Tuesday, July 6, 2021

We don’t talk to our children enough about pursuing sex to fulfill carnal needs that delight & captivate us in the moment — I never want my children to worry that exploring any aspect of consensual sex or touch is too taboo

Yes, kink belongs at Pride. And I want my kids to see it. Lauren Rowello. The Washington Post, June 29, 2021.

Children need to know that they can make their own ways in the world


Our family often took the train into Philadelphia, but as we rode across the bridge to attend the city’s Pride parade five years ago, my wife’s leg bounced with a nervous jitter. She squeezed my hand, worried that she might run into a colleague or be harassed by a stranger. My wife is trans, and wasn’t out at the time, so she typically only expressed her authenticity in the privacy of our home. That morning she wore a green skirt and light makeup, brushing her hair all to one side. Even though we’d attended Pride marches and protests in previous years, that day was our first celebrating openly as a family.

When our children grew tired of marching, we plopped onto a nearby curb. Just as we got settled, our elementary-schooler pointed in the direction of oncoming floats, raising an eyebrow at a bare-chested man in dark sunglasses whose black suspenders clipped into a leather thong. The man paused to be spanked playfully by a partner with a flog. “What are they doing?” my curious kid asked as our toddler cheered them on. The pair was the first of a few dozen kinksters who danced down the street, laughing together as they twirled their whips and batons, some leading companions by leashes. At the time, my children were too young to understand the nuance of the situation, but I told them the truth: That these folks were members of our community celebrating who they are and what they like to do.

The kink community has participated in Pride since its inception — risking their jobs and safety to be authentically themselves in public. Still, every year as Pride Month approaches, a debate erupts about whether kink belongs at Pride at all. Those hoping to oust kinksters often cite the presence of children as their top concern. That was pointedly the case this year when Twitter users argued that kink at Pride is a highly sexualized experience that children should be shielded from. Thousands of users supported these posts, claiming that kink at Pride crosses a line because minors also attend events. I agree that Pride should be a welcoming space for children and teens, but policing how others show up doesn’t protect or uplift young people. Instead, homogenizing self-expression at Pride will do more harm to our children than good. When my own children caught glimpses of kink culture, they got to see that the queer community encompasses so many more nontraditional ways of being, living, and loving.

As much as I want them to spend time in queer spaces so they can be with families like their own, I also want them to know that they shouldn’t limit their understanding of what relationships or expression look like to whatever’s most familiar. I want them to see that they can make their own ways in the world — and know that they’ll be supported and celebrated by their community. If we want our children to learn and grow from their experiences at Pride, we should hope that they’ll encounter kink when they attend. How else can they learn about the scope and vitality of queer life?

Anti-kink advocates tend to manipulate language about safety and privacy by asserting that attendees are nonconsensually exposed to overt displays of sexuality. The most outrageous claim is that innocent bystanders are forced to participate in kink simply by sharing space with the kink community, as if the presence of kink at Pride is a perverse exhibition that kinksters pursue for their own gratification. But kinksters at Pride are not engaged in sex acts — and we cannot confuse their self-expression with obscenity. Co-opting the language of sexual autonomy only serves to bury that truth and muddies the seriousness of other conversations about consent. If this all sounds familiar, it’s because anti-kink rhetoric echoes the same socialized disgust people have projected onto other queer people when they claim that our love is not appropriate for public spaces. It’s a sentiment that tolerates queerness only if it stays within parameters — offering the kind of acceptance that comes with a catch. The middle-aged, White men who I grew up with said they were “fine” with gay people as long as they wouldn’t be subjected to PDA — as long as all signs of queer love could be outwardly erased. Queer people’s freedom to be themselves is, according to this logic, contingent on non-queer people’s freedom from exposure to it.

The arguable difference here is that many of the latest objections are coming from self-identified queer people, but that shouldn’t necessarily be surprising. Respectability politics demand that queer people assimilate as much as possible into cis- and heteronormativity, hewing to mainstream cultural standards. Members of the queer community have internalized those norms to the point that we judge ourselves by them, and then criticize and ostracize others if they don’t uphold them, too. This is the same oppressive message that prevented my wife from transitioning for 30 years, and the same message that still keeps marginalized children from coming to terms with their own experiences with desire and embodiment.

Children who witness kink culture are reassured that alternative experiences of sexuality and expression are valid — no matter who they become as they mature, helping them recognize that their personal experiences aren’t bad or wrong, and that they aren’t alone in their experiences. I can’t think of a more relevant or important reminder for youth, who often struggle with feelings of isolation and confusion as they discover more about themselves and wrestle with concerns about whether they’re normal enough. Including kink in Pride opens space for families to have necessary and powerful conversations with young people about health, safety, consent, and — most uniquely — pleasure. Kink visibility is a reminder that any person can and should shamelessly explore what brings joy and excitement. We don’t talk to our children enough about pursuing sex to fulfill carnal needs that delight and captivate us in the moment. Sharing the language of kink culture with young people provides them with valuable information about safe sex practices — such as the importance of establishing boundaries, safe words and signals, affirming the importance of planning and research and the need to seek and give enthusiastic consent. I never want my children to worry that exploring any aspect of consensual sex or touch is too taboo.

If we’re afraid to talk about kink with our children, we prioritize the status quo — sanitizing and censoring their access to information about appropriate and normal self-expression. These are the very attitudes that made Pride necessary — and life-affirming — for so many of us in the first place, and we have no business imposing them on the next generation. Kink embodies the freedom that Pride stands for, reminding attendees to unapologetically take up space as an act of resistance and celebration — refusing to bend to social pressure that asks us to be presentable. That’s a value I want my children to learn. Affirming the kink community helps our children to love themselves and others with courage and resilience. If my wife and I had seen such fierce and determined role models as young people, we might have learned to be ourselves much sooner. We didn’t have that chance, but my children have that community in Pride, and I want to keep it that way.


We were not able to identify a significant association between radicalization, terrorism, and psychiatric disorders; but some research suggests high rates of psychiatric disorders in subgroups of radicalized people & lone-actor terrorists

Are radicalization and terrorism associated with psychiatric disorders? A systematic review. Margot Trimbur et al. Journal of Psychiatric Research, July 5 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2021.07.002

Abstract

Background: The risk factors for radicalization and terrorism represent a key research issue. While numerous data on the sociological, political, and criminological profiles of radicalized people and terrorists are available, knowledge about psychiatric disorders among these populations remains scarce and contradictory.

Method: We conducted a systematic review of the literature regarding psychiatric disorders among both radicalized and terrorist populations.

Results: We screened 2,856 records and included a total of 25 articles to generate a complete overview. The vast majority of studies were of poor methodological quality. We assessed three population groups: people at risk of radicalization, radicalized populations, and terrorist populations. The results showed important variations in the prevalence rates of psychiatric disorders depending on the study population and methodology. People at risk of radicalization have been reported to have depressive disorders, but contradictory findings exist. Psychiatric disorders range from 6% to 41% in the radicalized population and from 3.4% to 48.5% among terrorists. Among terrorists, psychiatric disorders are more frequent for lone-actor terrorists than for those in groups.

Conclusion: We were not able to identify a significant association between radicalization, terrorism, and psychiatric disorders in our systematic review. However, some research suggests high rates of psychiatric disorders in subgroups of radicalized people and lone-actor terrorists. Further studies using standardized psychiatric assessment methods are urgently needed.

Keywords: terrorismForensic psychiatryMental disordersViolenceRadicalization


Monday, July 5, 2021

Germany: Estimations of police officers suggest that 18.2% of their daily work contacts are to persons with mental disorders; the most common are addiction, depression and schizophrenia

Police contact to mentally ill people. Katharina Lorey & Jörg M. Fegert. Forensische Psychiatrie, Psychologie, Kriminologie, Jul 5 2021. https://rd.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11757-021-00670-z

Abstract

Objective: Police officers often have contact with mentally ill people. The aim of this study was to analyze these contacts for better understanding of these interactions.

Method: This study systematically surveyed how police officers experience these contacts. A total of 2228 German police officers filled out a questionnaire (28.2% female, 71.8% male).

Results: Estimations of police officers suggest that 18.2% of their daily work contacts are to persons with mental disorders. The most common mental disorders police officers seem to be confronted with are addiction, depression and schizophrenia. In the perception of police officers, addiction problems are frequently linked with property offences, schizophrenia with violence and assault offences and depression with suicide or suicide attempts. According to the police officer’s opinions, the biggest challenges in policing concerning people with mental disorders are risks and dangers and the prediction of their behavior. More than half of the participating police officers (56.7%) experienced the challenges in encountering mentally ill people with calming down, being empathetic, communication, staying calm and building trust. The majority of the law enforcement officers (50.4%) see potential improvements in the expansion of specialized training programs and more than one third recommended the increase of collaborations with professional helpers (39.1%).

Conclusion: Approximately one in five contacts of a police officer concerns a person with a mental disorder. These contacts are, in the opinion of police officers, frequently experienced as dangerous and unpredictable, while at the same time sufficient training for law enforcement and networks to professionals are lacking. A topic which should be addressed in a multiprofessional appraoch.


Female relatives of androphilic males have more children than the female relatives of gynephilic ones; hypothesis was that those female relatives are more attractive, allowing them to obtain male partners with higher status

Facial Attractiveness of the Sisters of Istmo Zapotec Men and Muxes: Implications for the Evolution of Male Androphilia. Francisco R. Gómez Jiménez & Paul L. Vasey. The Journal of Sex Research, Jul 2 2021. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2021.1943737

Abstract: Research shows that the female relatives of androphilic (i.e., sexually attracted to adult males) males have more children than the female relatives of gynephilic (i.e., sexually attracted to adult females) males. The mechanisms by which this occurs are unclear. The hypergyny hypothesis suggests that the female relatives of androphilic males have elevated attractiveness which allows them to obtain male partners with higher socioeconomic status, which in turn, provide them with more resources to produce and sustain multiple offspring. We tested whether the female kin of male androphiles are characterized by elevated attractiveness compared to the female kin of male gynephiles. The research was conducted among the Istmo Zapotec from Oaxaca, Mexico, where androphilic males are recognized as a third gender, muxes. We recruited 115 gynephilic men who rated the facial attractiveness of 27 women with at least one muxe sibling and 27 women with only gynephilic male siblings (i.e., control sisters). The results showed that gynephilic men found the faces of control sisters more attractive than the faces of muxe sisters. This finding is inconsistent with the hypergyny hypothesis and suggests that elevated facial attractiveness is not the mechanism by which the female relatives of androphilic males achieve elevated reproduction.


The effects of COVID-19 on test-retest reliability in a behavioral measure for impulsivity: Experiments of Psychologist researches will be impacted

The effects of COVID-19 on test-retest reliability in a behavioral measure for impulsivity. Paul Romanowich & Qian Chen. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, Jun 6 2021. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2021.1935821

Abstract: Predictive power of many behavioral measures relies on high test-retest reliability, whereby a measure yields similar data when repeated measure administration occurs at spaced-out intervals. However, major environmental disruptions between measure administration may impact test-retest reliability. The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic caused just such a major environmental disruption. We collected impulsivity data via a delay discounting task before, during, and after this environmental disruption. Test-retest reliability was generally statistically significant throughout the study even as delay discounting rates changed in the expected direction between the two experimental groups. Importantly, non-significant correlation coefficients (i.e. poor test-retest reliability) typically occurred immediately after the environmental disruption. Participant’s anecdotal self-reports corroborated COVID-19’s temporary disruptive impact. Although not a planned manipulation, this data provides useful information about whether major environmental disruptions may impact test-retest reliability for events that may not be replicable during a controlled experiment. Social and behavioral scientists attempting behavioral measurement through well-validated measures should be aware of whether large environmental changes can affect measure reliability, and how long such a disruption may last.

Keywords: Coronavirusdelay discountingimpulsivenesspandemicreliability

Results & discussion

There were no significant differences between EFT and SET participants on any measured demographic variable. Overall, the median age was 24 (range 21–72) with most participants self-identifying as male (88%) and Hispanic (67%). An equal percentage of each group self-reported drinking (75%), and no participants self-reported smoking.

Figure 1 shows Pearson correlation coefficients plotted as a function of delay discounting task administration date for EFT (top) and SET (bottom) participants. EFT participants completed eight delay discounting tasks throughout the semester, whereas SET participants completed seven delay discounting tasks. Only the first (week 1 – baseline) and last delay discounting tasks were administered to each group at the same time. EFT group data (top graph) show that most correlation coefficients were above the significance threshold (r > 0.553; two-tailed p < 0.05). Points below the significance threshold were all related to delay discounting data collected immediately after COVID-19 shifted all university courses to online instruction (i.e. Time 3; online course announcement made 11 March 2020). The black closed triangles indicate relationships between delay discounting data collected immediately after COVID-19 and subsequent delay discounting measurements. Only one subsequent delay discounting task was significantly associated with delay discounting data obtained at Time 3. There was also a gradual increase in correlation coefficients for delay discounting tasks further in time from Time 3 (i.e. closer to the end of the semester).

[Figure 1. Pearson correlation coefficients plotted as a function of when the delay discounting task was completed for EFT (top) and SET (bottom) participants. Different shading for the data points represent which two delay discounting tasks were correlated, with darker shading indicating correlation coefficients closer to the end of the study. For example, the left-most data point for Time 1 in the EFT (top) graph is the correlation between the baseline delay discounting task and the second delay discounting task (DD2) on 20 February 2020. Points above the dashed horizontal line (r = 0.553) represent statistically significant Pearson correlation coefficients]

In contrast, SET participants (Figure 1 – bottom) did not show any systematic change in Pearson correlation coefficients as a function of when the delay discounting task was administered. Like EFT participants, test-retest data for SET participants were generally statistically significant. Two correlation coefficients associated with the second-to-last delay discounting measure were below the significance threshold. However, the other two correlation coefficients associated with the second-to-last discounting measure were above the significance threshold.

Significant Pearson correlation coefficients could have resulted from little or no change in delay discounting rates over the semester. That is, if delay discounting rates do not change for each participant, across multiple measurement they will necessarily be highly correlated and show high test-retest reliability. Therefore, EFT and SET effects on delay discounting were measured by percentage delay discounting relative to week 1 (baseline). In the EFT group, 39% (26 of 67) of the subsequent delay discounting rates were less than week 1 delay discounting rates. For SET participants, only 7% (4 of 52) of delay discounting rates were less than week 1 rates. EFT participants produced significantly more delay discounting rates less than week 1 relative to SET participants,1 χ2 = 16.58, p < 0.001, Φ = 0.37. Seven of the 12 EFT participants had at least one delay discounting rate less than week 1, whereas only three of 12 SET participants could do the same. Consistent with the previous literature (Hollis-Hansen et al., 2019), EFT was more likely to decrease delay discounting rates, relative to SET.

To further explore whether the COVID-19 disruption was associated with changes in test-retest reliability, EFT descriptions were scored for COVID-19 content. If COVID-19 was a large but temporary disruption for participants, then more COVID-19-related content should appear for EFT descriptions closer to decreased delay discounting test-retest reliability (i.e., Time 3 for EFT participants). During the first EFT training there was no COVID-19-related content (prior to March 2020). During the second EFT training on 22 March 2020, there were seven COVID-19-related descriptions: six for the 1-month description and one for the 3-month description. Examples included, ‘In one month, I will be at home because of the virus. I will be in my room watching television. I will be calm as I pass the time to try and get through the days’ and ‘I will be passing all my classes and starting to prepare myself for the real world. I also will be staying home for the remainder of the semester because of the virus outbreak.’ The third and fourth EFT trainings contained seven and two descriptions, respectively. The third EFT training contained three 1-month, two 3-month, and two 1-year descriptions. During the fourth EFT training both were for the 3-month description. By comparison, there was only one COVID-19-related statement during each SET training. For example, one participant wrote ‘Reading news articles on my phone includes national news about COVID-19, politics, and front-page stories.’ Thus, EFT participants provided COVID-19-related content at the shortest episodic description (1-month) immediately after the pandemic occurred. These descriptions shifted to more temporally distant (6-month and 1-year) episodic descriptions and decreased in frequency.

In sum, the current results provide a non-experimental window into a potential relationship between an unexpected major environmental event and delay discounting test-retest reliability. Although major environmental disruptions cannot be controlled, many social and behavioral researchers using the same measures during a major environmental disruption could profitably compare and/or combine their data as a way to validate findings for test-retest reliability through replication.

Men & women may use sexual behaviors to cope with negative emotions, which could, in turn, lead to hypersexuality; women’s hypersexuality may reduce their own relationship intimacy over time

Hypersexuality in Mixed-Sex Couples: A Dyadic Longitudinal Study. Beáta Bőthe, Marie-Pier Vaillancourt-Morel & Sophie Bergeron. Archives of Sexual Behavior, Jun 29 2021. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10508-021-01959-0

Abstract: Emotion dysregulation and intimacy problems are theoretically underpinned correlates of hypersexuality (i.e., uncontrollable sexual urges, fantasies, and behaviors resulting in distress and impairment in different areas of functioning), but the directionality of these associations has not been established, as work in this area has relied on cross-sectional designs. Moreover, although hypersexuality may have significant adverse effects on romantic relationships and approximately half of treatment-seeking individuals are in a relationship, prior studies almost exclusively involved samples of men, regardless of their relationship status. The aim of the present study was to examine the directionality of associations between both partners’ emotion dysregulation, physical (i.e., partnered sexual frequency) and relationship intimacy, and hypersexuality using a longitudinal, dyadic framework. Self-reported data of 267 mixed-sex couples (Mage_men = 29.9 years, SD = 8.2; Mage_women = 27.7 years, SD = 6.7) at baseline (T1) and six-month follow-up (T2) were analyzed using a crossed-lagged model within an actor–partner interdependence framework. Prior greater emotion dysregulation (T1) in both men and women was associated with their own later greater hypersexuality (T2). Women’s prior greater hypersexuality (T1) was associated with their later lower relationship intimacy (T2). Lower levels of intimacy were not significantly associated with later hypersexuality. No partner effects were found in relation to hypersexuality. Findings suggest that men and women may use sexual behaviors to cope with negative emotions, which could, in turn, lead to hypersexuality. Intimacy problems did not precede hypersexuality, although women’s hypersexuality may reduce their own relationship intimacy over time.


From 2020... Desires vs. desirability - Studying predictors of online pornography use in Germany with a combination of surveys and web tracking

Desires vs. desirability - Studying predictors of online pornography use in Germany with a combination of surveys and web tracking. Pascal Siegers, Maximilian von Andrian-Werburg, Johannes Breuer. Presentation,  GESIS DAS Colloquium, April 21, 2020. https://figshare.com/articles/presentation/Desires_vs_desirability_-_Studying_predictors_of_online_pornography_use_in_Germany_with_a_combination_of_surveys_and_web_tracking/12162201


Use of sexually explicit media (SEM)

 Has been measured (and defined) consistently inconsistent (Marshall & Miller, 2019)

 Has been found to be related to both more physical and verbal sexual violence (e.g., Wright, Tokunaga, &  Kraus, 2016)

 Effects are quite heavily but also reasonably  disputed (Ferguson & Hartley, 2009)

 Previous studies based on self-report → issue of  social desirability

 Young men appear to be the most heavy users of SEM (Price, Patterson, Regnerus, & Walley, 2016)

 Fewer women consume it but women who watch tend to see more extreme content compared to men (e.g., PornHub Insights, 2018)

 Religious men watch more SEM (than nonreligious men), religious women almost not at all (Short, Kasper & Wetterneck, 2015)


These authors think they confirmed point  above.


Sunday, July 4, 2021

The nematode worm C. elegans chooses between bacterial foods exactly as if maximizing economic utility

The nematode worm C. elegans chooses between bacterial foods exactly as if maximizing economic utility. Abraham Katzen, Hui-Kuan Chung, William T. Harbaugh, Christina Della Iacono, Nicholas Jackson, Stephanie K. Yu, Steven W. Flavell, Paul W. Glimcher, Shawn R. Lockery. bioRxiv Jul 2 2021. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.25.441352

Abstract: In value-based decision making, options are selected according to subjective values assigned by the individual to available goods and actions. Despite the importance of this faculty of the mind, the neural mechanisms of value assignments, and how choices are directed by them, remain obscure. To investigate this problem, we used a classic measure of utility maximization, the Generalized Axiom of Revealed Preference, to quantify internal consistency of food preferences in Caenorhabditis elegans, a nematode worm with a nervous system of only 302 neurons. Using a novel combination of microfluidics and electro-physiology, we found that C. elegans food choices fulfill the necessary and sufficient conditions for utility maximization, indicating that nematodes behave exactly as if they maintain, and attempt to maximize, an underlying representation of subjective value. Food choices are well-fit by a utility function widely used to model human consumers. Moreover, as in many other animals, subjective values in C. elegans are learned, a process we now find requires intact dopamine signaling. Differential responses of identified chemosensory neurons to foods with distinct growth potential are amplified by prior consumption of these foods, suggesting that these neurons may be part of a value-assignment system. The demonstration of utility maximization in an organism with no more than several hundred neurons sets a new lower bound on the computational requirements for maximization, and offers the prospect of an essentially complete explanation of value-based decision making at single neuron resolution.


Replication results that strongly contradict an original finding do not necessarily nullify its credibility but we'd at least expect the replication results to be acknowledged & explicitly debated; this happens much less than it should

Hardwicke, Tom E., Dénes Szűcs, Robert T. Thibault, Sophia Crüwell, Olmo Van den Akker, Michele B. Nuijten, and john Ioannidis. 2021. “Citation Patterns Following a Strongly Contradictory Replication Result: Four Case Studies from Psychology.” MetaArXiv. February 9. doi:10.31222/osf.io/wt5ny

Abstract: Replication studies that contradict prior findings may facilitate scientific self-correction by triggering a reappraisal of the original studies; however, the research community's response to replication results has not been studied systematically. One approach for gauging responses to replication results is to examine how they impact citations to original studies. In this study, we explored post-replication citation patterns in the context of four prominent multi-laboratory replication attempts published in the field of psychology that strongly contradicted and outweighed prior findings. Generally, we observed a small post-replication decline in the number of favourable citations and a small increase in unfavourable citations. This indicates only modest corrective effects and implies considerable perpetuation of belief in the original findings. Replication results that strongly contradict an original finding do not necessarily nullify its credibility; however, one might at least expect the replication results to be acknowledged and explicitly debated in subsequent literature. By contrast, we found substantial citation bias: the majority of articles citing the original studies neglected to cite relevant replication results. Of those articles that did cite the replication, but continued to cite the original study favourably, approximately half offered an explicit defence of the original study. Our findings suggest that even replication results that strongly contradict original findings do not necessarily prompt a corrective response from the research community.

 Check also Only 54pct of newspapers than published erroneous research findings published the retraction; the retraction stories were balanced, but shorter than those on the article’s publication and often lacking in context & detail:

Dissemination of Erroneous Research Findings and Subsequent Retraction in High-Circulation Newspapers: A Case Study of Alleged MDMA-Induced Dopaminergic Neurotoxicity in Primates. Brian S. Barnett & Richard Doblin. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, Nov 26 2020. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2020/12/only-54pct-of-newspapers-than-published.html



Women’s Sexual Health During the Pandemic of COVID-19: Many women also experienced declines in sexual function, sexual satisfaction and relationship satisfaction

Women’s Sexual Health During the Pandemic of COVID-19: Declines in Sexual Function and Sexual Pleasure. Leonor de Oliveira & Joana Carvalho. Current Sexual Health Reports, Jul 3 2021. https://rd.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11930-021-00309-4

Abstract

Purpose of the Review: The World Health Association declared COVID-19 a pandemic more than 1 year ago. We conducted a systematic review of the literature on the topic of women’s sexual health during the pandemic, with a focus on sexual function and sexual pleasure. Our aim is to describe current findings and to discuss implications for women’s sexual health during this period.

Recent Findings: Thirty-four articles, from 18 countries, were identified. These studies addressed topics ranging from individual aspects, such as cognitive, emotional, and personality factors affecting sexuality during the pandemic, to contextual factors, including relationship, childrearing, and employment status in this period.

Summary: Research identified a deterioration of women’s sexual function across countries, with an emphasis on sexual desire. Most studies found decreases in the frequency of sexual intercourse during the pandemic and increases in solitary sexual behavior. Many women also experienced declines in sexual satisfaction and relationship satisfaction. Findings suggested that gender inequalities contributed to lower indices of sexual function and satisfaction, and might have exacerbated the pleasure gap between men and women.

Discussion

This review suggested that women’s sexual health and well-being might have been disproportionately affected during the COVID-19 pandemic throughout 2020, as predicted. According to our findings, women experienced more sexual problems than men, including low sexual desire and low sexual satisfaction [e.g., 32, 35, 48]. Most studies found decreases in the frequency of sexual intercourse during the pandemic, but also found increases in solitary sexual behavior [e.g., 28, 39, 43], which may imply that the declines in sexual desire were affecting mostly partner relationships. While the fact that there was an increase in masturbation and pornography use fits the media narratives described by Döring [2], the speculated “coronavirus babyboom” seems unlikely considering the drops in sexual intercourse, and in intention to conceive during 2020 [59]. This does not mean, however, that this trend is carried on in 2021. As for the prevision of the rise of the new genre of coronavirus themed pornography, this proved to be correct [48].

Research found negative relationships between some individual aspects and sexual function, such as age, level of stress, anxiety, and depression, and negative sexual cognitions and emotions [2830374355]. These do not appear to be pandemic specific, considering that previous research has established that anxiety and depression and their treatments contribute to higher rates of sexual dysfunction [6162]. As well, dysfunctional sexual beliefs and emotions were also proven to negatively affect women’s sexual health [6364]. Nevertheless, the fact is that during this period, many people experienced higher levels of stress, and this seems to have put them at greater risk for sexual dysfunction.

This review also found that higher boredom was related with increased sexual activity and sexual function [2754] and that some individuals used sex to cope during lockdown [56]. Some researchers suggest that sex can be a coping mechanism for managing boredom, which has been linked to masturbation and hypersexuality [6566]. Boredom was identified as an important stressor for those in isolation during the pandemic [67]. Possibly, for some individuals feeling bored due to isolation, sex was welcomed as a positive distraction. As for individuals who score highly on measures of sociosexuality, who were unable to pursue sex on their terms, including casual sex, they perceived higher impact of lockdown on their well-being [49]. On the other hand, sociosexuality and physical attraction to the partner were associated with introducing new sexual practices during this period [58]. In fact, improvements in sex life during the pandemic were related with higher sexual desire overall and for partner, and with incorporating new sexual activities [2757]. Pre-pandemic studies found that sexual novelty was inversely correlated with sexual boredom [68] and that the inability or unwillingness to engage in novel sexual behavior was positively correlated with sexual boredom [69]. In a recent qualitative study with a large community sample, participants described sexual boredom as the sexual monotony and/or lack of sexual interest that is often linked to the interpersonal aspects of long-term sexual relationships [70]. During COVID-19, many couples changed their lifestyles to comply with restrictions and were forced to face monotony. It seems as if this did not necessarily send them to sexual boredom, as some seemed to have reacted to feelings of boredom by introducing new sexual activities and enhancing sexual desire. Nevertheless, some individuals might not have had the tools to fight pandemic induced boredom and sexual boredom, and this could have affected their sexual function. Yet, that assumption was not investigated.

Relationship factors are known to affect sexual health [71,72,73]. However, the extent to which the pandemic impacted relationship quality is unclear. This is especially relevant for women in sexual violent relationships, who became more vulnerable and isolated during this pandemic [29]. Yet, this review did not focus on sexual violence. Additionally, this review found that women living with their partners and having more free time and better opportunities for partnered quality time [3054], or women having higher relationship satisfaction, felt more sexually satisfied [4655] and had less sexual dysfunction [3943]. On the other hand, those experiencing conflict in their relationship had sex less often [4060]. Also, negative changes in relationship satisfaction during COVID-19 were related with having dyadic conflict, poor coping [74], and with having children at home for school, irrespectively of work status [75]. Although the current review did not include studies examining same-sex couples, other research has identified that in the pandemic context, being a person of color and having higher internalized homophobia exacerbated the pandemic’s negative effects on relationship satisfaction [76]. Thus, it seems highly relevant that these populations are investigated.

Working was one of the life areas where individuals faced more changes. Many people had to adjust their routines to work from home, while essential workers had to manage additional risk at their workplaces. These shifts impacted on individuals’ sexual health [3133], particularly in subjects who were, or who became, unemployed [3144], or in healthcare workers [3641], possibly due to increased stress levels. Conversely, those working from home also saw declines in sexual health [31], specifically those who struggled with anxiety, depression, and somatization, although for women, this was not related with their level of confinement [28].

Some authors [414451] speculated that the declines in sexual function and sexual activity were a result of the level of education or information on the virus of COVID-19. That is, well-informed or educated individuals were more afraid and/or compliant with social distancing, experiencing higher dysfunction and less sexual activity. Even though we might consider that access to information may have privileged solitary sexual behavior at some level, we are not sure whether it was a major factor determining sexual function. In reality, research shows that interventions aiming at sexual education favor women’s sexual function and pleasure [7888]. In addition to possible spillover effects, the declines in the sexual function of women with more access to education or information seem to us a more likely result of lack of parity between men and women. There were several authors who alerted that the advent of teleworking would exacerbate gender inequalities [98990]. This review suggests that these inequalities, including childrearing, contributed to lower indexes of sexual function and satisfaction, which in turn provide evidence of pleasure inequality. Because some women may struggle with negotiating sexual pleasure and tend to favor men’s sexual pleasure [9192], it is possible that during this pandemic, these women engaged in sex in the absence of sexual desire or in the presence of sexual pain. This is likely to have resulted in pleasureless sex and, consequently, to even have lowered levels of sexual function. Although not many studies used measures of sexual pleasure, and rather of sexual satisfaction, the findings of this review leave one to guess that the pandemic may have had stretched the pleasure gap between men and women.

Implications

Because pleasure is an important dimension of sexual health [93], equality in sexual pleasure is not just relevant, it is essential. The fact that women’s sexual pleasure might have been particularly affected due to COVID-19 related downfalls, it is a symptom of gender inequality in sexuality. Although it seems impossible to determine at this stage if there will be long-term negative effects of the pandemic in women’s sexual health, this matter should be further investigated as the effects of pandemic are still felt globally. An important note on this topic is that studies were mainly focused on women from western cultures, masking the specific challenges of women from developing countries, who have probably faced additional difficulties. In addition, there is a big gap in research regarding sexual minorities, as we did not find any studies focused on LGBTQIA+ or non-monogamous populations. Research on COVID-19-related sexual problems also raises questions on whether sexual dysfunctions should be diagnosed when they are likely caused by identifiable external factors. The main opportunity stemming from the ongoing pandemic might be that the current lack of resources for meeting with the community may lead to the improvement and dissemination of e-Health tools as applied to the context of sexual health and pleasure, and finally reach a wider population.

Surveilling Surveillance: Estimating the Prevalence of Surveillance Cameras with Street View Data

Surveilling Surveillance: Estimating the Prevalence of Surveillance Cameras with Street View Data. Hao Sheng et al. AIES ’21, May 19–21, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1145/1122445.1122456

Abstract: The use of video surveillance in public spaces—both by government agencies and by private citizens—has attracted considerable attention in recent years, particularly in light of rapid advances in face-recognition technology. But it has been difficult to systematically measure the prevalence and placement of cameras, hampering efforts to assess the implications of surveillance on privacy and public safety. Here we present a novel approach for estimating the spatial distribution of surveillance cameras: applying computer vision algorithms to large-scale street view image data. Specifically, we build a camera detection model and apply it to 1.6 million street view images sampled from 10 large U.S. cities and 6 other major cities around the world, with positive model detections verified by human experts. After adjusting for the estimated recall of our model, and accounting for the spatial coverage of our sampled images, we are able to estimate the density of surveillance cameras visible from the road. Across the 16 cities we consider, the estimated number of surveillance cameras per linear kilometer ranges from 0.1 (in Seattle) to 0.9 (in Seoul). In a detailed analysis of the 10 U.S. cities, we find that cameras are concentrated in commercial, industrial, and mixed zones, and in neighborhoods with higher shares of non-white residents—a pattern that persists even after adjusting for land use. These results help inform ongoing discussions on the use of surveillance technology, including its potential disparate impacts on communities of color.

Keywords: Computer vision, privacy, urban computing


Emotional responses to likes and comments regulate posting frequency and content change behaviour on social media: Positive emotions mediate the effects of more engagement than expected on posting frequency

Emotional responses to likes and comments regulate posting frequency and content change behaviour on social media: An experimental study and mediation model. Kseniya Stsiampkouskaya et al. Computers in Human Behavior, Jul 4 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106940

Highlights

• A within-subject experimental study on how likes and comments drive photo sharing.

• Emotions mediate the effects of engagement on posting frequency and content change.

• Users post more frequently if they feel excited after receiving likes and comments.

• Users change content if they feel sad after not receiving expected engagement.

• Likes and comments have direct effects on posting frequency and content change.

Abstract: Online photo sharing and the associated engagement from other users, defined as number of likes and comments received for a post, is a key function of modern social media. However, little is known about emotional responses of social media users to the received engagement, and how such responses might drive social media photo sharing. In this study, we present a model of emotional mediation of the effects of social media engagement on posting frequency and content change. To test our model, we conducted a within-subject online experiment with 248 social media users. During the experiment, the participants were exposed to three conditions following a photograph sharing scenario: their usual pattern of engagement, more engagement than expected, and less engagement than expected. In each condition, the participants reported their emotions, estimated the time until their next post, and chose a photo for their next post. The results of the study indicated that high-arousal positive emotions mediate the effects of more engagement than expected on posting frequency. Both high-arousal and low-arousal negative emotions mediate the effects of less engagement than expected on content change. The practical implications for creating effective social media campaigns and improving user experience are discussed.

Keywords: Social media engagementLikes and commentsPhoto sharingEmotionsPosting frequencySocial media content


Most research into autism spectrum disorder focuses on difficulties and challenges, potentially overlooking abilities; evidence strongly suggests that individuals with ASD display enhanced rationality

Enhanced rationality in autism spectrum disorder. Liron Rozenkrantz, Anila M. D’Mello, John D.E. Gabrieli. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, July 2 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2021.05.004

Highlights

*  Most research into autism spectrum disorder (ASD) focuses on difficulties and challenges, potentially overlooking intact and even enhanced abilities.

*  Empirical evidence strongly suggests that individuals with ASD display enhanced rationality: judgments that are more objective and decision-making that is less biased than that of neurotypical individuals.

*  Enhanced rationality may confer distinct strengths to individuals with ASD and may provide insights into the mechanism or ‘irrationality’ in neurotypical individuals.

Abstract: Challenges in social cognition and communication are core characteristics of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but in some domains, individuals with ASD may display typical abilities and even outperform their neurotypical counterparts. These enhanced abilities are notable in the domains of reasoning, judgment and decision-making, in which individuals with ASD often show ‘enhanced rationality’ by exhibiting more rational and bias-free decision-making than do neurotypical individuals. We review evidence for enhanced rationality in ASD, how it relates to theoretical frameworks of information processing in ASD, its implications for basic research about human irrationality, and what it may mean for the ASD community.

Keywords: autismdecision-makingskillsrationality


Strength can be measured from both speech & roars, & strength is more reliably gauged from roars; the acoustic structure of roars explains 40-70% of the variance in actual strength within adults of either sex

Predicting strength from aggressive vocalisations versus speech in African bushland and urban communities. Karel Kleisner et al. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, in press Jun 2021. https://jdleongomez.info/es/publication/kleisner2021b/Kleisner2021b.pdf

Abstract: The human voice carries information about a vocaliser’s physical strength that listeners can perceive, and that may influence mate choice and intrasexual competition. Yet, reliable acoustic correlates of strength in human speech remain unclear. Compared to speech, aggressive nonverbal vocalisations (‘roars’) may function to maximise perceived strength, suggesting that their acoustic structure has been selected to communicate formidability, similar to the vocal threat displays of other animals. Here, we test this prediction in two non-WEIRD African samples: an urban community of Cameroonians and rural nomadic Hadza hunter-gatherers in the Tanzanian bushlands. Participants produced standardised speech and volitional roars and provided handgrip strength measures. Using acoustic analysis and informationtheoretic multi-model inference and averaging techniques, we show that strength can be measured from both speech and roars, and as predicted, strength is more reliably gauged from roars than vowels, words or greetings. The acoustic structure of roars explains 40-70% of the variance in actual strength within adults of either sex. However, strength is predicted by multiple acoustic parameters whose combinations vary by sex, sample and vocal type. Thus, while roars may maximally signal strength, more research is needed to uncover consistent and likely interacting acoustic correlates of strength in the human voice.

Keywords: nonverbal vocalisation; acoustic communication; Hadza; handgrip strength, aggression


4. Discussion

Our results support the prediction that vocal signals to physical strength in humans are maximised in aggressive nonverbal vocalisations (‘roars’) compared to speech. While this prediction has been supported in a Western population (UK drama students: [25,26]), here we extend this research to two African samples, one from the relatively urbanised municipality of Buea (students at the local university), the other from a rural and nomadic small-scale population of Hadza hunter-gatherers. Applying a bottom-up information-theoretic modelling approach, we show that the nonverbal acoustic structure of roars best predicts physical strength. Indeed, predicted strength based on vocal parameters in roars explained the most variance in actual strength for Cameroonian men and women (explaining 40% of the variance in measured hand grip strength) and for Hadza men (explaining 63% of the variance), and explained generally two to four times more variance in strength than did speech (vowels, words, or phrases). While roars relative to greetings predicted strength better in men than in women, roars produced by Hadza women explained an impressive 71% of the variance in their actual physical strength, though this was comparable to the predictive power of their greeting speech (77%). Thus, in contrast to speech, nonverbal roars appear to most effectively encode functional cues to physical strength, as also observed in nonhuman mammals [29]. However, despite our finding that roars and, to a lesser extent, speech, encode information about physical strength in non-WEIRD samples of men and women of African origin, our analyses did not identify a single vocal parameter nor a consistent combination of vocal parameters that predicted strength in both sexes and in both speech and roars. The complex combinations of acoustic predictors revealed by our models, and their high variability across sex, sample, and vocal stimulus type, corroborates the discrepancies of past studies conducted in Western samples [20,22–24,26]. In an attempt to overcome the mixed and null results of this past work, we (1) employed an information-theoretic approach [61,66,67] in order to more extensively explore potential acoustic predictors of strength; (2) examined these predictors in both speech and roars, wherein the latter was predicted to carry more information about physical formidability [25,26]; and (3) tested for acoustic indices of strength in two non-WEIRD African samples. In both samples, but particularly among the Hadza, physical strength may significantly contribute to the biological fitness of an individual given that it positively affects hunting outcomes [44]. Therefore, acoustic communication may be an optimal way to mediate social dominance hierarchies and maintain resource-control without engaging in risky physical confrontation. Indeed, we found that Hadza men and women were physically stronger than our more urban sample of Cameroonian men and women (on average by 16-31%) and that roars predicted strength better in Hadza men and women than in Cameroonian men and women. However, we also found that acoustic predictors of actual strength were more difficult to identify and less stable in the Hadza sample. The reasons for this could be ecological. For instance, Hadza are bush-living people who often communicate at long distances using loud vocalisations or speech, whereas our Cameroonian sample are urbanized, and more often communicate at shorter distances and at a lower volume. The two samples also speak different languages. While Cameroonians from Southwest and Northwest regions speak fluent English, alongside a variety of local native languages, the Hadza speak Swahili and/or Hadzane, a click language consisting of three types of click consonants that may be produced in voiceless oral, voiced nasal, or voiceless nasal, and glottalised variant [60]. Despite these differences, we cannot rule out the possibility that sample-level differences emerged due to a small sample size in the Hadza. Indeed the small sample size of the Hadza is a key limitation of this study. While data from extreme non-WEIRD samples are rare and difficult to obtain, the small sample size may have contributed to inconsistencies in the predictive power of vocal parameters and these results thus should be interpreted with caution. Regarding specific acoustic parameters, it is difficult to derive a clear generalisation of their independent contributions due to the lack of consistency in the pattern of acoustic predictors included in each final average model. However, unlike in studies based on assessments of formidability in voice perception (e.g., [72]), and evidence that relatively low fo can predict strength in the speech of peri-pubertal Bolivian Tsiname males (but not females; [22]), we did not find a consistent relationship between low male fundamental frequency (fo) and strength across samples and different vocal types. In fact, in several cases, for example in the short speech and roars of Hadza men, higher mean fo signalled strength. As increased subglottal pressure will cause an increase in voice pitch [73] this result could be due to greater lung capacity and/or louder vocalisations produced by stronger men, a prediction that can be directly tested in future work. Notably a recent meta-analysis showed, using data from 8 studies and 845 adult men, that mean fo explains a mere 0.005% of the variance (r = -0.07) in men’s upper-body strength [24]. The present study is, to our knowledge, the first to examine whether nonlinear acoustic phenomena (NLPs) predict strength in human roars. While we find preliminary evidence to support this, the positive relationship between NLPs and strength was most evident in Cameroonian women’s roars. In order to reduce the number of terms in our statistical models, we computed a single cumulative proportion (%NLP) combining side-bands, subharmonics and deterministic chaos. This cumulative proportion has previously been shown to reliably index ostensible pain level in volitional human pain vocalisations [74]. However, we cannot rule out the possibility that specific NLP sub-types (e.g., deterministic chaos, which is typically the most strongly associated with affective intensity [33]) may predict strength more effectively than others. This possibility can be tested in future studies that employ larger samples of vocalisers to ensure adequate sampling of various sub-types of nonlinear phenomena in nonverbal vocalisations, and adequate statistical power to test their relative roles. 

Saturday, July 3, 2021

Communists @ the Fourth International: Hannah-Jones’ oeuvre consists of reports, essays and commentaries for the New York Times Magazine which would barely pass as personal journal entries, much less serious journalism

1619 Project creator Nikole Hannah-Jones granted tenure after weeks of media furor. Niles Niemuth. International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), Jul 1 2021. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/07/02/hann-j02.html

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) Board of Trustees voted 9-4 in a closed session Wednesday to grant tenure to Nikole Hannah-Jones, New York Times journalist and architect of the 1619 Project. Hannah-Jones, who has a master’s degree in journalism from UNC, will have a position as the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism in the Hussman School of Journalism and Media. [master's degree 2003... tenure at 2021 with no doctorate]

Hannah-Jones has been given a lifetime sinecure—a position with immense financial benefit requiring little actual work—amid a relentless campaign to promote her and the racialist falsifications of the 1619 Project. With the institutional backing of the New York Times, she has been elevated into superstar status, despite the vast disconnect between the accolades which have been piled on her and what she has accomplished.

This latest episode makes clear the heavy political investment of the Democratic Party and powerful sections of the ruling class in the effort to make race the central aspect of political discourse in the United States.

“Today’s outcome and the actions of the past month are about more than just me,” Hannah-Jones declared in a statement released through the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. “This fight is about ensuring the journalistic and academic freedom of Black writers, researchers, teachers, and students. We must ensure that our work is protected and able to proceed free from the risk of repercussions, and we are not there yet.”

The vote comes after weeks of fulmination and accusations of racism in the media and among Hannah-Jones’ supporters after it came to light in May that the board had postponed a decision on her tenure application. In the face of the delay, Hannah-Jones had instead accepted a 5-year tenure track position which did not require board approval.

However, once the details of the delay in her tenure application came to light, Hannah-Jones, who has an African American father and a white mother, threatened to sue the university for discrimination and declared that she would accept nothing less than immediate tenure. Her attorneys claimed that the delay was the result of viewpoint discrimination in violation of her First Amendment free speech rights, race and sex discrimination and illegal political interference.

“The reasons for UNC’s denial of tenure to Ms. Hannah-Jones can only be understood as the product of political and racially discriminatory backlash against her life’s work investigating, documenting, reporting, and uplifting Black Americans’ fight against generational subjugation through racial oppression and structural injustice,” a letter sent by her attorneys to UNC claimed.

A public campaign was waged to secure tenure for Hannah-Jones. Over 200 professors, writers and other cultural figures signed a letter published by The Root which decried the failure to grant her tenure as part of a “growing wave of repression” which seeks to block the teaching of the history of slavery. The letter also declared that the UNC board had “failed to uphold the first order values of academic freedom and the free exchange of ideas.”

The provost and other leaders at UNC intervened on her behalf, appealing to the board to approve her tenure application. A back-channel intervention by the Biden administration cannot be ruled out.

The demands that Hannah-Jones be granted tenure come in the face of withering criticisms of the 1619 Project, the central work for which she has become known, and the exposure of the falsifications upon which its central thesis is based. The response of preeminent American historians Gordon Wood, James McPherson, James Oakes, Clayborne Carson, Victoria Bynum and others exposed the New York Times’ effort to reinterpret American history as one of eternal struggle between blacks and whites.

The World Socialist Web Site, in addition to interviewing these historians, has thoroughly refuted the falsifications of the 1619 Project’s lead essay written by Hannah-Jones, including her claims that the American Revolution was fought to defend slavery and that African Americans have been alone in fighting for civil rights.

Hannah-Jones’ historical falsifications would be enough to disqualify her for tenure. However, there is also the matter of her journalistic qualifications for the position of professor, which do not exist.

A review of the New York Times’ archive shows that Hannah-Jones has bylined just 23 articles for the newspaper since December 2014 and nothing since June of last year. It is not uncommon for professional journalists to produce one hundred or more articles in any given year. This is not limited to lower-level beat reporters, but includes well-known columnists and journalists who generally produce several columns per week.

Hannah-Jones’ oeuvre consists of reports, essays and commentaries for the New York Times Magazine which would barely pass as personal journal entries, much less serious journalism.

Through stories framed by her own personal experience, Hannah-Jones presents race and racial division as the fundamental problem of American society, informed by a racist outlook directed against whites. She replaces individuals and historical forces with her own personal feelings.

In one column from 2016, “The Grief That White Americans Can’t Share,” she declared that whites are incapable of understanding the pain of seeing a black person killed by the police. “For white people, who have been trained since birth to see themselves as individuals, the collective fear and collective grief that black Americans feel can be hard to grasp,” she wrote.

Hannah-Jones’ defenders point to the fact that she is highly laureled—a 2016 George Polk Award, a 2017 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship “genius grant” and a 2020 Pulitzer for Commentary—and therefore qualified to teach about journalism. In reality, this says more about the way such awards are used to bolster those who serve the interests of the ruling elite than it does about the quality of her work.

The racial identity politics which define Hannah-Jones’ work has nothing to do with challenging economic inequality or oppression, but serves to advance the economic interests of members of the upper-middle class. She has discovered that there is a lot of money to be made in promoting a divisive racial narrative, securing a lucrative book and television deal out of the 1619 Project.

A final note on the issue of tenure. The increasingly difficult conditions in academia are well known, with tens of thousands of graduate students and adjuncts toiling under immense pressure with little economic and job security. While tenure was once relatively common, reaching a peak of 57 percent of faculty in 1975, according to Tufts Magazine, the American Association of University Professors reports that only 21 percent of the academic workforce in the United States is currently tenured.

The overwhelming majority of academic staff today are non-tenure track, often working paycheck to paycheck and from one contract to the next. It is rare for someone to enter academia with a tenured professorship position, since most universities require a years-long probationary period.

This is all of little concern to Hannah-Jones, who has been offered a permanent position, not because of the quality of her journalistic output, but because of her celebrity and the political role of the racialist narrative that she promotes.


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The New York Times’ 1619 Project and the Racialist Falsification of History. https://mehring.com/product/the-new-york-times-1619-project-and-the-racialist-falsification-of-history/

A left-wing, socialist critique of the 1619 project with essays, lectures, and interviews with leading historians of American history.