Cooperation & Learning in Unfamiliar Situations:The evidence is more consistent with the idea that people stop cooperating in unfamiliar situations because they learn that it does not help them, either financially or through social approval

Cooperation and Learning in Unfamiliar Situations. William H. B. McAuliffe, Maxwell N. Burton-Chellew, Michael E. McCullough. Current Directions in Psychological Science, June 24, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721419848673

Abstract: Human social life is rife with uncertainty. In any given encounter, one can wonder whether cooperation will generate future benefits. Many people appear to resolve this dilemma by initially cooperating, perhaps because (a) encounters in everyday life often have future consequences, and (b) the costs of alienating oneself from long-term social partners often outweighed the short-term benefits of acting selfishly over our evolutionary history. However, because cooperating with other people does not always advance self-interest, people might also learn to withhold cooperation in certain situations. Here, we review evidence for two ideas: that people (a) initially cooperate or not depending on the incentives that are typically available in their daily lives and (b) also learn through experience to adjust their cooperation on the basis of the incentives of unfamiliar situations. We compare these claims with the widespread view that anonymously helping strangers in laboratory settings is motivated by altruistic desires. We conclude that the evidence is more consistent with the idea that people stop cooperating in unfamiliar situations because they learn that it does not help them, either financially or through social approval.

Keywords: cooperation, prediction error, economic games, altruism, habit

Contrary to assumption, it appears that sleep duration in the absence of electricity is not significantly longer than it is in contemporary Western society

Chapter 21 - Hunter-Gatherer Sleep and Novel Human Sleep Adaptations. Gandhi Yetish, Ronald McGregor. Handbook of Behavioral Neuroscience, Volume 30, 2019, Pages 317-331. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-813743-7.00021-9

Abstract: In this volume, we review sleep in diverse, nonelectric populations worldwide and present some background on the different lifestyles of these populations. In particular, we focus on hunter-gatherers and foragers, because humans lived as foragers, exclusively, since we first evolved, 315,000 years ago, until the first recorded instance of agriculture, 9500 years ago. While modern foragers cannot be seen as an analogue for the past, they do present a unique lens to study how people's biology and behavior respond to contemporary hunting and gathering conditions. Rather than advance arguments that one population sleeps better than all the rest, we approach sleep as an adaptation, shaped by natural selection, that allows people to best fit their sleep into their specific conditions. We discuss how this approach can improve our understanding of worldwide variation in sleep and suggest some ways it may apply to sleep patterns in the West as well.

In an era where expertise is increasingly critiqued, we draw from the research on expertise & scientist stereotyping to explore who the public considers to be a scientist in the context of media coverage about climate change & GMOs

Public perceptions of who counts as a scientist for controversial science. Brianne Suldovsky, Asheley Landrum, Natalie Jomini Stroud. Public Understanding of Science, June 24, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662519856768

Abstract: In an era where expertise is increasingly critiqued, this study draws from the research on expertise and scientist stereotyping to explore who the public considers to be a scientist in the context of media coverage about climate change and genetically modified organisms. Using survey data from the United States, we find that political ideology and science knowledge affect who the US public believes is a scientist in these domains. Our results suggest important differences in the role of science media attention and science media selection in the publics “scientist” labeling. In addition, we replicate previous work and find that compared to other people who work in science, those with PhDs in Biology and Chemistry are most commonly seen as scientists.

Keywords: climate change, expertise, genetically modified organisms, media, scientist stereotypes

More lobbying with economic concentration through corporate mergers and acquisitions & to defend themselves against increasingly liberal Democrats

The Political and Economic Roots of Corporate Political Activity. William Massengill. 2019, PhD Thesis, Ohio State University, Political Science. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1553961091240596

Abstract: Scholars, journalists, and pundits frequently bemoan the rising involvement of large corporations in American politics. But the ability of firms to influence policymakers often depends on features of their political and economic environments, as well as internal constraints, such as organizational structure and business decisions. Unfortunately, however, we know relatively little about how some of the most important recent political and economic trends affect firm political decisions. This dissertation uses novel data to examine how two of these trends - party polarization in American legislatures and economic concentration through corporate mergers and acquisitions - affect the lobbying efforts and PAC contributions of large corporations. I find that, in some ways, each of these trends increases corporate political involvement. Specifically, corporations lobby more, and harder, as legislatures polarize, but they do so primarily in response to rising liberalism among Democrats. I also find that corporate acquisitions prompt purchasers to become more politically engaged. After acquiring a large firm (i.e., a target firm), purchasers direct PAC contributions to more candidates, many of whom were supported by the target prior to the acquisition. In addition, purchasers increase their lobbying efforts to some extent: they hire more lobbyists and lobby on more bills. These results suggest that the rising economic power of large firms has facilitated their increasingly intense involvement in American politics. In acquiring other firms, purchasers obtain political as well as economic resources. And they appear to use these resources to defend their interests against increasingly liberal Democrats.

Body-odor based assessments of sex and personality – Non-significant differences between blind and sighted odor raters

Body-odor based assessments of sex and personality – Non-significant differences between blind and sighted odor raters. Agnieszka Sorokowska, Anna Oleszkiewicz. Physiology & Behavior, June 24 2019, 112573. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2019.112573

Highlights
•    We tested if visual status modulates sensitivity to socially-relevant cues carried by body odors.
•    28 blind and 13 sighted people assessed sex, neuroticism and dominance of odor donors based on body odor samples.
•    Blind and sighted people did not differ in rating accuracy.

Abstract: People exhibit different sensitivity to the signaling properties of body odors in the social context. Here, we aimed to investigate whether visual status modulates sensitivity to socially-relevant cues carried by body odors and whether it affects psychophysical ratings of such smells. We compared abilities of 19 early-blind, 9 late-blind and 13 sighted people to accurately assess sex, neuroticism and dominance of odor donors based on body odor samples. We showed that early blind, late blind and sighted people do not differ in accuracy of sex and personality assessments based on body odor samples. Additionally, the three participating groups perceived the presented body odor samples as similarly intense, pleasant and attractive. We discuss our findings in the context of interpersonal olfactory communication and olfactory compensation.

The more modest the therapists’ estimation of therapeutic outcome was, the greater the actual therapeutic change

Modest, yet progressive: Effective therapists tend to rate therapeutic change less positively than their patients. Max Ziem & Juergen Hoyer. Psychotherapy Research, Jun 21 2019, https://doi.org/10.1080/10503307.2019.1631502

Abstract
Objective: Empirical findings on self-serving biases amongst psychotherapists are inconsistent. We tested in a large naturalistic data set, if therapists are prone to illusory superiority when estimating their patients’ outcome and whether this effect is buffered by therapists’ effectiveness.

Method: A post-hoc analysis with N = 69 therapists, who treated N = 1080 patients, was conducted. Therapists’ and patients’ mean ratings for therapeutic improvement in the Clinical Global Impression Scale (CGI) were compared. Using a multilevel modelling approach, we further investigated the relation between the patient-therapist divergence in the CGI and actual therapeutic change in the Global Severity Index (GSI) of the Brief Symptom Inventory and in the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS).

Results: Ratings in the CGI did not show significant differences between patients’ and therapists’ assessment of therapeutic change. Lower estimations by therapists, compared to patients’ self-report, were associated with greater therapeutic change in GSI and SWLS.

Conclusions: Therapists, on a whole, did not seem to be prone to illusory superiority when assessing therapeutic outcome. Contrary, the more modest the therapists’ estimation of therapeutic outcome was, the greater the actual therapeutic change.

Keywords: psychotherapy research, self-assessment, therapeutic outcome, illusory superiority, therapist performance

Completing moral dilemmas in front of mirrors increases deontological but not utilitarian response tendencies; this suggests that those decisions in moral dilemmas may partially reflect self-awareness & concerns about one’s image

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is deontological? Completing moral dilemmas in front of mirrors increases deontological but not utilitarian response tendencies. Caleb J. Reynolds, Kassidy R. Knighten, Paul Conway. Cognition, Volume 192, November 2019, 103993. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2019.06.005

Abstract: Recent evidence suggests moral dilemma responses reflect concerns about image and identity. If so, enhancing self-awareness should impact dilemma responses—possibly increasing both harm-rejection (consistent with deontological philosophy) and outcome-maximization tendencies (consistent with utilitarian philosophy). Yet, conventional analyses may not detect such effects because they treat harm-rejection and outcome-maximization tendencies as diametric opposites. Instead, we employed process dissociation to assess these response tendencies independently. Across two studies (n = 370), participants who completed dilemmas in front of mirrors—a classic manipulation of self-awareness—tended to reject harm more than those in a control condition. However, the mirror manipulation did not systematically increase outcome-maximization tendencies. These findings suggest that deontological decisions in moral dilemmas may partially reflect self-awareness and concerns about one’s image.

The stigma of a criminal record is damaging for Blacks & Latinas who disclose parole in online dating bios; for White females, disclosure of parole may even help their online dating match success

Full disclosure: experimental analysis of female online dating on parole. Douglas N. Evans. Journal of Experimental Criminology, June 2019, Volume 15, Issue 2, pp 179–199. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11292-019-09357-2

Abstract
Objectives: Research has considered the effect of convictions on employment and housing outcomes, but there are limited studies exploring how criminal justice contact affects the initiation of relationships. This study uses an experimental design to explore how people react to criminal stigma in the context of online dating.

Methods: Female online dating profiles were created using pre-rated, open access photographs of women that varied in race (Black, White, Latino). These three profiles comprised the control condition. The experimental condition consisted of the same exact three profiles with one exception: a brief mention of their being on parole in written profile bios. The three profiles attempted to match with 6000 online daters each in the control and experimental conditions across 18 online dating platforms (N = 36,000).

Results: Findings indicate that the Black and Latina profiles matched significantly less frequently when disclosing parole. In the parole disclosure condition, White female profiles received significantly more matches than Black and Latino profiles, and White females disclosing parole matched at a higher rate than White females not disclosing parole.

Conclusions: The stigma of a criminal record is damaging for Blacks and Latinas who disclose parole in online dating bios, but for White females, disclosure of parole does not hinder and may even help their online dating match success. The stigma of being minority appears to compound criminal stigma in online dating. This has crucial implications for the relationships of formerly incarcerated because prosocial romantic relationships reduce recidivism.

Keywords: Criminal stigma Experimental design Online dating Parole disclosure Women Relationships

Facial blushing: Redder faces influenced perceived embarrassment, apology sincerity, and likeliness to forgive a transgression

Facial blushing influences perceived embarrassment and related social functional evaluations. Christopher A. Thorstenson, Adam D. Pazda & Stephanie Lichtenfeld. Cognition and Emotion, Jun 23 2019. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2019.1634004

ABSTRACT: Facial blushing involves a reddening of the face elicited in situations involving unwanted social attention. Such situations include being caught committing a social transgression, which is typically considered embarrassing. While recent research has demonstrated that facial redness can influence social evaluations, including emotional states such as perceived anger, the influence of blushing on social perceptions related to embarrassment or social transgression has yet to be investigated. Across three experiments, we manipulated the redness of neutral faces (Exp. 1) and faces displaying different emotional expressions (Exps. 2 and 3), and had participants evaluate perceived embarrassment, apology sincerity, and likeliness to forgive a transgression for each set of stimuli. Results indicated that redder (relative to baseline) faces influenced perceived embarrassment, apology sincerity, and likeliness to forgive a transgression. We discuss the implications in the context of a social functional account of facial colour in emotion expression and perception.

KEYWORDS: Blushing, face colour, embarrassment, social function

Replicated previous findings that parenting motivation and parenthood predicted social conservatism; the effect, which small, is mediated by both mating orientation and belief in a dangerous world

Politics and Parental Care: Experimental and Mediational Tests of the Causal Link between Parenting Motivation and Social Conservatism. Nicholas T Kerry, Damian R. Murray. Human Behavior and Evolution Society 31st annual meeting. Boston 2019. http://tiny.cc/aa1w6y

Abstract: People vary greatly in their desire to have children, their affective reactions towards children, and their willingness to care for children. This variation in “parenting motivation” predicts a wide range of cognition and behavior. Strategic perspectives on political attitudes suggest that parenting motivation should be associated with more socially conservative attitudes, since these attitudes prioritize norms that emphasize self protection, and discourage short-term sexual behavior. Three studies replicated previous findings that parenting motivation and parenthood predicted social conservatism, and found that parenthood mediated age- and sex-differences in social conservatism. Study 1 (n = 347) found that an experimental child-interaction prime increased social conservatism in parents, but not in non-parents. Studies 2 and 3 (preregistered, n’s=803; 763) found a small main effect of the prime (marginally significant in Study 3). An internal meta-analysis found evidence of a small main effect, and exploratory post-hoc tests revealed that this effect was entirely driven by 25-35 year-olds across the three studies. Study 3 also found that the relationship between parenting motivation and social conservatism was mediated by both mating orientation and belief in a dangerous world. These findings provide support for the idea of a functional relationship between parenthood, parenting motivation, and social conservatism.

The functional basis of disgust in disease avoidance is widely accepted; however, there is disagreement over what disgust is

A Proximal Perspective on Disgust. Richard J. Stevenson et al. Emotion Review, June 23, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073919853355

Abstract: The functional basis of disgust in disease avoidance is widely accepted; however, there is disagreement over what disgust is. This is a significant problem, as basic questions about disgust require knowing if single/multiple forms/processes exist. We address this issue with a new model with one form of disgust generated by multiple processes: (a) pure disgust experienced during gastrointestinal illness; (b) somatosensory disgust elicited by specific cues that activate the pure disgust state; (c) anticipatory disgust elicited by associations between distance cues for somatosensory disgust and requiring threat evaluation; (d) simulated disgusts elicited by imagining somatosensory and anticipatory disgust and frequently involving other emotions. Different contamination processes interlink (a–d). The implications of our model for fundamental questions about disgust (e.g., emotion status; continuation into animals) are examined.

Keywords: disgust, emotion, gustation, olfaction, pain, somatosensation, state

How the voice persuades

Van Zant, A. B., & Berger, J. (2019). How the voice persuades. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000193

Abstract: Research has examined persuasive language, but relatively little is known about how persuasive people are when they attempt to persuade through paralanguage, or acoustic properties of speech (e.g., pitch and volume). People often detect and react against what communicators say, but might they be persuaded by speakers’ attempts to modulate how they say it? Four experiments support this possibility, demonstrating that communicators engaging in paralinguistic persuasion attempts (i.e., modulating their voice to persuade) naturally use paralinguistic cues that influence perceivers’ attitudes and choice. Rather than being effective because they go undetected, however, the results suggest a subtler possibility. Even when they are detected, paralinguistic attempts succeed because they make communicators seem more confident without undermining their perceived sincerity. Consequently, speakers’ confident vocal demeanor persuades others by serving as a signal that they more strongly endorse the stance they take in their message. Further, we find that paralinguistic approaches to persuasion can be uniquely effective even when linguistic ones are not. A cross-study exploratory analysis and replication experiment reveal that communicators tend to speak louder and vary their volume during paralinguistic persuasion attempts, both of which signal confidence and, in turn, facilitate persuasion.

Perceptions of a romantic partner’s approach and avoidance motives: Accuracy, bias, and emotional cues

LaBuda, J. E., Gere, J., & Impett, E. A. (2019). Perceptions of a romantic partner’s approach and avoidance motives: Accuracy, bias, and emotional cues. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000256

Abstract: We examined tracking accuracy and bias (mean-level and projection) in people’s perceptions of their romantic partner’s relationship approach and avoidance motives, similarity in partners’ motives, and positive and negative emotions as potential cues used to make judgments about a partner’s daily motives and motives during shared activities. Using data from 2 studies, 1 using daily diaries (N = 2,158 daily reports), the other using reports of shared activities (N = 1,228 activity reports), we found evidence of tracking accuracy and projection across samples; we also found evidence of mean-level bias such that people underperceived their partner’s approach (daily) and avoidance motives (daily and in shared activities). Partners had similar daily approach and avoidance motives but were not similar in their motives during shared activities. Further, our studies indicated that emotions often serve as relevant, available, and detectable cues for judging a partner’s motives. The results demonstrate that accuracy and bias are both present in judgments of a romantic partner’s approach and avoidance motives, and that people often, but not always, use their partner’s emotions to make such judgments.

Social metacognition in moral judgment: Decisional conflict promotes perspective taking

Mata, A. (2019). Social metacognition in moral judgment: Decisional conflict promotes perspective taking. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000170

Abstract: A series of studies explored people’s metacognition about moral judgments. These studies begin by demonstrating a metacognitive asymmetry: When faced with a dilemma, consequentialist responders tend to feel more conflict than deontological responders, such that they feel more compelled to give the alternative response. As a consequence, they are aware that other people might make different judgments from them. Deontological responders, on the other hand, are less likely to consider giving the alternative response, and are therefore more likely to project their moral judgments onto others. Results from experimental manipulations, mediational analyses, and process dissociation suggest that these differences in social inference originate in the conflict that people feel when trying to form moral judgments.

Human inability to adequately discount redundant information: Perceivers’ impressions are systematically biased by the unfolding of a performance sequence when observations are cumulative

Alves, H., & Mata, A. (2019). The redundancy in cumulative information and how it biases impressions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,  http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000169

Abstract: The present work identifies a so-far overlooked bias in sequential impression formation. When the latent qualities of competitors are inferred from a cumulative sequence of observations (e.g., the sum of points collected by sports teams), impressions should be based solely on the most recent observation because all previous observations are redundant. Based on the well-documented human inability to adequately discount redundant information, we predicted the existence of a cumulative redundancy bias. Accordingly, perceivers’ impressions are systematically biased by the unfolding of a performance sequence when observations are cumulative. This bias favors leading competitors and persists even when the end result of the performance sequence is known. We demonstrated this cumulative redundancy bias in 8 experiments in which participants had to sequentially form impressions about the qualities of two competitors from different performance domains (i.e., computer algorithms, stocks, and soccer teams). We consistently found that perceivers’ impressions were biased by cumulative redundancy. Specifically, impressions about the winner and the loser of a sequence were more divergent when the winner took an early lead compared with a late lead. When the sequence ended in a draw, participants formed more favorable impressions about the competitor who was ahead during most observations. We tested and ruled out several alternative explanations related to primacy effects, counterfactual thinking, and heuristic beliefs. We discuss the wide-ranging implications of our findings for impression formation and performance evaluation.

Ants learn fast and do not forget: Resistance to extinction may be advantageous when the environment is stochastic and individuals need to switch often from one learned task to another

Ants learn fast and do not forget: associative olfactory learning, memory and extinction in Formica fusca. Baptiste Piqueret, Jean-Christophe Sandoz and Patrizia d'Ettorre. Royal Society Open Science. June 19 2019. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.190778

Abstract: Learning is a widespread phenomenon that allows behavioural flexibility when individuals face new situations. However, learned information may lose its value over time. If such a memory endures, it can be deleterious to individuals. The process of extinction allows memory updating when the initial information is not relevant anymore. Extinction is widespread among animals, including humans. We investigated associative appetitive learning in an ant species that is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere, Formica fusca. We studied acquisition and memory between 1 h and one week after conditioning, as well as the extinction process. Ants learn very rapidly, their memory lasts up to 3 days, decreases slowly over time and is highly resistant to extinction, even after a single conditioning trial. Using a pharmacological approach, we show that this single-trial memory critically depends on protein synthesis (long-term memory). These results indicate that individual ant workers of F. fusca show remarkable learning and memory performances. Intriguingly, they also show a strong resistance to updating learned associations. Resistance to extinction may be advantageous when the environment is stochastic and individuals need to switch often from one learned task to another.

1. Background

Behavioural flexibility offers significant fitness advantages, especially in environments where resource distribution or threats are characterized by stochasticity. One way to achieve this flexibility is via learning, defined as a change in behaviour occurring as a result of experience. Many learned behaviours can be further modified to suit changing environmental conditions. The ability to learn and memorize allows animals to respond to environmental stimuli in an adaptive way, for instance, by either ignoring them or by giving them a specific value, positive or negative. This helps in predicting the environment when facing new but similar situations [1].

Storing information is costly; therefore, only essential pieces of information should remain available for the individual. For instance, with time, a stimulus which used to predict a certain resource in the environment (e.g. the presence of food) might lose its significance and be no longer associated with the resource. It is beneficial to learn rapidly that such a stimulus is not reliable anymore. Extinction is the process in which a conditioned response gradually decreases through repeated experience with the stimulus in the absence of its outcome. Extinction generally involves the formation of a new inhibitory memory rather than the destruction of the previous memory [2]. Knowledge about the extinction process has important clinical applications, for instance, for the treatment of drugs addiction and abnormal fear of a past event (e.g. war trauma) in humans [3].

The extinction phenomenon was first described by Pavlov in 1927 in experiments with dogs using classical conditioning, the association of an unconditioned stimulus (US, for example a reward) with an initially neutral stimulus that becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS) producing the response in the absence of the US. After a successful conditioning (CS–US association), Pavlov observed the conditioned responses stopped after a few unrewarded CS presentations, leading to the extinction of the conditioned behaviour. Extinction does not erase the old memory. It is rather a new learning (creation of a CS–no US association). Therefore, two memories coexist. When time passes after successful extinction, the original behaviour may reappear (called spontaneous recovery or relapse), through a decay of the extinction memory [2]. Associative learning and extinction are widespread in the animal kingdom and have been intensively studied in several vertebrate species such as mice [4] or zebrafish [5] and also in invertebrates species such as snails [6], crabs [7] or nematodes [8]. Among invertebrates, insects like fruit flies became key model species for learning and memory [9–11]. Insects are well suited for laboratory studies because they are relatively easy to keep, they have short reproductive cycles and offer easy access to brain structures (e.g. crickets, [12]). Learning and extinction have also been investigated in social insects, including bumblebees [13,14] and honeybees [2,15]. Among social insects, ants are the most diverse group with more than 14 000 described species, which represent up to 25% of the total animal biomass on Earth [16]. Visual learning in ants has been intensively studied, also at the individual level, in the context of spatial orientation and navigation [17–19]. Individual olfactory learning has been less investigated [20–27]. Carpenter ants are very efficient in discriminating between different odorants [24,26] and even between different concentrations of the same compound [27]. Recently, workers of Lasius niger were shown to be able to learn odour–reward associations after only one training trial, while more trials were required when using spatial cues instead of odours [23]. However, in this study, the dynamics of memory formation was not investigated. We know that individual ants can form long-term olfactory memories after six CS–US presentations [22], but whether fewer conditioning trials lead to long-term memory (LTM) is unclear. Furthermore, data about extinction of olfactory learned associations are very scarce in ants [28].

In the present work, we present the results of a laboratory study on individual associative olfactory learning, memory and extinction in the ant Formica fusca. Among ants, the genus Formica was described as one of the most advanced from a cognitive point of view (especially concerning communication and learning) [29]. Formica fusca is widely distributed and lives in a variety of environments with a large range of temperatures, resources, predators and competitors. Colonies are populous (hundreds of individuals) and grow well in laboratory conditions. We investigated the acquisition performance of individual ants by changing the number of conditioning trials (from one to six). We tested ants' memory abilities by subjecting them to a memory test between 1 h and one week after training. We then categorized the memory using a pharmacological approach by administrating a protein synthesis inhibitor. Finally, we studied the extinction phenomenon in individual ants, by measuring their behaviour after unrewarded presentations of the CS.

I’ll See It When I Believe It: Highly numerate people who receive scientific data about Anthropogenic Climate Change use motivated numeracy to rationalize their interpretations in line with their attitudes

I’ll See It When I Believe It: Motivated Numeracy in Perceptions of Climate Change Risk. Matthew S. Nurse & Will J. Grant. Environmental Communication, Jun 16 2019. https://doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2019.1618364

ABSTRACT: People’s attitudes about Anthropogenic Climate Change (ACC) risks are not only influenced by scientific data, such as the likelihood of harm, the consequences of failing to act and the cost and effectiveness of mitigation. Instead, when people receive information about controversial topics of decision-relevant science like ACC they often defer to their political attitudes. Recent research has shown that more numerate people can be more polarized about these topics despite their better ability to interpret the scientific data. In this study, we investigated whether the motivated numeracy effect originally found by Kahan, Peters, Dawson, and Slovic [2017. Motivated numeracy and enlightened self-government. Behavioural Public Policy, 1(1)] on the controversial topic of gun control laws in the United States also applies to people when assessing ACC risks. This randomized controlled experiment (N = 504) of Australian adults extends the motivated reasoning thesis by finding evidence that highly numerate people who receive scientific data about ACC use motivated numeracy to rationalize their interpretations in line with their attitudes.

KEYWORDS: Climate change communication, motivated numeracy, motivated reasoning, identity-protective cognition, rejection of science

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7300430


Check also
Why Smart People Are Vulnerable to Putting Tribe Before Truth. Dan M Kahan. Scientific American, Dec 03 2018. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2018/12/why-smart-people-are-vulnerable-to.html
Baum, J., Rabovsky, M., Rose, S. B., & Abdel Rahman, R. (2018). Clear judgments based on unclear evidence: Person evaluation is strongly influenced by untrustworthy gossip. Emotion, https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2018/12/clear-judgments-based-on-unclear.html

The key mechanism that generates scientific polarization involves treating evidence generated by other agents as uncertain when their beliefs are relatively different from one’s own:

Scientific polarization. Cailin O’Connor, James Owen Weatherall. European Journal for Philosophy of Science. October 2018, Volume 8, Issue 3, pp 855–875. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2018/12/the-key-mechanism-that-generates.html

Polarized Mass or Polarized Few? Assessing the Parallel Rise of Survey Nonresponse and Measures of Polarization. Amnon Cavari and Guy Freedman. The Journal of Politics, https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2018/03/polarized-mass-or-polarized-few.html

Tappin, Ben M., and Ryan McKay. 2018. “Moral Polarization and Out-party Hate in the US Political Context.” PsyArXiv. November 2. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2018/11/moral-polarization-and-out-party-hate.html

Forecasting tournaments, epistemic humility and attitude depolarization. Barbara Mellers, PhilipTetlock, Hal R. Arkes. Cognition, https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2018/10/forecasting-tournaments-epistemic.html

Does residential sorting explain geographic polarization? Gregory J. Martin & Steven W. Webster. Political Science Research and Methods, https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2018/10/voters-appear-to-be-sorting-on-non.html

Liberals and conservatives have mainly moved further apart on a wide variety of policy issues; the divergence is substantial quantitatively and in its plausible political impact: intra party moderation has become increasingly unlikely:

Peltzman, Sam, Polarizing Currents within Purple America (August 20, 2018). SSRN: https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2018/09/liberals-and-conservatives-have-mainly.html

Does Having a Political Discussion Help or Hurt Intergroup Perceptions? Drawing Guidance From Social Identity Theory and the Contact Hypothesis. Robert M. Bond, Hillary C. Shulman, Michael Gilbert. Bond Vol 12 (2018), https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2018/10/having-political-discussion-with-out.html


All the interactions took the form of subjects rating stories offering ‘ammunition’ for their own side of the controversial issue as possessing greater intrinsic news importance:

Perceptions of newsworthiness are contaminated by a political usefulness bias. Harold Pashler, Gail Heriot. Royal Society Open Science, https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2018/08/all-interactions-took-form-of-subjects.html

When do we care about political neutrality? The hypocritical nature of reaction to political bias. Omer Yair, Raanan Sulitzeanu-Kenan. PLOS, https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2018/05/when-do-we-care-about-political.html

Democrats & Republicans were both more likely to believe news about the value-upholding behavior of their in-group or the value-undermining behavior of their out-group; Republicans were more likely to believe & want to share apolitical fake news:

Pereira, Andrea, and Jay Van Bavel. 2018. “Identity Concerns Drive Belief in Fake News.” PsyArXiv. September 11. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2018/09/democrats-republicans-were-both-more.html

In self-judgment, the "best option illusion" leads to Dunning-Kruger (failure to recognize our own incompetence). In social judgment, it leads to the Cassandra quandary (failure to identify when another person’s competence exceeds our own): The best option illusion in self and social assessment. David Dunning. Self and Identity, https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2018/04/in-self-judgment-best-option-illusion.html

People are more inaccurate when forecasting their own future prospects than when forecasting others, in part the result of biased visual experience. People orient visual attention and resolve visual ambiguity in ways that support self-interests: "Visual experience in self and social judgment: How a biased majority claim a superior minority." Emily Balcetis & Stephanie A. Cardenas. Self and Identity, https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2018/04/people-are-more-inaccurate-when.html

Can we change our biased minds? Michael Gross. Current Biology, Volume 27, Issue 20, 23 October 2017, Pages R1089–R1091. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/10/can-we-change-our-biased-minds.html

Summary: A simple test taken by millions of people reveals that virtually everybody has implicit biases that they are unaware of and that may clash with their explicit beliefs. From policing to scientific publishing, all activities that deal with people are at risk of making wrong decisions due to bias. Raising awareness is the first step towards improving the outcomes.

People believe that future others' preferences and beliefs will change to align with their own:

The Belief in a Favorable Future. Todd Rogers, Don Moore and Michael Norton. Psychological Science, Volume 28, issue 9, page(s): 1290-1301, https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/09/people-believe-that-future-others.html

Kahan, Dan M. and Landrum, Asheley and Carpenter, Katie and Helft, Laura and Jamieson, Kathleen Hall, Science Curiosity and Political Information Processing (August 1, 2016). Advances in Political Psychology, Forthcoming; Yale Law & Economics Research Paper No. 561. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2816803

Abstract: This paper describes evidence suggesting that science curiosity counteracts politically biased information processing. This finding is in tension with two bodies of research. The first casts doubt on the existence of “curiosity” as a measurable disposition. The other suggests that individual differences in cognition related to science comprehension - of which science curiosity, if it exists, would presumably be one - do not mitigate politically biased information processing but instead aggravate it. The paper describes the scale-development strategy employed to overcome the problems associated with measuring science curiosity. It also reports data, observational and experimental, showing that science curiosity promotes open-minded engagement with information that is contrary to individuals’ political predispositions. We conclude by identifying a series of concrete research questions posed by these results.

Keywords: politically motivated reasoning, curiosity, science communication, risk perception

Facebook news and (de)polarization: reinforcing spirals in the 2016 US election. Michael A. Beam, Myiah J. Hutchens & Jay D. Hmielowski. Information, Communication & Society, http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2018/03/our-results-also-showed-that-facebook.html

The Partisan Brain: An Identity-Based Model of Political Belief. Jay J. Van Bavel, Andrea Pereira. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Volume 22, Issue 3, March 2018, Pages 213-224, http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2018/02/the-tribal-nature-of-human-mind-leads.html

The Parties in our Heads: Misperceptions About Party Composition and Their Consequences. Douglas J. Ahler, Gaurav Sood. Aug 2017, http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2018/01/we-tend-to-considerably-overestimate.html

The echo chamber is overstated: the moderating effect of political interest and diverse media. Elizabeth Dubois & Grant Blank. Information, Communication & Society, http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2018/01/the-echo-chamber-is-overstated.html

Processing political misinformation: comprehending the Trump phenomenon. Briony Swire, Adam J. Berinsky, Stephan Lewandowsky, Ullrich K. H. Ecker. Royal Society Open Science, published on-line March 01 2017. DOI: 10.1098/rsos.160802, http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/4/3/160802

Competing cues: Older adults rely on knowledge in the face of fluency. By Brashier, Nadia M.; Umanath, Sharda; Cabeza, Roberto; Marsh, Elizabeth J. Psychology and Aging, Vol 32(4), Jun 2017, 331-337. http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/07/competing-cues-older-adults-rely-on.html

Stanley, M. L., Dougherty, A. M., Yang, B. W., Henne, P., & De Brigard, F. (2017). Reasons Probably Won’t Change Your Mind: The Role of Reasons in Revising Moral Decisions. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/09/reasons-probably-wont-change-your-mind.html

Science Denial Across the Political Divide — Liberals and Conservatives Are Similarly Motivated to Deny Attitude-Inconsistent Science. Anthony N. Washburn, Linda J. Skitka. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 10.1177/1948550617731500. http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/09/liberals-and-conservatives-are.html

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

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

Individuals with greater science literacy and education have more polarized beliefs on controversial science topics. Caitlin Drummond and Baruch Fischhoff. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 114 no. 36, pp 9587–9592, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1704882114, http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/09/individuals-with-greater-science.html

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

Public Perceptions of Partisan Selective Exposure. Perryman, Mallory R. The University of Wisconsin - Madison, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2017. 10607943. http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/10/citizens-believe-others-especially.html

The Myth of Partisan Selective Exposure: A Portrait of the Online Political News Audience. Jacob L. Nelson, and James G. Webster. Social Media + Society, http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/09/the-myth-of-partisan-selective-exposure.html

Echo Chamber? What Echo Chamber? Reviewing the Evidence. Axel Bruns. Future of Journalism 2017 Conference. http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/09/echo-chamber-what-echo-chamber.html

Fake news and post-truth pronouncements in general and in early human development. Victor Grech. Early Human Development, http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/09/fake-news-and-post-truth-pronouncements.html

Consumption of fake news is a consequence, not a cause of their readers’ voting preferences. Kahan, Dan M., Misinformation and Identity-Protective Cognition (October 2, 2017). Social Science Research Network, http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/10/consumption-of-fake-news-is-consequence.html

We found no significant difference between Green and Not-green academics in total air travel emissions, or in the types of emissions that might be easiest to avoid

Academic air travel has a limited influence on professional success. Seth Wynes et al. Journal of Cleaner Production, Volume 226, 20 July 2019, Pages 959-967. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.04.109

Abstract: Lowering the growth in greenhouse gas emissions from air travel may be critical for avoiding dangerous levels of climate change, and yet some individuals perceive frequent air travel to be critical to their professional success. Using a sample of 705 travellers at the University of British Columbia, we investigated the influence of career stage, research productivity, field of expertise, and other variables on academic air travel and the associated emissions. This is the first time that research has evaluated the link between observed air travel and academic success. First, we compared air travel behaviour at different career stages and found that individuals at the start of their careers were responsible for fewer emissions from air travel than senior academics. Second, since career advancement may depend on an academic’s ability to form partnerships and disseminate their research abroad, we investigated the relationship between air travel emissions and publicly available bibliometric measurements. We found no relationship between air travel emissions and metrics of academic productivity including hIa (h-index adjusted for academic age and discipline). There was, however, a relationship between emissions and salary that remains significant even when controlling for seniority. Finally, based on the premise that academics studying topics related to sustainability may have greater responsibility or motivation to reduce their emissions, we coded 165 researchers in our sample as either “Green” or “Not-green.” We found no significant difference between Green and Not-green academics in total air travel emissions, or in the types of emissions that might be easiest to avoid. Taken together, this preliminary evidence suggests that there may be opportunities, especially for academics who study topics related to climate and sustainability, to reduce their emissions from air travel while maintaining productive careers.

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Check also The Behavior of Ethicists.  Eric Schwitzgebel and Joshua Rust. In A Companion to Experimental Philosophy, edited by Justin Sytsma and Wesley Buckwalter. Aug 2017. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/08/the-behavior-of-ethicists-ch-15-of.html

From 2012: Men rated freedom of speech more important than did women; the perceived harm of hate speech was positively related to intellect & liberalism; women perceived a greater harm of hate speech

Predicting the Importance of Freedom of Speech and the Perceived Harm of Hate Speech. Daniel M Downs, Gloria Cowan. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Volume42, Issue6, June 2012, Pages 1353-1375. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2012.00902.x

Abstract: Although freedom of speech is a fundamental value in the United States, individuals vary in the importance they place on it. The purpose of this study was to examine personality and attitudinal factors that may influence an individual's judgments of the importance of freedom of speech and, secondarily, the harm of hate speech. As expected, the importance of freedom of speech was positively related to intellect, individualism, separate knowing, and negatively related to right‐wing authoritarianism. Men rated freedom of speech more important than did women. The perceived harm of hate speech was positively related to intellect and liberalism, and women perceived a greater harm of hate speech than did men.

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Check also Foodie Calls, Or When Women Date Men for a Free Meal (Rather Than a Relationship): 23–33% of women surveyed had engaged in a foodie call; related to the the dark triad traits
 
Foodie Calls: When Women Date Men for a Free Meal (Rather Than a Relationship). Brian Collisson, Jennifer L. Howell, Trista Harig. Social Psychological and Personality Science, June 20, 2019. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2019/06/foodie-calls-or-when-women-date-men-for.html

Failed to replicate previous nonrandomized observational studies, which had suggested that ratings of female physical attractiveness by males are sensitive to the levels of hunger

No impact of hunger on male perception of female physical attractiveness in relation to adiposity: a randomized controlled trial. Z. Jin, G. Wang, S. Hu & J. R. Speakman . International Journal of Obesity (2019), June 17 2019. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41366-019-0392-2

Abstract
Background: Female physical attractiveness is strongly related to body mass index (BMI). Females with lower BMI are on average more attractive down to at least BMI = 18. Previous correlational studies have indicated that this effect may be modulated by the hunger of the rater, with more hungry raters preferring images of subjects with greater adiposity. This prior work, however, was correlational and so we wished to explore this phenomenon further using a randomized controlled trial.

Methods and subjects: Two studies are presented. In the first, 52 male participants were recruited and after an overnight fast were randomly allocated to either fed or starved treatments. Starved individuals continued not to feed, while fed individuals were given ad libitum access to foods and were encouraged to eat to full satiation. Their hunger levels were monitored using visual analog scales (VAS) and levels of circulating glucose. Four hours later, they were asked to complete a previously used female attractiveness rating test, a standard IQ test, and a memory recall test. In the second study, which was a double-blind experiment, 32 individuals were recruited to evaluate if the original effect was due to a confounding impact of alcohol consumption when dining. Blinded individuals consumed drinks with or without alcohol. Their circulating alcohol levels were quantified by a breath test, and they repeated the tests matched with the first study excluding the IQ test.

Results: Hunger resulted in lower performance on the memory recall test, but had no effect on the IQ score, and contrasting previous results had no effect on the ratings of female physical attractiveness. Circulating alcohol levels had no effect on the memory recall test, but there was a significant negative relationship between circulating alcohol and the mean adiposity of the five individuals rated as least attractive.

Conclusions: This randomized controlled trial failed to replicate previous nonrandomized observational studies, which had suggested that ratings of female physical attractiveness by males are sensitive to the levels of hunger. The reason for the difference was possibly because in previous studies, levels of hunger were confounded by alcohol consumption.

Rats can use imagery to fill in missing details of the world that are expected but hidden from perception; they make use of an active expectation (i.e., an image) of a hidden visual event

Mental imagery in animals: Learning, memory, and decision-making in the face of missing information. Aaron P. Blaisdell. Learning & Behavior, June 21 2019. https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13420-019-00386-5

Abstract: When we open our eyes, we see a world filled with objects and events. Yet, due to occlusion of some objects by others, we only have partial perceptual access to the events that transpire around us. I discuss the body of research on mental imagery in animals. I first cover prior studies of mental rotation in pigeons and imagery using working memory procedures first developed for human studies. Next, I discuss the seminal work on a type of learning called mediated conditioning in rats. I then provide more in-depth coverage of work from my lab suggesting that rats can use imagery to fill in missing details of the world that are expected but hidden from perception. We have found that rats make use of an active expectation (i.e., an image) of a hidden visual event. I describe the behavioral and neurobiological studies investigating the use of a mental image, its theoretical basis, and its connections to current human cognitive neuroscience research on episodic memory, imagination, and mental simulations. Collectively, the reviewed literature provides insight into the mechanisms that mediate the flexible use of an image during ambiguous situations. I position this work in the broader scientific and philosophical context surrounding the concept of mental imagery in human and nonhuman animals.

Keywords: Mental imagery Associative learning Comparative cognition Rat Pigeon

Beauty, elegance, grace, and sexiness compared

Beauty, elegance, grace, and sexiness compared. Winfried Menninghaus, Valentin Wagner, Vanessa Kegel, Christine A. Knoop, Wolff Schlotz. PLOS, June 21, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0218728

Abstract: Beauty is the single most frequently and most broadly used aesthetic virtue term. The present study aimed at providing higher conceptual resolution to the broader notion of beauty by comparing it with three closely related aesthetically evaluative concepts which are likewise lexicalized across many languages: elegance, grace(fulness), and sexiness. We administered a variety of questionnaires that targeted perceptual qualia, cognitive and affective evaluations, as well as specific object properties that are associated with beauty, elegance, grace, and sexiness in personal looks, movements, objects of design, and other domains. This allowed us to reveal distinct and highly nuanced profiles of how a beautiful, elegant, graceful, and sexy appearance is subjectively perceived. As aesthetics is all about nuances, the fine-grained conceptual analysis of the four target concepts of our study provides crucial distinctions for future research.

Introduction

Both in lay concepts of aesthetic perception and evaluation [1–3] and in empirical research, beauty is by far the single most important aesthetic virtue term. To be sure, already 18th century aesthetics knew of several other target virtues, such as the sublime ([4–6]; see also [7–9]) and the interesting ([10,11]; see also [12–14]). Today, the overall picture is far more diversified (for a survey of several dozens of relevant terms, see [2] and [15]). Still, beauty ratings remain the prime currency of empirical studies in aesthetics. Supporting this tendency, theoretical accounts of aesthetic appeal and concomitant pleasure and liking––such as the processing fluency hypothesis cf. [16–21]––also show a bias towards explaining attributions of beauty rather than of the sublime or of other aesthetic virtues.
The present article does not challenge this primacy of beauty. Rather, it is aimed at an inner diversification of the beauty pole of aesthetics. It is distinctive of the concept of beauty that is used in a very broad way, at least so in the Western tradition since Greek antiquity. On the one hand, it encompasses the sexual beauty of bodily looks and natural beauty in general (landscapes, animals, etc.); on the other hand, beauty is also attributed to a great variety of cultural artefacts, including classical artworks and numerous objects of design. In the present study, we focus on three concepts each of which we expected to show great semantic overlap with the broader concept of beauty, while at the same time distinctly capturing special facets of beauty on the nature-culture continuum.

1. For the cultural beauty pole, we selected “elegance.” In Latin, “elegantia” meant refinement, tasteful correctness, and decorousness, with a specific focus on carefully choosing––lat. eligere, to elect––one’s words [22]. Starting in the 14^th century, the concept has increasingly come to be applied to multiple domains, including refined personal looks, many objects of design (evening wear, jewelry, hairstyles, furniture, cars––specifically, cabriolets and limousines––, yachts, villas, restaurants, bridges, skyscrapers, etc.), movements, verbal articulation and argumentation, and to unexpectedly smooth solutions to difficult cognitive or technical problems (see S1 Text). Compared to beauty, elegance is far less frequently and far more selectively applied to natural objects, with tigers, leopards and other cats being among the exceptions (not least by virtue of their elegance in movement).
2. For the natural (sexual) beauty pole, we selected the modern term “sexy.” To be sure, this term is not exclusively applied to natural bodily looks, but also to clothing and self-styling and hence to cultural ways of enhancing or highlighting physical sexual attractiveness. The term “sexy” has no tradition in modern philosophical aesthetics, as many, though by no means all authors (see, for instance, Edmund Burke, [4], p. 115) programmatically tried to purge aesthetics and even the theory of beauty of all reminders of sexual desire and biological functions. At the same time, a sexual dimension of beauty attributions to individuals plays an important role in the cultural record from antiquity through modernity, and Charles Darwin’s account of competitive beauty displays throughout nature and human cultures lends much credit to this rich tradition [23].
3. As a third term closely related to beauty, we included the concept of “grace.” Schiller defined grace (German Anmut) as “beauty in motion” ([24]; see also Burke [4], p. 119 and [25]), whereas Lord Kames defined it as “elegance in movement” ([26], p. 364). Today, too, grace is nearly exclusively attributed to the movements of people (and some animals), but barely ever to inanimate objects. Regarding the nature-culture-continuum of beauty, grace, for all its overlap with elegance and hence cultural sophistication, appears to lean more towards the natural pole in that graceful movements can well be found in young children and animals and hence are less dependent on cultural sophistication than typical forms of elegance in movement, such as in ballet and other forms of dance. Still, in accordance with the classical definitions, we expected that grace should show far greater overlap with elegance and beauty than with sexiness.

Remarkably, across all major Germanic, Romance and Slavic languages, the Finno-Ugric languages, many Asian languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean), and potentially beyond, words for “elegance” are lexicalized in phonologically convergent form, i.e., based on the Latin word “elegantia.” For “grace” and “sexy,” a similar adoption of the Latin words “gratia” and “sexus” applies across many languages, albeit not to the same degree. The successful migration of these terms into many other languages suggests that they capture special facets of aesthetic appeal that are salient, in however culturally varying form, across centuries and cultures.

Our study is the first to comparatively analyze the four categories under scrutiny––beauty, elegance, grace, and sexiness––for their distinct perceptual, cognitive and affective implications that together make up their meaning. Specifically, it is aimed at elucidating, with high granularity, the mental constructs which individuals have acquired regarding beauty, elegance, grace, and sexiness. Linguistic concepts are reflective of mental constructs largely shared across linguistic communities, in some cases also across different languages and cultures. Our study tapped into these mental constructs using a variety of methods, including free associations, questionnaires and semantic differentials. We did not present any beautiful, elegant, graceful, and/or sexy stimuli in rating tasks. Rather, we exclusively targeted the very constructs that guide individuals when they end up perceiving and categorizing specific phenomena as beautiful, elegant, graceful, or sexy.

Do conservatives react with higher levels of electrodermal activity to threatening stimuli than liberals? Overall, we find little empirical support for the claim

Osmundsen, Mathias, David Hendry, Lasse Laustsen, Kevin Smith, and Michael Bang Petersen. 2019. “The Psychophysiology of Political Ideology: Replications, Reanalysis and Recommendations.” PsyArXiv. June 21. doi:10.31234/osf.io/49hfg

Abstract: This manuscript presents a large-scale, empirical evaluation of the psychophysiological correlates of political ideology and, in particular, the claim that conservatives react with higher levels of electrodermal activity to threatening stimuli than liberals. We (1) conduct two large replications of this claim, using locally representative samples of Danes and Americans; (2) re-analyze all published studies and evaluate their reliability and validity; and (3) test several features to enhance the validity of psychophysiological measures and offer a number of recommendations. Overall, we find little empirical support for the claim. This is caused by significant reliability and validity problems related to measuring threat-sensitivity using electrodermal activity. When assesed reliably, electrodermal activity in the replications and published studies captures individual differences in the physiological changes associated with attention shifts, which are unrelated to ideology. In contrast to psychophysiological reactions, self-reported emotional reactions to threatening stimuli are reliably associated with ideology.

Structural changes in labor markets are more likely to be sustained, in contrast to unemployment rates, which fluctuate with cycles; unemployment reductions are unlikely to reverse declining fertility trends

Beyond the Great Recession: Labor Market Polarization and Ongoing Fertility Decline in the United States. Nathan Seltzer. Demography, June 18 2019. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13524-019-00790-6

Abstract: In the years since the Great Recession, social scientists have anticipated that economic recovery in the United States, characterized by gains in employment and median household income, would augur a reversal of declining fertility trends. However, the expected post-recession rebound in fertility rates has yet to materialize. In this study, I propose an economic explanation for why fertility rates have continued to decline regardless of improvements in conventional economic indicators. I argue that ongoing structural changes in U.S. labor markets have prolonged the financial uncertainty that leads women and couples to delay or forgo childbearing. Combining statistical and survey data with restricted-use vital registration records, I examine how cyclical and structural changes in metropolitan-area labor markets were associated with changes in total fertility rates (TFRs) across racial/ethnic groups from the early 1990s to the present day, with a particular focus on the 2006–2014 period. The findings suggest that changes in industry composition—specifically, the loss of manufacturing and other goods-producing businesses—have a larger effect on TFRs than changes in the unemployment rate for all racial/ethnic groups. Because structural changes in labor markets are more likely to be sustained over time—in contrast to unemployment rates, which fluctuate with economic cycles—further reductions in unemployment are unlikely to reverse declining fertility trends.

Keywords: Fertility Great recession Labor market polarization Unemployment

Markets maintain institutions to support property rights & trade not in the absence of government, but rather in response to active government interference (predatory officials)

The politics of order in informal markets: Evidence from Lagos. Shelby Grossman. June 18, 2019. Forthcoming at World Politics. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rzH2g4MEch3D_ff_A3kA8WJl4wdTPi2P/view

Abstract: Property rights are important for economic exchange, but in much of the world they are not publicly guaranteed. Private market associations can fill this gap by providing an institutional structure to enforce agreements, but with this power comes the ability to extort from group members. Under what circumstances do private associations provide a stable environment for economic activity? Using survey data collected from 1,179 randomly sampled traders across 199 markets in Lagos, I find that markets maintain institutions to support trade not in the absence of government, but rather in response to active government interference. I argue that associations develop pro-trade institutions when threatened by politicians they perceive to be predatory, and when the organization can respond with threats of its own; the latter is easier when traders are not competing with each other. In order to maintain this balance of power, the association will not extort because it needs trader support to maintain the credibility of its threats to mobilize against predatory politicians.

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1 Introduction
Outside of agriculture, more than half of workers in low-income countries are informally employed (Jütting, de Laiglesia and Jütting, 2009): they work in enterprises that are less regulated than similar activities in the same environment. Indeed, the informal sector accounts for an estimated 41% of developing countries’ GDP (Schneider, 2005). Yet public institutions rarely serve the needs of informal workers. For instance, informal entrepreneurs do not rely on courts for protection. Courts are often seen as biased, inefficient, and ill equipped to regulate off-the-book transactions – i.e., not worth the effort. Thus informal traders have no recourse to formal institutions if they are cheated. For example, the legal system would be of little help to a trader who buys what she thought were new smartphones, only to discover that they were refurbished and must be sold at a loss. A large body of work argues that private associations can step in to fill this regulatory gap by enforcing contracts,1 but this is not always the case. Although informal trade all over the world is organized into associations (Cross, 1998; Hummel, 2017), not all such groups promote trade. Indeed, many association leaders extort from their own traders. Markets in Lagos, Nigeria provide examples of both types of associations.

Some market association leaders in Lagos are a model of good governance and support a wide variety of policies that promote trade. For example, they impartially investigate customer complaints and organize market-wide boycotts of suppliers who cheat traders. By contrast, other market leaders extort from their traders, pocketing fees that they say will be used for services like market security. These leaders rarely intervene if a supplier wrongs a trader.

The ability to recognise others’ emotions from nonverbal cues is correlated with intelligence types (crystallized, fluid, spatial, memory, information processing speed & efficiency); academic achievement measures were unrelated

A meta-analysis of the relationship between emotion recognition ability and intelligence. Katja Schlegel, Tristan Palese, Marianne Schmid Mast, Thomas H. Rammsayer ORCID Icon, Judith A. Hall & Nora A. Murphy. Cognition and Emotion, Jun 21 2019, https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2019.1632801

ABSTRACT: The ability to recognise others’ emotions from nonverbal cues (emotion recognition ability, ERA) is measured with performance-based tests and has many positive correlates. Although researchers have long proposed that ERA is related to general mental ability or intelligence, a comprehensive analysis of this relationship is lacking. For instance, it remains unknown whether the magnitude of the association varies by intelligence type, ERA test features, as well as demographic variables. The present meta-analysis examined the relationship between ERA and intelligence based on 471 effect sizes from 133 samples and found a significant mean effect size (controlled for nesting within samples) of r = .19. Different intelligence types (crystallized, fluid, spatial, memory, information processing speed and efficiency) yielded similar effect sizes, whereas academic achievement measures (e.g. SAT scores) were unrelated to ERA. Effect sizes were higher for ERA tests that simultaneously present facial, vocal, and bodily cues (as compared to tests using static pictures) and for tests with higher reliability and more emotions. Results were unaffected by most study and sample characteristics, but effect size increased with higher mean age of the sample. These findings establish ERA as sensory-cognitive ability that is distinct from, yet related to, intelligence.

KEYWORDS: Emotion recognition ability, intelligence, meta-analysis, emotional intelligence, interpersonal accuracy

When outgroup negativity trumps ingroup positivity: Fans of the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees place greater value on rival losses than own-team gains; effect more strong when one’s own team was behind in the rivalry

When outgroup negativity trumps ingroup positivity: Fans of the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees place greater value on rival losses than own-team gains. Steven A. Lehr, Meghan L. Ferreira, Mahzarin R. Banaji. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, July 19, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430217712834

Abstract: Much research suggests that ingroup positivity is more central than outgroup negativity. We argue that this conclusion is incomplete as a description of the totality of intergroup emotions. In 4 studies, we use a novel measure of willingness to pay for intergroup gains and losses to examine the intergroup emotions of fans of the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees. Results indicate that pleasure from a powerful rival’s losses can outstrip that from gains of one’s own group (Studies 1–2), and these patterns extend into domains not immediately relevant to the competition (Studies 3–4). A reversal in the competitive position of the two teams in the 2012–2013 season allowed us to examine whether fluctuations in competitive status moderated this pattern (Studies 3–4). Indeed, fans of the rival teams frequently valued outgroup losses more than ingroup gains, and this effect was particularly strong when one’s own team was behind in the rivalry.

Keywords: attitudes, intergroup processes, outgroup hate, Schadenfreude, sports rivalry

Honesty in 355 cities, 40 countries: In virtually all countries citizens were more likely to return wallets that contained more money

Civic honesty around the globe. Alain Cohn et al. Science Jun 20 2019:eaau8712. DOI: 10.1126/science.aau8712

Abstract: Civic honesty is essential to social capital and economic development, but is often in conflict with material self-interest. We examine the trade-off between honesty and self-interest using field experiments in 355 cities spanning 40 countries around the globe. We turned in over 17,000 lost wallets with varying amounts of money at public and private institutions, and measured whether recipients contacted the owner to return the wallets. In virtually all countries citizens were more likely to return wallets that contained more money. Both non-experts and professional economists were unable to predict this result. Additional data suggest our main findings can be explained by a combination of altruistic concerns and an aversion to viewing oneself as a thief, which increase with the material benefits of dishonesty.