News snacking on digital media platforms does not enrich political knowledge (we learn substantially less) and at best feeds the impression of being informed

News snacking and political learning: changing opportunity structures of digital platform news use and political knowledge. Jakob Ohme & Cornelia Mothes. Journal of Information Technology & Politics, Mar 28 2023. https://doi.org/10.1080/19331681.2023.2193579

Abstract: The increasing prevalence of news snacking – that is, the brief, intermittent attendance to news in mainly digital and mobile media contexts – has been discussed as a problematic behavior potentially leading to a less informed public. Empirical research, however, that investigates the relationship between news snacking and political knowledge is sparse. Against the background of changed opportunity structures in increasingly digital and mobile media environments, this study investigates how news snacking relates to the breadth and depth of political knowledge in society. Based on an online survey of the German population (N = 558), we examine how snacking news affects political event and background knowledge gains using different digital news platforms. Results show that users who exhibit high levels of news snacking learn substantially less from news use across different types of digital platforms.

Keywords: News snackingpolitical knowledgepolitical learningsocial mediasmartphonesknowledge gaps

Discussion

News snacking, the habitual behavior of quickly checking and skimming through news on smartphones and digital media platforms, is a prime example of how digital media environments enable new ways of using the news. Digital media channels such as mobile devices, platforms such as social media, and an increased acceleration of the pace of life impact the opportunity structures of news usage – and, thereby, how people attend to news. Accordingly, almost 40% of our sample of German Internet users indicated agreement with statements that suggest strong news snacking behavior.2 This corroborates earlier findings that the quick checking of news items as a pastime activity and intermittent engagement with news on the go is a prevalent phenomenon in digital societies (Costera Meijer & Kormelink, Citation2015; Forgette, Citation2018; Sveningsson, Citation2015). Our study specifically asked how news snacking is related to political knowledge gains in society and utilizes a design suited to investigate learning about current affairs via news exposure. Our findings have three important implications.

First, higher levels of news snacking are conditioning the direct relationship between news use on digital platforms and political knowledge about political events and political backgrounds in a negative manner. While the difference is clear and visible across almost all platforms, it is of moderate amplitude and does not reach statistical significance in all cases. Nevertheless, it must be noted that if a more substantial body of knowledge is considered than what was possible in this study, news snacking can result in significant knowledge gaps.

Second, our study could not establish the predicted pattern that news snacking would lead to greater breadth but not depth of political knowledge (see Prior, Citation2007). Rather, we find that with increased use of most digital platforms, users that “snack” news more than others gain little from their high levels of exposure. This suggests that the short skimming of headlines when being on the go does not contribute to the promotion of informed citizenry. In extreme cases, respondents who said to mostly snack news and who attend news seven days a week (for instance, on a news website) knew as little about political current affairs as respondents who did not use news on such websites at all. Our study, hence, suggests that news snacking might indeed leave people with the impression of being informed rather than being knowledgeable, as suggested by Costera Meijer (Citation2007).

Third, we find notable differences between digital media platforms and types of knowledge. Interestingly, strong news-snacking behavior has been shown to be detrimental to learning from social media platforms with their newsfeed character and their combined function of information and entertainment. Given the high levels of social media news use in society nowadays, news snacking may be one answer to the question of why studies consistently find rather low learning outcomes of social media news use (Boukes, Citation2019; Cacciatore et al., Citation2018; Dimitrova, Shehata, Strömbäck, & Nord, Citation2014; Lee & Xenos, Citation2019; Shehata & Strömbäck, Citation2018; van Erkel & Van Aelst, Citation2020). However, we find the same pattern across almost all digital platforms for news exposure. Lower knowledge gains for “news snackers” seem to be a more universal outcome and less dependent on the platform. This suggests that users can learn from different digital platforms but that political learning outcomes depend on how, not if they use it.

Although not in the focus of the study, users of video platforms and other websites to get political information show marginal knowledge about current affairs. We can only speculate about reasons, but recent research about the usage of video platforms for news indicates that these platforms are primarily used for exposure to special interest news, often in a polarized news environment (Lopezosa, Orduna-Malea, & Pérez-Montoro, Citation2020). Furthermore, the usage of “other websites” may refer to non-journalistic actors that contribute to alternative media content. In line with the alternative nature of these sources (see Holt, Ustad Figenschou, & Frischlich Citation2019), they seem to convey little information about major political events and their backgrounds.

Limitations

Our study faces a number of limitations. First, we relied on a single-country sample and our findings are thereby limited in their explanatory power to German Internet users. Additionally, the news media exposure was measured aimed at reducing respondents’ recall bias by asking specifically about the last week. However, our data is still based on self-reports and can thus not rule out social desirability inaccuracies (e.g., Slater, Citation2004). Future research should test the relationship between news exposure and learning on an empirical basis less susceptible to perceptual distortion (e.g., Karnowski, Kümpel, Leonhard, & Leiner, Citation2017; Mothes, Knobloch-Westerwick, & Pearson Citation2019) and/or on a more fine-grained level of analysis, for example using media diary studies, data donations, or tracking data (Ohme et al., Citation2023; Araujo et al., Citation2022; Mangold, Stier, Breuer, & Scharkow Citation2021). Second, assessing the level of political knowledge is a tricky task (Barabas, Jerit, Pollock, & Rainey, Citation2014). We tried to improve previous measures by timing the current affairs questions closely with the field time of the survey for a valid assessment of learning through media use. However, the distinction between background and event knowledge may be imperfect because although some information is less likely than others to be found in headlines and teasers, we cannot be entirely certain that our distinction holds for all news coverage in the given time framesince we did not analyze news content in this study.Third, as for the explicit aim of this study to investigate the role of news snacking for political learning, it was necessary to develop a specific measure for this concept. The index that we have developed shows good internal consistency and succinct scale conformance. However, future research should put this measure to test, especially in terms of social desirability biases. Although we assess the behavioral component of media exposure with this measure, it is fair to ask how strongly this measure assesses the state of how people attend to media, rather than self-perceptions of news users (see Ohme, Araujo, Zarouali, & de Vreese Citation2022b) for a similar discussion on news avoidance behavior. The small increase in R-square in our models is another indication that news snacking only explains a small fraction of the variance in political knowledge among respondents. Future research should use more precise measures of news encounters and session length, ideally across different spatial conditions, to include the behavioral component of news snacking more strongly. Fourth, the study tested for relationships of exposure to news on different, higher-order platforms but did not distinguish between specific social media or other news platforms (e.g., different news apps or social media brands). We, therefore, suggest that future research more specifically investigates differences in political learning from using, for example, different social media and messaging platforms (e.g., Boukes, Citation2019), as it is possible that certain platform affordances and digital architectures attenuate the conditional effect of news snacking on learning (see Bossetta, Citation2018). Lastly, we rely on cross-sectional data, and although results point in the direction that people with high levels of news-snacking behavior learn less from digital news exposure, we cannot rule out the opposite interpretation, namely that people with low political knowledge show higher levels of news snacking.

New platforms in digital media environments provide new opportunity structures for accessing public affairs news, but at the same time, urge people to find new ways of navigating through the plethora of information offered to them. Intermittent, short-term attendance to headlines or teasers – as one of these strategies – seems to leave society less well-informed about political issues. In our study, people who used more superficial ways of attending to the news were less likely to know about scandals in the Federal Intelligence Agency, the latest law passed by the European Parliament, or developments that affect the environment in their own country. It is always debatable which topics are of political relevance. However, ultimately, a functioning society needs a common base of knowledge to discuss and act on. The study proposes the possibility that news snacking indeed leads to lower levels of knowledge in some digital contexts, especially in cases of high news use frequency, where people may think they attend to news a lot but still learn very little. This begs the question of how news media can secure a healthy diet of political knowledge among citizens when the formerly full meal of news exposure more and more becomes a snack.

For male winners, wealth increases marriage formation and reduces divorce risk, suggesting wealth increases men’s attractiveness as prospective and current partners

Fortunate Families? The Effects of Wealth on Marriage and Fertility. David Cesarini, Erik Lindqvist, Robert Östling & Anastasia Terskaya. NBER Working Paper 31039, March 2023. DOI 10.3386/w31039

Abstract: We estimate the effects of large, positive wealth shocks on marriage and fertility in a sample of Swedish lottery players. For male winners, wealth increases marriage formation and reduces divorce risk, suggesting wealth increases men’s attractiveness as prospective and current partners. Wealth also increases male fertility. The only discernible effect on female winners is that wealth increases their short-run (but not long-run) divorce risk. Our results for divorce are consistent with a model where the wealthier spouse retains most of his/her wealth in divorce. In support of this assumption, we show divorce settlements in Sweden often favor the richer spouse.

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My comment... "[W]e show divorce settlements in Sweden often favor the richer spouse." What was this supposed to mean? Are we implying here that divorce should be confiscatory of wealth? Divorce courts as the great redistributors? Or was this printed to balance the main message, that men that increase wealth have less contentious spouses, and this reflects, from a traditional viewpoint, badly in the spouses?

Exposure to insecticide baits that contain glucose has messed up the cockroaches' love game, forcing males to de-sweet their nuptial gifts and to hasten copulation

Gustatory polymorphism mediates a new adaptive courtship strategy. Ayako Wada-Katsumata, Eduardo Hatano and Coby Schal. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Mar 29 2023. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.2337

Abstract: Human-imposed selection can lead to adaptive changes in sensory traits. However, rapid evolution of the sensory system can interfere with other behaviours, and animals must overcome such sensory conflicts. In response to intense selection by insecticide baits that contain glucose, German cockroaches evolved glucose-aversion (GA), which confers behavioural resistance against baits. During courtship the male offers the female a nuptial gift that contains maltose, which expediates copulation. However, the female's saliva rapidly hydrolyses maltose into glucose, which causes GA females to dismount the courting male, thus reducing their mating success. Comparative analysis revealed two adaptive traits in GA males. They produce more maltotriose, which is more resilient to salivary glucosidases, and they initiate copulation faster than wild-type males, before GA females interrupt their nuptial feeding and dismount the male. Recombinant lines of the two strains showed that the two emergent traits of GA males were not genetically associated with the GA trait. Results suggest that the two courtship traits emerged in response to the altered sexual behaviour of GA females and independently of the male's GA trait. Although rapid adaptive evolution generates sexual mismatches that lower fitness, compensatory behavioural evolution can correct these sensory discrepancies.

Moral licensing, taking the liberty of acting reprehensibly when one has done something good, only occurs when the good deed had been observed

Rotella, Amanda, Jisoo Jung, Christopher Chinn, and Pat Barclay. 2023. “Observation Moderates the Moral Licensing Effect: A Meta-analytic Test of Interpersonal and Intrapsychic Mechanisms.” PsyArXiv. March 28. doi:10.31234/osf.io/tmhe9

Abstract: Moral licensing occurs when someone who initially behaved morally subsequently acts less morally. We apply reputation-based theories to predict when and why moral licensing would occur. Specifically, our pre-registered predictions were that (1) participants observed during the licensing manipulation would have larger licensing effects, and (2) unambiguous dependent variables would have smaller licensing effects. In a pre-registered multi-level meta-analysis of 111 experiments (N = 19,335), we found a larger licensing effect when participants were observed (Hedge’s g = 0.61) compared to unobserved (Hedge’s g = 0.14). Ambiguity did not moderate the effect. The overall moral licensing effect was small (Hedge’s g = 0.18). We replicated these analyses using robust Bayesian meta-analysis and found strong support for the moral licensing effect only when participants are observed. These results suggest that the moral licensing effect is predominantly an interpersonal effect based on reputation, rather than an intrapsychic effect based on self-image.

Both Democrats and Republicans discriminate against applicants with a political orientation that does not match their own, with Democrats doing even more discriminating

Judging Job Applicants by Their Politics: Effects of Target–Rater Political Dissimilarity on Discrimination, Cooperation, and Stereotyping. Samantha Sinclair, Artur Nilsson, Jens Agerström. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, Volume 11 (1), Mar 2023. https://jspp.psychopen.eu/index.php/jspp/article/view/9855

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 experiment (N = 973, currently employed) which suggest that both Democrats and Republicans negatively stereotype and discriminate against job applicants with a political orientation that is dissimilar to their own. The effects were small for competence perceptions, moderate for hiring judgments, and large for warmth ratings and willingness to cooperate and socialize with the applicant. The effects of political orientation on hiring judgments and willingness to cooperate and socialize were mediated by stereotype content, particularly warmth. 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 revealing their political orientation and have implications for the promotion of diversity in organizations.

I observed line performance actually dropping when lines were actively supervised, a result I began calling a reverse Hawthorne effect

Bernstein, E. 2012 The Transparency Paradox: A Role for Privacy in Organizational Learning and Operational Control. Administrative Science Quarterly 57(2): 181-216. 2012. TransparencyParadox-ASQ-June2012

Hiding in broad daylight.

During this first phase of the research, it became clear almost immediately  that operators were hiding their most innovative techniques from management so as not to “bear the cost of explaining better ways of doing things to others” or alternatively “get in trouble” for doing things differently. One of the first rules in which my researchers were trained by peers was how to act whenever a customer, manager, line leader, or any other outsider came in sight of the line. First the embeds were quietly shown “better ways” of accomplishing tasks by their peers—a “ton of little tricks” that “kept production going” or enabled “faster, easier, and/or safer production.” Then they were told “whenever the [customers/managers/leaders] come around, don’t do that, because they’ll get mad.” Instead, when under observation, embeds were trained in the art of appearing to perform the task the way it was “meant” to be done according to the codified process rules posted for each task. Because many of these performances were not as productive as the “little tricks,” I observed line performance actually dropping when lines were actively supervised, a result I began calling a reverse Hawthorne effect because productivity fell, not rose, as a result of an observer. My embeds’ privileged role as participant-observers, along with the substantial hours of research time on the lines, allowed me to collect numerous examples of these productively deviant behaviors, the performances that were used to hide them, and their antecedents, across categories of tasks. Table 1 provides some selected examples, and Online Appendix A provides even more. Meanwhile, suggestion boxes on every line remained empty.

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...In most cases, the hidden behavior involved doing something “better” or “faster” or to “keep production going,” often by engaging in activities that operators claimed were “not hard” and had been learned by “watching [others] do it,” a form of tribal knowledge on the factory floor. What operators described as “their” [management’s] way of doing things often involved “more procedures” and was “a lot slower,” whereas the improved, more “fluid” methods were necessary to avoid complaints from management about the line “being so slow.” In an operator’s words, the deviance doesn’t “cause any [quality or safety] problems and it keeps production moving."

Such private deviance in workplaces is common and well documented (Roy, 1952; Burawoy, 1979; Mars, 1982; Anteby, 2008). What made the deviance in this context so interesting is that so much of it appeared to be productive for line performance—and that such productive deviance existed even though the workers, who were paid a flat rate by shift and not piece rate, had no financial incentive to enhance performance. A shift’s quota was set by production managers for clusters of similar lines based on demand for the products being produced, and performance expectations (e.g., the number of defectfree devices produced per hour) were based on a combination of engineers’ pilot testing of lines during the initial ramp-up of that product’s production and an assumption of learning over time, based on previous PrecisionMobile experience with similar products and tasks. Exceeding expectations resulted in waiting time, standing at the stations, at the end of a shift, but there was little more positive incentive than that. Nor did negative incentives, such as disciplinary methods or penalties, explain the productive deviance. When lines failed to meet performance expectations, traditional Toyota Production System or TQM methods—poka-yoke, in-station quality control, jidoka, five why’s, kaizen, small group activities (SGA), Ishikawa fishbone diagrams, among others—were employed to find the root cause and correct the error. Discipline of individual operators could range from simple warnings to removal, but though the embeds witnessed a few warnings, they witnessed nothing more significant than that. In contrast to several other large contract manufacturers in the region, PrecisionMobile had a reputation among the workers for being one of the best local places to work, and at least one operator cited fairness in discipline as part of the reason. Nothing we witnessed about the incentive structure explained the workers’ motivation to be productively deviant. Although the factory was located in China, its management systems and approach were quite standard globally or what the company called best practice. On visits to similar PrecisionMobile facilities elsewhere in the world, I found that the systems were nearly identical.

Discussion [of study 1]

Privacy and the reverse Hawthorne effect.

The participant-observers’ experiences at Precision were not consistent with prior theory that transparency enables performance. Instead, transparency appeared to keep operators from getting their best work done. The operators’ choice of the word “privacy” went to the core of my observations of these behavioral responses to transparent factory design. Mechanisms for achieving transparency not only improved the vision of the observer but also of the observed, and increased awareness of being observed in this setting had a negative impact on performance, generating a reverse Hawthorne effect. 

This unanticipated outcome may, in part, be explained by Zajonc’s (1965) finding that mere exposure to others affects individual behavior by activating dominant, practiced responses over experimental, riskier, learning responses, possibly more so in an evaluative context (Cottrell, 1972), and has been found to encourage a number of other social facilitation dysfunctions (Hackman, 1976; Bond and Titus, 1983). Similarly, at the group level, increased observability can lead to less effective brainstorming (Paulus, Larey, and Ortega, 1995), blind conformity (Asch, 1951, 1956), and groupthink (Janis, 1982). But qualitative data collected at Precision suggests that the reverse Hawthorne effect went beyond passive social facilitation effects to something more intentional and strategic, thus necessitating a look at the full implications of what the operators referred to as the need for and value of “privacy” on the factory floor. 

A vast interdisciplinary body of theory, located primarily outside of the management sciences, argues for the existence of an instrumental human need for transparency’s opposite, privacy—what Burgoon et al. (1989: 132) defined as “the ability to control and limit physical, interactional, psychological, and informational access to the self or to one’s group” (see also Westin, 1967; Altman, 1975; Parent, 1983; Schoeman, 1984; Solove, 2008). The need for privacy exists at both individual and group levels. Simmel (1957: 1) stated that normal human behavior involves cycles of engagement and withdrawal from others—“directly as well as symbolically, bodily as well as spiritually, we are continually separating our bonds and binding our separations.” Boundaries providing freedom from transparency, creating a state of privacy, have been found to enable the authenticity required for meaningful experimentation (Simmel, 1950), the generation of new ideas (Eysenck, 1995; Hargadon, 2003; Simonton, 2003; cf. Sutton and Kelley, 1997), the maintenance of expertise attached to professional identity (Anteby, 2008), the capacity to trust others (Scheler, 1957), and the maintenance of long-term meaningful relationships and group associations (Mill, 1859; Simmel, 1950; Schwarz, 1968; Ingham, 1978; Kanter and Khurana, 2009), all behaviors associated with effective knowledge sharing (Edmondson, 2002) and “enabling” operational control (Hackman and Wageman, 1995; Adler and Borys, 1996). In this body of literature, privacy is the solution for those who identify a panopticon-like awareness of being visible (Foucault, 1977: 201–203) to be a problem. 

While use of the term “privacy” has not diffused broadly from the jurisprudential and philosophical literatures into the management sciences, a number of pivotal studies in organizational behavior have touched on the value of privacy without using the term itself. Rich discussions of the value of boundaries in both the sociological and networks literatures (for reviews, see Lamont and Molnar, 2002; Lazer and Friedman, 2007, respectively) suggest that forming productive individual and group identity requires four components, the first of which is “a boundary separating me from you or us from them” (Tilly, 2003) or what the PrecisionMobile operators called the “privacy we need to get our work done” (emphasis added). Although a highly productive literature has emerged on the management of knowledge across such boundaries (e.g., Carlile, 2004; O’Mahony and Bechky, 2008), few management scholars have focused on the strategic placement or creation of the boundaries themselves.  Yet if privacy breeds authenticity, and authenticity enables engaging in hidden yet beneficial behavior, the creation of organizational boundaries should be of great strategic importance. “Boundary objects” are required for defining different social worlds (Star and Griesemer, 1989), can take the form of “material objects, organizational forms, conceptual spaces or procedures” (Lamont and Molnar, 2002: 180), and have been found to be important for supporting coordinated action and common knowledge at the group level (Chwe, 2001). There are, of course, group and individual boundary objects that do not involve physical perimeters or “borders” (e.g., race, gender, status), but those that do rely on some degree of visibility-based privacy (e.g., a wall, fence, cubicle) to demarcate “us” from “them” (Lamont and Molnar, 2002). Where such boundaries are permitted, and how permeable they are, has profound implications for one’s feeling of privacy and, therefore, behavior. Where such boundaries are prohibited, at least in the case of Precision, the implication appears to be rampant, creative, and costly hiding of deviant behavior, precisely the kind of hiding that transparency is theorized to avoid.

Demography Leads to More Conservative European Societies

Fieder, Martin and Huber, Susanne, Demography Leads to More Conservative European Societies. Mar 20233. SSRN: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4384438

Abstract: On basis of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (in total 66,188 participants from 14 European countries) and the European Gender and Generation Survey (in total 121,248 participants from 11 countries), we investigated i) whether differences in political attitude and attitudes on family values (i.e. attitude towards homosexual couples, attitude towards female reproduction) are associated with differences in the average number of children, and ii) whether such an association between fertility and attitudes affects the population share of those attitudes in the following generations.We found that in most analyzed countries, right-wing/conservative individuals have, on average, more children and grandchildren than left-wing/liberal individuals. We further found that the proportion of right-wing/conservative individuals increases from generation to generation. These findings suggest that differential demography may lead to a shift of prevailing political attitudes.

Keywords: political attitude, family attitudes, fertility, Europe

Examining the Sexual Double Standards and Hypocrisy in Partner Suitability Appraisals Within a Norwegian Sample

Examining the Sexual Double Standards and Hypocrisy in Partner Suitability Appraisals Within a Norwegian Sample. Leif Edward Ottesen Kennair et al. Evolutionary Psychology, March 27, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1177/14747049231165687

Abstract: Sexual double standards are social norms that impose greater social opprobrium on women versus men or that permit one sex greater sexual freedom than the other. This study examined sexual double standards when choosing a mate based on their sexual history. Using a novel approach, participants (N = 923, 64% women) were randomly assigned to make evaluations in long-term or short-term mating contexts and asked how a prospective partner's sexual history would influence their own likelihood of having sex (short-term) or entering a relationship (long-term) with them. They were then asked how the same factors would influence the appraisal they would make of male and female friends in a similar position. We found no evidence of traditional sexual double standards for promiscuous or sexually undesirable behavior. There was some evidence for small sexual double standard for self-stimulation, but this was in the opposite direction to that predicted. There was greater evidence for sexual hypocrisy as sexual history tended to have a greater negative impact on suitor assessments for the self rather than for same-sex friends. Sexual hypocrisy effects were more prominent in women, though the direction of the effects was the same for both sexes. Overall, men were more positive about women's self-stimulation than women were, particularly in short-term contexts. Socially undesirable sexual behavior (unfaithfulness, mate poaching, and jealous/controlling) had a large negative impact on appraisals of a potential suitor across all contexts and for both sexes. Effects of religiosity, disgust, sociosexuality, and question order effects are considered.

Discussion

The study of SDS has yielded several important results. First, we found a lack of evidence for SDS effects in the traditional direction. Second, we found that people were more discerning of a prospective mate's sexual history in long-term versus short-term contexts and that women were more discerning than men. Third, we found that participants showed some level of hypocrisy—being more cautious when making appraisals for themselves compared to a same-sex friend. Fourth, we found that sexual histories could be reduced to three factors: self-stimulation, promiscuity, and cheating & controlling, and that these factors affected appraisals and were the subjects of SDS and hypocrisy effects in different ways. Finally, we found little evidence that covariates affected the pattern of the results in a meaningful way. We now discuss these key findings in turn.

A Lack of SDS at the Personal Level

Generally, when people are asked what norms, they believe exist in society, they tend to confirm traditional SDS (the societal level). However, when people are asked what attitudes they themselves hold (appraisals at the personal level), the pattern can disappear (Crawford & Popp, 2003). Overall, and in line with our predictions, we found a lack of evidence for traditional SDS, and we actually found a reversed sexual double standard in the case of self-stimulation and promiscuous behavior. Rather than women being judged harshly for engaging in porn use, masturbation, and sex toy ownership, they were actually judged to be a slightly more suitable partner for a male friend in short-term contexts, regardless of participant gender, while this aspect of their history had little influence on their suitability as a long-term one. Men in contrast were judged as negatively on the basis of their self-stimulating behavior—more so by women than men and particularly in long-term contexts. Notably, promiscuous women were not evaluated more negatively than promiscuous men in long-term MCs. This pattern was found regardless of perspective (first or third person) and largely generalized to self-stimulating targets and targets with cheating & controlling behavior (unfaithful, jealous, or mate poaching).

Mating Context and Participant Sex Moderate Appraisals of Sexual History

In this study, we were able to address the fact that little research has considered the role of short-term versus long-term contexts when studying SDS, taking for granted differences in sexual mating psychology that varies both by sex and mating strategy (Buss & Schmitt, 1993). We found that context matters—people rated potential suitors with a sexual history of promiscuity, self-stimulation, and cheating or controlling more harshly if they were considering them as a long-term mate than a short-term one. This difference likely comes from the fact that one of the adaptive problems of those following a short-term mating strategy is identifying opportunities for casual sex. Promiscuity and self-stimulation may act as cues for access and so are tolerated more than in long-term contexts where immediate sexual access becomes less important. Cheating & controlling may have been considered less relevant within short-term contexts for the same reason that kindness is seen as less important in short-term contexts (Li & Kenrick, 2006). Short-term relationships by their very definition make these attributes less relevant—cheating & controlling dynamics tend to happen within ongoing relationships rather than one-night stands.

Another moderator was the sex of the participant. In line with our second prediction, facts about a prospective partner's sexual history generally led to women toward more negative appraisals of than men, regardless of whether they were making judgments for themselves or for same-sex friends. This sex difference was particularly evident for self-stimulating behavior. These sex differences likely reflect the historical asymmetries in the risks associated with sex for men and women. In terms of their reproductive health, having somatic resources “tided up,” and social reputation, the risks of poor sexual decisions for men have historically been much lower than those for women, causing them to evolve to be more cautious about how, when, and with whom they procreate (Buss & Schmitt, 1993).

Is Sexual Hypocrisy a Specific Form of Sexual Double Standard?

By asking participants to make appraisals for themselves, we were in the unique position to examine sexual hypocrisy. Generally, we found that the participants were less willing to pursue an opposite-sex target following sexual history information but were less cautious when appraising same-sex friends in the same situation. This was also true for men in the short-term context, although these men made relatively fewer negative appraisals for self versus male friend compared to women in both MCs and men in a long-term MC. The reason for this difference we suspect lies with the relative risk to the participant associated with the choice. It would pay to be particularly cautious when making decisions for oneself because one must bear the consequences of that decision. The consequences for even the most beloved friend will always have less of an effect on the self. If this explanation holds then further research should find that appraisals of others’ behavior and choices should track the extent to which negative consequences would impact the decision maker—such as degree of genetic relatedness and interdependence (Apostolou, 2017; Biegler & Kennair, 2016; Perilloux et al., 2008). The traditional double standard is mainly expected to be present in assessment of daughters’, sisters’, mothers’, and wives’ behaviors, not the behavior of sexually available women one is not related to.

Further, appraisals differed for the three behaviors, suggesting that SDS and sexual hypocrisy was not similar for promiscuity, self-stimulation, and cheating & controlling behaviors. The (reversed) SDS effect was more evident for self-stimulation, and more evident in the short-term context, and the sexual hypocrisy effect was stronger for women than for men albeit less pronounced for self-stimulation. Evidently, sexual history is not necessarily best conceptualized as negative information, sometimes sexual history is clearly negative (cheating & controlling behavior), however, self-stimulation is generally not considered negative behavior. The SST perspective highlights the importance of how both sex of actor and MC will influence appraisals of sexual history, for example a woman's sexual availability cues will be assessed more positive for men in a short-term setting than men's sexual availability will be assessed by women. There is more insight to be garnered about further specific sex acts.

Effects of Individual Differences

During our analyses, we included several covariates that one might expect to influence how people use information about sexual history including religiosity, sexual disgust, and sociosexuality. Our third prediction regarding the effect of these individual differences was supported on an overall level. Higher levels of religiosity and sexual disgust, and more restricted sociosexuality were all associated with more negative appraisals of targets with a sexual history. Contrary to our expectation however, the effect of religiosity was not limited to short-term sexual relationships. Overall, while there was evidence that these individual differences affect how sexual history information is used more broadly, these did not seem to enhance or reduce SDS or sexual hypocrisy effects.

Overall, these findings, although original, dovetail neatly with the general finding in the literature that people rarely express the traditional double standard when they judge sexually active others. Further, considering both sexes in both MCs reveals predictable sex differences, where especially men are less negative toward sexually active women in a short-term context. Sexual availability is considered attractive and signaling this is an effective way for women to self-promote or flirt in short-term contexts (Bendixen & Kennair, 2015; Kennair et al., 2022).

The most interesting aspect of these findings may be that so many expect to find the traditional pattern expressed in modern society. An implicit negative attitude toward short-term sexual relations might be part of the explanation of why people continue to believe in the traditional sexual double standard. Intrasexual competition between women is probably also a driving mechanism, attempting to downregulate inflation for sexual access. However, the narrative might be leftover norm expectations from an era when there actually was more sexual control over women than men, for example because of religiosity. There are two aspects of the current findings that suggest that this explanation may be too simple. First, while the participants in the current study are from a highly secularized society, egalitarian and sexually liberal society compared to the United States (Bendixen et al., 2017), there are similar findings of reversed double standards or single standards in US samples, too (Crawford & Popp, 2003). Also, religiosity did generally influence the pattern of results for the SDS (although for own pursuit, religiosity was a robust covariate), although religious men were more critical of women for the socially undesirable behaviors factor. This question probably needs resolving with data from even less egalitarian, more religious, and less sexually societies. In the meantime, taking double sexual standards for granted and telling young women about the existence of such double standards, when indeed they might not exist, is probably more limiting for people's sexual liberty than other people's actual attitudes. Displaying a more sex-positive attitude, especially toward short-term sex, may be a better approach, than spreading the myths of traditional double standards and that primarily males are negative to an active female sexuality and agency.

Limitations

The main limitation of the current work is that it was conducted on a convenience sample from a secular country which is high in sexual liberalism and has high gender egality. It is entirely possible that SDS are reduced in such countries and would reveal themselves more in countries which are more conservative and religious. Thus, a key future direction would be to replicate these findings in other countries to test for cross-cultural consistency, though often such research demonstrates that mating psychology is remarkably canalized (Thomas et al., 2020). Further, one variable that was not controlled for in the current study was degree of relatedness between friends and participants. Future studies might consider more social dimensions by including different degrees of genetic relatedness and social relations.

Despite sample characteristics, the random assignment procedure into short-term or long-term MCs and question-order manipulation ensures comparability of these factors. Another possible limitation is the comparison for testing hypocrisy; self-suitor versus same-sex friend appraisals that are not directly comparable regarding content. In the self-suitor appraisal, we asked the respondent to consider to what extent the target's sexual behavior reduced or increased the likelihood of pursuing ONS/relationship, while in the same-sex friend appraisal we asked the respondent to report the degree that their friend should pursue an ONS/relationship. The latter might appear more moralistic than the former.

Although daughters and their parents rated ambition and intelligence as the most important qualities of a husband for daughters, in the concrete case, both parties chose the more attractive man

Fugère, M. A., Ciccarelli, N. C., & Cousins, A. J. (2023). The importance of physical attractiveness and ambition/intelligence to the mate choices of women and their parents. Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, Mar 2023. https://doi.org/10.1037/ebs0000325

Abstract: When women make mate choices, they face potential conflict with their parents. Evolutionary theory predicts, and prior research confirms, that daughters value physical attractiveness (as a signal of genetic quality) more than their parents do when considering a partner for their daughters. However, prior research also shows that daughters and their parents value the most important traits of a mate for daughters similarly (e.g., mutual love, intelligence, etc.). We assessed self-reported mate preferences and responses to an experimental manipulation among 150 daughter–parent pairs. We varied men's physical attractiveness (more vs. less attractive) and ascribed personality characteristics (ambitious/intelligent vs. disorganized/physically fit) in a 2 × 2 independent groups design, testing 8 hypotheses evaluating the relative importance of physical attractiveness and personality traits. Self-reported ratings by both women and their parents indicated that the traits ambition and intelligence were significantly more important than physical attractiveness for a long-term mate for daughters. And, across conditions, both daughters and parents rated the ambitious and intelligent man as a more desirable dating partner than the more attractive man. However, when asked to choose the best mate for daughters, both daughters (68.7%) and their parents (63.3%) chose the more attractive man as the best long-term dating partner for daughters, regardless of his ascribed traits. Furthermore, daughters’ and parents’ choices corresponded 79% of the time. Physical attractiveness may be more important to both daughters and parents than self-reported responses suggest and actual daughter–parent conflict over physical attractiveness in chosen partnerships may be less prevalent than perceived conflict. 

Across the world, adoption of the internet was associated with greater life satisfaction and social well-being

Vuorre, Matti, and Andrew K. Przybylski. 2023. “A Multiverse Analysis of the Associations Between Internet Use and Well-being.” PsyArXiv. March 27. doi:10.31234/osf.io/jp5nd

Abstract: Internet technologies’ and platforms’ potential psychological consequences remain debated. While these technologies have spurred new forms of commerce, education, and leisure, many are worried that they might negatively affect individuals by, for example, displacing time spent on other healthy activities. Relevant findings to date have been inconclusive and of limited geographic and demographic scope. We examined whether having (mobile) internet access or actively using the internet predicted eight well-being outcomes from 2006 to 2021 among 2,414,294 individuals across 168 countries. We first queried the extent to which well-being varied as a function of internet connectivity. Then, we examined these associations’ robustness in a multiverse of 33,792 analysis specifications. 84.9% of these resulted in positive and statistically significant associations between internet connectivity and well-being. These results indicate that internet access and use predict well-being positively and independently from a set of plausible alternatives.

Understand what people desire most in a work of art... "In nearly every country all people really wanted was a landscape with a few figures around, animals in the foreground, mainly blue"

The age of average. Alex Murrell. Mar 20 2023. https://www.alexmurrell.co.uk/articles/the-age-of-average

In the early 1990s, two Russian artists named Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid took the unusual step of hiring a market research firm. Their brief was simple. Understand what Americans desire most in a work of art.

Over 11 days the researchers at Marttila & Kiley Inc. asked 1,001 US citizens a series of survey questions.

What’s your favourite colour? Do you prefer sharp angles or soft curves? Do you like smooth canvases or thick brushstrokes? Would you rather figures that are nude or clothed? Should they be at leisure or working? Indoors or outside? In what kind of landscape? 

Komar and Melamid then set about painting a piece that reflected the results. The pair repeated this process in a number of countries including Russia, China, France and Kenya.

Each piece in the series, titled “People’s Choice”, was intended to be a unique a collaboration with the people of a different country and culture.

But it didn’t quite go to plan.

Describing the work in his book Playing to the Gallery, the artist Grayson Perry said:

“In nearly every country all people really wanted was a landscape with a few figures around, animals in the foreground, mainly blue.”

Despite soliciting the opinions of over 11,000 people, from 11 different countries, each of the paintings looked almost exactly the same. 

[Komar and Melamid, People’s Choice]

After completing the work, Komar quipped:

“We have been travelling to different countries, engaging in dull negotiations with representatives of polling companies, raising money for further polls, receiving more or less the same results, and painting more or less the same blue landscapes. Looking for freedom, we found slavery.”

[full piece at the link above]

Women consistently reported less inequality for themselves than they reported for their group, and for both sexes, political leanings predicted support for gender equality more strongly than perceived personal and societal inequality

Political Ideology Outdoes Personal Experience in Predicting Support for Gender Equality. A. Timur Sevincer, Cindy Galinsky, Lena Martensen, Gabriele Oettingen. Political Psychology, March 27 2023. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12887

Abstract: Indices of gender equality provide an inconsistent picture of current gender inequality in countries with relatively high equality. We examined women's and men's subjectively perceived gender inequality and their support for gender equality in the general population and in politicians, respectively, in three countries with relatively high gender equality: the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany (total N = 1,612). In both women's and men's perceptions, women were treated more unequally than men. However, the inequality that women perceived was larger than the inequality men perceived. Additionally, women reported they personally experience less inequality than women as a group (person-group discrepancy). Finally, women's and men's left/liberal (vs. right/conservative) political ideology turned out to be a relatively more powerful predictor of support for gender equality than perceived personal and societal inequality. We discuss reasons for why political ideology emerged as the strongest predictor of equality support and sketch out implications for policy efforts toward promoting gender equality.

Inconsistent Indices of Gender Equality

The indices estimate gender inequality by looking at indicators for inequality from various life domains to calculate an overall inequality index. Inconsistencies arise because the indices may focus on different domains and use different indicators, scale formats, and calculation formulas.

Global Gender Gap Index

The GGGI focuses on four domains: economy, politics, education, and health. It uses indicators such as income, women in ministerial positions, literacy rate, and sex ratio at birth, among others. The GGGI calculates women's disadvantage compared to men and can take values between 1 (complete disadvantage for women) and 0 (no disadvantage for women). Advantages for women on some indicators (more women holding degrees than men) do not cancel out disadvantages on others.

Gender Inequality Index

The GII focuses on the same four domains as the GGGI: economy, politics, education, and health. It uses different indicators however: women in the workforce, women in parliament, academic degrees, maternal mortality, among others. Like the GGGI, the GII calculates women's disadvantage compared to men and can take values between 0 (complete disadvantage for women) and 1 (no disadvantage for women). As with the GGGI, advantages for women on some indicators do not cancel out disadvantages on others.

Basic Index of Gender Inequality

The BIGI focuses on three domains. As the GGGI and GII, it focuses on education and health. It also focuses on life satisfaction. And it uses different indicators than the GGGI and GI: years of secondary education, life expectancy, and self-reported well-being, among others. Unlike the GGGI and GII, the BIGI calculates women's and men's disadvantage compared to each other. It can take values between −1 (complete disadvantage for men) and 1 (complete disadvantage for women), with 0 being equality (no advantage/ disadvantage for women or men). With the BIGI, advantages for one gender on some indicators can cancel out disadvantages on others.

Actively Supporting Gender Equality

Gender equality involves not only equal rights but also equal access to resources and opportunities. Arguments for improving gender equality involve moral reasons (both genders1 should be treated equally fairly) and economic reasons (the economy benefits when both genders are treated equally fairly). In principle, both genders may benefit from more equality (when social norms allow both men and women to take on whichever role they prefer).

As for what leads people to actively support equality, the starting point may be some objective disadvantage (e.g., fewer rights for one gender). Support for equality may also be instigated, however, by people subjectively perceiving inequality, disadvantage, or injustice (van Zomeren et al., 2008). Several mediating mechanisms have been proposed for the link between inequality perceptions and equality support. These involve shared identity or fate with the disadvantaged (Jenkins et al., 2021), political involvement (Castle et al., 2020), and efficacy to bring about change (van Zomeren et al., 2008), among others.

Perceived Personal Versus Societal Inequality

Research on how people perceive inequality distinguishes between inequality people personally experience and inequality people believe their group experiences. The inequality people personally experience is how they perceive themselves treated compared to a member of another group. This perceived personal inequality is also known as personal discrimination or egoistic relative deprivation. The inequality people believe their group experiences is how they perceive their group is treated compared to another group. This perceived societal inequality is also known as group discrimination or collective relative deprivation (Foster & Matheson, 1995; Moghaddam et al., 1997).

People often report the inequality they themselves experience as being different from the inequality their group experiences. For example, members of historically disadvantaged groups (women) reported experiencing less discrimination personally than they reported their group experiences, even though they were objectively discriminated against (Crosby, 1982, 1984). The literature identified four reasons for this person-group discrepancy: First, people deny personal disadvantage to avoid discomfort and maintain a sense of control (Ruggiero & Taylor, 1995). Second, they exaggerate their group's disadvantage to promote change (Taylor et al., 1990). Third, they overestimate their group's disadvantage because examples of the group's disadvantage come easier to mind (availability heuristic; Moghaddam et al., 1997). Fourth, they compare themselves to a different reference group when estimating personal disadvantage (themselves to other group members) versus group disadvantage (their group to another group; Kessler et al., 2000). Because many societies have achieved more gender equality in the last decades and respective studies are now at least 25 years old (Crosby, 1982, 1984, Moghaddam et al., 1997), we were interested in how much gender inequality women and men would perceive in present time and whether there would still be a person-group discrepancy. Moreover, both perceived personal inequality and perceived societal inequality should promote readiness to reduce the inequality (Kessler et al., 2000).

Is the Dark Triad Desirable? Evaluating the Attractiveness of Fictitious Characters for Short- and Long-term Relationships

Dragostinov, Yavor, and Tom Booth. 2023. “Is the Dark Triad Desirable? Evaluating the Attractiveness of Fictitious Characters for Short- and Long-term Relationships.” PsyArXiv. March 26. doi:10.31234/osf.io/vkxbn

Abstract: Most of the literature on the attractiveness of Dark Triad traits has focused on female mate choice and low versus high trait levels. This study assessed how people with male and female sexual preferences evaluate potential romantic partners who display either low, medium, or high levels of Dark Triad traits for short-term and long-term relationships. Nine fictitious persons in the form of vignettes (with facial images) were presented to every participant. The faces were selected from an existing image bank and matched for physical attractiveness. Study 1 (n = 478) used a fixed composition for face and trait description, while the composition for Study 2 (n = 793) was randomized. Mixed-effects modelling was implemented for both studies. Study 1 demonstrated people with a male preference perceived medium levels of all traits as the most attractive for short-term relationships. Low levels of Narcissism were perceived as the most attractive for long-term relationships by both groups. For Study 2, the low levels were perceived as the most attractive for both types of relationships by both groups. Findings from Study 1 were consistent across previous Dark Triad attractiveness literature, while findings from Study 2 contradicted them. Differences between the two studies are discussed.

Moderate Beer Consumption Is Associated with Good Physical and Mental Health Status and Increased Social Support

Moderate Beer Consumption Is Associated with Good Physical and Mental Health Status and Increased Social Support. Antonio Moreno-Llamas, Ernesto de la Cruz-Sánchez. Nutrients 2023, 15(6), 1519; March 21 2023. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15061519

Abstract: There is little large-scale evidence on the effect of alcoholic beer consumption on physical, mental and, above all, socio-emotional health. Here, we conducted a secondary data analysis of the 2012 and 2017 National Health Surveys with 33,185 individuals aged 18 years and older to assess beer consumption in relation to self-perceived health, functional limitations, mental health, and social support. Logistic regression models assessed the association of alcohol consumption (abstainers, ex-drinkers, occasional drinkers, moderate beer drinkers, and heavy beer drinkers) with self-perceived health (poor or good), limitations of type (none, physical, mental, or both) and intensity (none, mild, or severe), mental health (poor, average, or good) and social support (poor, average, or good). Analyses were adjusted for sex, age, occupational social class, educational level, place of residence, survey, part-time physical activity, dietary information, smoking, and body mass index. Compared to abstainers, occasional and moderate beer drinkers were associated with better mental and self-perceived health and social support, and were less likely to report mild or severe physical limitations. In contrast, former drinkers were associated with worse indicators of self-perceived health, physical health, mental health, and social support than abstainers. Alcoholic beer consumption showed a J-shaped relationship with self-perceived, physical, mental, and social-emotional health, with better values at moderate levels.

Keywords: alcohol; beer; mental health; social support; daily functioning; public health

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Disclaimer: this poster is a tee-totaler!

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4. Discussion

4.1. Main Findings

Our results showed that moderate beer consumption may imply associations with better self-perceived, physical, mental and socio-affective health. Furthermore, our study replicated the J-shaped relationship between health and beer consumption in which moderate beer drinkers (women: 1 standard unit of drink per day; men: 2 standard units of drink per day) described the healthiest state even after controlling for health-related lifestyle behaviors (smoking, diet, and physical activity), BMI, socioeconomic status, and demographic factors. Compared to abstainers, drinkers who reported occasional alcohol consumption or moderate beer consumption were more likely to report higher self-perceived health, mental health, and social support, while they were also less likely to report mild and severe limitations and physical and/or mental limitations. Conversely, former drinkers were more likely to describe worse indicators of self-perceived health, daily limitations of type and intensity, mental health, and social support. The J-shaped relationship between beer and health was observed in both women and men, although women showed associations with better health status at lower doses than men. This health improvement with moderate doses of beer was observed mostly in drinkers aged 40 years and older, while little or no association was found among those under 40 years of age. Sensitivity analyses without those reporting severe acute drinking episodes showed the same results.

4.2. Comparisons with Other Studies and Potential Hypothetical Explanations

Previous empirical evidence is consistent with our findings. Regarding the relationship of health with alcohol consumption, in our case beer, several meta-analyses have investigated and re-analyzed the effects of alcohol consumption and drinking patterns on, primarily, physical health in terms of mortality and morbidity [2,4,6,11,40]. In summary, although there is a large body of research, the evidence remains uncertain. The use of reference groups such as abstainers alongside ex-drinkers and occasional alongside moderate drinkers has generated controversy in contributing to the famous J-shaped (or U-shaped) alcohol–health relationship, as other medium and large-scale studies with more robust and comprehensive methodological designs have found only detrimental health consequences [11,12,13]. However, the updated Global Burden of Disease review added that there may be benefits without gender differences for people over 40 years of age who consume between 0.114 and 1.870 standard units of drink daily, i.e., a moderate drinking habit [7]. In our study, we observed an improvement in health status with moderate doses of beer in drinkers aged 40 years and older and little or no association among those under 40 years. In addition, a randomized Mendelian study from the UK Biobank found that alcohol consumption of up to 17 standard drinking units per week (i.e., 2.43 standard drinking units per day) does not lead to premature ageing or death from telomere shortening [41]. From a physiological perspective, experimental research has suggested that low doses of alcohol can improve cardiovascular health, lipid profiles, redox status, and the immune system [9,17,18,19,20,21]. In our work, occasional and moderate beer drinkers (women: 1 standard unit of drink per day; men: 2 standard units of drink per day) were more likely to describe better physical health in terms of reduced functional limitations in type and intensity, but also in other relevant components of health that have received less attention, such as perceived health, mental health and socio-emotional domains.

Certainly, these aspects of health may involve biases, but on the other hand, they may also represent the physical, mental, and socio-emotional health of individuals and how they interact with their daily living conditions as a reflection of their quality of life. Our study is the first to encompass all these factors, as beer consumption shows better indicators of physical, self-perceived, mental, and socio-emotional health in moderate beer drinkers than in abstainers and ex-drinkers. Previous studies in Spain had found that high alcohol consumption was associated with poorer self-perceived health and no differences in socio-affective health [42]. On the other hand, other studies in small samples of populations aged 55 and over showed that moderate consumption of wine, a fermented beverage like beer, was associated with better self-perceived health, mental health and vitality, similar to our results for those aged 40 and over [43]. In Spain, a region with a pattern of alcohol consumption rooted in social gatherings and consumption with other foods compared to northern European countries, could partially and hypothetically explain these differences in mental and socio-affective health between abstainers and ex-drinkers compared to occasional and moderate drinkers. It is noteworthy that these data were also replicated in some Nordic countries, both under and over 40 years of age, which makes the internationalization of the results possible [32,44]. Danish researchers observed in 693 participants aged 29–34 years that simple wine drinking was associated with positive social, cognitive and personality development, while beer consumption reflected some negative outcomes [32]. Furthermore, in Finland, a longitudinal cohort of 2468 people aged 40–55 years indicated that wine consumption reduced cardiovascular mortality and increased quality of life and mental health, but no effect was observed for beer consumption [44]. A sociological study by Sayette et al. in 2012 suggested that, in spontaneous meetings, alcohol consumption, compared to placebo and non-drinking, facilitated the formation and creation of new small groups with casual and strangers meeting each other [45]. They also reported greater positive expressiveness, satisfaction and happiness in creating these new social bonds in the alcohol setting [45].

Loneliness and social isolation (stress caused by the discrepancy between actual and desired social relationships) have recently been characterized as a health risk factor, associated with premature mortality and poorer cardiovascular, metabolic, neurological, and mental prognosis [25]. However, we should also mention the possible hidden risks of moderate drinking. Moderate drinking in conjunction with these social meetings could mask and skew consumption towards higher levels of intake. We found that heavy beer drinkers were more likely to report higher self-perceived and mental health, and fewer mild and severe daily limitations. However, habitual and high alcohol consumption could be a health-damaging behavior [16,17,19]. In this respect, the interdependence of different health-related lifestyles should also be taken into account, as health-damaging behaviors can often occur together. In our study, heavy beer drinkers also reported a higher prevalence of tobacco use and a poorer diet, while the groups with the best diet and the lowest tobacco use were abstainers and ex-drinkers. However, the latter two groups also reported the highest prevalence of sedentary behavior. These results alert, on the one hand, to the need for further research on alcohol consumption and, on the other hand, to the interconnectedness and clustering of these behaviors, in which high beer consumption may be a double-edged habit and a health risk factor.

4.3. Study Limitations

Despite the potential implications of our findings, the results should be taken with caution due to the several limitations of the study. Firstly, although our study includes two waves of the National Health Survey, representative of the Spanish population, the cross-sectional nature of its data precludes establishing a cause–effect relationship between beer consumption and the subsequent development of a certain health value, as the same participants were not followed longitudinally over time. Secondly, the assessment of health status, alcoholic beer consumption, and some of the health-related lifestyle variables was done through self-reporting by individuals, which may imply under- or overestimation. This type of measurement also involves specific biases associated with memory and recall, mainly on quantitative variables, which are more pronounced in older people and those with very low alcohol consumption [30]. Some types of health-related lifestyle variables may also contain biases related to individual or family socio-economic status and place of residence. For example, behaviors that are socially perceived as harmful may be underestimated by social desirability and subject compliance [30,46]. However, the design of the SNHS, comprising a large sample size representative of the Spanish adult population, allows for a comprehensive assessment of alcohol consumption, such as frequency of alcohol consumption in the last twelve months, frequency of regular weekly drinking from Monday to Sunday in general and specific to different types of alcoholic beverages in number, and in grams of alcohol, in order to establish accurate cut-off points for drinking behaviors. However, in the SNHS, in those drinkers who reported drinking 2–3 times per month, 1 time per month or less than 1 time per month, the exact total alcohol consumption overall and between types of alcoholic beverages was not subsequently assessed. Similarly, beer drinkers were established when their total alcohol consumption came predominantly from beer (more than 50%). In this case, to ensure an adequate sample size for comparisons between groups, we proceeded as follows, defining the groups into non-consumers (abstainers), ex-drinkers (separate from abstainers), and moderate and heavy beer drinkers [30,31,32]. Furthermore, our study only focuses on Spain, so the cultural and social context might influence not only alcohol consumption, but also physical, mental, and social self-perception, which might be different in countries outside the Mediterranean context.

4.4. Future Research

Future research should encompass many complementary directions. Special efforts should be devoted to further elucidating the complex relationship of alcohol consumption with health through both physiological and epidemiological research. More evidence is needed not only on general health or mortality, but also with special attention to the mental, social, and emotional domains in relation to light and moderate alcohol consumption in general and beer consumption in particular. Along these lines, different socio-affective domains such as family, friends, partner, work, or leisure could be assessed separately, as well as implementing the measurement of the number and quality of social relationship networks, which in turn may also be closely associated with mental and self-perceived health. Longitudinal studies between alcohol and beer consumption and health outcomes (physical, mental, and socio-affective) would provide strong causal evidence, as would replication of the results in other regions with cultural differences in alcohol consumption, such as in Northern Europe. Therefore, future research should also include multi-country studies to compare possible variations according to country context in relation to beer consumption and subjective perceptions of physical, mental, and social health. In addition, the inclusion of non-alcoholic beer in population-based health surveys could reveal whether the association between moderate consumption and improved health is due to alcoholic or non-alcoholic compounds in beer, which could support non-alcoholic beer as a healthier and more consumer-friendly alternative through public health policies.