enjoy singing for each other,17 suggesting that the capacity for music enjoyment, that is, the rewarding aspects of music, may be intrinsic to humans as a social species. Together, these lines of research suggest that understanding why humans love music may offer a window into how humans interact in a social environment.

The rapid growth of research on musical enjoyment, specifically in cognitive neuroscience, may also be facilitated in part by recent findings on the role of dopamine in coding for prediction and reward. Since the classic observations that stimulating dopaminergic neurons elicits motivated behavior,18 and that dopaminergic neurons signal changes in the predictability of rewards,19 thousands of studies have identified a set of regions within the human brain that are especially sensitive to reward. These regions center around the midbrain (the ventral tegmental area and substantia nigra (SN)), the dorsal and ventral striatum (VS) (the caudate, putamen, nucleus accumbens (NAcc), and globus pallidus), and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC).20 These areas, which we refer to throughout this article as the reward system, are reliably activated during the experience of unconditionally rewarding, evolutionarily salient stimuli, such as food and sex, as well as stimuli that are strongly associated with such rewards, such as money. Findings from the monetary incentive delay task show that cues that predict monetary rewards reliably activate the striatum and mPFC,21 core areas of the reward network. Interestingly, activity in the striatum is also observed when social stimuli (faces) are substituted for monetary rewards,22, 23 suggesting that social and monetary cues tap into “common neural currency” of the reward system.22

The findings that food and sex activate the same reward system can be readily explained as being evolutionarily adaptive: being motivated to seek out these stimuli improves our chances of survival. In contrast, the adaptive value of music—and aesthetic stimuli more generally—is less obvious. Nevertheless, much recent work has shown that music engages the reward system (as reviewed below; see also Ref. 24). While music ranks highly among the pleasures in life,25, 26 recent work has identified a unique condition of people with specific musical anhedonia:27, 28 people who are insensitive to the rewarding aspects of music despite normal hedonic responses to other sensory and aesthetic stimuli, and normal auditory perceptual abilities.29 The existence of this unique population raises many important questions. Some of these questions include:

.    The nature versus nurture of musical reward sensitivity: Does musical anhedonia run in families? When and how did it develop? What, if any, genetic underpinnings might predispose an individual toward musical anhedonia? What is its developmental trajectory?

.    Domain‐specificity versus domain‐generality of reward sensitivity: Are there specific neural pathways for music reward that are separate from general reward? What are the neural pathways through which specific stimuli (such as music) come to have privileged access to the reward system? What endows a certain stimulus with privileged access to the reward system?

.    Psychological associations and clinical comorbidity: What are the associations between musical anhedonia and psychological traits, both in the normal range (e.g., big five personality traits) and clinical populations? What is the comorbidity between musical anhedonia and personality, mood, and communication disorders?

.    The evolution of music: To what extent do nonhuman animals also show reward sensitivity to music? Have there been people with musical anhedonia for as long as there has been music? By extension, if people with musical anhedonia have survived for generations with no apparent disadvantage alongside the rest of the population who have normal reward sensitivity to music, then the lack of reward sensitivity to music seems not to affect their survival. If this is the case, then why do we seek out music?

Here, we review the recent cognitive neuroscience evidence for musical engagement of the reward system, as well as an extreme end of the spectrum of individual differences in sensitivity to music reward in specific musical anhedonia. Based on our review of the literature, we propose a model that accounts for the nature of the auditory access to the human reward system, and its disruption in musical anhedonia.

The effect of close elections on the life expectancy of politicians: Winners outlive losers by over a year, on average

Run for your life? The effect of close elections on the life expectancy of politicians. Mark Borgschulte, Jacob Vogler. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, September 24 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2019.09.003

Highlights
•    Examine effect of winning or losing a close election on the life expectancy of candidates.
•    Regression discontinuity design estimated using newly-collected data on winning and losing candidates for governor, senator, and representative in the United States.
•    Winners outlive losers by over a year, on average.
•    Largest effects for governors and candidates who run later in US history.
•    No discernable effect of stress on life expectancy.

Abstract: We estimate the causal effect of election to political office on natural lifespan using a regression discontinuity design and a novel dataset of winning and losing candidates for US governor, senator, and House representative. We find that candidates gain over a year of life from winning a close election. The effect is strongest for governors, and has grown larger over the course of US history. We also examine the effect of stress experienced in office, finding that serving in more challenging situations is not associated with reduced lifespan.

German middle-aged men having ≥2 children, higher frequency of solo-masturbation, perceived importance of sexuality, & higher sexual self-esteem were less likely to have low sexual desire

Meissner VH, Schroeter L, Köhn F-M, et al. Factors Associated with Low Sexual Desire in 45-Year-Old Men: Findings from the German Male Sex-Study. J Sex Med Volume 16, Issue 7, July 2019, Pages 981-991. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1743609519311622

Abstract

Introduction Although low sexual desire is 1 of the most common sexual dysfunctions in men, there is a lack of studies investigating associated factors in large, population-based samples of middle-aged men.

Aim To survey the prevalence of low sexual desire in a population-based sample of 45-year-old German men and to evaluate associations with a broad set of factors.

Methods Data were collected between April 2014–April 2016 within the German Male Sex-Study. Participants were asked to fill out questionnaires about 6 sociodemographic, 5 lifestyle, and 8 psychosocial factors, as well as 6 comorbidities and 4 factors of sexual behavior. Simple and multiple logistic regressions were used to assess potential explanatory factors.

Main Outcome Measures We found a notable prevalence of low sexual desire in middle-aged men and detected associations with various factors.

Results 12,646 men were included in the analysis, and prevalence of low sexual desire was 4.7%. In the multiple logistic regression with backward elimination, 8 of 29 factors were left in the final model. Men having ≥2 children, higher frequency of solo-masturbation, perceived importance of sexuality, and higher sexual self-esteem were less likely to have low sexual desire. Premature ejaculation, erectile dysfunction, and lower urinary tract symptoms were associated with low sexual desire.

Clinical Implications Low sexual desire is common in middle-aged men, and associating factors that can potentially be modified should be considered during assessment and treatment of sexual desire disorders.

Strengths & Limitations The strength of our study is the large, population-based sample of middle-aged men and the broad set of assessed factors. However, because of being part of a prostate cancer screening trial, a recruiting bias is arguable.

Conclusion Our study revealed that low sexual desire among 45-year-old men is a common sexual dysfunction, with a prevalence of nearly 5% and might be affected by various factors, including sociodemographic and lifestyle factors, as well as comorbidities and sexual behavior.

Key Words: Sexual Desire Sexual Dysfunction Sexual Behavior Lifestyle Comorbidity Representative Sample