Early blindness does not critically impact on the development of the “social brain,” with social tasks performed on the basis of auditory or tactile information driving consistent node activations like those of the sighted

Social cognition in the blind brain: A coordinate‐based meta‐analysis. Maria Arioli  Emiliano Ricciardi  Zaira Cattaneo. Human Brain Mapping, December 15 2020. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.25289

Abstract: Social cognition skills are typically acquired on the basis of visual information (e.g., the observation of gaze, facial expressions, gestures). In light of this, a critical issue is whether and how the lack of visual experience affects neurocognitive mechanisms underlying social skills. This issue has been largely neglected in the literature on blindness, despite difficulties in social interactions may be particular salient in the life of blind individuals (especially children). Here we provide a meta‐analysis of neuroimaging studies reporting brain activations associated to the representation of self and others' in early blind individuals and in sighted controls. Our results indicate that early blindness does not critically impact on the development of the “social brain,” with social tasks performed on the basis of auditory or tactile information driving consistent activations in nodes of the action observation network, typically active during actual observation of others in sighted individuals. Interestingly though, activations along this network appeared more left‐lateralized in the blind than in sighted participants. These results may have important implications for the development of specific training programs to improve social skills in blind children and young adults.

4 DISCUSSION

The study of the neural bases of social cognition in the blind brain has been somehow neglected, with only a few studies specifically investigating whether and how the lack of visual input affects the functional architecture of the “social brain.” Some studies showed similar patterns of brain activity in early blind and sighted individuals during tasks tapping on social cognition abilities (Bedny et al., 2009; Ricciardi et al., 2009), while other studies suggested that social brain networks develop differently following early visual deprivation (Gougoux et al., 2009; Holig et al., 2014). These inconsistencies reported in the neuroimaging literature on social processing in blind individuals may also reflect possible confounds associated with individual studies, for example, the influence of experimental and analytic procedures as well as that of the small sample sizes (Carp, 2012). Moreover, the effects reported by individual studies are harder to generalize to the entire target group (here, the early blind), regardless the specific procedures used (Muller et al., 2018).

In light of this, we pursued a meta‐analytic approach to isolate the most consistent results in the available literature, controlling for possible confounding effects via stringent criteria for study selection. In particular, we aimed to investigate: (a) the neural coding of others' representation in early blind individuals, and (b) the specific brain regions recruited in early blind compared with sighted control individuals, during social processing of others. Although we could count only on a low number of contrasts, preventing more detailed analyses such as a direct comparison of nodes of the social brain possibly differently engaged by auditory and haptic inputs, our sample is in line with current recommendations for ALE meta‐analyses (Eickhoff et al., 2016; Muller et al., 2018).

Our findings demonstrate that the regions typically associated with the key nodes of the AON mediate social cognition abilities in early blind individuals on the basis of non‐visual inputs, as they do during actual observation of others in sighted individuals (Gardner et al., 2015). In particular, we found consistent overlapping activations in the middle temporal gyrus bilaterally, alongside the left fusiform gyrus and the right superior temporal gyrus and finally in the right inferior frontal gyrus of early blind individuals during others' processing. The bilateral activation of the middle temporal gyrus has been previously reported for the AON in a quantitative meta‐analysis on more than 100 studies in sighted individuals (Caspers et al., 2010). Moreover, similar results, including right frontal activation, are reported in a meta‐analysis investigating brain regions showing mirror properties through visual and auditory modalities in sighted individuals (Molenberghs, Cunnington, & Mattingley, 2012).

Of note, we found stronger consistent responses in the AON in the early blind as compared to sighted subjects. This is not surprising, since the studies we included in the meta‐analysis mostly employed auditory inputs (~90% of the studies, only two studies using haptic stimuli) that are the typical stimuli on which blind individuals rely on in social interactions, whereas sighted individuals are mainly guided by visual cues. This may also account for the different pattern of lateralization observed in the activation of the AON in blind and sighted individuals, with the former showing more consistent activations in the left hemisphere particularly in the middle temporal gyrus and fusiform gyrus, while the reverse comparison highlighted the activation of the right part of the middle and superior temporal cortex. The different pattern of hemispheric lateralization may depend on the high familiarity that blind individuals have in recognizing human actions or emotions on the basis of auditory (and haptic) stimuli, with prior evidence suggesting that action familiarity is associated with increasing activity in left part of the AON (Gardner et al., 2015; Ricciardi et al., 2009).

An additional analysis carried out on the whole sample of participants (regardless visual experience) confirmed the common activation in a right temporal cluster, comprising the STG, the TPJ and the MTG regions. This cluster appears to be consistently engaged in both groups during social processing and activations in these regions are likely to play a more general function in the perception of socially relevant stimuli, which is not bound to visual experience (Fairhall et al., 2017). These results fit with the involvement of the right STG and TPJ in a variety of social‐cognitive processes (Bahnemann, Dziobek, Prehn, Wolf, & Heekeren, 2010; Yang, Rosenblau, Keifer, & Pelphrey, 2015), such as biological motion perception (Beauchamp, Lee, Haxby, & Martin, 2003; Grossman et al., 2000; Peelen, Wiggett, & Downing, 2006), mentalizing (Schneider, Slaughter, Becker, & Dux, 2014; Wolf, Dziobek, & Heekeren, 2010), and emotion attribution to others on the basis of both visual and auditory/verbal information (e.g., Alba‐Ferrara, Ellison, & Mitchell, 2012; Ferrari, Schiavi, & Cattaneo, 2018; Gamond & Cattaneo, 2016; Lettieri et al., 2019; Redcay, Velnoskey, & Rowe, 2016; Sliwinska & Pitcher, 2018). These data suggest a two‐stage process in which the STS underpins an initial parsing of a stream of information, whether auditory or visual, into meaningful discrete elements, whose communicative meaning for decoding others' behavior and intentions involves more in‐depth analysis associated with increased activation in the TPJ node (Arioli & Canessa, 2019; Bahnemann et al., 2010; Redcay, 2008). Ethofer et al. (2006) showed that the pSTS is the input of the prosody processing system and represents the input to higher‐level social cognitive computations, associated with activity in the action observation system (Gardner et al., 2015), as well as in the mentalizing system (Schurz, Radua, Aichhorn, Richlan, & Perner, 2014). Accordingly, using visual stimuli Arioli et al. (2018) pointed to the pSTS as the input for the social interaction network, which includes key nodes of both action observation and theory of mind networks. Thus, the STS/TPJ regions may represent a domain‐specific hub associated with the analysis of the meaning of others' actions, regardless of the stimulation modality, and highly interconnected with the action observation and the mentalizing networks.

The lack of activation of the parietal cortex in the early blind, with the parietal cortex being another key node of the AON in sighted individuals, is possibly due to the low number of studies specifically focused on hand representation in our database (see Pellijeff, Bonilha, Morgan, McKenzie, & Jackson, 2006; 3/17, see Table 1). Indeed, Caspers et al. (2010) reported that only observation of hand actions was consistently associated with activations within parietal cortex, the observation of non‐hand actions was not. Moreover, although Ricciardi et al. (2009) reported a parietal activation in blind participants during auditory presentation of hand‐executed actions, this activation was much less extensive (particularly in the superior parietal cortex) in the blind compared to sighted controls. Another possible explanation for the lack of parietal activation in the blind in our meta‐analysis (also possibly accounting for the results by Ricciardi et al., 2009) is that the activation within the parietal part of the AON may be mainly driven by object‐related representations (Caspers et al., 2010), which are not present in several of the experiments included in the present analysis. In turn, our studies focused mainly on voice processing (6/17), and in part on face/body representation (4/17), this probably being responsible for the consistent activation we reported in the fusiform gyrus. Indeed, voice processing has been found to activate the fusiform face area in blind individuals (i.e., Fairhall et al., 2017).

The findings of this meta‐analysis suggest that the AON can develop despite the lack of any visual experience, with information acquired in other sensory modalities allowing an efficient representation of other individuals as agents with specific beliefs and intentions (vs. objects moved by physical forces). These results may explain why early blind individuals are able to efficiently interact in the social context and to learn by imitation of others' (e.g., Gamond et al., 2017; Oleszkiewicz et al., 2017; Ricciardi et al., 2009). Our findings suggest that regions of the social brain may work on the basis of different sensory inputs, depending on which sensory modality is available. Moreover, our findings are consistent with the results of a recent meta‐analysis by Zhang et al. (2019) and with prior fMRI studies with blind individuals in the social domain (e.g., Bedny et al., 2009; Ricciardi et al., 2009) suggesting that brain regions that are consistently recruited for different functions in sighted individuals, such as the dorsal fronto‐parietal network for spatial function and ventral occipito‐temporal network for object function, and—as shown here—the AON for social function, maintain their specialization despite the lack of a normal visual experience. This observation on the “social blind brain” is in line with the current, more general perspective on the blind brain that undergoes a functional reorganization due to the lack of visual experience, but whose large‐scale architecture appears to be significantly preserved (e.g., Ricciardi, Papale, Cecchetti, & Pietrini, 2020).

Interestingly, we did not find evidence for any cross‐modal consistent recruitment of the occipital cortex by social tasks in this meta‐analysis. Cross‐modal plasticity typically refers to activation of the occipital cortex of the early blind in response to input acquired in other sensory modalities, like hearing and touch (for reviews, Merabet & Pascual‐Leone, 2010; Singh, Phillips, Merabet, & Sinha, 2018; Voss, 2019), and may account (at least in part) for the superior perceptual abilities of blind subjects in the spared sensory modalities (e.g., Battal, Occelli, Bertonati, Falagiarda, & Collignon, 2020; Bauer et al., 2015). Alternatively, recruitment of the occipital cortex in the blind has been proposed to also subserve high‐level (cognitive) processing (e.g., Amedi, Raz, Pianka, Malach, & Zohary, 2003; Bedny, Pascual‐Leone, Dodell‐Feder, Fedorenko, & Saxe, 2011; Lane, Kanjlia, Omaki, & Bedny, 2015) suggesting that cortical circuits that are thought to have evolved for visual perception may come to participate in abstract and symbolic higher‐cognitive functions (see Bedny, 2017). Indeed, recent evidence has shown that during high‐level cognitive tasks (i.e., memory, language and executive control tasks), there is an increased connectivity between occipital cortex and associative cortex in the lateral prefrontal, superior parietal, and mid‐temporal areas (Abboud & Cohen, 2019), with these regions being also possibly involved in social perception (Caspers et al., 2010). In line with this, we would have expected social tasks to drive activations in the occipital cortex. This was not the case. The only region that showed a sort of cross‐modal response was the fusiform face area, in the ventral stream, probably guided by a high number of studies included in our meta‐analysis focusing on voice processing (cf. Holig et al., 2014; von Kriegstein, Kleinschmidt, Sterzer, & Giraud, 2005). In this regard, it is also worth noting that haptic perception by blind individuals of facial expressions and hand shapes (Kitada et al., 2013, 2014) as well as whole‐body shape recognition via a visual‐to‐auditory sensory substitution device (SSD; Striem‐Amit & Amedi, 2014) led to activations in face and body‐dedicated circuits in the fusiform gyrus, showing that these dedicated circuits develop even in the absence of a normal visual experience. Our meta‐analysis shows that processes related to representation of others do not recruit the occipital cortex in the early blind, suggesting that differently to other cognitive tasks, social tasks may be mediated by higher‐level regions without the need to recruit additional occipital resources. Even if this might be related to the experimental heterogeneities that we highlighted above, the lack of a consistent recruitment of occipital cortex for social tasks we reported contributes to a better understanding of the functional role of “visual” areas in the blind brain.

In conclusion, our findings support the view that the brain of early blind individuals is functionally organized in the same way of the brain of sighted individuals although relying on different types of input (auditory and haptic) (see Bedny et al., 2009; Ricciardi et al., 2009). In the social domain, this may have important implications for educational programs for blind children. Early blindness may indeed predispose to features of social isolation, including autism (e.g., Hobson et al., 1999; Jure, Pogonza, & Rapin, 2016). It is therefore important to develop training administration guidelines specifically for persons with visual impairment (Hill‐Briggs, Dial, Morere, & Joyce, 2007). In this regard, an interesting approach would be to develop ad hoc auditory/haptic virtual reality social cognition trainings for children with blindness or severe visual impairment, as already employed with autistic children and young adults (e.g., Didehbani, Allen, Kandalaft, Krawczyk, & Chapman, 2016; Kandalaft, Didehbani, Krawczyk, Allen, & Chapman, 2013). Consistent evidence suggests that audio‐based virtual environments may be effective for the transfer of navigation skills in the blind (Connors, Chrastil, Sanchez, & Merabet, 2014; Sanchez & Lumbreras, 1999), and haptic virtual perception may be a valid and effective assistive technology for the education of blind children in domains like math learning (e.g., Espinosa‐Castaneda & Medellin‐Castillo, 2020). This approach—especially audio‐based virtual environments—may thus be extended to the social domain to allow the safe and non‐threatening practice of particular social skills in an educational setting. In this respect, and considering the importance for visually impaired children to study in a mainstream school (e.g., Davis & Hopwood, 2007; Parvin, 2015), school‐based social cognitive interventions on the social participation of children with blindness or severe visual impairment would be particularly critical, with teachers and peers being involved responding and reinforcing blind children' initiated interactions. A detailed description of the neuro‐cognitive processes underlying social cognition skills in blind individuals is thus critical to tailor training protocols aiming at targeting specific neuro‐cognitive functions. This may have also a translational clinical impact on the development of non‐invasive advanced SSDs able to translate social cues that are only visually available (such as face expressions, gestures and body language) to auditory or tactile feedback that can be processed by the intact social brain of visually deprived individuals, in terms of more abstract conceptual signals (see Cecchetti, Kupers, Ptito, Pietrini, & Ricciardi, 2016; Striem‐Amit & Amedi, 2014). These devices may help blind individuals in their interactions both in the physical and virtual (i.e., meetings via Skype, Meet or others) social world.

Kangaroos never domesticated can ask humans for help

Kangaroos display gazing and gaze alternations during an unsolvable problem task. Alan G. McElligott, Kristine H. O'Keeffe and Alexandra C. Green. The Royal Society Biology Letters, December 16 2020. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0607

Abstract: Domestication is generally assumed to have resulted in enhanced communication abilities between non-primate mammals and humans, although the number of species studied is very limited (e.g. cats, Felis catus; dogs, Canis familiaris; wolves, Canis lupus; goats, Capra hircus; horses, Equus caballus). In species without hands for pointing, gazing at humans when dealing with inaccessible food during an unsolvable task, and in particular gaze alternations between a human and the unsolvable task (considered forms of showing), are often interpreted as attempts at referential intentional communication. We report that kangaroos, marsupial mammals that have never been domesticated, actively gazed at an experimenter during an unsolvable problem task (10/11 kangaroos tested), thus challenging the notion that this behaviour results from domestication. Nine of the 10 kangaroos additionally showed gaze alternations between the unsolvable task and experimenter. We propose that the potential occurrence of these behaviours displayed towards humans has been underestimated, owing to a narrow focus on domestic animals, as well as a more general eutherian research bias.

Fellatio among male sanctuary-living chimpanzees during a period of social tension

Fellatio among male sanctuary-living chimpanzees during a period of social tension. Authors: Jake S. Brooker et al. Behaviour, Dec 15 2020. https://doi.org/10.1163/1568539X-bja10053

Abstract: Same-sex sexual behaviour has been documented across the animal kingdom, and is thought to reflect and enhance dyadic cooperation and tolerance. For instance, same-sex fellatio — the reception of a partner’s penis into another’s mouth — has been reported in several mammalian species other than humans. Although same-sex sexual behaviour is observed in our close relatives, the chimpanzees, fellatio appears to be very rare — as yet there are no published reports clearly documenting its occurrence. At Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage in Zambia, we observed an instance of fellatio occurring during a post-conflict period between two adult male chimpanzees (born and mother-reared at the sanctuary) where one of the males was the victim. We discuss this event with respect to the putative functions of homosexual behaviour in great apes. Given its rarity in chimpanzees, this fellatio between adult males also highlights the apparent behavioural flexibility present in our close relatives.

Keywords: chimpanzee; fellatio; same-sex sexual behaviour; homosexual behaviour; sanctuary; behavioural flexibility; social tension

4. Discussion

In this report, we described an instance of same-sex fellatio occurring between two sanctuary-living adult male chimpanzees. Although fellatio has been observed in other mammals (Ogawa, 2006; Tan et al., 2009; Sergiel et al., 2014; Sugita, 2016), including captive/semi-captive bonobos (de Waal, 1988; Clay, personal observation) and chimpanzees (Heesen, personal communication) it has not yet been reported among adult chimpanzees during social tension, with two previous reports noting the occurrence of oral-genital contact among play in immature chimpanzees (Savage & Malick, 1977; Savage-Rumbaugh & Wilkerson, 1978). Moreover, while bonobos habitually engage in diverse same-sex sexual behaviour, fellatio appears to be rare and constrained to play contexts involving immatures (de Waal, 1988; Clay, personal observation). To our knowledge, fellatio has not been reported to occur in post-conflict affiliative interactions among either chimpanzees or bonobos. This observation thus provides relevant insights into the potential diversity of its functions in our closest living relatives.

Homosexual interactions, such as those reported here between Max and David, have been hypothesised to reinforce same-sex alliances and increase the propensity to support and cooperate (Kirkpatrick, 2000; Moscovice et al., 2019). Creating such connections may facilitate alliance formation and provide greater opportunities for future cooperation and support during agonism between non-kin. As a low-ranking chimpanzee, it is possible that Max’s request for fellatio in this case may have been driven by a motivation to associate with potential coalition partners, with genital contacts having been shown to facilitate coalitionary support in bonobos, the close relative of chimpanzees (Moscovice et al., 2019). As our closest phylogenetic relatives, studying genital contacts in chimpanzees, including fellatio, in specific contexts may provide clarity on the evolutionary origins of same-sex sexual behaviour within and between the sexes.

Our observation may also reflect fellatio serving a reassurance and alliance testing function by a subordinate male, akin to genital touches and mounting commonly observed between wild male chimpanzees during socially tense periods such as before boundary patrols and intergroup encounters (Wittig et al., 2016; Samuni et al., 2019). It has been proposed that engaging in intimate, risky behaviour such as fellatio can be used to test social relationships and tolerance (Kirkpatrick, 2000).

Chimpanzees are behaviourally innovative and spontaneously develop unique behaviour that may culturally transmit, even if such actions appear to lack adaptive benefits (van Leeuwen et al., 2014). As chimpanzees are not known to habitually engage in same-sex sexual interactions, Max’s repeated attempts to initiate genital contact for reassurance may also represent a behavioural innovation. Observing Max’s group in varying contexts would be necessary to detect whether he possesses a more general tendency for same-sex sexual interactions. Further, longitudinal investigations may show that idiosyncratic sexual behaviour, such as fellatio, is culturally transmitted over time.

Although the functions of fellatio remain to be explored in great apes, its initiation by a lower ranking to a dominant male in a socially tense context makes a novel contribution to the literature. Given the apparent overlaps between this behaviour and genital contacts occurring among the close sister species, the bonobos, systematically comparing sexual behaviours during periods of social tension between Pan would provide greater clarity on how sexual behaviours may be adapted and deployed to fortify and repair social relationships.

The More Who Die, the Less We Care: Evidence from Natural Language Analysis of Online News Articles and Social Media Posts

The More Who Die, the Less We Care: Evidence from Natural Language Analysis of Online News Articles and Social Media Posts. Sudeep Bhatia et al. Risk Analysis, August 25 2020. https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.13582

Abstract: Considerable amount of laboratory and survey‐based research finds that people show disproportional compassionate and affective response to the scope of human mortality risk. According to research on “psychic numbing,” it is often the case that the more who die, the less we care. In the present article, we examine the extent of this phenomenon in verbal behavior, using large corpora of natural language to quantify the affective reactions to loss of life. We analyze valence, arousal, and specific emotional content of over 100,000 mentions of death in news articles and social media posts, and find that language shows an increase in valence (i.e., decreased negative affect) and a decrease in arousal when describing mortality of larger numbers of people. These patterns are most clearly reflected in specific emotions of joy and (in a reverse fashion) of fear and anger. Our results showcase a novel methodology for studying affective decision making, and highlight the robustness and real‐world relevance of psychic numbing. They also offer new insights regarding the psychological underpinnings of psychic numbing, as well as possible interventions for reducing psychic numbing and overcoming social and psychological barriers to action in the face of the world's most serious threats.

Chimpanzees have diverse behavioral repertoires yet lack more complex cultures than humans; invention and social information use in a cumulative task and chimpanzees fail at that

Why do chimpanzees have diverse behavioral repertoires yet lack more complex cultures? Invention and social information use in a cumulative task. Gillian L. Valeai et al. Evolution and Human Behavior, December 16 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2020.11.003

Abstract: Humans are distinctive in their dependence upon products of culture for survival, products that have evolved cumulatively over generations such that many cannot now be created by a single individual. Why the cultural capacity of humans appears unrivalled in the animal kingdom is a topic of ongoing debate. Here we explore whether innovation and/or social learning propensities may constrain the ability of one of our closest living relatives, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), to master an extractive foraging and tool-use task designed to afford opportunities for cumulative culture to develop. We further explore the potential demographic characteristics associated with novel task solutions. Chimpanzees (N = 53) were inventive, flexibly exploring the novel task, albeit complex inventions were rare and shaped by prior individual experience with similar tool-use tasks. However, they displayed no evidence of cumulative cultural learning. Communities displayed richer behavioral repertoires and had greater task success than chimpanzees tested in an asocial control condition, but their solution complexity did not surpass what individuals invented. The lack of social transmission of complex and beneficial solutions in contexts like those we studied provides one explanation for the limited cumulative culture observed in this species.

Keywords: CultureCumulative cultureCumulative cultural evolutionInnovationSocial learningTool use

Why Has Burglary Declined by 80 Percent Across Four Decades in the US? Household security, largely absent in the 1970s, improved gradually over time (juveniles finding burglary increasingly difficult)

Farrell, Graham. 2020. “Why Has Burglary Declined by 80 Percent Across Four Decades in the United States? Evidence Relating to the Security Hypothesis.” SocArXiv. January 18. doi:10.31235/osf.io/c78wz

Abstract: Residential burglary imposes significant financial and emotional costs upon victims and society overall. Yet residential burglary in the US has declined by over 80 percent across the last four decades, representing a major social phenomenon that remains largely unexplained. International research indicates a need for investigation of the security hypothesis. Here, 50 years of burglary studies are examined chronologically. A consistent narrative emerges which indicates that household security, largely absent in the 1970s, improved gradually over time. Improvement occurred via three mechanisms: the increased prevalence, quality, and routine use of security fixtures and fittings. In addition, crime displacement declined as fewer household presented easy crime opportunities, and burglars’ average age increased ( juveniles finding burglary increasingly difficult). The likelihood that 50 years of diverse evidence points in the same direction by chance, and without significant contrary evidence, seems remote. Hence the conclusion is that gradual household security improvements played a central role in the decline in residential burglary over time. Implications for theory, policy, and further research are identified.

COVID-19: the emoji density (average number of emojis per tweet) and the relative popularity of specific emojis have changed

How has the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic affected global emoji usage? Anwesha Das. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, Dec 14 2020. https://doi.org/10.1080/10911359.2020.1838383

Abstract: Over the past few decades, emojis have emerged as a popular form of non-linguistic expression in computer-mediated communication. Various factors have been known to affect emoji usage patterns (such as age, gender, platform diversity etc.). The aim of the current study is to explore if the onset of the coronavirus pandemic (2019–20) has affected emoji usage patterns across various countries. The present study was conducted on two sets of tweets, collected before (July, 2019) and during the pandemic (March, 2020). The results suggest that although the usage of specific emojis has not changed noticeably (that is, the popular emojis mostly remained the same), the emoji density (average number of emojis per tweet) and the relative popularity of specific emojis have changed. This could potentially point toward a sense of insufficiency of emojis to express the sentiments associated with the pandemic.

Discussions and conclusions

Emoji usage and their patterns can provide significant insight into human behavior in CMC. In addition, the scope of understanding the different factors affecting emoji usage is vast.

In the present work, emoji usage was compared between two datasets (one collected before and the other after the start of the pandemic), and different characteristic parameters were explored for the purpose of this comparison.

Current results do not show any significant shift in the use of the popular emojis before and after the start of pandemic. It was observed that across all four country-clusters, the most popular emojis more or less remained the same. In addition to this, no emoji that can be associated with the pandemic was present in the top 10 emojis used for each cluster, suggesting that on a general scale, the pandemic does not seem to have altered the most commonly used emojis. Further, the average sentiment score of the emojis used (by country-cluster, for the top 5 emojis) remained approximately the same before and after the start of the pandemic.

However, an interesting point to note here is that across the first three clusters (with the maximum number of COVID-19 patients), the relative popularity of some of the most popular emojis dropped after the start of the pandemic. For example, in cluster 1, the “tears of joy emoji” (the most popular emoji across all clusters), made up 34.36% of all the emojis used, whereas after the start of the pandemic, it made up only 14.69%. A similar pattern is seen in cluster 2 as well, where initially the “tears of joy” emoji makes up 17.72% of all emojis, whereas it makes up only 5.00% after the start of the pandemic. In cluster 3, the values are 7.46 and 4.59 before and after the start of the pandemic, respectively, that is the difference closes in. In cluster 4, this difference almost levels out. A similar pattern is also observed amongst a few of the other top 5 emojis. As mentioned earlier in this paper, the emoji usage density dropped for 75% of the countries (by approximately 40%) in the first three clusters. Hence, indicating that the average usage of emojis by countries which are most affected by the pandemic dropped.

Although this difference is subtle, this could potentially indicate toward a shift in general public sentiment—a possible explanation being that there is a sense of insufficiency in emojis being able to convey the emotions associated with the pandemic. Another explanation could be that people associate emojis to a (comparatively) lighthearted conversation (Danesi, 2016), whereas the pandemic calls for more serious expressions, where emojis may be inadequate.

Nevertheless, it is important to mention here that a number of other factors could possibly affect global emoji usage and emoji usage amongst country-clusters (say clusters having countries with vastly differing economies etc.). The current study aimed to look at only one such possible factor, namely, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dishonest behavior is positively correlated with happiness; happiness may provide the cognitive flexibility necessary to reframe and rationalize dishonest acts

Do Happy People Cheat Less? A Field Experiment on Dishonesty. Erez Siniver. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, December 15 2020, 101658. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2020.101658

Highlights

• An experiment is designed to examine the effect of happiness on dishonest behavior.

• Dishonest behavior is found to be positively correlated with happiness.

• The positive relationship between dishonesty and happiness is not gender driven.

Abstract: Results of an experimental study designed to examine the effect of happiness on dishonest behavior are reported and analyzed. Passersby on the streets of Tel Aviv were asked to answer the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ), which contains 29 multiple-choice questions for measuring Subjective Well-Being (SWB). Each question is answered according to a uniform six-point Likert scale. After filling out the questionnaire, they were invited to perform the Fischbacher and Follmi-Heusi (2013)’s die-under-the-cup (DUTC) task, which incentivizes dishonest behavior. Past research has found a positive relationship between a person's level of honesty and their reported SWB. However, that result is based entirely on a subject's responses to a direct-question survey that simply asks whether he behaves ethically. The present study examines the relationship between dishonest behavior and SWB based on experimental data. Happiness was found to be positively correlated with dishonest behavior, implying that happy people cheat more than unhappy people. A possible explanation for this unexpected result is that happiness may provide the cognitive flexibility necessary to reframe and rationalize dishonest acts. This may pave the way for the commission of dishonest acts by altering how people evaluate the moral implications of their behavior.

Key words: HappinessSubjective Well-BeingEthicsDishonestyLyingDie-Under-the-Cup Task

Find higher fertility among men with higher cognitive ability among Swedish men using taxation & conscription registers; low income & low cognitive ability independently predict low fertility & high childlessness

Do income and marriage mediate the relationship between cognitive ability and fertility? Data from Swedish taxation and conscriptions registers for men born 1951–1967. Martin Kolk, Kieron Barclay. Intelligence, Volume 84, January–February 2021, 101514. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2020.101514

Highlights

• We find higher fertility among men with higher cognitive ability among Swedish men using population-level taxation and conscription registers

• Low income and low cognitive ability independently predict low fertility and high childlessness

• Strong evidence of lower access to marriage and reproduction among low status men in contemporary Sweden

Abstract: Recent evidence suggests a positive association between fertility and cognitive ability among Swedish men. In this study we use data on 18 birth cohorts of Swedish men to examine whether and how the relationship between cognitive ability and patterns of childbearing are mediated by income, education and marriage histories. We examine whether the expected positive associations between cognitive ability and life course income can explain this positive association. We also explore the role of marriage for understanding the positive gradient between cognitive ability and fertility. To address these questions we use Swedish population administrative data that holds information on fertility histories, detailed taxation records, and data from conscription registers. We also identify siblings in order to adjust for confounding by shared family background factors. Our results show that while cognitive ability, education, income, marriage, and fertility, are all positively associated with each other, income only explains a part of the observed positive gradient between fertility and cognitive ability. We find that much of the association between cognitive ability and fertility can be explained by marriage, but that a positive association exists among both ever-married and never-married men. Both low income and low cognitive ability are strong predictors of childlessness and low fertility in our population. The results from the full population persist in the sub-sample of brothers.

Keywords: FertilityChildlessnessCognitive abilityIncomeSweden

6. Discussion

In our paper, we show that while income is strongly associated with cognitive ability, men with below average cognitive ability have fewer children, even after adjusting for income. We also find that these differences are magnified for childlessness, and are also very strong for entry into marriage. Consistent with previous research, we find that income and fertility are very strongly associated (Chudnovskaya, 2019; Kolk, 2019), but that the relationship between cognitive ability and fertility persists net of the mediation of income. This is particularly true at lower income levels. Men with low cognitive ability who are above the median in cumulative income between age 18 and 45 have approximately the same number of children as men who score highly on cognitive ability. However, men with low cognitive ability are much less likely to find themselves in the top half of the cumulative income distribution. Among ever-married individuals, the association between cognitive ability and fertility is strongly attenuated, and only really suggests lower fertility among men with the lowest scores on cognitive ability. When comparing full biological brothers with each other, we find a strong positive fertility and cognitive ability gradient even after adjusting for income. Overall, our results indicate that the primary reason that we observe low fertility among men with lower cognitive ability is because of their failure to attract a partner for stable unions for childbearing. In addition to confirming previous findings on cognitive ability and fertility in Sweden (Kolk & Barclay, 2019), the findings of this study provide evidence for the importance of partnership formation for fertility, as well as showing that the intelligence-fertility association persists even after taking cumulative income into account.

Another intriguing empirical pattern that we have observed is that, although men with high cognitive ability have more children overall, men of average cognitive ability had more children than men with high cognitive ability scores among those who never married. These never-married men with high cognitive ability are too few to affect the population-level intelligence-fertility gradient, but may indicate a sub-population that either voluntarily abstains from childbearing and marriage, or in other ways have life trajectories that are associated with high education and income but not traditional patterns of family formation. In our full population analyses, when adjusting for cumulative income, we find that the men with the highest cognitive ability scores have slightly lower fertility and higher childlessness than men with median cognitive ability scores. After adjusting for income we observe slightly lower fertility among high IQ never-married men (left-panels of Fig. 6, Fig. 7), as well as slightly lower fertility among men with high cognitive ability (see Fig. 1). However, our finding that higher cognitive ability men have higher childlessness and lower fertility than men with similar incomes but average cognitive ability is not replicated in sibling comparison models.

In our sibling comparison models we consistently observe lower fertility among men in the bottom half of the cognitive ability distribution. The difference between our population level models and the sibling models is intriguing. Although the results from our population level models are key to understanding how cognitive ability may be distributed in the following generation (though without data on women we cannot speculate about this), the sibling comparison models effectively adjust for all factors shared in the family of origin. It is certainly possible that the results in the full population are confounded by factors that are jointly associated with both cognitive ability as well as fertility outcomes, for example negative experiences in early adulthood such as health shocks or substance abuse.

We believe that our study highlights the importance of examining and interpreting gross associations between cognitive ability and fertility by taking account of the associations between cognitive ability and mediating dimensions of social status and partnership formation. The sociological and demographic literature suggests great variation across the West in the associations between income and fertility, and education and fertility. The findings from our Swedish data may not generalize to other countries. In other high-income countries, the interrelationships between education, income, marriage, and fertility, differ in important ways from Sweden, and our results may to some extent be contingent on the aggregate positive relationships between status and marriage and family formation in Sweden. Nevertheless, we think that the fertility disadvantage of very low cognitive ability men is likely widespread across OECD contexts and that using datasets where such individuals are fully included is important if researchers are to be able to make population-level inferences. Future research on cognitive ability and fertility is therefore advised to pay careful attention to contemporary research in family sociology, demography, and economics on the overall relationship between status and fertility in the focal society. Importantly, the associations between income and fertility and education and fertility typically differ by gender. Unfortunately, we cannot examine any gender differences in the intelligence-fertility gradient in Sweden as we have male-only conscription data.

Our findings also contribute towards the increasing evidence for social polarization of childbearing in many Western countries. We find that the proportion childless and the proportion that never-marry is very substantial among men with lower cognitive ability. We find large separate effects where both low income and low cognitive ability are each strongly associated with a higher probability of childlessness and low completed fertility. When a man has both low income and low cognitive ability, fertility is even lower. This corresponds to the findings from a growing literature that shows that men with low income, low levels of education, worse health, and low cognitive ability, are much less likely to find a childbearing partner in Scandinavia (Barclay & Kolk, 2020; Jalovaara et al., 2019; Jalovaara & Fasang, 2020; Kolk, 2019). Fertility in Scandinavia has traditionally been characterized by relatively small social differences between groups. Our findings of differences by cognitive ability in probabilities of childlessness and ever-marriage of 20 to 30 percentage points clearly show that partnership and childbearing are increasingly less likely for many men with low cognitive ability in contemporary Sweden.

Global trends in the prevalence and incidence of depression: There is a predominant increasing trend in its prevalence over time

Global trends in the prevalence and incidence of depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Darío Moreno-Agostino et al. Journal of Affective Disorders, Volume 281, 15 February 2021, Pages 235-243. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.12.035

 

Highlights

• There is a predominant increasing trend in depression prevalence over time

• The increase is not attributable to methodological changes within or across studies

• Studies on depression incidence change with similar designs over time are needed

Abstract

Background: There is mixed evidence regarding the change in the prevalence of depression in the general population over time. This study aimed to synthesise the evidence on studies that use equivalent approaches in equivalent populations across different time points.

Methods: A systematic review was conducted to identify studies focused on the change over time in depression incidence and prevalence in the general population. A random-effects meta-analysis was performed to obtain a pooled effect for the change in the prevalence estimates between the first and last time points considered. Subgroup and meta-regression analyses were used to ascertain differences in the effect sizes by gender, age group, prevalence type, elapsed time between cross-sections, and depression operationalisation.

Results: 19 studies provided information on the change in depression prevalence over time, whereas none provided such information regarding incidence. The pooled odds ratio (OR) and confidence interval (CI) were estimated by using 17 studies: OR=1.35 (95% CI: 1.14, 1.61). Similar pooled effects were obtained for females and males, separately. The high heterogeneity across studies was not explained by any of the design variables considered. No evidence for publication bias was found.

Limitations: The review included published articles up to August 2018, and the information of studies with more than two time points was summarised in a single estimate of change.

Conclusions: There is a predominant increasing trend in the likelihood of experiencing depression over time that seems not to be explainable by study design differences or publication bias alone.

Keywords: depressionmeta-analysismood disorders

People tend to like interpersonal behaviors that are similar to their own and become bothered by behaviors that are the opposite of their own, consistently across different levels of relationship closeness

An Interpersonal Approach to Social Preference: Examining Patterns and Influences of Liking and Being Bothered by Interpersonal Behaviors of Others. Tianwei V. Du, Katherine M. Thomas and Donald R. Lynam. Journal of Personality Disorders, December 2020. https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/abs/10.1521/pedi_2020_34_496

Abstract: Personality disorders are rooted in maladaptive interpersonal behaviors. Previously, researchers have assessed interpersonal behaviors using self-ratings of one's own behaviors and third-person ratings of dyadic interactions. Few studies have examined individuals’ perceptions of others’ interpersonal behaviors. Using a sample of 470 undergraduate students, the authors examined patterns of interpersonal perception as well as influences of these patterns on psychological functioning. Findings showed that people tend to like interpersonal behaviors that are similar to their own and become bothered by behaviors that are the opposite of their own. Such a pattern is particularly characteristic on the warmth dimension and is consistent across different levels of closeness of the relationship. The authors also found small but significant effects of interpersonal perception on personality and general psychological functioning, above and beyond effects of individuals’ own interpersonal traits. Such findings highlight the importance of including perceptions of others in investigating interpersonal dynamics when understanding personality disorders.

Teams of mostly women performed better than teams of mostly men, when negative relationships existed among team members

When Can Negativity Mean Success? Gender Composition, Negative Relationships and Team Performance. Bret Bradley, Sarah Henry, Benjamin Blake. Small Group Research, December 11, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1177/1046496420959446

Rolf Degen's take: https://twitter.com/DegenRolf/status/1338744287836647424

Abstract: Teams are often plagued by internal discord, such as negative relationships, which can impede successful team performance. While most teams eventually encounter negative relationships, we have limited knowledge on how teams manage this negativity. In this article, we expand scholarship on teams by exploring an inherent team characteristic, gender composition, to assess its role in how teams cope with negative relationships. On the one hand, social role theory suggests that teams comprised of more women will perform better in the presence of negative relationships. On the other hand, theories and evidence on personality and individual differences suggest that teams comprised of more men will perform better in the presence of negative relationships. We studied 151 student project teams, and found that teams of mostly women performed better than teams of mostly men, when negative relationships existed among team members. We discuss the implications of these findings for research and practice.

Keywords: gender composition, negative relationships, team performance, social role theory

Social information is immensely valuable, but lots of it is wasted (we fail to give such information its optimal weight); egocentric discounting is a pervasive effect, but we have single unifying explanation for it

Morin, Olivier, Pierre O. Jacquet, Krist Vaesen, and Alberto Acerbi. 2020. “Social Information Use and Social Information Waste.” SocArXiv. December 10. doi:10.1098/rstb.2020.0052

Abstract: Social information is immensely valuable. Yet we waste it. The information we get from observing other humans and from communicating with them is a cheap and reliable informational resource. It is considered the backbone of human cultural evolution. Theories and models focused on the evolution of social learning show the great adaptive benefits of evolving cognitive tools to process it. In spite of this, human adults in the experimental literature use social information quite inefficiently: they do not take it sufficiently into account. A comprehensive review of the literature on five experimental tasks documented 45 studies showing social information waste, and 4 studies showing social information being over-used. These studies cover “egocentric discounting” phenomena as studied by social psychology, but also include experimental social learning studies. Social information waste means that human adults fail to give social information its optimal weight. Both proximal explanations and accounts derived from evolutionary theory leave crucial aspects of the phenomenon unaccounted for: egocentric discounting is a pervasive effect that no single unifying explanation fully captures. Cultural evolutionary theory’s insistence on the power and benefits of social influence is to be balanced against this phenomenon.

The Role of Subjective and Objective Social Status in the Generation of Envy: Those who were the most respected in the eyes of others were envied more than the richest ones

The Role of Subjective and Objective Social Status in the Generation of Envy. Henrietta Bolló, Dzsenifer Roxána Háger, Manuel Galvan and Gábor Orosz. Front. Psychol., December 15 2020. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.513495

Abstract: Envy is a negative emotion experienced in response to another person’s higher status. However, little is known about the composition of its most important element: status. The present research investigates the two main forms of social status (objective and subjective) in the generation of envy. In Study 1, participants recounted real-life situations when they felt envious; in Study 2 we examined whether the effect was the same in a controlled situation. We consistently found that those who were the most respected in the eyes of others were envied more than the richest ones. Furthermore, perceived deservingness of the superior other’s success differentiated between benign and malicious envy. Although previous studies focused on material comparisons when investigating envy, our results indicate that envy is rather a subjective social status related emotion. Not material, but social advantage of the superior other causes the most painful envy and future studies should put more emphasis on this type of social comparison in envy research.

General Discussion

According to the social-functional approach to envy, the goal of envy is to lessen the social status gap between the self and a superior other (Van de Ven et al., 2009; Lange and Crusius, 2015a,b). Previous research on envy was more focused on material inequalities (Carter and Gilovich, 2010; Fiske, 2011; Lin and Utz, 2015; Lin et al., 2018); the present research aimed to investigate the subjective facet of social status as well, taking into account the role of deservingness. Our findings suggest that SSS intensifies feelings of envy more than OSS and that deservingness helps differentiate between benign and malicious envy. A potential explanation for the prominent role of SSS in envy is that social factors are more related to our identity and cause more frustration, which can result in envy (Salovey and Rodin, 1984; DeSteno and Salovey, 1996; Lin et al., 2018). It has to be noted that previous studies (Salovey and Rodin, 1984; DeSteno and Salovey, 1996) confirmed this relationship in the case of jealousy, although recent research gave empirical evidence for the role of self-relevance in the case of envy as well (Lin et al., 2018). Although envy and jealousy have some overlap regarding hostility, lowered self-esteem, and sadness, they are two distinct emotions (Parrott and Smith, 1993). Envy is more focused on inferiority and therefore can be characterized by self-diminishment and resentment, while jealousy is more focused on the threat of loss of another’s fidelity and can be characterized by anxiety, distrust, and anger (Parrott and Smith, 1993).

There are two contradicting theories regarding the role of material things in envy. Some scholars suggest that, as material possessions are easily comparable, individuals compare themselves more frequently in this domain, and that consequently envy is experienced more in relation to material possessions (Carter and Gilovich, 2010). In contrast, others suggest that envy is most intense when social comparison is important for a person’s identity (Salovey and Rodin, 1984; Bolló et al., 2018).

Furthermore, although previous studies indicated that individuals tend to exaggerate the importance of OSS in hypothetical situations (Bolló et al., 2018), this study did not confirm this finding. In Study 2 respondents were asked to evaluate their feelings in a hypothetical situation, but SSS still played a more prominent role. However, in Study 2 respondents were asked to imagine that they were in the role of the envier, while in previous studies they were either the envied one (Lin et al., 2018) or the comparison affected their own status (Bolló et al., 2018). The findings of this study therefore suggest that there is a discrepancy between what individuals believe others are envious of and what they themselves are envious of, which can be a direction for future research.

Furthermore, the present research study replicated previous findings about the role of deservingness in envy (Parrott and Smith, 1993; Lange and Crusius, 2015b; Crusius and Lange, 2017; Crusius et al., 2017). Benign envy was more likely to be expressed when the superior other’s outcome was deserved and malicious envy was more likely when it was seen to be (Study 1) or characterized as (Study 2) undeserved. In the present research we applied the value theory of deservingness by Feather (1992). By definition, deservingness refers to whether the outcome is contingent with the situation: if there is a fit between the situation and the outcome it is deserved, otherwise it is undeserved (Feather, 1999). Based on Feather (1992), in Study 2 we characterized deserved advantage by positively valued behaviors (hard work in the case of OSS and being dependable in the case of SSS) and undeserved advantage by a negatively valued behavior (“cozying up” to others) and both were followed by the same positive outcome. In the present study, attributing the superior other’s success as undeserved (negatively valued behavior followed by a positive outcome) promoted malicious envy, while attributing the other’s advantage as deserved (positively valued behavior followed by a positive outcome) promoted benign envy. According to attribution theory (Hareli and Weiner, 2002), balanced structures (Heider, 1958) carry the possibility of controllability (namely that hard work pays off) and individuals will have the motivation to work hard and become as successful as the superior other.

In summary, the findings indicate that SSS and OSS play different roles in the generation of envy. SSS is more relevant in upward social comparisons leading to benign and malicious envy, and material possessions do not motivate people to move up the social hierarchy to the same extent.

Limitations and Future Studies

Although this study has important implications in relation to envy, there are a number of limitations which should be taken into account. Firstly, females were over-represented in the sample, which may lead to biased results. Previous studies suggest that women are more likely to avoid socially comparative situations that men (Niederle and Vesterlund, 2007; Rand, 2017), which can have an effect on envy.

Secondly, both studies were cross-sectional and no behavioral measures were used. Future studies should apply longitudinal or experimental design with behavioral measures.

Thirdly, Study 2 was a situation evaluation task with an imaginary scenario, so participants’ reactions in this imaginary situation may differ from their reactions in a real-life scenario. Although applying a vignette method in Study 2 can lead to interesting and informative contributions, there are limitations, especially for examining potentially less desirable emotions like envy (Van Dijk et al., 2006). For example, in the undeserved conditions of Study 2 participants might draw negative evaluations of not only the outcome but also the person themselves and it might also affect their answer about envy, added to “deservedness,” as Crusius and Lange (2014) pointed out previously that malicious envy biases attention toward the envied person rather than the advantage of this person. In future studies, this bias can be treated with manipulating not only the deservingness of the outcome but also the characteristics of the person, and then investigating their interactions.

However, vignette studies have long been used in experimental emotion research, offering the possibility to systematically control for other factors by providing identical information to respondents, thereby increasing their internal validity (Powell et al., 2008). In addition, there is empirical evidence that vignette studies can be highly generalizable to real life behavior, while overcoming the ethical, practical, and scientific limitations associated with alternative methods (Evans et al., 2015). Furthermore, respondents were assured about their anonymity and were encouraged to answer honestly. In sum, despite the limitations of online hypothetical methods, they are widely used in envy research (for example, Parrott and Smith, 1993; Lange and Crusius, 2015b; Poelker et al., 2019) and there is also empirical evidence that people do not seem more reluctant to report envy than other negative social emotions (Hareli and Weiner, 2002).

There are several potential directions for future studies, but the most important is that more emphasis should be placed on social factors instead of material inequalities in envy research. SSS is a broad conception but investigating its elements, such as respect or influence, could be a fruitful area. Furthermore, future studies should investigate possible mediating variables between envy and social status. Some possible mediators may be status maintenance strategies, prestige, and dominance. Previous research indicates that prestige is related to SSS (Bolló et al., 2018) and benign envy (Crusius and Lange, 2017).

Losing Elections' Effects on Political and Social Attitudes and Subjective Well-being: Most effects are bigger for those with strong partisan attachments, some are bigger for men

Toshkov, Dimiter, and Honorata Mazepus. 2020. “Winning and Losing Democratic Elections: Effects on Political and Social Attitudes and Subjective Well-being.” OSF Preprints. December 14. doi:10.31219/osf.io/j9dty

Abstract: In democracies, losing free and fair elections is a normal part of politics, and the consent of losers is needed for the survival of democratic government itself. But being on the losing side of the electoral contest can trigger important changes in the political and social attitudes, and even in the life outlook and subjective well-being of citizens. Based on individual-level survey data from 25 European countries and two time periods (2012 and 2018), we show that there is a significant gap between people who have voted for the parties in government and the losers of democratic elections when it comes to a wide set of political attitudes, including political trust, perceived efficacy and importance of government responsiveness and perceptions about how politics and government work. We also find that the gap between winners and losers extends to social trust, country attachment, feeling happy, healthy, safe, and optimistic, life satisfaction and perceived place in society. Most of these effects are greater in new democracies and for citizens with strong partisan attachments, some are bigger for men, and many are mediated by satisfaction with the government. Losing elections is hard for politics, but it could also be hard for the soul.

For people with an unrestricted sociosexual orientation (i.e., interested in a short-term, sexual relationship), however, self-control was related to lower selectivity...

The role of self-control and sociosexual orientation in partner selection: A speed-dating study. Tila M. Pronk et al. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, December 9, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407520977675

Abstract: Self-control is a crucial factor in maintaining an established romantic relationship, but its role in relationship formation is understudied. The current study tested whether trait self-control is related to a more selective approach toward romantic partners. Over 4 years, we organized 11 speed-date events at which a total of 342 single, heterosexual participants met potential partners. Our results indicated that there was no main effect of self-control on selectivity. However, there was an interaction between self-control and sociosexual orientation (SOI) in predicting selectivity. Specifically, self-control was positively related to selectivity for people with a restricted SOI (i.e., interested in a long-term, stable relationship). For people with an unrestricted SOI (i.e., interested in a short-term, sexual relationship), however, self-control was related to lower selectivity. Our findings point to the flexibility of self-control in facilitating goal progress, stimulating people to refrain from—or act on—their impulses, depending on their own personal mating goals.

Keywords: Human mate selection, interpersonal attraction, mating strategies, romantic relationships, self-control, sociosexual orientation, speed-dating

 

I thought this was already debunked, but these authors say that higher-class individuals made more errors than lower-class individuals in the Director Task (requires participants to assume the visual perspective of another person)

Social Class Predicts Emotion Perception and Perspective-Taking Performance in Adults. Pia Dietze, Eric D. Knowles. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, April 27, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167220914116

Abstract: “Theory of Mind” (ToM; people’s ability to infer and use information about others’ mental states) varies across cultures. In four studies (N = 881), including two preregistered replications, we show that social class predicts performance on ToM tasks. In Studies 1A and 1B, we provide new evidence for a relationship between social class and emotion perception: Higher-class individuals performed more poorly than their lower-class counterparts on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test, which has participants infer the emotional states of targets from images of their eyes. In Studies 2A and 2B, we provide the first evidence that social class predicts visual perspective taking: Higher-class individuals made more errors than lower-class individuals in the Director Task, which requires participants to assume the visual perspective of another person. Potential mechanisms linking social class to performance in different ToM domains, as well as implications for deficiency-centered perspectives on low social class, are discussed.

Keywords: social class, culture, theory of mind, Director Task, Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test

Is Touch in Romantic Relationships Universally Beneficial for Psychological Well-Being? The Role of Attachment Avoidance

Is Touch in Romantic Relationships Universally Beneficial for Psychological Well-Being? The Role of Attachment Avoidance. Anik Debrot et al. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, December 7, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167220977709

Abstract: Affectionate touch is crucial for well-being. However, attachment avoidance is associated with negative attitudes toward touch. We tested two preregistered hypotheses about how attachment avoidance influences the association between touch in romantic couples and psychological well-being. We examined whether greater attachment avoidance is associated with a reduced link between touch and well-being, and/or whether reduced touch mediates the relationship between attachment avoidance and lower well-being. Across three studies, including two dyadic ones, we measured retrospective self-reports (Studies 1 and 2), laboratory observations (Study 2), and daily experiences (Study 3) of touch. Touch and well-being were positively associated, and attachment avoidance was associated with lower well-being and less frequent touch. Touch was associated with greater well-being regardless of level of attachment avoidance, and less frequent touch mediated the negative association between attachment avoidance and well-being in most analyses. This underscores the importance of touch, even for those valuing distance and autonomy.

Keywords: touch, attachment, well-being, attachment avoidance

No Detectable Electroencephalographic Activity 24-hours After Clinical Declaration of Death among Tibetan Buddhist Meditators in apparent tukdam, a putative postmortem meditation state

No Detectable Electroencephalographic Activity 24-hours After Clinical Declaration of Death among Tibetan Buddhist Meditators in apparent tukdam, a putative postmortem meditation state. Dylan T. Lott1 et al. Front. Psychol., Dec 2020. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.599190

Abstract: Recent EEG studies on the early postmortem interval that suggest the persistence of electrophysiological coherence and connectivity in the brain of animals and humans reinforce the need for further investigation of the relationship between the brain’s activity and the dying process. Neuroscience is now in a position to empirically evaluate the extended process of dying and more specifically, to investigate the possibility of brain activity following the cessation of cardiac and respiratory function. Under the direction of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, research was conducted in India on a postmortem meditative state cultivated by some Tibetan Buddhist practitioners in which decomposition is putatively delayed. For all healthy baseline (HB) and post-mortem (PM) subjects presented here, we collected resting state electroencephalographic data, Mismatch Negativity (MMN), and Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR). In this study, we demonstrate the feasibility that a sparse electrode EEG configuration is capable of capturing well-defined ERP waveforms from living subjects under very challenging field conditions. While living subjects displayed well-defined MMN and ABR responses, no recognizable EEG waveforms were discernable in any of these tukdam cases.

Keywords: Meditation, Tibetan Buddhism, auditory brainstem response, mismatch negativity, EEG, postmortem, Brain Death

Genetic predispositions may make some children more likely to start musical training early; they may be encouraged by other people who recognize their talent

Why Is an Early Start of Training Related to Musical Skills in Adulthood? A Genetically Informative Study. Laura W. Wesseldijk, Miriam A. Mosing, Fredrik Ullén. Psychological Science, December 14, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620959014

Abstract: Experts in domains such as music or sports often start training early. It has been suggested that this may reflect a sensitive period in childhood for skill acquisition. However, it could be that familial factors (e.g., genetics) contribute to the association. Here, we examined the effect of age of onset of musical training on musical aptitude and achievement in professional musicians (n = 310) and twins (n = 7,786). In line with previous literature, results showed that an earlier age of onset was associated with higher aptitude and achievement in both samples. After we adjusted for lifetime practice hours, age of onset was associated only with aptitude (p < .001; achievement: p > .14). Twin analyses showed that the association with aptitude was fully explained by familial factors. Thus, these findings provide little support for a sensitive period for music but highlight that familiar factors play an important role for associations between age of onset of training and skills in adulthood.

Keywords: sensitive period, musical training, musical expertise, twins, professional musicians

Discussion

Here, we examined whether musical training at a younger age leads to higher levels of musical expertise when controlling for the effects of total practice and familial factors, as would be predicted from the hypothesis that there is a sensitive period for musical training in childhood. In both professional musicians and twins, an earlier age of onset of musical training was associated with higher aptitude and achievement. However, when we controlled for lifetime practice, associations between age of onset and achievement became insignificant, whereas age of onset still predicted aptitude. The latter association disappeared, in turn, when we controlled for familial liability in a cotwin control design. Further twin analyses showed that the associations between age of onset of musical training and musical aptitude and between age of onset and musical achievement were fully explained by familial factors (i.e., shared genetic and shared environmental factors), in line with our cotwin control findings.

In both samples, an earlier age of onset of musical training was associated with higher musical aptitude and musical achievement, but when analyses controlled for lifetime practice, age of onset significantly predicted only higher levels of musical aptitude. Whereas this highlights the importance of adjusting for lifetime practice when exploring the above associations, it also lends further support to the findings of associations between age of onset of musical training and performance on some musical tasks reported in earlier studies (Bailey & Penhune, 2010, 2012, 2013; Bailey et al., 2014; Ireland et al., 2019; Skoe & Kraus, 2013; Steele et al., 2013; Vaquero et al., 2016; Watanabe et al., 2007). The consistency across our two samples, a professional-musician and population-based twin sample, strengthens these findings and suggests a similar effect of age of onset of musical training in a wide range of musical expertise. More importantly, our findings suggest a mediating effect of total practice on the relationship between age of onset of musical training and musical achievement but not on musical aptitude. Importantly, cumulative lifetime practice has been shown to be influenced by genetic factors (Mosing et al., 2014) and therefore does not reflect only unique environmental influences. Further, in both samples, age of onset of musical training significantly predicted higher levels of pitch discrimination but not rhythm discrimination. Only in the population-based sample did an earlier age of onset predict higher levels of melody discrimination. This is in line with the finding by Ireland and colleagues (2019) that children who received musical training before the age of 7 years outperformed children who started later on simple melody discrimination but not complex rhythm synchronization. Last, when we treated age of onset as a binary variable to test for an age window of below and at or above 8 years old, our findings remained the same.

The twin sample allowed us to extend our analyses to control for familial confounding, thereby further investigating causality, as well as to estimate the influence of genetic, shared environmental, and nonshared environmental factors on age of onset of musical training and its relationship with expertise. The twin analyses provided no evidence for a causal effect of early training in such associations. First, we found the association between age of onset of musical training (continuous or binary) and musical aptitude or achievement to diminish (close to zero) when controlling for familial liability. Further, the associations were fully explained by familial factors (i.e., common genetic and shared environmental). Because unique environmental factors did not play a role in the association between age of onset of musical training and musical expertise, the data provide little support for a causal association. We wish to emphasize that these findings do not necessarily rule out the existence of a sensitive period. Importantly, however, our findings provide clear evidence for the importance of shared familiar factors in associations between age of onset and adult performance.

As mentioned before, genetic predispositions may make some children more likely to start musical training early. They may be encouraged by other people who recognize their talent and may to a higher degree seek out, show interest in, and have access to a musical environment. More musical parents may not only pass their genetic predisposition to their children but also provide both access to early musical training and a musically enriched childhood environment that enhances musical expertise. This is an example of gene–environment correlation, in which genetics and shared environmental factors may influence the association between age of onset of musical training and later expertise. For future research, children-of-twins and adoption studies are genetically informative designs that offer possibilities to further explore gene–environment correlation.

There are some limitations of this study. First, age of onset of musical training was self-reported, which may introduce a rater or recall bias. Another possibility is that parents who are aware that their children are monozygotic twins treat them more similarly compared with parents of dizygotic twins with regard to early musical training. This would mean a violation of the equal-environment assumption (i.e., that, on average, both monozygotic and dizygotic twins are treated equally similarly), also causing an upward bias in the heritability estimates. Although we were not able to control for this in our study, multiple earlier studies have shown that the assumption generally holds (Derks, Dolan, & Boomsma, 2006). The absence of an effect of age of onset of musical training on rhythm discrimination in professional musicians should be interpreted with caution because strong ceiling effects were found in the musician sample on this subtest. Last, we note that the mean age of onset is significantly higher in male than in female participants. However, additional regression analyses separately for sex did not change the findings. One major strength of this study is the availability of both a professional musician sample and a large population-based twin sample. This allowed us to fully explore the association between age of onset of musical training and musical expertise while controlling for confounds between genetic and shared environmental factors.

The present study is, to our knowledge, the largest and only genetically informative study to focus on whether starting musical training at a younger age leads to higher levels of musical expertise. When controlling for lifetime practice, we found that an earlier age of onset of musical training predicted higher levels of musical aptitude in adulthood in professional musicians and in the general population. However, the association diminished when analyses controlled for familial liability in a cotwin control design. This, together with the finding that the association between age of onset of musical training and musical aptitude was fully explained by familial factors, suggests that a genetic predisposition for music may make children start musical training at a younger age. Thus, our findings provide little direct support that early training has a specific, causal effect on later performance and achievement; rather, they highlight the importance of taking into account cumulative measures of practice as well as genetic and shared environmental factors when studying sensitive periods and effects of an early age of onset of musical training on expertise in later life.