Sunday, October 29, 2017

Rhinoplasty: more symmetry, youthfulness, facial harmony, likeability, trustworthiness, confidence, femininity, attractiveness, approachability, &intelligence

The Public Face of Rhinoplasty: Impact on Perceived Attractiveness and Personality. Stephen M. Lu, David T. Hsu, Adam Perry, Lyle Leipziger, Armen K. Kasabian, Scott P. Bartlett, Charles H. Thorne, and Neil Tanna. Plast Reconstr Surg Glob Open. 2017 Sep; 5(9 Suppl): 189-190, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5636560/

INTRODUCTION: The impact of aesthetic rhinoplasty has been studied from the perspective of the surgeon and the patient, but not from that of the general public. The authors assess the impact of rhinoplasty on public perception of a patient’s appearance and personality.

METHODS: A survey was created using standardized before and after photographs of ten Caucasian women who had undergone primary rhinoplasty. Photos of two additional women who had not undergone facial surgery were randomly included as controls, for a total of twelve items. Pre- and post-operative frontal and lateral photographs were placed side by side. To eliminate left/right bias, half of the items had pre-operative photos on the left, and half had post-operative photos on the left. The survey was administered via crowd-sourcing, which has been validated as a way to evaluate aesthetic outcomes. Respondents were naïve to the study purpose and were asked to evaluate which photo better represented 11 traits of appearance or personality, according to a seven-point Likert scale. A score of 1 meant the pre-operative photo was much better, 7 meant the post-operative photo was much better, and 4 meant no difference.

[due to data corruption, part of this section is in the first comment]

RESULTS: [due to data corruption, part of this section is in the first comment] 264 responses were received. Averaged scores across the 10 survey patients produced a value for each appearance or personality trait. In 10 of 11 categories (symmetry, youthfulness, facial harmony, likeability, trustworthiness, confidence, femininity, attractiveness, approachability, and intelligence), the post-operative photo was significantly favorable compared to the preoperative photo [...]. The pre-operative photo was rated higher only in aggressiveness [...].

CONCLUSION: Aesthetic rhinoplasty improves the public perception of a person’s appearance and personality in multiple aspects. Small but significant and clear differences were observed and held consistently across demographic groups.

Draft - Regarding the Seoul Times "article" on eating human fetuses for sexual powers

Draft - Regarding the Seoul Times "article" on eating human fetuses for sexual powers. Comments to a friend that sent me the Seoul Times piece. Oct 29 2017



                      __________I suggest you not to follow these links__________

Regarding news of human fetuses (not babies after being born) being cooked in Canton, China, as reported in The Seoul Times in a very strange article published as a letter to the editor [1]:

1  although the origin of that report was a hoax, almost two decades ago [2], the perspective is bad;

2  we knew that in parts of the globe some human parts were eaten until at least the 2010s for religious/cultic or medicinal/magical powers reasons:
2.1  Papua New Guinea [3], where it seems that this practice was never abandoned;

2.2  Africa [4] (not to speak of the Leopard Society decades before).


There is some documentation in Wikipedia [5], from where I took those links in this section 2.


3  that Canton or other so heavily populated areas of China are places where non-psychiatric cannibalism is practiced is very, very difficult. But we cannot rule out the practice in the future, even more easily in remote areas, since:
3.1  in the Great Leap Forward years, it happened in a large scale [6], so in some way it is a broken taboo and people who lived this is alive and transmitted the events to young people;
3.2  we know that primates eat the young, specially the males, but there is also report of a female doing it with his own baby after decomposition made the baby less recognizable [7], that is to say, it is something you can find easily in nature to eat prisoners and other defenseless beings, like the infant, the sick and the old;
3.3  there are a few times in which children are "killed" or about to be killed in artist performances, as you already know because you sent me the video of that child hanged in a cold and calculated manner by XXXTentacion [8], so again the taboo of killing children on purpose, violently, is being broken several times in places some didn't expect (I saw it in Madrid streets too).

, all this not to speak of other places of large scale events, like the Ukrainian famine in the 1930s.


4  Finally, there are persons who kill others and eat body parts for unknown reasons, but seems not really something organized or with a religious or political motivation (most likely people who should be locked up in a psychiatric institution). In any case, there have been dozens of occassions in the last decade [9] and the known victims number more than 30 just in a single case in Russia (published in Sep 2017 [9]). And all this makes relative the crime, as it stops being something unheard-of. With time and the changes in the domain of the sacred that we are living, like acceptance of euthanasia for psychiatric illnesses and euthanasia for minors, these events could be more frequent, in my opinion.


5  All this is for you to prepare for the worst. As we keep deepening our sophistication, there will be a habituation process in which the mentally sick and some evil persons will commit more of these crimes, and we've got no mechanisms to counter the influence of that process. Possible solutions include:
5.1  returning to the death penalty and making the executions clearly known, making them exemplar as a way to stigmatize more forcefully these practices, which is a way for those in the know to stop suspicious activities sooner and for the criminals to use more caution, which should help reduce the number of victims.
5.2  TBD...


But I do not foresee that this can happen in the next years.

--
Notes

[1]  http://theseoultimes.com/ST/?url=/ST/db/read.php?idx=7333
[2]  https://www.metabunk.org/debunked-chinese-fetus-soup.t2203/
[3]  http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10817610
[4]  http://www.newstimeafrica.com/archives/10128
[5]  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannibalism_in_humans
[6]  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Chinese_Famine
[7]  http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/09/prolonged-transport-and-cannibalism-of.html
[8]  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qku2WZ7aRYw
[9]  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_incidents_of_cannibalism#2010.E2.80.93present

Saturday, October 28, 2017

The Impact of Media Censorship: Evidence from a Field Experiment in China

The Impact of Media Censorship: Evidence from a Field Experiment in China. Yuyu Chen and David Y. Yang. Stanford University, October 25, 2017. https://stanford.edu/~dyang1/pdfs/1984bravenewworld_draft.pdf

Abstract: Media censorship is a hallmark of authoritarian regimes. We conduct a field experiment in China to examine whether providing access to an uncensored Internet leads citizens to acquire politically sensitive information, and whether they are affected by the information. We track subjects’ media consumption, beliefs regarding the media, economic beliefs, political attitudes, and behaviors over 18 months. We find 4 main results: (i) free access alone does not induce subjects to acquire politically sensitive information; (ii) temporary encouragement leads to a persistent increase in acquisition, indicating that demand is not permanently low; (iii) acquisition brings broad, substantial, and persistent changes to knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and intended behaviors; and (iv) social transmission of information is statistically significant but small in magnitude. We calibrate a simple model to show that, due to the low demand for, and moderate social transmission of, uncensored information, China’s censorship apparatus may remain robust for a large number of citizens receiving unencouraged access to an uncensored Internet.

Keywords: censorship, information, media, belief
JEL classification: D80, D83, L86, P26


Check also how propaganda can be effective at changing the behavior of all citizens even if most do not believe it: Propaganda and credulity, by Andrew T. Little. In Games and Economic Behavior, Volume 102, March 2017, Pages 224–232. http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/06/propaganda-can-be-effective-at-changing.html

Thirty-four Inspiring Quotes on Criticism (and How to Handle It)

34 Inspiring Quotes on Criticism (and How to Handle It) -- EXTRACT

  1. – Dale Carnegie
  2. “The pleasure of criticizing takes away from us the pleasure of being moved by some very fine things.”
    – Jean de La Bruyère
  3. – Aristotle
  4. – John Wooden
  5. “Criticism is an indirect form of self-boasting.”
    – Emmet Fox
  6. “When virtues are pointed out first, flaws seem less insurmountable.”
    – Judith Martin
  7. – Neil Gaiman
  8. – Norman Vincent Peale
  9. “When we judge or criticize another person, it says nothing about that person; it merely says something about our own need to be critical.”
    – Unknown
  10. “It is much more valuable to look for the strength in others. You can gain nothing by criticizing their imperfections.”
    – Daisaku Ikeda
  11. “The artist doesn’t have time to listen to the critics. The ones who want to be writers read the reviews, the ones who want to write don’t have the time to read reviews.”
    – William Faulkner
  12. “If we judge ourselves only by our aspirations and everyone else only their conduct we shall soon reach a very false conclusion.”
    – Calvin Coolidge
  13. “I have yet to find the man, however exalted his station, who did not do better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than under a spirit of criticism.”
    – Charles Schwab
  14. “I criticize by creation, not by finding fault.”
    – Marcus Tullius Cicero
  15. “Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.”
    – Ralph Waldo Emerson
  16. “Don’t criticize what you don’t understand, son. You never walked in that man’s shoes.”
    – Elvis Presley
  17. – Frank A. Clark
  18. “People tend to criticize their spouse most loudly in the area where they themselves have the deepest emotional need.”
    – Gary Chapman
  19. “Criticism is the disapproval of people, not for having faults, but having faults different from your own.”
    – Unknown
  20. “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
    The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly.
    So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
    – Theodore Roosevelt
  21. “Before you go and criticize the younger generation, just remember who raised them.”
    – Unknown
  22. “Who do you spend time with? Criticizers or encouragers? Surround yourself with those who believe in you. Your life is too important for anything less.”
    – Steve Goodier
  23. “Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.”
    – Winston Churchill
  24. “He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.”
    – Abraham Lincoln
  25. – Antoine de Saint-Exupery
  26. – Eleanor Roosevelt
  27. “One mustn’t criticize other people on grounds where he can’t stand perpendicular himself”
    – Mark Twain
  28. “That was excellently observed’, say I, when I read a passage in an author, where his opinion agrees with mine. When we differ, there I pronounce him to be mistaken.”
    – Jonathan Swift
  29. “Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.”
    – Benjamin Franklin
  30. “Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you. Love me and I may be forced to love you.”
    – William Arthur Ward
  31. “A man interrupted one of the Buddha’s lectures with a flood of abuse.
    Buddha waited until he had finished and then asked him:
    If a man offered a gift to another but the gift was declined, to whom would the gift belong?
    To the one who offered it, said the man.
    Then, said the Buddha, I decline to accept your abuse and request you to keep it for yourself.”
  32. – Joseph Joubert
  33. – Abraham Lincoln
  34. – Michel de Montaigne

"Si une fille de treize ans a droit à la pilule, c'est pour quoi faire?"

Louis Aragon, Roland Barthes, Simone de Beauvoir, Gilles et Fanny Deleuze, André Glucksmann, Bernard Kouchner, Jack Lang, Jean-Paul Sartre, René Schérer, and many others: "si une fille de treize ans a droit à la pilule, c'est pour quoi faire?"
http://web.archive.org/web/20050404190912/http://www.decadi.com/dignaction/Fpetit.html

Quelques pétitions ou lettres ouvertes pas sans équivoque 
Le Monde du 26 janvier 1977
mai 1977
Libération, mars 1979
Libération, 1er mars 2001
Libération, 1er mars 2001 (19/08/2001)


Le Monde du 26 janvier 1977
"Les 27, 28 et 29 janvier, devant la cour d'assises des Yvelines vont comparaître pour attentat à la pudeur sans violence sur des mineurs de quinze ans, Bernard Dejager, Jean-Claude Gallien et Jean Burckardt, qui, arrêtés à l'automne 1973 sont déjà restés plus de trois ans en détention provisoire. Seul Bernard Dejager a récemment bénéficie du principe de liberté des inculpés. Une si longue détention préventive pour instruire une simple affaire de "moeurs " où les enfants n'ont pas été victimes de la moindre violence, mais, au contraire, ont précisé aux juges d'instruction qu'ils étaient consentants (quoique la justice leur dénie actuellement tout droit au consentement), une si longue détention préventive nous parait déjà scandaleuse. Aujourd'hui, ils risquent d'être condamnés à une grave peine de réclusion criminelle soit pour avoir eu des relations sexuelles avec ces mineurs, garçons et filles, soit pour avoir favorisé et photographié leurs jeux sexuels.
Nous considérons qu'il y a une disproportion manifeste d'une part, entre la qualification de "crime" qui justifie une telle sévérité, et la nature des faits reprochés; d'autre part, entre la caractère désuet de la loi et la réalité quotidienne d'une société qui tend à reconnaître chez les enfants et les adolescents l'existence d'une vie sexuelle (si une fille de treize ans a droit à la pilule, c'est pour quoi faire?) La loi française se contredit lorsqu'elle reconnaît une capacité de discernement d'un mineur de treize ou quatorze ans qu'elle peut juger et condamner, alors qu'elle lui refuse cette capacité quand il s'agit de sa Vie affective et sexuelle. Trois ans de prison pour des caresses et des baisers, cela suffit. Nous ne comprendrions pas que le 29 janvier Dejager, Gallien et Burckhart ne retrouvent pas la liberté."

Ont signé ce communiqué :
Louis Aragon, Francis Ponge, Roland Barthes, Simone de Beauvoir, Judith Belladona, docteur Michel Bon, psychosociologue, Bertrand Boulin, Jean-Louis Bory, François Chatelet, Patrice Chéreau, Jean-Pierre Colin, Copi, Michel Cressole, Gilles et Fanny Deleuze, Bernard Dort, Françoise d'Eaubonne, docteur Maurice Erne, psychiatre, Jean-Pierre Faye, docteur Pierrette Garrou, psychiatre, Philippe Gavi, docteur Pierre-Edmond Gay, psychanalyste, docteur Claire Gellman, psychologue, docteur Robert Gellman, psychiatre, André Glucksmann, Félix Guattari, Daniel Guérin, Pierre Guyotat, Pierre Hahn, Jean-Luc Henning, Christian Hennion, Jacques Henric, Guy Hocquenghem, docteur Bernard Kouchner, Françoise Laborie, Madeleine Laïk, Jack Lang, Georges Lapassade, Raymond Lepoutre, Michel Leyris, Jean-François Lyotard, Dionys Mascolo, Gabriel Matzneff, Catherine Millet, Vincent Montail, docteur Bernard Muldworf, psychiatre Négrepont, Marc Pierret, Anne Querrien, Grisélédis Réal, François Régnault, Claude et Olivier Revault d'Allonnes, Christiane Rochefort, Gilles Sandier, Pierre Samuel, Jean-Paul Sartre, René Schérer, Philippe Sollers, Gérard Soulier, Victoria Therame, Marie Thonon, Catherine Valabrègue, docteur Gérard Vallès, psychiatre, Hélène Védrines, Jean-Marie Vincent, Jean-Michel Wilheim, Danielle Sallenave, Alain Cuny.


mai 1977
Lettre ouverte à la commission de révision du Code pénal, qui évoque la confusion des actes commis sur des moins de 15 ans par des adultes ou par des mineurs de 15 à 18 ans et exige que cette «infraction» ne soit plus un crime et qu'on tienne compte «essentiellement du consentement du mineur».
Signée par : Françoise Dolto, Louis Althusser, Jacques Derrida, André Glucksmann, ...
NB - Le texte intégral et la liste des signataires ne sont pas en notre possession.

Libération, mars 1979
mars 1979, pour soutenir Gérard R., un pédophile qui attend depuis dix-huit mois son procès, une lettre publiée dans la page Courrier de Libération accuse la «morale d'Etat»: «Ce que vise l'ordre moral, c'est le maintien de la soumission des enfants-mineur (e) s au pouvoir adulte.»
L'auteur de la lettre appelle les lecteurs, en particulier les femmes, apparemment rétives, à signer le texte suivant: «L'amour des enfants est aussi l'amour de leur corps. Le désir et les jeux sexuels librement consentis ont leur place dans les rapports entre enfants et adultes. Voilà ce que pensait et vivait Gérard R. avec des fillettes de 6 à 12 ans dont l'épanouissement attestait aux yeux de tous, y compris de leurs parents, le bonheur qu'elles trouvaient avec lui.» Au bas de ce texte, 63 signatures. Parmi elles, Pascal Bruckner, Georges Moustaki, Christiane Rochefort et d'autres, plus attendus ou moins connus. (L'Express, 7 mars 2001)

Libération, 1er mars 2001
Cohn-Bendit et Mai 68: quel procès? Nos lecteurs réagissent à sa mise en cause.
Société de paranoïa
Par VÉRONIQUE DUBARRY, STÉPHANE LAVIGNOTTE, GUILHEM LAVIGNOTTE, ERWAN LECOEUR, CHRISTINE VILLARD, THOMAS GIRY, JULIEN LECAILLE, ARNAUD WASSON-SIMON, IRÈNE STEINERT (PAYS-BAS), SU FRIEDRICH (NEW YORK), SILVIA CARACCIOLO (ROME), GILLES COLLARD (BELGIQUE), JOHN SYMONS (BOSTON), PIERRE FAY (CAP COD, ETATS-UNIS), ETC.
SOUTIEN (GÉNÉRATION DES PARENTS): ANNE COPPEL, SERGE QUADRUPPANI, ALAIN DUGRAND, ALAIN LIPIETZ...
(Contact: stephane@lavignotte.org).
Le jeudi 1er mars 2001

Nous sommes les enfants de la révolution sexuelle. Nous avons aujourd'hui des enfants, ou nous espérons en avoir, ou nous en côtoyons et nous disons merci à la génération de nos parents. Nous entendons les médias clouer Cohn-Bendit au pilori en l'accusant de pédophile. Nous entendons ce qu'il dit, nous entendons ce qu'il décrit et dans ses mots nombre d'entre nous ont l'impression d'entendre et de revoir leurs propres parents. Sommes-nous des enfants de pédophiles ?
Nombre d'entre nous ont eu des parents qui se sont promenés nus devant eux, sans doute nous ont-ils laissés toucher leurs seins, leur sexe. Ils ont été heureux quand nous sommes tombés amoureux à la maternelle, quand nous avons embrassé d'autres enfants sur la bouche. Ils nous ont laissés jouer à «touche-pipi». Que dit Cohn-Bendit? A-t-il évoqué le désir qu'il aurait pu éprouver pour des enfants ? A-t-il eu l'intention de les pénétrer ? Leur a-t-il demandé des fellations ? Non. Ce qu'il raconte, c'est ce que nous ont laissés vivre nos parents - ou que nous aurions aimé que nos parents nous laissent vivre - et c'est ce que nous voulons vivre avec nos enfants. Des enfants qui ont une vie sexuelle - qui l'ignore encore aujourd'hui? - qui éprouvent des désirs, qui ont des questions, des séductions. Bref, non pas des enfants objets pour les adultes, mais bien des enfants sujets dans toutes leurs dimensions, y compris celles qui excitent tant les esprits. Les années 70 ont fait des enfants - de nous - des sujets. La révolution sexuelle - y compris dans le domaine de l'enfance - nous a d'abord appris que notre corps nous appartenait. Que nous avions le droit d'en faire ce que nous voulions, avec qui nous voulions. Que, parce que devenus sujets, nous avions le droit de dire «non» à ceux qui désiraient faire autre chose de notre corps et de nos désirs que ce que nous, nous voulions.
Accuser la révolution sexuelle - qui a fait de l'enfant un acteur, un sujet de son corps - d'être à l'origine de la pédophilie est autant un contresens que d'accuser la révolution (y compris sexuelle) des femmes d'être à l'origine des viols dont elles sont encore aujourd'hui victimes. La révolution sexuelle a d'abord appris aux enfants, aux adolescentes, aux femmes à dire «non».
Nous remercions la génération de la révolution sexuelle d'avoir déverrouillé la vieille famille où l'enfant et la femme étaient - et restent encore trop souvent - des objets, y compris des violences sexuelles de leur entourage. Parce que la famille qu'ils ont fait éclore n'est plus celle des années 50, nous sommes heureux d'en créer aujourd'hui, ou nous pensons en créer demain. Ecrits ou propos scandaleux, ceux de Cohn-Bendit? Non, ceux d'une nécessaire explosion de parole qui permettait de dire «je», de dire «non». C'est le contraire de la pédophilie, de la loi du silence. Si aujourd'hui, de plus en plus, la parole se libère sur les horreurs subies, ces curés qui abusent, ces parents qui violent, ces familles qui étouffent, ne le doit-on pas à cette déflagration initiale?
Nous nous inquiétons de cette société de paranoïa qui crie si vite à la secte, au pédophile, mais qui ne se donne jamais les moyens - en paroles, en personnels, en structures, en changements de fond - qui permettraient vraiment de lutter contre ces violences et leurs origines. Qui se trouve des boucs émissaires pour éviter de se donner les moyens d'agir.

Libération, 1er mars 2001
Cohn-Bendit et Mai 68: quel procès? Nos lecteurs réagissent à sa mise en cause.
La danse du scalp
Par MALIKA AHMED, FRANÇOIS DEVOUCOUX, DAVID MARTIN CASTELNAU, MEMBRES DE GÉNÉRATION RÉPUBLIQUE.
Le jeudi 1er mars 2001

Qui lui donnera le coup de grâce? Pas nous. Nous avons l'âge d'être filles et fils de Daniel Cohn-Bendit et nous voulons dire ici à quel point nous déplorons le mauvais traitement dont il est l'objet.
Cohn-Bendit n'a commis d'autre crime que d'écrire quelques terribles bêtises, qu'il regrette amèrement. Cela devrait suffire à clore le dossier. Eh, bien non : la danse du scalp continue. Nous sommes pourtant loin d'être des groupies de cette génération 68, qui s'est construite sur des slogans aussi ineptes qu'«Il est interdit d'interdire» ou «La révolution sera sexuelle ou ne sera pas». Nous n'avons jamais cru que l'aspiration à la liberté et au progrès pouvait se résumer à la faculté de baisouiller, y compris de baisouiller à la faculté. Des aristocrates libertins à Paul Morand, il a été amplement démontré qu'on pouvait être un ardent avocat du plaisir et, par ailleurs, parfaitement réactionnaire. La gauche ne se réduit pas à la libido. La question sociale, l'articulation entre identités privées et collectives, la réflexion sur la conjugaison de l'Etat-nation et de la mondialisation nous paraissent largement aussi essentielles. Pour nous y être intéressés d'un point de vue «républicain», nous avons subi les foudres excommunicatrices de certains esprits délicats. «Nationaux-ceci», «souverainisto-cela» : tout était bon pour nous disqualifier.
Mais les temps changent, et le rusé Goupil voit juste: une nouvelle gauche émerge, qui va de Bové à Technikart, en passant par le Monde diplomatique et Chevènement, avec laquelle la génération de nos aînés devrait, c'est un fait, «discuter avant qu'il ne soit trop tard» (Libération du 23 février). Car nous réclamons à ces mêmes aînés un droit d'inventaire. Directement, sans passer par les bons offices de madame Vichinsky et monsieur Kenneth Starr. Mais ce faisant, nous n'avons nul besoin de transformer une vache sacrée en bouc émissaire: Dany vaut mieux que cela. Nous ne lui disons pas «Adieu!», nous n'invitons pas à «le chasser de nos têtes», nous ne lui conseillons pas «de prendre sa retraite». Il sera pour nous, dans les mois qui viennent, un interlocuteur générationnel, et à certains égards, un adversaire idéologique indispensable pour que l'époque aille au bout de sa mue. Peut-être, d'ailleurs, Dany sera-t-il désormais le premier à montrer l'exemple et, pour en avoir été la victime ahurie, incitera-t-il ses copains à renoncer à la diabolisation tous azimuts?

Related... Critical commentary of Foucault, Gide, Derrida, etc.: Michel Foucault, most-cited academic ever and father of woke ideology, outed as pedophile

College students are assigned higher grades when in a classroom with peers who are rated as very attractive - Effect is strongest for female students

Physical appearance and peer effects in academic performance. Rey Hernández-Julián & Christina Peters. Applied Economics Letters, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13504851.2017.1380282

Abstract: A large literature examines the role of peer effects in shaping student academic outcomes. This article adds to that literature by introducing a new kind of peer effect – the effect of classmate physical appearance. We document that college students are assigned higher grades when in a classroom with peers who are rated as very attractive. This effect is strongest for female students and appears to be concentrated among the courses of younger and male instructors.

KEYWORDS: Peer effects, appearance, grades, classmate appearance

West Point cadets are more risk averse & programs aimed at increasing women & minorities are likely to increase the risk aversion

Bell, Patrick and Engel, Rozlyn and Hudson, Darren and Jamison, Julian C. and Skimmyhorn, Bill, Risk Preferences in Future Military Leaders (March 1, 2017). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3055387

Abstract: Although hundreds of studies have demonstrated that risk preferences shape people’s choices under uncertainty, the complexity of how attitudes toward risk play out across various pivotal settings and key populations leaves considerable gaps in knowledge. We study a unique sample of a cohort of future military leaders at the United States Military Academy (West Point), nearly all of whom now hold commissions in the US Army officer corps. Using a hypothetical instrument to elicit preferences across a variety of domains, we find that cadets are risk averse, on average, which has potentially important implications for future management of military conflicts and programs. Our results also show that diversity programs aimed at increasing the number of women and minorities at West Point are likely to increase the average level of risk aversion within the officer corps. This finding suggests that working with officers to strengthen cognitive flexibility and to be attuned to a possible wedge between their innate preferences and the needs of the situation may be important, particularly for those who wish to enter occupational fields where the willingness to take risks is critical.

Keywords: risk preferences, risk aversion, uncertainty, occupational risk, leadership


Investigating the Masturbatory Behaviours of Canadian Midlife Adults

Investigating the Masturbatory Behaviours of Canadian Midlife Adults. Kovacevic, Katarina; Milhausen, Robin; Beaton, John; McKay, Alex. Univ. of Guelph, http://atrium.lib.uoguelph.ca/xmlui/handle/10214/11607?show=full

Abstract: Previous research indicates that masturbation is a common and pleasurable activity related to sexual satisfaction and sexual health outcomes (Herbenick, Reece, Sanders, Dodge, Ghassemi & Fortenberry, 2009; Phillippsohn & Hartmann, 2009; Hulburt & Whittaker, 1991; Pinkerton, Bogart, Cecil & Abramson, 2003; Shulman & Horne, 2003). This study examined masturbatory frequency, pleasure and approaches and potential impact for sexual health and satisfaction in a national sample of Canadian men (N= 1111) and women (N= 1010) aged 40-59. Gender differences in masturbation frequency and pleasure were robust: men were almost 7 times more likely than women to report masturbating 4+ times per week and women almost 2.5 times more likely than men to report no masturbation in the last year. Further, women were more likely than men to report vibrator use and report that masturbation was very pleasurable. Men who reported more frequent masturbation reported lower levels of sexual satisfaction in their relationship, whereas women’s masturbation frequency was not related to their sexual satisfaction in relationships. Men and women’s masturbation frequency was not related to sexual health. The limitations and implications of the results are discussed.

---
No study to date has explored whether pleasure or sexual satisfaction is enhanced when
stimulation of women’s external genitalia is incorporated into penile-vaginal penetration
(whether by themselves or by a partner). It would be particularly relevant to investigate whether women enjoy, receive, perform, or feel restricted to perform clitoral stimulation during partnered sexual activity given their reported preference for clitoral stimulation over penetration during masturbation. We propose that future researchers consider investigating the relationship between self-stimulation of the external genitalia during partnered sex with orgasmic reliability during sex and sexual satisfaction in a current relationship.

Finally, we investigated the relationship between masturbation frequency and perceived sexual health, versus objective sexual health, observing that masturbation frequency was not at all related to perceived sexual health for both men and women. Investigations into causal relationship between masturbation and objective health outcomes warrant further investigation, as some authors have suggested potential links between masturbation and prostate cancer risk in men (Aboul-Enein, Bernstein & Ross, 2016) and masturbation as a means of overcoming sexual dysfunction in both men (Kunelaki, 2017) and women (Andersen, 1981).

Check also Lange L, Zedler B, Verhoff MA, Parzeller M. Love Death—A Retrospective and Prospective Follow-Up Mortality Study Over 45 Years. The Journal of Sexual Medicine, http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/09/love-deatha-retrospective-and.html

And: Sexual diversity in the United States: Results from a nationally representative probability sample of adult women and men. Debby Herbenick et al. PLoS One, July 2017, http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/08/sexual-diversity-in-united-states.html

Altruistic Behavior among Twins Willingness to Fight and Self-Sacrifice for their Closest Relatives

Altruistic Behavior among Twins Willingness to Fight and Self-Sacrifice for their Closest Relatives.
Encarnacion Tornero et al. Human Nature, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12110-017-9304-0

Abstract: According to kin selection theory, indirect reproductive advantages may induce individuals to care for others with whom they share genes by common descent, and the amount of care, including self-sacrifice, will increase with the proportion of genes shared. Twins represent a natural situation in which this hypothesis can be tested. Twin pairs experience the same early environment because they were born and raised at the same time and in the same family but their genetic relatedness differs depending on zygosity. We compared the degree of willingness to fight and sacrifice for the co-twin among monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) pairs in a sample of 1443 same-sex and opposite-sex twins. We also analyzed the effect of the subject’s gender and that of the co-twin on those altruistic behaviors. Results partly supported the postulated explanation. MZ twins (who share nearly their entire genome) were significantly more likely than DZ twins (who on average share half of their segregating genes) to self-sacrifice for their co-twins, but zygosity did not affect willingness to fight for him/her. The genders of the subject and of the co-twin, not genetic relatedness, were the best predictors of aggressive altruistic intentions.

The blind mind: No sensory visual imagery in aphantasia

The blind mind: No sensory visual imagery in aphantasia. Rebecca Keogh, Joel Pearson. Cortex, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2017.10.012

Abstract: For most people the use of visual imagery is pervasive in daily life, but for a small group of people the experience of visual imagery is entirely unknown. Research based on subjective phenomenology indicates that otherwise healthy people can completely lack the experience of visual imagery, a condition now referred to as aphantasia. As congenital aphantasia has thus far been based on subjective reports, it remains unclear whether participants are really unable to imagine visually, or if they have very poor metacognition - they have images in their mind, but are blind to them. Here we measured sensory imagery in subjectively self-diagnosed aphantasics, using the binocular rivalry paradigm, as well as measuring their self-rated object and spatial imagery with multiple questionnaires (VVIQ, SUIS and OSIQ). Unlike, the general population, experimentally naive aphantasics showed almost no imagery-based rivalry priming. Aphantasic participants’ self-rated visual object imagery was significantly below average, however their spatial imagery scores were above average. These data suggest that aphantasia is a condition involving a lack of sensory and phenomenal imagery, and not a lack of metacognition. The possible underlying neurological cause of aphantasia are discussed as well as future research directions.

Keywords: Aphantasia; Visual Imagery; Individual Differences; Cognition

Food choice of main dishes occurs outside of awareness, matching the choice of the person ahead of oneself

Vegetarian or meat? Food choice modeling of main dishes occurs outside of awareness. Chelsea D. Christie, Frances S. Chen. Appetite, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2017.10.036

Abstract: It is well established that the amount eaten by other people affects how much we eat, but unanswered questions exist regarding how much the food choices of other people affect the types of food that we choose. Past research on food choice modeling has primarily been conducted in controlled laboratory situations and has focused on snack foods. The current research examines the extent to which food choice modeling of a main dish occurs in a real-life context and whether people are aware of being influenced by others. The lunch orders of café patrons were surreptitiously tracked and participants were recruited after they paid for their lunch. Participants were asked what they ordered, whether they were influenced by the prior order, and what their relationship was to the person ahead of them in line. We analyzed the data of participants who were not acquainted with the person ahead of them (N = 174). As hypothesized, participants’ main-dish lunch orders matched the choice of the person ordering ahead of them in line at rates significantly higher than chance. A significant modeling effect was observed even among participants who reported that their order was not influenced by the prior order. This research provided evidence of main-dish choice modeling occurring in real-life eating situations and outside of conscious awareness - demonstrating a powerful social influence on eating behaviours.

Keywords: Social norms; Social influence; Food choice; Modeling; Eating; Awareness


Sleep Duration, Mortality, and Heredity—A Prospective Twin Study.

Sleep Duration, Mortality, and Heredity—A Prospective Twin Study. Torbjörn Åkerstedt, Jurgita Narusyte, Kristina Alexanderson, Pia Svedberg. Sleep, Volume 40, Issue 10, October 01 2017, zsx135, https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsx135

Introduction: A number of studies have shown a U-shaped association between sleep duration and mortality. Since sleep duration is partly genetically determined, it seems likely that its association with mortality is also genetically influenced. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the influence on heredity on the association between sleep duration and mortality.

Methods: We used a cohort of 14267 twins from the Swedish Twin Registry.

Results: [full results section as first comment to this post]. In dizygotic twins, no association was significant. The heritability for mortality was 28% for the whole group, while it was 86% for short sleepers and 42% for long sleepers. Thus, the link with mortality for long sleep appears to be more due to environmental factors than to heredity, while heritability dominates among short sleepers.

Conclusions: We found that both long and short sleep were associated with higher total mortality, that the difference in mortality within twin pairs is associated with long sleep, and that short sleep has a higher heritability for mortality, while long sleep is associated with more environmental influences on mortality.

The country’s elites are desperate to figure out what they got wrong in 2016. But can they handle the truth?

On Safari in Trump's America. By Molly Ball. Extracts. Read it all on https://www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/543288/
The country’s elites are desperate to figure out what they got wrong in 2016. But can they handle the truth?
The Atlantic, Oct 23, 2017

It was the hippies who drove Nancy Hale over the edge. She had spent three days listening respectfully to the real people of Middle America, and finally she couldn’t take it any longer.

She turned off the tape recorder and took several deep breaths, leaning back in the passenger seat of the rented GMC Yukon. The sun had just come out from behind a mass of clouds, casting a gleam on the rain-soaked parking lot in rural Wisconsin.

Hale, who is 65 and lives in San Francisco, is a career activist who got her start protesting nuclear plants and nuclear testing in the 1970s. In 2005, she was one of the founders of Third Way, a center-left think tank, and it was in that capacity that she and four colleagues had journeyed from both coasts to the town of Viroqua, Wisconsin, as part of a post-election listening tour. They had come on a well-meaning mission: to better understand their fellow Americans, whose political behavior in the last election had left them confused and distressed.

The trip was predicated on the optimistic notion that if Americans would only listen to each other, they would find more that united than divided them. This notion—the idea that, beyond our polarized politics, lies a middle, or third, path on which most can come together in agreement—is Third Way’s raison d’etre. It is premised on the idea that partisanship is bad, consensus is good, and that most Americans would like to meet in the middle.

But these are not uncontested assumptions. And, three days into their safari in flyover country, the researchers were hearing some things that disturbed them greatly—sentiments that threatened their beliefs to the very core.

The last focus group, a bunch of back-to-the-land organic farmers and artisanal small-businesspeople, was over, and the researchers had retreated to their car to debrief. There was a long pause after Hale turned off the tape recorder on which they were recording their impressions.

“I had a very hard time with that meeting,” she finally said. “The longer the meeting went on, the more it started to feel to me like just another community that had isolated itself, and it was right and everybody else wasn’t, you know?” The hippies should have been her kind of people, but the attitudes they’d expressed had offended her sense of the way America ought to be. She had come seeking mutual understanding, only to find that some people were not the least bit interested in meeting in the middle. And now she was at a crossroads: Would she have to revise her whole worldview to account for this troubling reality?

Third Way’s researchers are far from the only Americans inspired to undertake anthropological journeys in the past year. Nearly a year after Donald Trump’s election shocked the prognosticators, ivory-tower types are still sifting through the wreckage. Group after group of befuddled elites has crisscrossed America to poke and prod and try to figure out what they missed—“Margaret Meads among the Samoans,” one prominent strategist remarked to me.

[...]

And so Hale and her colleagues began a series of visits to targeted areas, including this one, Wisconsin’s Third Congressional District, which had voted Democratic for more than two decades—until it swung more than 15 points for Trump. I was allowed to ride along on the condition that I not identify any of the focus-group participants. I was hoping to use the trip as my own focus group of sorts: I wanted to get a sense of what 2017’s many delegations of liberal anthropologists were hearing from Trump Country.

I wondered if any of the tourists from the coasts would be open-minded enough to absorb a reality that might cut against their preconceptions. Did Third Way and Zuckerberg and Huffpo and all the rest want to confront an angry and divided nation head-on, or would they settle for a series of earnest exchanges that left their core assumptions intact?

Open-mindedness was the sworn commitment of the Third Way team. The researchers were determined to approach rural Wisconsin with humility and respect. After the election, Hale told me, “You heard people saying, ‘These people aren’t smart enough to vote, they’re so stupid, if that’s what they want, they deserve what they get.’ That hit us, on every level, as wrong.” They wanted to open their hearts and their minds and simply listen. They were certain that, in doing so, they would find what they believed was true: a bunch of reasonable, thoughtful, patriotic Americans. A nation of people who really wanted to get along.

Our tour of western Wisconsin had begun two days earlier, at an imposing courthouse in the rural county seat of Ellsworth, the self-proclaimed “cheese curd capital of Wisconsin.” A farmer in the group told Third Way’s eager listeners he knew exactly what was wrong with America: his fellow Americans.

“You’ve got all these parasites making a living off the bureaucracy,” the farmer declared, “like leeches pulling you down, bleeding you dry.” We had been in the state for just a few hours, and already the researchers’ quest for mutual understanding seemed to be hitting a snag.

Others in the group, a bunch of proudly curmudgeonly older white men, identified other culprits. There were plenty of jobs, a local elected official and business owner said. But today’s young people were too lazy or drug-addled to do them.

As we proceeded to meetings with diverse groups of community representatives, this sort of blame-casting was a common refrain. Disdain for the young, in particular, was a constant, across demographic, socio-economic, and generational lines: Even young people complained about young people. “They don’t want to do the work, and they always feel like they’re being picked on,” a recent graduate of a technical school in Chippewa Falls said of his fellow Millennials.

Some of the people we met expressed the conservative-leaning view that changes in society and the family were to blame. One, a technical-skills instructor at the Chippewa Falls school, questioned whether women belonged in the workplace at all. “That idea of both family members working, it’s a social experiment that I don’t know if it quite works,” he said. “If everyone’s working, who is making sure the children are raised right?”

Others expressed more liberal-minded sentiments, seeing insufficient government action as the root of the community’s problems. A school-board official cried as she described the problems plaguing education. A group of middle-class women who met through local activism lamented the area’s lack of diversity and hidden pockets of poverty.

Politics, though, was not the focus of the Third Way interviewers, who believed there was more to be gained by asking neutral, open-ended questions. In accordance with Third Way’s ideology, they believed that political partisanship was not most people’s primary concern. But sometimes the Wisconsinites brought up politics anyway.

At the Labor Temple Lounge in Eau Claire, nine gruff, tough-looking union men sat around a table. One had the acronym of his guild, the Laborers International Union of North America, tattooed on a bulging bicep. The men pinned the blame for most of their problems squarely on Republicans, from Trump to Governor Scott Walker. School funding, the minimum wage, college debt, income inequality, gerrymandering, health care, union rights: It was all, in their view, the GOP’s fault. A member of the bricklayers’ union lamented Walker’s cuts to public services: “If we can’t help each other,” he said, “what are we, a pack of wolves—we eat the weakest one? It’s shameful.”

But their negativity toward Republicans didn’t translate to rosy feelings for the Democrats, who, they said, too frequently ignored working-class people. And some of the blame, they said, fell on their fellow workers, many of whom supported Republicans against their own interests. “The membership”—the union rank-and-file—“voted for these Republicans because of them damn guns,” a Laborers Union official said. “You cannot push it out of their head. A lot of ‘em loved it when Walker kicked our ass.”

Debriefing after this particular group, the Third Way listeners said they found the union men demoralizing. “I feel like they can’t see their way out,” Hale said.

“They were very negative,” Paul Neaville, another researcher, concurred.

They were so fixated on blaming Republicans, Hale fretted. “It was very us-and-them.”

[...]

When she heard views that challenged her sense of empathy—Muslims were bad, welfare recipients were leeches, women should not have careers outside the home—Hale reminded herself that she was there to listen, not to judge. “People have said stuff I was surprised to hear them say out loud,” Hale told me. “But we have to learn from that, too. Whatever they believe is true, because it’s true for them.”

Part of the point of the Wisconsin trip was to gather the evidence that would help them advance this agenda in intra-party debates. Understanding the mysterious ways of the elusive Trump voter had become the crucial currency of any political discussion. The face-to-face interactions they were having in Wisconsin, Hale said as we drove, were so much more valuable than any of the data-driven reports they customarily churned out for their “customers”—donors, elected officials, and the Democratic National Committee.

We sped from town to town in the rented Yukon, watching the exotic Middle American landscape fly by. At one point, a gaggle of bikers roared past us on one side. On the other side of the road, a bright-green field dotted with hay bales passed by. Looking at the bales, Hale mused, “Don’t they look like shredded wheat?”

Hale or her colleague Luke Watson, Third Way’s deputy director of strategy, began each Wisconsin focus group with a variation on the same refrain.

“We are a think tank that deals with what the plurality of Americans are thinking about—in other words, we don’t spend a lot of time on the ideological edges,” one of the two would explain. “It has started seeming like the far left and the far right were the only voice in America, but we know that’s not true. We focus on the 70 percent in the middle, because we think most of us, as Americans, are there.”

This was slightly disingenuous. Third Way, while not officially affiliated with a party, is an organization with a policy agenda, from gun control to entitlement reform, that it seeks to advance within the Democratic Party and with the broader public. Most of its funding comes from corporations and financial executives. Critics on the left call the group the Wall Street wing of the Democratic Party, and accuse it of advancing its donors’ interests over the greater political good. Third Way has called for cutting Social Security and Medicare and vehemently attacked the soak-the-rich economic populism of Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Voters, it claims, are not interested in a party that’s all about big government and tax-and-spend.

[...]

We had come to the final stop on our listening tour, and the hippies were wary. Viroqua, a town of less than 5,000 people, has in recent years become home to a tiny progressive community. Earnest college graduates toil on organic farms; a “folk school” offers classes in sustainable living, from rabbit butchering to basket-weaving. Migrants from the likes of Madison and Berkeley are attracted to a rural idyll of food and electric co-ops, alternative schools, and locally sourced everything.

[...]

With those concerns dispatched, the listening began in earnest. The Viroqua representatives were eager to extol the virtues of their community. It was an oasis of sanity, an organic farmer in a pink-and-blue plaid shirt said—unlike the dismal city where he’d grown up. “There was no culture with which to identify, just television, drinking, maybe sports,” he said. “There’s nothing to aspire to. You’re just going through life with a case of Mountain Dew in your car.”

The cafe owner—a bearded man in a North Face fleece—had recently attended a town hall held by the local Democratic congressman, Ron Kind, a Third Way stalwart and former chair of the House’s centrist New Democrat Coalition. “I’m not, like, a jumping-up-and-down Berniecrat,” the man said. “But what you see in these congressional meetings is a refusal to even play ball” with ideas considered too extreme, like single-payer health care. “All these centrist ideals,” he said, “are just perpetuating a broken system.”

This was a direct attack on the very premise of Third Way’s existence. These were not the ideas of the middle 70 percent. These were not the voices of an America that wanted to find mutual understanding with its neighbors. They were, essentially, separatists, proud of their extremism and disdainful of the unenlightened.

It was after this exchange that Hale, after she and Watson got back into the Yukon to debrief, as they did after every session in order to compose their eventual after-action report, had to stop and vent. Her problem wasn’t that people were wrong. She had managed to maintain her equanimity while hearing other groups express opinions she disagreed with. It was that they didn’t want to get along.

“I have so much hope, and it’s gotten kind of shaken from both ends, you know?” she said. “There’s an, I don’t know, blue-sky part of me that was like, ‘I’m going to go traveling around the country and see that we’re more about commonalities than differences, that we’re more about our desire to be together than to be separate.’ And I’m not saying that isn’t true. I’m just saying every once in a while it gets kicked in the ass.”

That moment of doubt does not appear in the report that Third Way released, which distills the group’s conclusions from the tour I joined. In the report, there is only one quotation from the hippie roundtable in Viroqua—a man who extols the area’s turnaround, in a section about the area’s “intense local pride.” “There’s love, beauty, and a sense of opportunity,” he is quoted as saying. “There’s been a rejuvenation of identity.”

In the moment, Hale had heard sentiments like this as disturbing, of a piece with the community’s self-satisfied separatism. In the report, it had been made to sound like a paean to localism.

The report surprised me when I read it. Despite the great variety of views the researchers and I had heard on our tour, the report had somehow reached the conclusion that Wisconsinites wanted consensus, moderation, and pragmatism—just like Third Way. We had heard people blame each other for their own difficulties, take refuge in tribalism, and appeal to extremes. But the report mentioned little of that. Instead it described the prevailing attitude as “an intense work ethic that binds the community together and helps it adapt to change.” (Third Way disputes these characterizations of its report.)

[...]

The researchers had somehow found their premise perfectly illustrated. Their journey to Trump’s America had done nothing to unsettle their preconceptions.

The Wisconsin report is the second Third Way has produced from its listening tour; still to come are its findings from Florida and Arizona. The group’s first report, on a trip to northwest Illinois, was quite a bit more pessimistic, with more emphasis on the decline of manufacturing, and more skepticism expressed about trade and immigration. Still, the Illinois report did, in the end, come to many of the same conclusions about what drove people: love of work and community, concern for the future, distrust of big government, and a desire to move past partisanship. Validating the researchers’ project, the Illinois report also found that Midwesterners felt overlooked in the national political dialogue. It quotes a local as complaining, “The coasts think we’re Jesusland or Dumbasfuckistan.”

In Wisconsin, I had seen and heard everything the Third Way researchers did—and eaten at the same restaurants, and slept at the same Hampton Inn in Eau Claire, and watched the same landscape roll by the windows of the same SUV. I heard all the optimism they did, but I also heard its opposite: that one side was right and that the other was the enemy; that other Americans, not just the government, were to blame for the country’s problems. There’s plenty of fellow-feeling in the heartland for those who want to see it, but there’s plenty of division, too. And not every problem can be solved in a way that splits the difference.

The other groups of anthropologists roaming Middle America face the same quandary. Having gotten the country drastically wrong, they have set out on well-meaning missions to bring the country together by increasing mutual understanding. They share Third Way’s basic assumption that mutual understanding is something Americans can agree to find desirable. But as hard as they try to open their minds to new perspectives, are they ready to have that basic assumption challenged?

The researchers I rode with had dived into the heart of America with the best of intentions and the openest of minds. They believed that their only goal was to emerge with a better understanding of their country. And yet the conclusions they drew from what they heard corresponded only roughly to what I heard. Instead, they seemed to revert to their preconceptions, squeezing their findings into the same old mold. It seems possible, if not likely, that all the other delegations of earnest listeners are returning with similarly comforting, selective lessons. If the aim of such tours is to find new ways to bring the country together, or new political messages for a changed electorate, the chances of success seem remote as long as even the sharpest researchers are only capable of seeing what they want to see.

[...]
    Molly Ball is a staff writer at The Atlantic, where she covers U.S. politics.

Friday, October 27, 2017

Association Between Marijuana Use and Sexual Frequency in the USA

Sun AJ, Eisenberg ML. Association Between Marijuana Use and Sexual Frequency in the United States: A Population-Based Study. J Sex Med 2017;14:1342–1347. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsxm.2017.09.005

Abstract

Background: Marijuana use is increasingly prevalent in the United States. Effects of marijuana use on sexual function are unclear, with contradictory reports of enhancement and detriment existing.

Aim: To elucidate whether a relation between marijuana use and sexual frequency exists using a nationally representative sample of reproductive-age men and women.

Methods: We analyzed data from cycle 6 (2002), cycle 7 (2006–2010), and continuous survey (2011–2015) administrations of the National Survey of Family Growth, a nationally representative cross-sectional survey. We used a multivariable model, controlling for demographic, socioeconomic, and anthropographic characteristics, to evaluate whether a relationship between marijuana use and sexual frequency exists.

Outcomes: Sexual frequency within the 4 weeks preceding survey administration related to marijuana use and frequency in the year preceding survey administration.

Results: The results of 28,176 women (average age = 29.9 years) and 22,943 men (average age = 29.5) were analyzed. More than 60% of men and women were Caucasian, and 76.1% of men and 80.4% of women reported at least a high school education. After adjustment, female monthly (incidence rate ratio [IRR] = 1.34, 95% CI = 1.07–1.68, P = .012), weekly (IRR = 1.36, 95% CI = 1.15–1.60, P < .001), and daily (IRR = 1.16, 95% CI = 1.01–1.32, P = .035) marijuana users had significantly higher sexual frequency compared with never users. Male weekly (IRR = 1.22, 95% CI = 1.06–1.41, P = .006) and daily (IRR = 1.36, 95% CI = 1.21–1.53, P < .001) users had significantly higher sexual frequency compared with never users. An overall trend for men (IRR = 1.08, 95% CI = 1.05–1.11, P < .001) and women (IRR = 1.07, 95% CI = 1.04–1.10, P < .001) was identified showing that higher marijuana use was associated with increased coital frequency.

Clinical Implications: Marijuana use is independently associated with increased sexual frequency and does not appear to impair sexual function.

Strengths and Limitations: Our study used a large well-controlled cohort and clearly defined end points to describe a novel association between marijuana use and sexual frequency. However, survey responses were self-reported and represent participants only at a specific point in time. Participants who did not answer questions related to marijuana use and sexual frequency were excluded.

Conclusion: A positive association between marijuana use and sexual frequency is seen in men and women across all demographic groups. Although reassuring, the effects of marijuana use on sexual function warrant further study.

Check also Sex Drugs and Rock and Roll: Evidence Supporting the Storied Trilogy. Marissa A. Harrison & Susan M. Hughes. Human Ethology Bulletin, Volume 32, No 3, 63-84. http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/10/some-support-for-sex-drugs-rock.html

Clustering of 770,000 genomes reveals post-colonial population structure of North America

Clustering of 770,000 genomes reveals post-colonial population structure of North America. Eunjung Han et al. Nature Communications 8, Article number: 14238 (2017), doi:10.1038/ncomms14238

Abstract: Despite strides in characterizing human history from genetic polymorphism data, progress in identifying genetic signatures of recent demography has been limited. Here we identify very recent fine-scale population structure in North America from a network of over 500 million genetic (identity-by-descent, IBD) connections among 770,000 genotyped individuals of US origin. We detect densely connected clusters within the network and annotate these clusters using a database of over 20 million genealogical records. Recent population patterns captured by IBD clustering include immigrants such as Scandinavians and French Canadians; groups with continental admixture such as Puerto Ricans; settlers such as the Amish and Appalachians who experienced geographic or cultural isolation; and broad historical trends, including reduced north-south gene flow. Our results yield a detailed historical portrait of North America after European settlement and support substantial genetic heterogeneity in the United States beyond that uncovered by previous studies.

Assessment of sexual behavior in rats: the potentials and pitfalls

Assessment of sexual behavior in rats: the potentials and pitfalls. Roy Heijkoop, Patty T. Huijgens , Eelke M.S Snoeren. Behavioural Brain Research, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2017.10.029

Highlights
•    Review of potentials and pitfalls of animal models in rat sexual behavior.
•    Sexual incentive motivation is studied in a different test than sexual behavior.
•    Essential to use the appropriate model for the topic of investigation.
•    Important to be critical of the interpretation of results

Abstract: In the field of behavioral neuroscience, it is essential to use the appropriate animal models for the topic of investigation. The danger of using the wrong model can result in false interpretation of the results. In this review we will discuss the animal models used to study sexual behavior, with a focus on rats. We will discuss the potentials and pitfalls of the different paradigms and try to make recommendations on how research in this field could be optimized. Both male and female sexual behavior are discussed, in addition to sexual motivation.

Keywords: sexual behavior; incentive motivation; behavioral paradigm; rat; female; male


What is consciousness, and could machines have it?

What is consciousness, and could machines have it? Stanislas Dehaene, Hakwan Lau, and Sid Kouider. Science  Oct 27 2017: Vol. 358, Issue 6362, pp. 486-492. DOI: 10.1126/science.aan8871

Abstract: The controversial question of whether machines may ever be conscious must be based on a careful consideration of how consciousness arises in the only physical system that undoubtedly possesses it: the human brain. We suggest that the word “consciousness” conflates two different types of information-processing computations in the brain: the selection of information for global broadcasting, thus making it flexibly available for computation and report (C1, consciousness in the first sense), and the self-monitoring of those computations, leading to a subjective sense of certainty or error (C2, consciousness in the second sense). We argue that despite their recent successes, current machines are still mostly implementing computations that reflect unconscious processing (C0) in the human brain. We review the psychological and neural science of unconscious (C0) and conscious computations (C1 and C2) and outline how they may inspire novel machine architectures.

Who Can Deviate from the Party Line? Political Ideology Moderates Evaluation of Incongruent Policy Position

Who Can Deviate from the Party Line? Political Ideology Moderates Evaluation of Incongruent Policy Positions in Insula and Anterior Cingulate Cortex. Ingrid Johnsen Haas, Melissa N. Baker, and Frank J. Gonzalez. Social Justice Research, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11211-017-0295-0

Abstract: Political polarization at the elite level is a major concern in many contemporary democracies, which is argued to alienate large swaths of the electorate and prevent meaningful social change from occurring, yet little is known about how individuals respond to political candidates who deviate from the party line and express policy positions incongruent with their party affiliations. This experiment examines the neural underpinnings of such evaluations using functional MRI (fMRI). During fMRI, participants completed an experimental task where they evaluated policy positions attributed to hypothetical political candidates. Each block of trials focused on one candidate (Democrat or Republican), but all participants saw two candidates from each party in a randomized order. On each trial, participants received information about whether the candidate supported or opposed a specific policy issue. These issue positions varied in terms of congruence between issue position and candidate party affiliation. We modeled neural activity as a function of incongruence and whether participants were viewing ingroup or outgroup party candidates. Results suggest that neural activity in brain regions previously implicated in both evaluative processing and work on ideological differences (insula and anterior cingulate cortex) differed as a function of the interaction between incongruence, candidate type (ingroup versus outgroup), and political ideology. More liberal participants showed greater activation to incongruent versus congruent trials in insula and ACC, primarily when viewing ingroup candidates. Implications for the study of democratic representation and linkages between citizens’ calls for social change and policy implementation are discussed.

TV Canned Emotions. Effects of Genre and Audience Reaction on Emotions

Canned Emotions. Effects of Genre and Audience Reaction on Emotions. Andreas M. Baranowski, Rebecca Teichmann and Heiko Hecht. Art & Perception, Volume 5, Issue 3, pages 312 – 336.
DOI: 10.1163/22134913-00002068

Abstract: Laughter is said to be contagious. Maybe this is why TV stations often choose to add so-called canned laughter to their shows. Questionable as this practice may be, observers seem to like it. If such a simple manipulation, assumingly by inducing positive emotion, can change our attitudes toward the film, does the opposite manipulation work as well? Does a negative sound-track, such as screaming voices, have comparable effects in the opposite direction? We designed three experiments with a total of 110 participants to test whether scream-tracks have comparable effects on the evaluation of film sequences as do laugh-tracks. Experiment 1 showed segments of comedies, scary, and neutral films and crossed them with three sound tracks of canned laughter, canned screams, and no audience sound. Observers had to rate the degree of their subjective amusement and fear as well as general liking and immersion. The sound-tracks had independent effects on amusement and fear, and increased immersion when the sound was appropriate. Experiment 2 was identical, but instead of canned sounds, confederates of the experimenter enacted the sound-track. Here, the effects were even stronger. Experiment 3 manipulated social pressure by explicit evaluations of the film clips, which were particularly influential in comedies. Scream tracks worked as well as laugh tracks, in particular when the film was only mildly funny or scary. The information conveyed by a sound track is able to change the evaluation of films regardless of their emotional nature.

Keywords: laugh track; Humor; canned laughter; immersion; scream track; emotions

Offender Decision-Making in Criminology: Contributions from Behavioral Economics

Offender Decision-Making in Criminology: Contributions from Behavioral Economics.  Greg Pogarsky, Sean Patrick Roche, and Justin T. Pickett. Annual Review of Criminology, Vol. 1:- (Volume publication date January 2018). https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-criminol-032317-092036

Abstract: If there is agency and some decision-making process entailed in criminal behavior, then what are the incentives for crime and for conformity, and what is their role in offending decisions? Incentives have long been the province of economics, which has wide influence in criminology (e.g., Becker 1968, Cook et al. 2014). However, economics has evolved considerably since Becker’s influential model. An important development has been the advent of behavioral economics, which some consider a branch of economics on par with macroeconomics or econometrics (Dhami 2016). Behavioral economics integrates empirical departures from traditional microeconomic theories into a rigorous and more descriptively accurate economic model of choice. This review explains how behavioral economic applications on offender decision-making can help refine criminological theories of choice and identify innovative possibilities for improving crime-control policies.

Thursday, October 26, 2017

Linguistic Distance Diminishes Economic Growth

Consequences of Linguistic Distance for Economic Growth. Erkan Gören. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, doi:10.1111/obes.12205

Abstract: This paper advances a new country-level measure of ethno-linguistic diversity, making use of Greenberg's definition of diversity by synthesizing information on the share of different ethno-linguistic groups in a country's population and, more importantly, information on intergroup linguistic distances derived from a recently developed lexicostatistical approach. I show that this measure captures ethno-linguistic diversity at lower levels of linguistic aggregation. However, unlike the commonly used phylogenetic language tree approach, I found that these distance-weighted diversity measures continue to have a strong negative statistical association with economic growth that is not sensitive to the underlying resemblance function between ethno-linguistic groups.

Check also Ethnic Diversity and Poverty. By Sefa Awawory Churchill, Russell Smyth
http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/06/ethnic-and-linguistic-fractionalization.html
World Development, Volume 95, July 2017, Pages 285–302

Musical improvisation skill makes men more attractive as mates. Implications for the origin of music

Musical improvisation skill in a prospective partner is associated with mate value and preferences, consistent with sexual selection and parental investment theory: Implications for the origin of music. Guy Madison, Jakob Holmquist, Mattias Vestin. Evolution and Human Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2017.10.005

Abstract: Music is a human universal, which suggests a biological adaptation. Several evolutionary explanations have been proposed, covering the entire spectrum of natural, sexual, and group selection. Here we consider the hypothesis that musical behaviour constitutes a reliable or even costly signal of fitness, and thus may have evolved as a human trait through sexual selection. We experimentally tested how musical performance quality (MPQ), in improvisations on the drums, saxophone, and violin, affects mate values and mate preferences perceived by a prospective partner. Swedish student participants (27 of each sex) saw a face of a person of the opposite sex and heard a piece of improvised music being played. The music occurred in three levels of MPQ and the faces in three levels of facial attractiveness (FA). For each parametric combination of MPG and FA, the participants rated four mate value scales (intelligence, health, social status, and parenting skill) and four mate preference scales (date, intercourse, and short- and long term relationship). Consistent with sexual selection theory, mate value ratings were generally increased by MPQ for raters of both sexes. Consistent with more specific hypotheses that follow from combining sexual selection and parental investment theory, women’s but not men’s preference for a long-term, but not short-term, relationship was significantly increased by MPQ, MPQ generally affected women’s ratings more than men’s, FA generally affected men’s ratings more than women’s, and women’s ratings of intelligence were even more influenced by MPQ than by FA.

Keywords: music; evolution; sexual selection; costly signalling; parental investment theory; fitness display; mate value; mate preference; music performance; skill; mating; adaptation; selection pressure

---Posted to a Facebook forum, a comment to this abstract was (https://www.facebook.com/groups/52551573343/permalink/10154984070543344/?comment_id=10154985709673344&notif_id=1509140218997086&notif_t=group_comment):

Z S: did I ever mention evolutionary psychology is dominated by male researchers? :D just saying

I wrote to one of the authors asking for a reply. Stay tuned.

Robust Sex Differences in Jigsaw Puzzle Solving—Are Boys Really Better in Most Visuospatial Tasks?

Robust Sex Differences in Jigsaw Puzzle Solving—Are Boys Really Better in Most Visuospatial Tasks? Vid Kocijan, Marina Horvat and Gregor Majdic. Front. Behav. Neurosci., October 23 2017. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2017.00194

Abstract: Sex differences are consistently reported in different visuospatial tasks with men usually performing better in mental rotation tests while women are better on tests for memory of object locations. In the present study, we investigated sex differences in solving jigsaw puzzles in children. In total 22 boys and 24 girls were tested using custom build tablet application representing a jigsaw puzzle consisting of 25 pieces and featuring three different pictures. Girls outperformed boys in solving jigsaw puzzles regardless of the picture. Girls were faster than boys in solving the puzzle, made less incorrect moves with the pieces of the puzzle, and spent less time moving the pieces around the tablet. It appears that the strategy of solving the jigsaw puzzle was the main factor affecting differences in success, as girls tend to solve the puzzle more systematically while boys performed more trial and error attempts, thus having more incorrect moves with the puzzle pieces. Results of this study suggest a very robust sex difference in solving the jigsaw puzzle with girls outperforming boys by a large margin.

‘Big push’ policies can fail, it is important the reliability and gradual increases in technological complexity

Contagious disruptions and complexity traps in economic development. Charles Brummitt et al. Nature Human Behaviour 1, 665–672 (2017), September 2017. DOI:10.1038/s41562-017-0190-6

Abstract: Poor economies not only produce less; they typically produce things that involve fewer inputs and fewer intermediate steps. Yet the supply chains of poor countries face more frequent disruptions — delivery failures, faulty parts, delays, power outages, theft and government failures — that systematically thwart the production process. To understand how these disruptions affect economic development, we modelled an evolving input–output network in which disruptions spread contagiously among optimizing agents. The key finding was that a poverty trap can emerge: agents adapt to frequent disruptions by producing simpler, less valuable goods, yet disruptions persist. Growing out of poverty requires that agents invest in buffers to disruptions. These buffers rise and then fall as the economy produces more complex goods, a prediction consistent with global patterns of input inventories. Large jumps in economic complexity can backfire. This result suggests why ‘big push’ policies can fail and it underscores the importance of reliability and gradual increases in technological complexity.

Solitude has a deactivation effect on people’s affective experiences, decreasing positive & negative high-arousal affects

Solitude as an Approach to Affective Self-Regulation. Thuy-vy T. Nguyen, Richard M. Ryan, Edward L. Deci. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167217733073

Abstract: In this research, we showed that solitude generally has a deactivation effect on people’s affective experiences, decreasing both positive and negative high-arousal affects. In Study 1, we found that the deactivation effect occurred when people were alone, but not when they were with another person. Study 2 showed that this deactivation effect did not depend on whether or not the person was engaged in an activity such as reading when alone. In Study 3, high-arousal positive affect did not drop in a solitude condition in which participants specifically engaged in positive thinking or when they actively chose what to think about. Finally, in Study 4, we found that solitude could lead to relaxation and reduced stress when individuals actively chose to be alone. This research thus shed light on solitude effects in the past literature, and on people’s experiences when alone and the different factors that moderate these effects.

My commentary: What about other species, like primates?

Significant hump-shaped relation between genetic variation and financial market size

Financial Markets and Genetic Variation. Eric Cardella, Ivalina Kalcheva & Danjue Shang. Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1042443117300392

Highlights
•    We examine the relation between genetic variation and financial market activity.
•    We use country-level data on predicted genetic variation and financial market size.
•    Significant hump-shaped relation between genetic variation and financial market size.
•    Results are restricted specifically to equity market size (vs. debt market size).
•    Better country-level governance moderates the effect of genetic variation.

Abstract: We investigate the extent to which a country’s degree of genetic variation contributes to the observed variation in financial market activity across countries. We postulate that genetic variation can affect financial markets through its impact on aggregate investment behavior, innovation in the financial sector, and productivity. Our country-level, cross-sectional analysis reveals a significant hump-shaped relation between a country’s predicted genetic variation and the size of its financial markets. This result is consistent with the conjecture that at relatively intermediate degrees of genetic variation, the associated intermediate levels of trust and risk-taking within the country result in the largest investment flows into public financial markets. Our results are robust to different measres of financial market size, several regression specifications, and the inclusion of a broad range of controls such as legal origin, institutional characteristics, culture, natural endowment, and trade openness. Our main findings appear to be restricted specifically to equity markets (vs. debt markets) where there is relatively more uncertainty and, thus, trust and risk-taking are relatively more important. Additional analysis suggests that better overall country-level governance can moderate the role that genetic variation plays in shaping equity market size.

Biased decision-making in international financial institutions -- mechanical rules overridden to assign a different official rating

Room for discretion? Biased decision-making in international financial institutions. Valentin Lang & Andrea Presbitero. Journal of Development Economics, Volume 130, January 2018, Pages 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2017.09.001

Abstract: We exploit the degree of discretion embedded in the World Bank-IMF Debt Sustainability Framework (DSF) to understand the decision-making process of international financial institutions. The unique, internal dataset we use covers the universe of debt sustainability analyses conducted between December 2006 and January 2015 for low-income countries. These data allow us to identify cases where the risk rating implied by the application of the DSF's mechanical rules was overridden to assign a different official rating. Our results show that both political interests and bureaucratic incentives influence the decision to intervene in the mechanical decision-making process. Countries that are politically aligned with the institutions' major shareholders are more likely to receive an improved rating; especially in election years and when the mechanical assessment is not clear-cut. These results suggest that the room for discretion international financial institutions have can be a channel for informal governance and a source of biased decision-making.

Keywords: International organizations; Political economy; IMF; World Bank; Debt sustainability

Teaching personal initiative beats traditional training in boosting small business

Teaching personal initiative beats traditional training in boosting small business in West Africa. Francisco Campos et al. Science, Sep 22 2017, Vol. 357, Issue 6357, pp. 1287-1290. DOI: 10.1126/science.aan5329

Abstract: Standard business training programs aim to boost the incomes of the millions of self-employed business owners in developing countries by teaching basic financial and marketing practices, yet the impacts of such programs are mixed. We tested whether a psychology-based personal initiative training approach, which teaches a proactive mindset and focuses on entrepreneurial behaviors, could have more success. A randomized controlled trial in Togo assigned microenterprise owners to a control group (n = 500), a leading business training program (n = 500), or a personal initiative training program (n = 500). Four follow-up surveys tracked outcomes for firms over 2 years and showed that personal initiative training increased firm profits by 30%, compared with a statistically insignificant 11% for traditional training. The training is cost-effective, paying for itself within 1 year.

Beyond questionable research methods: The role of omitted relevant research in the credibility of research

Schmidt, Frank L. (2017). Beyond questionable research methods: The role of omitted relevant research in the credibility of research. Archives of Scientific Psychology, 5(1), 32-41. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/arc0000033

ABSTRACT: Governments often base social intervention programs on studies done by psychologists and other social scientists. Often these studies fail to mention other research suggesting that such interventions may have a limited chance of actually working. The omitted research that is not mentioned often shows that the behaviors and performances targeted for improvement by the environmental intervention programs are mostly caused by genetic differences between people and for that reason may be more difficult to change than implied in these studies. This is particularly true when the goal is to greatly reduce or eliminate differences between people in such domains as school achievement, impulsive behaviors, or intelligence. This problem of omitted research creates two problems. It tends to call into question the credibility of all social science research, even the studies that do not omit relevant research. And from an applied point of view, it leads to the expenditure of taxpayer dollars on programs that are unlikely to produce the desired outcomes.

SCIENTIFIC ABSTRACT: This article explores an important credibility problem in the research literature beyond the issue of questionable data analysis methods: the problem of omission of relevant previous research in published research articles. This article focuses on this problem in 2 areas: (a) studies purporting to demonstrate the effects of people’s experiences on their later life outcomes while failing to discuss or mention the probable causal role of genetic inheritance in producing these effects, despite the strong evidence for this connection from behavior genetics research; and (b) studies of specific aptitudes (specific abilities) such as verbal, spatial, or reasoning that fail to acknowledge or mention that such aptitudes are indicator variables for general mental ability (GMA; or intelligence) and that after proper control for GMA the residuals in these aptitudes make essentially no contribution to prediction of real world academic, occupational, or job performance. It is only the GMA component in such aptitudes that produces the ability to predict. As is well known today, the issue of the credibility of research conclusions is prominent (Ioannidis, 2005). In both the areas examined in this article, these deficiencies create serious and unnecessary credibility problems, and the doubts they inspire about credibility could unfortunately be generalized to other research areas in which these problems do not exist.

KEYWORDS: research credibility, behavior genetics, general mental ability, intelligence, specific abilities

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The purpose of this article is to draw attention to an important problem in the research literature beyond the issue of questionable statistical data analysis methods in research. That is the problem of the omission of relevant research findings in published research articles. This article has focused on this problem in two areas. The first area consists of studies purporting to demonstrate the effects of people’s experiences on their life outcomes. Many studies drawing causal conclusions about these experiences fail to mention the probable causal role of genetic inheritance in producing these effects, despite the overwhelming evidence for this connection from behavior genetics research. The second area consists of studies of specific aptitudes (specific abilities) such as verbal, quantitative, and spatial, or reasoning. Many such studies fail to acknowledge or even mention that such aptitudes are indicator variables for GMA and that after proper control for GMA the residuals in these aptitudes make essentially no contribution to prediction of real world academic, occupational, or job performance. It is only the GMA component in such aptitudes that produces the ability to predict.

A reviewer suggested that research areas beyond the two examined in this article should be addressed. However, the first area examined here is very broad and includes research in many areas and specialties of psychology and the social sciences. These include the research areas of academic achievement, aggressive behavior, abusive behavior within families, failure in intimate relationships, authoritative versus authoritarian parenting, effects of parental reading on children, later effects of self-control displayed in childhood, and effects of personality traits on behaviors and perceptions. These multiple areas of research are all observational or correlational. Areas of experimental research are not included because (in theory) randomization of subject assignment controls for hidden or unrecognized causal variables (lurking variables; Joiner, 1981). However, experimental psychology research as typically found in the literature, although not subject to the problems examined in this article, has other serious problems; for example, see Schmidt and Oh (2016). In addition, Jussim, Crawford, Anglin, Stevens, and Duarte (2016) discussed the tendency in experimental social psychology for researchers to fail to consider alternative and plausible interpretations of their findings and pointed out that this omission reduces the credibility of their research conclusions.

The issue of the credibility of research conclusions is prominent today (Ioannidis, 2005). In both the areas examined in this article, these deficiencies create serious and unnecessary credibility problems, and the doubts they inspire about research credibility could unfortunately be generalized inappropriately to other research areas in which these problems do not exist. So it is important that this problem be addressed and corrected.

However, it is also important not to leave the impression that all studies have these problems. Studies can be found that are exemplary. One example is the study by Dinescu et al. (2016). This study examined the hypothesis that when people marry, their level of alcohol consumption decreases. They acknowledged that marriage per se might not be the causal variable and that people who marry might be genetically different from those who do not. So they controlled for genetic effects using a sample of 1,703 monozygotic and 722 dizygotic twins. Their results showed the even after controlling for genetic effects, people drank less after marriage than they had before marriage. Another exemplary study is Gotlib et al. (2015). This study found that apparently healthy women whose mothers suffered from depression had shorter telomeres and greater cortisol reactivity to stress than did women whose mothers had never been depressed. They acknowledged that this effect could be genetic or environmental or both, and they called for research to determine the relative contributions of genetic and environmental causes. There is another particularly important example. For over 25 years, Terrie Moffitt and Avshalom Caspi have conducted longitudinal research studies that have taken into account both genetic and environmental contributions to  human behaviors. And in 2016 they received the Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award for this work from the American Psychological Association (Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions, 2016). These and other examples in the literature show that it is possible to conduct research of the type called for in this article.

The hope is that the information presented in this article will lead to recognition in the literature of the role of behavior genetics findings in studies interpreting relationships between experiences and later life outcomes; and to recognition of the central role of GMA in studies examining specific aptitudes and abilities. At present the literatures in these two areas contain many studies that are scientifically incomplete. These changes are important for establishment of the credibility of research conclusions in these areas and may help to deter credibility losses across other areas of research.

Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Twin-killing in some traditional societies: An economic perspective

Twin-killing in some traditional societies: An economic perspective. Andrés Marroquín & Colleen Haight. Journal of Bioeconomics, October 2017, October 2017, Volume 19, Issue 3, pp 261–279. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10818-017-9249-8

Abstract: Historically, some societies around the world killed newborn twins, though the practice was forsaken in the early twentieth century. Anthropologists have proposed different theses: (1) the delivery of twins occurred when the mother cheated on her husband, or committed a great sin, and killing the twins was the penalty, (2) twin-killing was done to assert that human beings were different from animals among which multiple births in the same delivery were seen, (3) twins brought a dilemma to the kinship structure of societies and to cope with it different rules were adopted, twin-killing being the extreme one, (4) twin-killing was a means to face resource stress. We argue that although those interpretations are useful, we can improve the understanding of that phenomenon by adding an identity economics model, where twins are a taboo. Identity economics helps us explain the persistence of the practice and its eventual decline. We make our case with examples from the Igbo of Nigeria.

No evidence that preferences for facial masculinity track changes in women's hormonal status

No evidence that preferences for facial masculinity track changes in women's hormonal status. Benedict C. Jones, Amanda C. Hahn, Claire I. Fisher, Hongyi Wang, Michal Kandrik, Chengyang Han, Vanessa Fasolt, Danielle Morrison, Iris J. Holzleitner, Kieran J. O'Shea, Craig Roberts, Anthony C. Little, Lisa M. DeBruine. Available at bioRxiv 136549; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/136549

Abstract: Although widely cited as strong evidence that sexual selection has shaped human facial attractiveness judgments, evidence that preferences for masculine characteristics in men's faces are related to women's hormonal status is equivocal and controversial. Consequently, we conducted the largest ever longitudinal study of the hormonal correlates of women's preferences for facial masculinity (N=584). Analyses showed no evidence that preferences for facial masculinity were related to changes in women's salivary steroid hormone levels. Furthermore, both within-subject and between-subject comparisons showed no evidence that oral contraceptive use decreased masculinity preferences. However, women generally preferred masculinized over feminized versions of men's faces, particularly when assessing men's attractiveness for short-term, rather than long-term, relationships. Our results do not support the hypothesized link between women's preferences for facial masculinity and their hormonal status.

More lumbar curvature increased perception of attractiveness of girls, men looked longer & fixated more on the hip region

Pazhoohi, F., Doyle, J.F., Macedo, A.F. et al. Evolutionary Psychological Science (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40806-017-0123-7

Abstract: It is common in studies of human mate preference to have participants judge the attractiveness of photographs in which models adopt a neutral facial expression or a neutral body posture. However, it is unlikely that humans adopt neutral expressions and postures in normal social circumstances. One way in which posture can vary is in the curvature of the lower spine. In some non-human animals, a “lordotic” posture (in which the lower spine is curved towards the belly) is associated in females with readiness to mate. In humans, this posture may serve a similar function, attracting heterosexual men. In this study, participants were presented with computer-generated images of female bodies in which the back curvature was systematically manipulated. The result showed that small changes in lumbar curvature are associated with changes in the perception of attractiveness. Specifically, the result showed that there is a relationship between the range of the back curvatures used in this study and attractiveness, such that increasing the curvature increased the perception of attractiveness. Additionally, as the curvature increased, participants looked longer and fixated more on the hip region of the female bodies. This paper argues that the attractiveness of women in lordotic posture is due to a conserved mechanism across the taxa which signals proceptivity to men.

Check also: Behavioral display of lumbar curvature in response to the opposite sex. Zeynep Şenveli Bilkent University, Graduate Program in Neuroscience - Master's degree thesis. http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/08/behavioral-display-of-lumbar-curvature.html

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Carl J. Armstrong Jr.'s comment on this >>> Counter-explanation: Lumbar curvature may be a critical factor in mobility during late pregnancy. Lordotic posture--demonstrating lumbar mobility--may signal healthy mobility during reproduction.

Likewise, given that spinal asymmetry drives breast asymmetry, breast fullness and symmetry may also indicate part of the same mobility-during-pregnancy by telegraphing spinal health and motility....

New evidence that ageing societies become more risk-averse

Global Evidence on Economic Preferences. Armin Falk, Anke Becker, Thomas Dohmen, Benjamin Enke, David B. Huffman, Uwe Sunde. NBER Working Paper No. 23943. http://www.nber.org/papers/w23943

Abstract: This paper studies the global variation in economic preferences. For this purpose, we present the Global Preference Survey (GPS), an experimentally validated survey dataset of time preference, risk preference, positive and negative reciprocity, altruism, and trust from 80,000 individuals in 76 countries. The data reveal substantial heterogeneity in preferences across countries, but even larger within-country heterogeneity. Across individuals, preferences vary with age, gender, and cognitive ability, yet these relationships appear partly country specific. At the country level, the data reveal correlations between preferences and bio-geographic and cultural variables such as agricultural suitability, language structure, and religion. Variation in preferences is also correlated with economic outcomes and behaviors. Within countries and subnational regions, preferences are linked to individual savings decisions, labor market choices, and prosocial behaviors. Across countries, preferences vary with aggregate outcomes ranging from per capita income, to entrepreneurial activities, to the frequency of armed conflicts.

More than 50% or Less than 70% Chance: Pragmatic Implications of Single-Bound Probability Estimates

Hohle, S. M., and Teigen, K. H. (2017) More than 50% or Less than 70% Chance: Pragmatic Implications of Single-Bound Probability Estimates. J. Behav. Dec. Making, doi: 10.1002/bdm.2052

Abstract: Probability estimates can be given as ranges or uncertainty intervals, where often only one of the interval bounds (lower or upper) is specified. For instance, a climate forecast can describe La Niña as having “more than 70% chance” or “less than 90% chance” of occurring. In three experiments, we studied how research participants perceived climate-related forecasts expressed with lower-bound (“over X% chance”) or upper-bound (“under Y% chance”) probability statements. Results indicate that such single-bound statements give pragmatic information in addition to the numeric probabilities they convey. First, the studies show that these statements are directional, leading the listeners' attention in opposite directions. “Over” statements guide attention towards the possible occurrence of the event and are explained by reasons for why it might happen, while “under” statements direct attention to its possible non-occurrence and are more often explained by reasons for why the target event might not appear, corresponding to positive (it is possible) versus negative (it is uncertain) verbal probabilities. Second, boundaries were found to reveal the forecaster's beliefs and could be perceived as indicative of an increasing or a decreasing trend. Single-bound probability estimates are therefore not neutral communications of probability level but might “leak” information about the speaker's expectations and about past and future developments of the forecast.