The Preference for Pointing With the Hand Is Not Universal

Cooperrider, Kensy, Slotta, James and Nunez, Rafael (2018), The Preference for Pointing With the Hand Is Not Universal. Cognitive Science. doi:10.1111/cogs.12585

Abstract: Pointing is a cornerstone of human communication, but does it take the same form in all cultures? Manual pointing with the index finger appears to be used universally, and it is often assumed to be universally preferred over other forms. Non-manual pointing with the head and face has also been widely attested, but it is usually considered of marginal significance, both empirically and theoretically. Here, we challenge this assumed marginality. Using a novel communication task, we investigated pointing preferences in the Yupno of Papua New Guinea and in U.S. undergraduates. Speakers in both groups pointed at similar rates, but form preferences differed starkly: The Yupno participants used non-manual pointing (nose- and head-pointing) numerically more often than manual pointing, whereas the U.S. participants stuck unwaveringly to index-finger pointing. The findings raise questions about why groups differ in their pointing preferences and, more broadly, about why humans communicate in the ways they do.

Genetics, the Rearing Environment, and the Intergenerational Transmission of Divorce: A Swedish National Adoption Study

Genetics, the Rearing Environment, and the Intergenerational Transmission of Divorce: A Swedish National Adoption Study. Jessica E. Salvatore et al. Psychological Science, https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617734864

Abstract: We used classical and extended adoption designs in Swedish registries to disentangle genetic and rearing-environment influences on the intergenerational transmission of divorce. In classical adoption analyses, adoptees (n = 19,715) resembled their biological parents, rather than their adoptive parents, in their history of divorce. In extended adoption analyses, offspring (n = 82,698) resembled their not-lived-with fathers and their lived-with mothers. There was stronger resemblance to lived-with mothers, providing indirect evidence of rearing-environment influences on the intergenerational transmission of divorce. The heritability of divorce assessed across generations was 0.13. We attempted to replicate our findings using within-generation data from adoptive and biological siblings (ns = 8,523–53,097). Adoptees resembled their biological, not adoptive, siblings in their history of divorce. Thus, there was consistent evidence that genetic factors contributed to the intergenerational transmission of divorce but weaker evidence for a rearing-environment effect of divorce. Within-generation data from siblings supported these conclusions.

Keywords: divorce, intergenerational transmission, adoption study, extended adoption study, sibling study

Government-Sponsored Mass Killing and Civil War Reoccurrence

Gary Uzonyi, Richard Hanania; Government-Sponsored Mass Killing and Civil War Reoccurrence, International Studies Quarterly, Volume 61, Issue 3, September 1 2017, Pages 677–689, https://doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqx050

Abstract: Why do civil wars reoccur? Some scholars emphasize the role of post-war factors, while others locate the causes of civil war recurrence in the dynamics of the conflicts themselves. We build a theory that bridges these arguments by focusing on mass killing. We argue that government mass killing during war reduces opportunities for the opposition to return to military conflict in the future. This allows for longer periods of post-conflict peace. However, government atrocities that begin after the end of a civil war create new grievances without diminishing the ability of opponents to fight. This makes a faster return to conflict more likely. Statistical analysis of all civil wars between 1946 and 2006 strongly supports our arguments, even when we account for selection effects regarding when governments are more likely to engage in mass killing. These results reveal that both during-war and post-war tactics influence civil war recurrence, but that the same tactic can produce different effects depending on the timing of its use.

Compassionate Love for a Romantic Partner Across the Adult Life Span: Believers experienced greater compassionate love than nonbelievers, and individuals in love presented greater compassionate love than those who were not in love

Compassionate Love for a Romantic Partner Across the Adult Life Span. Félix Neto, Daniela C. Wilks. European Journal of Psychology, Vol 13, No 4 (2017), https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v13i4.1373

Abstract: Compassionate love has received research attention over the last decade, but it is as yet unclear how it is experienced over a lifetime. The purpose of this study was to investigate compassionate love for a romantic partner throughout the adult life span, exploring individual differences in the propensity to experience compassionate love in regard to age, gender, religion, love status, love styles, and subjective well-being. The results showed that religion and love status display significant effects on compassionate love. Believers experienced greater compassionate love than nonbelievers, and individuals in love presented greater compassionate love than those who were not in love. Love styles and subjective well-being were found to be related to compassionate love. These findings corroborate studies that indicate that individuals who experience higher compassionate love for a romantic partner are more likely to report Eros, Agape, and subjective well-being.

Keywords: aging; compassionate love; love styles; subjective well-being

Scientific Uncertainty in the Press: How Newspapers Describe Initial Biomedical Findings — the public is increasingly poorly informed about the uncertainty inherent in initial biomedical findings

Scientific Uncertainty in the Press: How Newspapers Describe Initial Biomedical Findings. Estelle Dumas-Mallet et al. Science Communication, https://doi.org/10.1177/1075547017752166

Abstract: Newspapers preferentially cover initial biomedical findings although they are often disconfirmed by subsequent studies. We analyzed 426 newspaper articles covering 40 initial biomedical studies associating a risk factor with 12 pathologies and published between 1988 and 2009. Most articles presented the study as initial but only 21% mentioned that it must be confirmed by replication. Headlines of articles with a replication statement were hyped less often than those without. Replication statements have tended to disappear after 2000, whereas hyped headlines have become more frequent. Thus, the public is increasingly poorly informed about the uncertainty inherent in initial biomedical findings.

Keywords: uncertainty, initial biomedical studies, hype, health communication, newspapers

Divisive discussion topics are associated with both a greater level of self-reported threat and a greater tendency to perceive neutral faces as threatening

Divisive Topics as Social Threats. Joseph J. P. Simons, Melanie C. Green. Communication Research, http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0093650216644025?journalCode=crxa

Abstract: The current work provides evidence for a psychological obstacle to the resolution of divisive social issues (e.g., affirmative action, drug legalization); specifically, people approach discussions of these issues with a threatened mind-set. Across three studies, it is shown that the prospect of discussing topics which divide social opinion is associated with threatened responding (the dissensus effect). Divisive discussion topics are associated with both a greater level of self-reported threat (Studies 1 and 3) and a greater tendency to perceive neutral faces as threatening (Study 2). Furthermore, the effect is shown to be robust across manipulations of social opinion (ratings of multiple social issues in Studies 1 and 2; fictional polling data in Study 3), and was not reducible to individual attitude extremity (Studies 1 and 3) or a valence effect (Study 2).

Keywords: social cognition, attitudes, threat, social opinion, inconsistency

Expected Sanctions for Expressing Minority Opinions in Offline and Online Communication

What Do We Fear? Expected Sanctions for Expressing Minority Opinions in Offline and Online Communication. German Neubaum, Nicole C. Krämer. Communication Research, Jan 2018, http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0093650215623837

Abstract: This work proposes the expectation of sanctions as a promising construct to advance spiral of silence research in face-to-face and computer-mediated contexts. We argue that situational factors influence people’s expectations about how their social environment would punish them should they express their viewpoint in a hostile opinion climate. These expected sanctions are suggested to explain the variance in people’s willingness to express a minority opinion across different social situations. An experiment showed that the expectation of being personally attacked can explain why people are more willing to voice a deviant opinion in offline rather than online environments. Findings also revealed that in contemporary social networking websites, wherein users commonly face a personally relevant audience, people are prone to hold back their opinion as they expect losing control over the reactions of their audience. This research extends previous knowledge by presenting a more differentiated theoretical view of the fear of isolation and specifying its role in different situations of public deliberation.

Keywords: spiral of silence, expected sanctions, minority opinion, computer-mediated communication

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We don't share political opinions with co-workers to avoid potential conflict, giving the impression of greater homogeneity and, paradoxically, more polarization. Check also “It could turn ugly”: Selective disclosure of attitudes in political discussion networks. Sarah K.Cowan and Delia Baldassarri. Social Networks, Volume 52, January 2018, Pages 1-17. http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/11/we-dont-share-political-opinions-with.html

Humans show a significant rightward bias during embracing. Additionally, we showed that this general motor preference is strongly modulated by emotional contexts

Embracing your emotions: affective state impacts lateralisation of human embraces. Julian Packheiser et al. Psychological Research, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00426-018-0985-8

Abstract: Humans are highly social animals that show a wide variety of verbal and non-verbal behaviours to communicate social intent. One of the most frequently used non-verbal social behaviours is embracing, commonly used as an expression of love and affection. However, it can also occur in a large variety of social situations entailing negative (fear or sadness) or neutral emotionality (formal greetings). Embracing is also experienced from birth onwards in mother–infant interactions and is thus accompanying human social interaction across the whole lifespan. Despite the importance of embraces for human social interactions, their underlying neurophysiology is unknown. Here, we demonstrated in a well-powered sample of more than 2500 adults that humans show a significant rightward bias during embracing. Additionally, we showed that this general motor preference is strongly modulated by emotional contexts: the induction of positive or negative affect shifted the rightward bias significantly to the left, indicating a stronger involvement of right-hemispheric neural networks during emotional embraces. In a second laboratory study, we were able to replicate both of these findings and furthermore demonstrated that the motor preferences during embracing correlate with handedness. Our studies therefore not only show that embracing is controlled by an interaction of motor and affective networks, they also demonstrate that emotional factors seem to activate right-hemispheric systems in valence-invariant ways.

People who went on to develop Parkinson disease tended to have jobs with higher socioeconomic status, those with lower socioeconomic status had a lower PD incidence

Himmelberg, M. M., West, R. J.H., Wade, A. R. and Elliott, C. J.H. (2018), A perceptive plus in Parkinson's disease. Mov Disord.. doi:10.1002/mds.27240

Comment on Beard JD, Steege AL, Ju J, Lu J, Luckhaupt SE, Schubauer-Berigan MK. Mortality from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease among different occupation groups—United States, 1985–2011. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep
2017;66(27):718-722.

The puzzle of Parkinson’s disease (PD) is particularly elusive, but the next part of the picture is appearing, and it is a curious one: a tale of men, mice, and flies. Recently, Beard and colleagues1 reported that people who went on to develop PD tended to have jobs with higher socioeconomic status.Their study of > 12 million Americans highlighted more than 110,000 deaths from PD, with excess numbers of workers incommunity services (48%), educational (46%), legal (40%) and the sciences (33%). Such jobs may be demanding of deeper thought, good discrimination, and quick judgments. In a second study of > 4.5 million people from the Swedish census, those with lower socioeconomic status had a lower PD incidence.2

Although  this  may  appear  (at  first  sight)  far-fetched, advantages in cognition in people at risk of PD are predicted from our studies of young PD-mimic flies. These have faster, stronger visual responses3,4 when the flies are young; however, in old age they show a loss of response and neurodegeneration. This model is noteworthy because ever since the time of Cajal, the homology of vertebrate and fly visual systems has been recognized, with many similarities at the neural circuit, computational, and developmental levels. Crucially, both flies and vertebrates use dopamine for retinal gain control. Furthermore, it is widely accepted that the extra demand for energy is a major cause of neurodegeneration in PD, so that the loss of visual gain control in young flies will lead to increased visual responses, requiring more Adenosine Triphosphate to pump ions and maintain synaptic transmission.

Increased visual processing, and possibly faster neural signaling, as a result of deficits in retinal dopamine signaling may provide people at risk of PD with advantages in younger life, which impact before the later neurodegeneration. They may be more suited to jobs with higher socioeconomic status, both at interview and in the daily routine. This would explain  the  new  observations.1,2

Furthermore,  PD-linked mutations have been around since prehistoric times5 and may therefore have had a selective advantage for young people encountering situations demanding rapid responses, for example, escape or hunting activities.


References in the full article, that you may request.

The personality disorder profile of professional actors

Davison, M., & Furnham, A. (2018). The personality disorder profile of professional actors. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 7(1), 33-46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000101

Abstract: The personality disorder trait profiles of 214 professional actors were compared with a general population American sample. Both male and female actors scored significantly higher than nonactors on Antisocial, Narcissism, Histrionic, Borderline, and Obsessive–Compulsive personality disorder scales of the Coolidge Axis-II inventory (Coolidge, 2001). Male actors scored significantly higher than the male comparison group on Schizotypal, Avoidant, and Dependent personality disorder scales. Relationships between personality disorder traits in actors and their self-reported acting abilities, preferences, and success were examined. The results are discussed with reference to how heightened subclinical levels of personality disorders traits are potentially unhelpful to acting performance and managing the demands of the profession. Limitations of the study are noted.

Preferences for discussion partners &groups that are similar to (same party &same opinion) or different from us (different party &different opinion) or that represent a combination: Complete similarity is not always preferred &partisan similarity is preferred over opinion similarity

Political Talk Preferences: Selection of Similar and Different Discussion Partners and Groups. Alyssa C. Morey, Steven B. Kleinman, Mark Boukes. International Journal of Communication, http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/7381

Abstract: Focusing on two distinct dimensions of similarity and difference (political identity, political opinions), this study uses a within-subjects experimental design implemented in an online survey to examine preferences for discussion partners and groups that are similar to (same party and same opinion) or different from (different party and different opinion) or that represent a combination of similarity and difference (same party and different opinion, or different party and same opinion) relative to oneself. Participants comprising a diverse national sample (N = 820) completed eight political discussion selection tasks (four discussion partner tasks, four discussion group tasks) by ranking four political discussion options from most to least preferred. Results indicate that complete similarity is not always preferred (in analyses of all ranked discussion groups) and that partisan similarity is preferred over opinion similarity (in analyses of first-ranked discussion partners). More generally, findings reveal that preferences for political discussion depend on the context of the discussion, including whether the discussion involves a single discussion partner or a discussion group and whether preference focuses on individuals’ most preferred option only or relative rankings across a range of options.

Keywords: political discussion, similarity/difference, agreement/disagreement, selective exposure

Feast for the Eyes: Effects of Food Perceptions and Computer Vision Features on Food Photo Popularity

Feast for the Eyes: Effects of Food Perceptions and Computer Vision Features on Food Photo Popularity. Yilang Peng, John B. Jemmott III. International Journal of Communication, http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/6678

Abstract: The widely circulated food photos online have become an important part of our visual culture. Combining human ratings of food characteristics and computational analysis of visual aesthetics, we examined what contributed to the aesthetic appeal of a diversity of food photographs (N = 300) and likes and comments they received in an artificial newsfeed from participants (N = 399). The results revealed that people tended to like and share images containing tasty foods. Both healthy and unhealthy foods were able to gain likes. Aesthetic appeal and specific visual features, such as the use of arousing colors and different components of visual complexity, also influenced the popularity of food images. This work demonstrates the potential of applying computer vision methods in visual analysis, offers insights into image virality, and provides practical guidelines for communicating healthy eating.

Keywords: food, virality, computer vision, visual aesthetics, health communication

Investigating the Relationship Between Self-Perceived Moral Superiority and Moral Behavior Using Economic Games

Investigating the Relationship Between Self-Perceived Moral Superiority and Moral Behavior Using Economic Games. Ben M. Tappin, Ryan T. McKay. Social Psychological and Personality Science,  https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550617750736

Abstract: Most people report that they are superior to the average person on various moral traits. The psychological causes and social consequences of this phenomenon have received considerable empirical attention. The behavioral correlates of self-perceived moral superiority (SPMS), however, remain unknown. We present the results of two preregistered studies (Study 1, N = 827; Study 2, N = 825), in which we indirectly assessed participants’ SPMS and used two incentivized economic games to measure their engagement in moral behavior. Across studies, SPMS was unrelated to trust in others and to trustworthiness, as measured by the trust game, and unrelated to fairness, as measured by the dictator game. This pattern of findings was robust to a range of analyses, and, in both studies, Bayesian analyses indicated moderate support for the null over the alternative hypotheses. We interpret and discuss these findings and highlight interesting avenues for future research on this topic.

Keywords: moral superiority, self-perception, traits, behavior, economic games

Men are presented with higher facial prominence than women in the media (this is called face-ism) -- In lab, as expected, men cropped their photos with higher facial prominence than women did

Self-presentation in Online Professional Networks: Men's Higher and Women's Lower Facial Prominence in Self-created Profile Images. Sabine Sczesny and Michèle C. Kaufmann. Front. Psychol., January 17 2018 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02295

Men are presented with higher facial prominence than women in the media, a phenomenon that is called face-ism. In naturalistic settings, face-ism effects could be driven by gender biases of photographers and/or by gender differences in self-presentation. The present research is the first to investigate whether women and men themselves create this different facial prominence. In a controlled laboratory study, 61 participants prepared a picture of themselves from a half-body photograph, allegedly to be uploaded to their profile for an online professional network. As expected, men cropped their photos with higher facial prominence than women did. However, women and men did not differ in the self-presentational motivations, goals, strategies, and personality variables under investigation, so that the observed face-ism effect could not be explained with these variables. Generally, the higher participants' physical appearance self-esteem, the higher was their self-created facial prominence.

The Elusive Backfire Effect: Mass Attitudes’ Steadfast Factual Adherence

The Elusive Backfire Effect: Mass Attitudes’ Steadfast Factual Adherence. Thomas Wood,  Ethan Porter. Political Behavior, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11109-018-9443-y

Abstract: Can citizens heed factual information, even when such information challenges their partisan and ideological attachments? The “backfire effect,” described by Nyhan and Reifler (Polit Behav 32(2):303–330.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-010-9112-2, 2010), says no: rather than simply ignoring factual information, presenting respondents with facts can compound their ignorance. In their study, conservatives presented with factual information about the absence of Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq became more convinced that such weapons had been found. The present paper presents results from five experiments in which we enrolled more than 10,100 subjects and tested 52 issues of potential backfire. Across all experiments, we found no corrections capable of triggering backfire, despite testing precisely the kinds of polarized issues where backfire should be expected. Evidence of factual backfire is far more tenuous than prior research suggests. By and large, citizens heed factual information, even when such information challenges their ideological commitments.

Artificial Intelligence And the Challenges of Detecting Rude Conversational Behaviour

On the Challenges of Detecting Rude Conversational Behaviour. Karan Grewal, Khai N. Truong. arXiv.org Computer Science > Human-Computer Interaction, arXiv:1712.09929 [cs.HC], https://arxiv.org/abs/1712.09929

Abstract: In this study, we aim to identify moments of rudeness between two individuals. In particular, we segment all occurrences of rudeness in conversations into three broad, distinct categories and try to identify each. We show how machine learning algorithms can be used to identify rudeness based on acoustic and semantic signals extracted from conversations. Furthermore, we make note of our shortcomings in identifying rudeness in conversations.

Introduction

One-on-one interactions are important in everyday social settings. For instance, in order to attract a potential partner, it is imperative that an individual behave in an appropriate manner. Unfortunately, one-on-one interactions can often result in one party exhibiting rude or inappropriate conversational behaviour. In many cases, the offending party is not aware of the severity of their actions and does not intend to offend the other party. For example, certain individuals may be socially unaware of how others perceive their behaviour. Individuals with learning disabilities, such as autism, may follow this trend. Likewise, young children often lack awareness of their behaviour { a possible explanation for the presence of bullying in elementary schools and why children are generally regarded as immature. In both cases, monitoring a user's conversational behaviour and making them aware of it via active feedback while they are engaged in a one-on-one interaction would be helpful towards correcting their behaviour in such scenarios.

In the last century, there has been a lot of work in the linguistics and psychology domains which attempt to define politeness and acceptable behaviour pertaining to two-person interactions. The most popular of these is Penelope Brown and Steven Levinson's Politeness theory [2]. This theory states that all individuals have two faces: a positive self-image which is the desire to be approved by others, and a negative self-image which is the desire of actions to be unimpeded by others. According to Politeness theory, any external actions which threaten one or more of an individual's faces, such disrespectful gestures, constitute impoliteness. Also, Geoffrey Leech's principle of politeness states that if two individuals are interacting, then there will be some form of disagreement or tension if both individuals are pursuing mutually-incompatible goals -- likening the chance of rude behaviour [8]. Here, goals refers to a psychological state of being. In contrast, Bruce Fraser argues against the theories formulated by Leech, Brown, and Levinson by pointing out that each culture has its own set of social norms which define acceptable behaviour [6]. Therefore, as Fraser argues, the question of whether an individual is behaving in an inappropriate manner is entirely dependent on the context of his/her actions. This view aligns with Robin Lako's notable example of the speaking style in New York [7].  As she states, New Yorkers often use profanity in a casual sense without any intent to offend or be impolite.  However, their conversational behaviour is likely to be interpreted as rude in other cultures.

Is there a grounded definition of rudeness with respect to speech which can be derived from classical theories of politeness? In this study, we define define the notion of rude conversational behaviour and explore methods to identify this type of behaviour in two-person interactions. We do this by extracting acoustic and semantic information from an individual's speech and develop methods which attempt to pinpoint exact instances of rude conversational behaviour. Also, we highlight some existing problems which make the task at hand dicult through our findings. Note that we only focus on signals extracted speech data.

Do the media unintentionally make mass killers into celebrities? An assessment of free advertising and earned media value

Do the media unintentionally make mass killers into celebrities? An assessment of free advertising and earned media value. Adam Lankford. Celebrity Studies, https://doi.org/10.1080/19392397.2017.1422984

ABSTRACT: In recent years, some critics have suggested that the media make mass killers into celebrities by giving them too much attention. However, whether the media coverage these offenders receive actually approaches the amounts given to celebrities has never been tested. This study compared perpetrators of seven mass killings during 2013–2017 with more than 600 celebrities over the same time period. Findings indicate that the mass killers received approximately $75 million in media coverage value, and that for extended periods following their attacks they received more coverage than professional athletes and only slightly less than television and film stars. In addition, during their attack months, some mass killers received more highly valued coverage than some of the most famous American celebrities, including Kim Kardashian, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Johnny Depp, and Jennifer Aniston. Finally, most mass killers received more coverage from newspapers and broadcast/cable news than the public interest they generated through online searches and Twitter seems to warrant. Unfortunately, this media attention constitutes free advertising for mass killers that may increase the likelihood of copycats.

KEYWORDS: Mass shooters, media coverage, celebrity culture, fame, advertising

Dreaming of a Brighter Future: Anticipating Happiness Instills Meaning in Life

Dreaming of a Brighter Future: Anticipating Happiness Instills Meaning in Life. Wijnand A. P. van Tilburg and Eric R. Igou. Journal of Happiness Studies, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10902-018-9960-8

Abstract: We theorized and tested that people’s predictions of their future as brighter than the present fulfill an important purpose: they give a sense of meaning to life. We systematically tested this existentialist hypothesis by adopting a self-regulatory approach. Study 1 indicates that envisioning a happier future helps people to find meaning in everyday life behaviors, provided that these are perceived to be instrumental for the pursuit of happiness. Consistently, Study 2 shows that envisioning such increases in future happiness is particularly employed by those who are prone to seek meaning in life. Finally, Study 3 reveals that after people envision a brighter future their perceived meaning in life increases, and it does so especially for those prone to search for meaning in life. Together, these studies suggest that imagining future happiness in part serves the function of perceiving life as meaningful. This research is novel, and builds on and contributes to the literature on meaning making, happiness, well-being, and affective forecasting.

Check also Rolf Degen: The joy of things to come: Anticipatory pleasure confers an euphoric bliss that can go far beyond the enjoyment of wish fulfillment, Oct 8, 2014, https://plus.google.com/101046916407340625977/posts/7XyDuM6k5fF

Male Qualities and Likelihood of Orgasm

Male Qualities and Likelihood of Orgasm. James M. Sherlock, Morgan J Sidari. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322036644_Male_Qualities_and_Likelihood_of_Orgasm. In T.K. Shackelford, V.A. Weekes-Shackelford (eds.), Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_278-1

Introduction

In contrast to male orgasm, the female orgasm is enormously variable in frequency during penetrative sex. While men almost always ejaculate during penile-vaginal intercourse, women orgasm far less frequently from penetrative sex alone and experience significant variation in orgasm frequency with different partners (Lloyd 2005).

While variation in women’s orgasm frequency is poorly understood, evolutionary psychology tends to view variation in behavior as adaptive and responsive to environmental conditions.

Current evolutionary theories regarding the female orgasm can be broadly divided into two positions: those that focus on selection on male sexual function and those that focus on selection on female sexual function. The by-product hypothesis concerns the former and posits that the capacity of women to experience orgasm is a consequence of strong selection pressure on males’ capacity to reach orgasm. This position is based on similarities between male and female orgasm as well as the observation that the male glans penis and female clitoris arise from homologous tissue during development. In contrast, the mate choice hypothesis argues that variation in female orgasm frequency during sexual intercourse is reflective of varying quality of their male partners. Increased orgasm frequency with men possessing desirable traits ought to promote repeated copulations, thus increasing the likelihood of impregnation. This position can be further distinguished by predictions regarding which male traits are likely to influence orgasm frequency.

Synonyms: Attractiveness; Cryptic Female Choice; Facial Attractiveness; Female Copulatory Orgasm; Female Mate Choice; Mate selection; Orgasm; Pair-bonding; The Evolution of Genitalia

Mean global ocean temperatures during the last glacial transition

Mean global ocean temperatures during the last glacial transition. Bernhard Bereiter et al. Nature 553, 39–44, doi:10.1038/nature25152

Abstract: Little is known about the ocean temperature’s long-term response to climate perturbations owing to limited observations and a lack of robust reconstructions. Although most of the anthropogenic heat added to the climate system has been taken up by the ocean up until now, its role in a century and beyond is uncertain. Here, using noble gases trapped in ice cores, we show that the mean global ocean temperature increased by 2.57 ± 0.24 degrees Celsius over the last glacial transition (20,000 to 10,000 years ago). Our reconstruction provides unprecedented precision and temporal resolution for the integrated global ocean, in contrast to the depth-, region-, organism- and season-specific estimates provided by other methods. We find that the mean global ocean temperature is closely correlated with Antarctic temperature and has no lead or lag with atmospheric CO2, thereby confirming the important role of Southern Hemisphere climate in global climate trends. We also reveal an enigmatic 700-year warming during the early Younger Dryas period (about 12,000 years ago) that surpasses estimates of modern ocean heat uptake.

Is Legal Pot Crippling Mexican Drug Trafficking Organisations? The Effect of Medical Marijuana Laws on US Crime

I abhor marijuana and the other drugs, but I am not blind to information that seems to confirm what libertarians keep saying for decades:

Gavrilova, E., Kamada, T. and Zoutman, F. (2017), Is Legal Pot Crippling Mexican Drug Trafficking Organisations? The Effect of Medical Marijuana Laws on US Crime. Econ J. doi:10.1111/ecoj.12521

Abstract: We show that the introduction of medical marijuana laws (MMLs) leads to a decrease in violent crime in states that border Mexico. The reduction in crime is strongest for counties close to the border (less than 350 kilometres) and for crimes that relate to drug trafficking. In addition, we find that MMLs in inland states lead to a reduction in crime in the nearest border state. Our results are consistent with the theory that decriminalisation of the production and distribution of marijuana leads to a reduction in violent crime in markets that are traditionally controlled by Mexican drug trafficking organisations.

Brooks on Deneen's Why Liberalism Failed -- Unreliable classical virtue vs steady selfishness and instant gratification

How Democracies Perish. David Brooks. The New York Times, January 12, 2018, on Page A23 of the New York edition
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/11/opinion/how-democracies-perish.html

Everybody agrees society is in a bad way, but what exactly is the main cause of the badness? Some people emphasize economic issues: The simultaneous concentration of wealth at the top and the stagnation in the middle has delegitimized the system. People like me emphasize cultural issues. If you have 60 years of radical individualism and ruthless meritocracy, you’re going to end up with a society that is atomized, distrustful and divided.

But some emphasize the intellectual. The people who designed our liberal democratic system made fundamental errors, which are now coming home to roost. Notre Dame political scientist Patrick Deneen falls into this camp. His new book, “Why Liberalism Failed,” is a challenge to those of us who want to revive the liberal democratic order. It will attract a cult following among those who are losing faith in the whole project.

Deneen argues that liberal democracy has betrayed its promises. It was supposed to foster equality, but it has led to great inequality and a new aristocracy. It was supposed to give average people control over government, but average people feel alienated from government. It was supposed to foster liberty, but it creates a degraded popular culture in which consumers become slave to their appetites.

Many young people feel trapped in a system they have no faith in. Deneen quotes one of his students: “Because we view humanity — and thus its institutions — as corrupt and selfish, the only person we can rely upon is our self. The only way we can avoid failure, being let down, and ultimately succumbing to the chaotic world around us, therefore, is to have the means (financial security) to rely only upon ourselves.”

The problem, Deneen argues, started at the beginning. Greek and medieval philosophies valued liberty, but they understood that before a person could help govern society, he had to be able to govern himself. People had to be habituated in virtue by institutions they didn’t choose — family, religion, community, social norms.

But under the influence of Machiavelli and Locke, the men who founded our system made two fateful errors. First, they came to reject the classical and religious idea that people are political and relational creatures. Instead, they placed the autonomous, choosing individual at the center of their view of human nature.

Furthermore, they decided you couldn’t base a system of government on something as unreliable as virtue. But you could base it on something low and steady like selfishness. You could pit interest against interest and create a stable machine. You didn’t have to worry about creating noble citizens; you could get by with rationally self-interested ones.

When communism and fascism failed in the 20th century, this version of liberalism seemed triumphant. But it was a Pyrrhic victory, Deneen argues.

Liberalism claims to be neutral but it’s really anti-culture. It detaches people from nature, community, tradition and place. It detaches people from time. “Gratitude to the past and obligations to the future are replaced by a nearly universal pursuit of immediate gratification.”

Once family and local community erode and social norms dissolve, individuals are left naked and unprotected. They seek solace in the state. They toggle between impersonal systems: globalized capitalism and the distant state. As the social order decays, people grasp for the security of authoritarianism. “A signal feature of modern totalitarianism was that it arose and came to power through the discontents of people’s isolation and loneliness,” he observes. He urges people to dedicate themselves instead to local community — a sort of Wendell Berry agrarianism.

Deneen’s book is valuable because it focuses on today’s central issue. The important debates now are not about policy. They are about the basic values and structures of our social order. Nonetheless, he is wrong. Liberal democracy has had a pretty good run for 300 years. If the problem were really in the roots, wouldn’t it have shown up before now?

The difficulties stem not from anything inherent in liberalism but from the fact that we have neglected the moral order and the vision of human dignity embedded within liberalism itself. As anybody who’s read John Stuart Mill, Walt Whitman, Abraham Lincoln, Vaclav Havel, Michael Novak and Meir Soloveichik knows, liberal democracy contains a rich and soul-filling version of human flourishing and solidarity, which Deneen airbrushes from history.

Every time Deneen writes about virtue it tastes like castor oil — self-denial and joylessness. But the liberal democratic moral order stands for the idea that souls are formed in freedom and not in servility, in expansiveness, not in stagnation. It stands for the idea that our covenantal institutions — like family, faith, tradition and community — orient us toward higher loves and common dreams that we then pursue in the great gymnasium of liberty.

Yes, liberalism sometimes sits in tension with faith, tradition, family and community, which Deneen rightly cherishes. But liberalism is not their murderer. Right now, there are community healers in towns and cities concretely living out the liberal democratic vision of the good life — deeply embedded in their communities, surrendered to their ideals, reaching out to other communities, growing in their freedom.

We don’t have to settle for smallness.

Pre-industrial societies which base their subsistence on agro-pastoralism have higher rates of internal and external violent conflict, & stronger male-male competition, than hunting+gathering societies

Implications of the Neolithic Revolution for Male-Male Competition and Violent Conflict. Menelaos Apostolou. Mankind Quarterly, Volume 58, No. 2, http://www.mankindquarterly.org/archive/issue/58-2/2

Abstract: Ecological differences between societies that base their subsistence on hunting and gathering, as opposed to agriculture and animal husbandry, result in different rates of violent conflict. The aim of the present study is to test the hypothesis that pre-industrial societies which base their subsistence on agro-pastoralism have higher rates of internal and external violent conflict, and consequently experience stronger male-male competition, than societies which base their subsistence on hunting and gathering. Analysis of 19 variables from the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample provides strong support for this hypothesis. Based on these findings, it is argued that the agropastoral revolution has resulted in the strengthening of male-male competition. The consequences on mate choice due to the mismatch between ancestral conditions, where violent male-male competition had been generally strong, and contemporary conditions where it is extremely weak, are also explored.

Both sexes demonstrated significant increases in sexual arousal with explicit videos, regardless of film orientation

Assessing differences in physiologic subjective response toward male and female orientated sexually explicit videos in heterosexual individuals. Samantha Landry, Melissa K. Goncalves, Tuuli M. Kukkonen. The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, Vol. 25, No. 3, https://doi.org/10.3138/cjhs.253-A4

Abstract: The goal of the present study was to examine sexual response to male- and female- oriented sexually explicit films in heterosexual men and women. Forty participants (20 men and 20 women; mean age=29.42 years) attended three separate lab sessions. One 15 minute sexually explicit video was shown per session. For session one, all participants viewed a female-oriented film selected by the experimenters. The films used for subsequent sessions were counterbalanced male-oriented or female-oriented clips that had been previously studied. A thermographic camera measured temperature on the penile shaft for men and labia for women. Continuous and discrete self-reported sexual arousal was also obtained. Genital temperature was averaged into 15 one-minute bins and a repeated-measures ANOVA was conducted. Men demonstrated significantly greater increases in temperature over time than women, F (14, 980)=19.27, p=.000, however there were no significant differences between films or sex × film interaction. Women reported significantly higher subjective sexual arousal to the films than men, F (1, 69) range=3.89 to 9.67, p range=.01 to .05, but there were no significant differences between films or a sex × film interaction. Results suggest that film orientation has minimal impact on physiologic sexual responsiveness in men or women. Although both sexes demonstrated significant increases in sexual arousal for these pre-selected films, future laboratory research would benefit from examining whether participant-selected stimuli produces a greater response than experimenter-selected films.

KEY WORDS: thermography, non-preferred and preferred stimuli, sexual arousal, and sexual response, sexually explicit videos