People tend to find more "symmetrical" faces more "beautiful" and "attractive," but those with visual arts or dance expertise don't find symmetrical faces especially beautiful (but do still find them more attractive); it seems you can be trained to find beauty in asymmetry

The Role of Art Expertise and Symmetry on Facial Aesthetic Preferences. Luis Carlos Pereira Monteiro et al. Symmetry 2022, 14(2), 423; February 20 2022. https://doi.org/10.3390/sym14020423

Abstract: Humans, like other species, have a preference for symmetrical visual stimuli, a preference that is influenced by factors such as age, sex, and artistic training. In particular, artistic training seems to decrease the rejection of asymmetry in abstract stimuli. However, it is not known whether the same trend would be observed in relation to concrete stimuli such as human faces. In this article, we investigated the role of expertise in visual arts, music, and dance, in the perceived beauty and attractiveness of human faces with different asymmetries. With this objective, the beauty and attractiveness of 100 photographs of faces with different degrees of asymmetry were evaluated by 116 participants with different levels of art expertise. Expertise in visual arts and dance was associated with the extent to which facial asymmetry influenced the beauty ratings assigned to the faces. The greater the art expertise in visual arts and dance, the more indifferent to facial asymmetry the participant was to evaluate beauty. The same effect was not found for music and neither for attractiveness ratings. These findings are important to help understand how face aesthetic evaluation is modified by artistic training and the difference between beauty and attractiveness evaluations.

Keywords: symmetry; aesthetics; preference; art experts; human faces

4. Discussion

We investigated for the first time the role of expertise in visual arts, music, and dance, in assessing the beauty and attractiveness of human faces with different asymmetries. Following theoretical models about aesthetic processing, it is expected that art experts and laypersons will differ on their aesthetic evaluation of different sensory features [53,54,55,56,57], including visual symmetry or asymmetry [49,50,51]. Exploring individual differences, we found that people with higher visual arts and dance expertise tend to disregard facial asymmetry in beauty evaluation of human faces, but not in attractiveness evaluation. The same trend was not found for music experts.

In this work, we use a continuous measure for art expertise as proposed by several authors [70,83,99]. Many studies have used art expertise as a quasi-categorical variable, artificially dividing participants into artists and non-artists—a dichotomy that does not capture the variability within groups concerning this variable [70]. As an alternative, we use a questionnaire that takes into account not only formal education but professional experiences, skills, and other artistic experiences. Art experts scored highest in their specific areas (e.g., dancers scored higher than other groups in the dance expertise section of our questionnaire). Moreover, art expertise significantly correlated with art interest and with creativity in their specific domains (e.g., visual art expertise scores correlated significantly with creativity scores in visual arts). Such results provide evidence of the instrument’s validity to measure expertise.

Most research investigating human preference for faces uses the terms “beauty” and “attractiveness” as synonyms, or simply does not differentiate between them [24,100,101,102]. In this study, however, we consider beauty and attractiveness as two different variables, as has been done by some authors [103,104,105]. We observed that although there is a moderate correlation between these two variables, the mean scores for beauty and attractiveness were significantly different. As discussed below, different patterns of individual differences in the assessment of beauty and attractiveness were found, suggesting that they are, in fact, two different variables. In our protocol, after the presentation of the image of the face to be evaluated, the participant first indicated the respective beauty rating, and only afterward the attractiveness rating, so we cannot completely exclude the possibility that the sequence of events may have interfered with the response.

In general, we found that the degree to which facial asymmetry affects beauty evaluation (i.e., aesthetic sensitivity to facial asymmetry) was influenced by participant’s visual arts and dance expertise, but not music expertise. Previous research has found an effect of visual arts expertise in the aesthetic evaluation of symmetry/asymmetry in abstract figures [49,50,51]. The results of Weichselbaum et al. [50] and Gartus et al. [51] indicated that art experts, in general, tended to evaluate stimuli independently from their asymmetry when compared to laypersons. Our results demonstrate that the same trend found for abstract figures can be expected for human faces aesthetic evaluation, not only for visual arts experts but also for dance experts.

While we found a positive effect of the expertise in visual arts and dance on the aesthetic sensitivity to facial asymmetry based on individual differences in the perceived beauty of human faces, we didn’t find the same result for music. Visual and auditory stimuli are evaluated differently, and while the appreciation of visual arts and dance relies on vision, the appreciation of music relies on sound. Thus, the differences in the visual assessment of beauty may be related to the peculiarities of each artistic category. These results are consistent with Clemente et al. [82], who found stimuli modality-specific (visual/auditory) effects on evaluative judgments. Moreover, musicians often have a high affinity to symmetrical features, as these are essential to organize the tempo of a melody [5,106].

No evidence for the effect of any of the three areas of art expertise on aesthetic sensitivity to facial asymmetry based on attractiveness ratings was found. This difference between beauty and attractiveness can be explained by the mate choice importance in our species. The mate choice criteria tend to be more stable during human development [107], and therefore should be less influenced by art training. However, it is necessary to take into account the participant’s sexual orientation and the gender of the person in the photo evaluated to discuss mate choice accurately. Since our experimental design is not suitable for this type of analysis, we also suggest that further studies take into account these variables.

We also found no effect of facial asymmetry on general beauty or attractiveness ratings. Despite several studies showed that facial asymmetry is an important predictor of facial preference, the magnitude of this effect is relatively small based on meta-analytic estimates [29]. It is also possible that this effect was not found in our study since our sample includes art experts, whose beauty assessment tended to disregard facial asymmetry as commented above.

A possible limitation of this study is the under-representation of highly specialized artists in the areas of interest. This happened in our study because we mostly sought out participants in a general university population, and not in art courses and artistic spaces. Therefore, we suggest that new studies should include more participants with higher art expertise.

The present study concludes that people with different art expertise use asymmetry information differently to evaluate facial beauty. This result can be important in understanding how the facial aesthetic evaluation is modified by this type of training and to give us clues about the way symmetry perception can be affected during human development.

Both Democrats & Republicans discriminate & negatively stereotype job applicants with a political orientation that is dissimilar to their own; most of the time, Democrats discriminated & stereotyped applicants to a larger extent than Republicans did

Sinclair, Samantha, Artur Nilsson, and Jens Agerström. 2022. “Judging Job Applicants by Their Politics: Effects of Target–rater Political Dissimilarity on Discrimination, Cooperation, and Stereotyping.” PsyArXiv. February 21. doi:10.31234/osf.io/ctqmw

Abstract: Despite well-known problems associated with political prejudice, research that examines effects of political dissimilarity in organizational contexts is scarce. We present findings from a pre-registered online experiment (N = 973) which suggest that both Democrats and Republicans discriminate and negatively stereotype job applicants with a political orientation that is dissimilar to their own. The effects were small for competence judgments, moderate in size for hiring judgments, and large for warmth ratings and for willingness to cooperate and socialize with the applicant. Furthermore, for all outcomes except competence judgments, Democrats discriminated and stereotyped applicants to a larger extent than Republicans did. These findings shed light on the consequences of applicants disclosing or revealing their political orientation. They also have potentially important implications for the promotion of diversity in organizations.

Eating Vegetables Does Not Protect Against Heart Disease; BBC headline is 'Vegetables alone not enough to reduce heart risk, study finds'

Raw and Cooked Vegetable Consumption and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease: A Study of 400,000 Adults in UK Biobank. Qi Feng. Frontiers in Nutrition, Feb 21 2022. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2022.831470

Objectives: Higher levels of vegetable consumption have been associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), but the independent effect of raw and cooked vegetable consumption remains unclear.

Methods: From the UK Biobank cohort, 399,586 participants without prior CVD were included in the analysis. Raw and cooked vegetable intakes were measured with a validated dietary questionnaire at baseline. Multivariable Cox regression was used to estimate the associations between vegetable intake and CVD incidence and mortality, adjusted for socioeconomic status, health status, and lifestyle factors. The potential effect of residual confounding was assessed by calculating the percentage reduction in the likelihood ratio (LR) statistics after adjustment for the confounders.

Results: The mean age was 56 years and 55% were women. Mean intakes of raw and cooked vegetables were 2.3 and 2.8 tablespoons/day, respectively. During 12 years of follow-up, 18,052 major CVD events and 4,406 CVD deaths occurred. Raw vegetable intake was inversely associated with both CVD incidence (adjusted hazard ratio (HR) [95% CI] for the highest vs. lowest intake: 0.89 [0.83–0.95]) and CVD mortality (0.85 [0.74–0.97]), while cooked vegetable intake was not (1.00 [0.91–1.09] and 0.96 [0.80–1.13], respectively). Adjustment for potential confounders reduced the LR statistics for the associations of raw vegetables with CVD incidence and mortality by 82 and 87%, respectively.

Conclusions: Higher intakes of raw, but not cooked, vegetables were associated with lower CVD risk. Residual confounding is likely to account for much, if not all, of the observed associations. This study suggests the need to reappraise the evidence on the burden of CVD disease attributable to low vegetable intake in the high-income populations.

Press release: Eating Vegetables Does NOT Protect Against Heart Disease (scitechdaily.com)

Discussion

In this large prospective cohort study, total vegetable intake was associated with reduced risks of CVD incidence, CVD mortality, and all-cause mortality. When assessing the independent effect of raw and cooked vegetable intake, only raw vegetable intake showed inverse associations with CVD outcomes, whereas cooked vegetables showed no association. However, given the large reductions in the predictive values of total and raw vegetable intake after adjustment for socioeconomic and lifestyle factors, residual confounding is likely to account for much, if not all, of the remaining associations.

The modest inverse associations of total vegetable intake with CVD outcomes and all-cause mortality in our analyses are consistent with previous large-scale observational evidence. For example, a meta-analysis of 24 cohort studies estimated that high vegetable intake reduced all-cause mortality by about 13% (relative risk 0.87 [0.82–0.92]) (15). Previous systematic reviews showed total vegetable consumption was associated with a risk reduction in CVD incidence by 11 (15) to 18% (16), similar to the ~10% lower risk in this study. Our findings of the inverse association with MI are also in line with published meta-analyses with effect sizes ranging from 9 to 15% (15–17). Although previous studies have also demonstrated an association with a reduced risk of stroke (15–17), we did not find sufficient evidence for such an association.

In contrast to a large number of studies on total vegetable intake, there is limited evidence on the independent effect of raw and cooked vegetables on all-cause mortality. Aune et al. (15) conducted a meta-analysis that found cooked vegetable was associated with 13% (relative risk 0.87 [0.80–0.94]) lower risk of all-cause mortality, and raw vegetable was associated with 12% (relative risk 0.88 [0.79–0.98]) lower risk of mortality, although the analyses of raw and cooked vegetables were not mutually adjusted. Studies that have attempted to assess the independent effects of raw and cooked vegetable intakes on all-cause mortality have reported conflicting results. Our results are broadly consistent with the EPIC study (7), in which both raw vegetable intake and cooked vegetable intake were associated with reduced risk of all-cause mortality. By contrast, the PURE study (8) reported an inverse association with all-cause mortality for raw vegetable intake, but not for cooked vegetable intake, while an Australian cohort study (9) reported that only cooked vegetable intake was associated with lower overall mortality. The characteristics and main findings of these studies are summarized in Supplementary Table 10.

In this study, cooked vegetable intake and raw vegetable intake showed different associations with cardiovascular outcomes. We found inverse associations of raw vegetables with CVD incidence and mortality, but null associations with cooked vegetables. This is consistent with the MORGEN study, a Dutch cohort (18), in which raw, but not processed, vegetables were associated with a reduced risk of ischemic stroke. In the EPIC cohort (7), there was a stronger inverse association of CVD mortality with raw than cooked vegetables. Whereas the PURE study (8) found no evidence of an association of CVD and raw vegetable intake, and high intakes levels of cooked vegetable was positively associated with CVD incidence.

Previous studies that reported associations of higher levels of vegetable intake with lower risk of CVD have proposed various mechanisms by which these associations might be mediated. For example, it has been suggested that diets high in vegetables have, on average, fewer calories and replace foods that are high in fat, sodium, and glycemic load (15, 19). It has also been hypothesized that the lower risk might be mediated by micronutrients, namely, higher intake of vitamins, polyphenols, and antioxidant compounds (2, 5), which are required for regulating various biological processes, including anti-oxidation, anti-inflammation, lipid metabolism, and endothelial function (20). As for the different associations of raw and cooked vegetables observed in this and other studies, several possible mechanisms have been proposed in previous studies. First, it has been proposed that the kinds of vegetables that are usually consumed cooked (e.g., beans, peas, eggplant) may differ from those typically consumed raw (e.g., lettuce). Second, cooking processes can alter the digestibility of food as well as the bioavailability of nutrients (21). For example, Lee et al. found that vitamin C retention after cooking ranged from 0 to 91% for various combinations of cooking methods and vegetable, with higher retention after microwaving and lower retention after boiling (22). Third, the seasoning and oils used in cooking vegetables often increase intake of sodium and fat, which are known risk factors for CVD incidence and mortality (23, 24).

Despite these proposed mechanisms, this study indicates that observed associations of vegetable intakes with CVD risk and all-cause mortality are likely to be mostly accounted for by residual confounding. Studies using Mendelian randomization (which are less susceptible to confounding, and other biases of observational studies) might be particularly useful in reliably assessing the associations of diet on disease risk. For example, a recent Mendelian randomization study that used genetic determinants of plasma vitamin C concentration as a surrogate for vegetable intake reported a null association with ischemic heart disease (odds ratio 0.90 [0.75–1.08]) and all-cause mortality (odds ratio 0.88 [0.72–1.08]), despite strong inverse associations between vitamin C and these outcomes in observational analyses (25).

This study found the observed associations were mainly accounted for by socioeconomic status and lifestyle factors (26). Both the low socioeconomic status and major lifestyle factors, such as smoking and alcohol intake, are established risk factors for CVD, and there is strong evidence that the effect of socioeconomic status is partially mediated by the known lifestyle factors (27). For example, one study reported that an unhealthy lifestyle (including smoking, drinking, obesity, physical inactivity, and others) mediated 34–38% of the association between socioeconomic status and all-cause death (28). Therefore, given the complicated inter-relationship between socioeconomic status, lifestyle, and health outcomes, adjustment of measures of both socioeconomic status and lifestyle factors is likely to be important.

This study has some limitations. First, we did not measure intake of specific types of raw or cooked vegetables, nor were we able to account for differences in cooking methods. Second, vegetable intakes are self-reported in the baseline dietary questionnaire, although the validity and repeatability of the UK Biobank baseline dietary questionnaire have been evaluated and confirmed in previous studies (12). Third, we did not adjust for total calorie intake because such information was not available from the baseline dietary questionnaire, but we did adjusted for physical activity level and BMI, which has been shown as a valid method for isocaloric adjustment (29). Future studies should seek to address these limitations. However, such studies should also be aware of the importance of assessing reliably for residual confounding using similar methods to this report, or other approaches, such as Mendelian randomization.

Although this report does not find strong evidence of an association between higher vegetable intake and reduced risk of major CVD, the wider literature suggests that increasing vegetable intake is likely to reduce the risk of some other common diseases (4). As such, the public health recommendations on the benefits to health and the environment of a diet that is high in vegetable intake remain.

Women reported less sexual pleasure than men; for men, sex is almost invariably pleasurable

Sexual Pleasure Matters (Especially for Women) — Data from the German Sexuality and Health Survey (GeSiD). Verena Klein, Ellen Laan, Franziska Brunner & Peer Briken. Sexuality Research and Social Policy, Feb 19 2022. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13178-022-00694-y

Abstract

Introduction: Sexual pleasure has been a neglected issue in sexual health policies. Emerging trends in public health, however, emphasize the importance of sexual pleasure in preventing negative sexual health outcomes.

Methods: Using data from the German Sexuality and Health Survey (GeSiD), we tested the assumption that sexual pleasure is associated with sexual health, including a special focus on the role of gender. Participants were interviewed about their sexual experiences and health between October 2018 and September 2019. The analytical sample included 3472 partnered and single women and men who had been sexually active with a partner in the past 12 months. We examined if sexual pleasure was associated with various sexual health indicators (i.e., communication about sexually transmitted infections (STIs), condom use, and absence of sexual problems).

Results: Women reported less sexual pleasure than men. Results further indicate that sexual pleasure was associated with more sexual health indicators in women than in men.

Conclusions: Supporting emerging trends in public health our results emphasize the importance of sexual pleasure in preventing negative sexual health outcomes.

Policy Implications. To promote (especially women’s) sexual health, our results call for the implementation of comprehensive sexuality education programs that focus on more positive aspects of sex, such as sexual pleasure and agency.

Discussion

Research and sexual health policies have a long history of neglecting the role of sexual pleasure in preventing negative sexual outcomes (Ford et al., 2019). Our results point to the importance of sexual pleasure for sexual health — and even more pronounced for women. Aligning with the current public health discourse, sexual pleasure in our study was associated with making sexually healthy decisions (e.g., condom use, STI communication) and sexually satisfying experiences (e.g., oral sex engagement, absence of sexual problems, and orgasm frequency).

Although odds rations were overall small, sexual pleasure was associated with more sexual health indicators in women than in men. Ample evidence indicates that both women and men value men’s sexual pleasure more, and men are more likely to demand it during an encounter (McCabe et al., 2010; McClelland, 2011; Muehlenhard & Shippee, 2010). Globally speaking, men seem to have a better access to sexual pleasure and autonomy than women do (Hall, 2019; Higgins & Hirsch, 2007). Alingning with this assumption, in our study, men were more likely to report experiencing sexual pleasure than women. Based on those observed gender differences, it could be assumed that whereas men’s pleasure seems to be a “normal,” present condition, women’s sexual pleasure seems to be more often absent, an add-on, or at least less prioritized. That said, the results might not a function of pleasure being more important for women, but rather men’s scores lack variability (i.e., for men, sex is almost invariably pleasurable). This lower variability in scores might explain why sexual pleasure plays a more predictive role in women’s sexual health than in men’s.

Interestingly, pleasure had a greater influence on communication about STIs and condom use for partnered women than it did for single women. Public health research has emphasized that safer sex communication is interwoven with gendered power inequalities (Wingood & DiClemente, 2000). Women face more stigma when negotiating condom use (Peasant et al., 2015; Woolf & Maisto, 2008) as well as when expressing themselves in a sexually assertive manner (Klein et al., 2019). Women and men are especially likely to conform to traditional gender expectations surrounding sexual behavior (female submission vs. male dominance) in initial states of dating (Eaton & Rose, 2011). Sexual communication and safer sex negotiations, however, need some degree of assertiveness, which might undermine women’s conformity to gender norm expectations in the casual context. Nevertheless, the sample size of single women was small in the present study, what might explain the different role pleasure plays for single versus partnered women when it comes to communication about STIs and condom use.

Since our data are cross-sectional, all that is known is that sexual pleasure and the investigated sexual health indicators are associated. That said, it is possible that for instance being able to communicate about STI risk makes sex more pleasurable (by removing concerns about STIs etc.) or STI communication might be a good proxy for comfort with sexuality. There is also the possibility that sexual pleasure and safer sex practices may be linked via another third factor such as being comfortable with one’s sexuality. Moreover, we have focused on condom use as main safe-sex practice, which leaves out other safe-sex practices mostly practice by women who have sex with women such as dental dams and gloves. A closer examination of the interplay between sexual pleasure and sexual health among gender diverse samples would be an interesting venue for future research. Another limitation is that we have assessed some health behaviors such as condom use discussion retrospectively meaning that single and partnered people answered questions about different time periods. Consequently, we cannot exclude the possibility of recall biases. Although our cross-sectional, correlational study points to associations between sexual pleasure and sexual health behaviors, prospective studies that assess the influence of sexual pleasure on sexual risk and risk-reduction practices are warranted.

The present study included a large, representative sample with a balanced distribution of women and men; it is however important to keep in mind that our sample draws from Germany, a Western liberal country when it comes to sexual attitudes (i.e., acceptance of same-sex behavior, abortion, sex work; Klein & Brunner, 2018). Sexual pleasure has different meanings and varies in ascribed significance over different cultures (Hall & Graham, 2012), which limits the generalizability of our result to other cultural contexts. Societal and cultural judgements about sex, shame, and guilt have negative effects on both sexual pleasure and health (Hull, 2008).

Neuroticism and cardiovascular diseases are genetically related, and the genetic liability to neuroticism exerts causal effects on the heart

Zhang, F., Cao, H., & Baranova, A. (2022). Genetic variation mediating neuroticism’s influence on cardiovascular diseases. Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science. Feb 2022. https://doi.org/10.1037/abn0000744

Abstract: The personality of neuroticism is phenotypically associated with cardiovascular diseases (CVD), but the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. We conducted Mendelian randomization analysis to investigate causal relationships between neuroticism and CVD (including coronary artery disease, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, stroke, and hypertensive disease) using summary results of genome-wide association studies for these traits. Our results show that although neuroticism has low or minimal correlations with CVD in general, there are substantial polygenic overlaps between neuroticism and CVD (20%∼97%). Mendelian randomization analysis indicates that genetic liability to neuroticism exerts causal effects on CVD, but not the reverse. A panel of pleiotropic genes is shared by neuroticism and CVD, pointing to the potential role of the SOX–WNT/β-catenin–T-cell-specific transcription factors/lymphoid enhancer factors pathway. Our study suggests that genetics may mediate the influence of neuroticism on CVD. The results shed light on mechanisms underlying phenotypic relationships between neuroticism and CVD and have implications for personalized prevention of CVD with the potential benefits of incorporating personality management into the treatment regimen.

Mental speed is high until age 60 as revealed by analysis of over a million participants; response time slowing begins as early as age 20, but this was attributable to increases in decision caution & to slower non-decisional processes

Mental speed is high until age 60 as revealed by analysis of over a million participants. Mischa von Krause, Stefan T. Radev & Andreas Voss. Nature Human Behaviour, Feb 17 2022. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-021-01282-7

Abstract: Response speeds in simple decision-making tasks begin to decline from early and middle adulthood. However, response times are not pure measures of mental speed but instead represent the sum of multiple processes. Here we apply a Bayesian diffusion model to extract interpretable cognitive components from raw response time data. We apply our model to cross-sectional data from 1.2 million participants to examine age differences in cognitive parameters. To efficiently parse this large dataset, we apply a Bayesian inference method for efficient parameter estimation using specialized neural networks. Our results indicate that response time slowing begins as early as age 20, but this slowing was attributable to increases in decision caution and to slower non-decisional processes, rather than to differences in mental speed. Slowing of mental speed was observed only after approximately age 60. Our research thus challenges widespread beliefs about the relationship between age and mental speed.

Low belief in human evolution associated with higher prejudice, racist attitudes (45 countries, diverse populations & religious settings, across time, nationally representative data); perceived similarity to animals partially mediated the link

Syropoulos, S., Lifshin, U., Greenberg, J., Horner, D. E., & Leidner, B. (2022). Bigotry and the human–animal divide: (Dis)belief in human evolution and bigoted attitudes across different cultures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Feb 2022. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000391

Abstract: The current investigation tested if people’s basic belief in the notion that human beings have developed from other animals (i.e., belief in evolution) can predict human-to-human prejudice and intergroup hostility. Using data from the American General Social Survey and Pew Research Center (Studies 1–4), and from three online samples (Studies 5, 7, 8) we tested this hypothesis across 45 countries, in diverse populations and religious settings, across time, in nationally representative data (N = 60,703), and with more comprehensive measures in online crowdsourced data (N = 2,846). Supporting the hypothesis, low belief in human evolution was associated with higher levels of prejudice, racist attitudes, and support for discriminatory behaviors against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ), Blacks, and immigrants in the United States (Study 1), with higher ingroup biases, prejudicial attitudes toward outgroups, and less support for conflict resolution in samples collected from 19 Eastern European countries (Study 2), 25 Muslim countries (Study 3), and Israel (Study 4). Further, among Americans, lower belief in evolution was associated with greater prejudice and militaristic attitudes toward political outgroups (Study 5). Finally, perceived similarity to animals (a construct distinct from belief in evolution, Study 6) partially mediated the link between belief in evolution and prejudice (Studies 7 and 8), even when controlling for religious beliefs, political views, and other demographic variables, and were also observed for nondominant groups (i.e., religious and racial minorities). Overall, these findings highlight the importance of belief in human evolution as a potentially key individual-difference variable predicting racism and prejudice.

Disapproving evaluations in online discussions provoked negative emotions, and the evaluated authors were less willing to participate in the online discussion further

The Impact of Giving Feedback in Online Discussions: Effects of Evaluative Reply Comments on the Authors of Evaluated User Comments. Teresa K. Naab. Journal of Media Psychology: Theories, Methods, and Applications. Feb 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105/a000330

Abstract: In online discussions, users often evaluate comments from other users. On the basis of face theory, the present study analyzed the effects of evaluative replies on the evaluated comment authors. The investigation complements existing research, which has mainly focused on effects of comments on uninvolved readers. In the experimental study presented here, disapproving evaluations provoked negative and less positive emotions, and the evaluated authors were less willing to participate in the online discussion further. The authors’ perception of face threat mediated these effects. The results contribute to face theory in computer-mediated interactions and to our understanding of online discussions with dissonant standpoints.

Keywords: user comments, face theory, emotion, participation, experiment

Discussion

Applying face theory, this study conceptualized the face-threatening character of evaluative reply comments in online discussion and its impact on the authors who receive such feedback on their comments. It aimed at expanding existing research, which has mostly examined the effects of user comments on uninvolved readers.

The findings support that valenced reply comments (which are not substantiated by reasons) indeed affect the commenters who receive feedback. Comment authors recognize disapproving replies as more threatening to their positive face, that is, as less appreciating of their comment and person compared to mixed and approving replies. They also view disapproving replies as more threatening to their negative face, which means taking away their independence compared to mixed and approving replies. The valence of the evaluation explains a proper amount of variance in the perception of face threat (positive face threat: R 2 = .67, negative face threat: R 2 = .26). This supports research on face-to-face interactions, which indicates that evaluations are face-threatening acts (Brown & Levinson, 1987; Vangelisti, 1994; Zhang & Stafford, 2008).

It is an important finding that the concept of face applies to the computer-mediated context of comment sections. Compared with face-to-face interactions, participants in online discussions often interact with people they know little about. They have little status information, and power hierarchies can be lower (Dahlberg, 2001). Additionally, future interactions and the need for justifications are less likely for online discussants. However, online commenting is public and potentially reaches a broad audience; this seems to increase the desire for an advantageous self-image (Lim et al., 2012). While several communication studies have relied on face theory to understand the effects of computer-mediated communication on users (e.g., Chen & Lu, 2017), the present study is the first that tests the mediating role of both positive and negative face threat. Future studies should systematically investigate how various online settings affect the perception of face threats of evaluations, for example, by varying public availability and the relation between the conversation partners (Neubaum & Krämer, 2018).

Evaluative replies affect the emotions of the evaluated authors. Thus, a fundamental assumption in face theory applies to computer-mediated contexts. Although disapproving replies triggered both positive and negative face threats, the effect of evaluative replies on negative emotions was mediated only through negative face threats. This means it is not the contempt and disrespect of bad evaluations but their perceived imposition that provokes negative emotions. Since the tone in many comment sections is harsh, authors might not generally expect much appreciation. Consequently, a lack of positive face might not lower their emotional state. By contrast, a perceived invasion of their right to freely express their standpoint might be more provocative of negative feelings. This points to the phenomenon of reactance, which includes anger (a negative emotion) and is triggered by freedom threats (Rains, 2013). This is in line with the present finding that threats to negative face provoke a negative emotional state.

We gained a somewhat different picture of the influence of evaluative replies on positive emotions. Only a perceived threat to positive face decreased positive feelings. A surprising finding is that a higher threat to negative face triggered by disapproving replies increased positive emotions. It seems that perceived attacks against the freedom to comment as desired made the authors more alert and active. Future studies should examine the relationship between face threats and emotions in detail, for example, through manipulating various threats to negative face.

The results also call for testing the effects of evaluations on discrete emotions. The literature indicates that social media content can influence specific positive or negative emotions. Mostly, scholars have regarded discrete emotions such as anger, aversion, and anxiety (e.g., Gervais, 2015, 2017; Lu & Gall Myrick, 2016). In line with appraisal theories, studies also find that discrete emotions can exert different effects on social media behavior (e.g., Lu & Gall Myrick, 2016; Valentino et al., 2011). Therefore, empirical tests of the influence of different types of evaluations on discrete emotions, participation behavior, and the mediating role of perceived face threat are needed. Evaluating the relationship between negative face threat and anger seems particularly fruitful; imposition and limitation of one’s freedom lead to the perception of negative face threats. At the same time, when one’s goals are blocked, this can trigger anger (Carver & Harmon-Jones, 2009; on reactance, Rains, 2013). The unexpected finding of the present study, that higher negative face threat increased positive emotions, calls for a distinct analysis of the effects on enthusiasm.

Willingness to participate decreases with disapproving replies. Authors experiencing such sharp evaluation tend to withdraw from the online discussion compared to approving replies. This is in line with findings of deliberation research that disagreement undercuts willingness to prolong an interaction (McDevitt et al., 2003; Mutz, 2002; Wojcieszak & Price, 2012). Here, I found no direct effects, but the influence of the valence of the evaluation was mediated through perceived threat to positive face. The more depreciating that authors perceived the reply, the less they intended to continue participation. This also mirrors the avoidance strategy reported by face-negotiation theory (Oetzel et al., 2001), which considers that people end interactions to lower the risk of further face threats. The perception of negative face threat did not lower willingness to participate. This is interesting, on the one hand, because feedback-givers who attack the negative face might intend to exclude other commenters. However, such attempts do not seem fruitful. On the other hand, it is surprising because the assumption about reactance (Rains, 2013) would suggest that feedback-receivers would counterargue as a response to a threat to their negative face. We could speculate that attacks toward the negative face might strengthen the willingness to counter the threat for some participants, while for others, it might trigger the wish to avoid further face risks. Future studies should investigate the moderating influence of individual characteristics in more detail.

Positive emotions increased users’ willingness to continue participation in the discussion after receiving evaluative replies to their comments. This supports previous studies indicating that positive social media content increases engagement with the content (Berger & Milkman, 2012) and reinforces the behavior of enthusiastic users (Marcus et al., 2000). Interestingly, in contrast to several previous studies, negative emotions did not increase participation willingness. Several explanations could guide future research. The present study did not differentiate between distinct negative emotions. However, while anger could lead to combating one’s beliefs in the face of disagreement, anxiety could lead to enhanced elaboration and reasoning, which does not necessarily result in further comment posting (Lu & Gall Myrick, 2016). Additionally, the reply comments did not provide arguments for their negative or mixed evaluation. This might make it difficult for the evaluated authors to respond, and negative emotions might trigger processing about one’s ability and opinion instead of countering.

Unexpectedly, the reference of the evaluative reply did not influence any of the dependent variables. This might indicate a deficit of the stimulus material. The pretest suggested proper manipulation of the evaluations that were directed at the comment content and the author’s person. However, in the laboratory setting, participants know that feedback givers cannot access any information about them but their comments. Thus, the participants might have related even those evaluations only to their comments, which addressed them personally in their wording. There is strong evidence that more general criticism and ad hominem attacks are more detrimental. Thus, future studies need to investigate the effect of the reference of evaluations in more natural settings that allow interaction partners to differentiate more clearly between authors and their posts.

The study also adds to existing research on the effects of user replies because it is among the first that not only compared nonpositive evaluations (disapproving, mixed) but also approving evaluations. While disapproving and mixed replies did not cause different levels of positive emotions and of willingness to participate, approving replies actually led to more positive emotions and greater willingness to participate than the two nonpositive conditions. This suggests that user feedback that is not fully positive might have equal consequences to negative feedback eventually. However, this does not hold for the effects on perceived face threat and negative emotions. Here, the study pointed to differences in disapproving and mixed evaluations.

Limitations

The results should be interpreted only in light of several limitations. First, the study used a mock Facebook page and investigated self-reported reactions to reply comments in a hypothetical situation. This procedure aimed at increasing the internal validity of the results. However, it limits ecological validity because the participants did not engage in a personalized social network site of their choice. They were also limited to one of two topics chosen by the researcher.

Additionally, the study considered only valenced replies, and the manipulated replies comprised merely three (quite extreme) types of evaluations. Future studies need to consider the effects of evaluations that come with justifications and differentiate more nuanced assessments. For example, the present study is not able to differentiate between civil and uncivil disapproving evaluations.

Despite the broad recruitment, the sample was not representative of German Facebook users. Primarily, the respondents had a higher level of education than the actual Facebook user community. Although interest in online discussions is greater among well-educated users (Hölig & Hasebrink, 2015), it would be rash to generalize the findings. Future research should examine the moderating influence of education on the perceived face threat of different types of evaluations in online communication. In face-to-face encounters, the education level of the interactants may affect the implicit hierarchies between discussion partners. By contrast, anonymous online settings provide the chance of more equal participation (Dahlberg, 2001). As power distance is a determinant of face threats (Brown & Levinson, 1987), the effects of the education level are worthy of being tested and can advance face theory. Educational level does not seem to influence the perception of uncivil online content (Kenski et al., 2020). However, it can influence conflict behavior (Bobo & Licari, 1989). Thus, an empirical test of the moderating role on future participation behavior is needed.