bims-chumac 2019-12-08 papers

bims-chumac

Biomed News

on Context effects on human mate choice

Issue of 2019‒12‒08
eight papers selected by
Jay Dixit
Storytelling.NYC

Family Matters: Rethinking the Psychology of Human Social Motivation.
The influence of alcohol consumption among partners in newly cohabiting relationships.
Not only assholes drive Mercedes. Besides disagreeable men, also conscientious people drive high-status cars.
Sex Differences in the Association of Family and Personal Income and Wealth with Fertility in the United States.
Working Desks as a Classification Tool for Personality Style: A Pilot Study for Validation.
Lower digit ratio and higher endogenous testosterone are associated with lower empathic accuracy.
The vicarious construal effect: Seeing and experiencing the world through different eyes.
Development is in the details: Age differences in the Big Five domains, facets, and nuances.

Perspect Psychol Sci. 2019 Dec 03. 1745691619872986

Family Matters: Rethinking the Psychology of Human Social Motivation.

Ko A, Pick CM, Kwon JY, Barlev M, Krems JA, Varnum MEW, Neel R, Peysha M, Boonyasiriwat W, Brandstätter E, Crispim AC, Cruz JE, David D, David OA, de Felipe RP, Fetvadjiev VH, Fischer R, Galdi S, Galindo O, Golovina G, Gomez-Jacinto L, Graf S, Grossmann I, Gul P, Hamamura T, Han S, Hitokoto H, Hřebíčková M, Johnson JL, Karl JA, Malanchuk O, Murata A, Na J, O J, Rizwan M, Roth E, Salgado SAS, Samoylenko E, Savchenko T, Sevincer AT, Stanciu A, Suh EM, Talhelm T, Uskul AK, Uz I, Zambrano D, Kenrick DT.

  What motives do people prioritize in their social lives? Historically, social psychologists, especially those adopting an evolutionary perspective, have devoted a great deal of research attention to sexual attraction and romantic-partner choice (mate seeking). Research on long-term familial bonds (mate retention and kin care) has been less thoroughly connected to relevant comparative and evolutionary work on other species, and in the case of kin care, these bonds have been less well researched. Examining varied sources of data from 27 societies around the world, we found that people generally view familial motives as primary in importance and mate-seeking motives as relatively low in importance. Compared with other groups, college students, single people, and men place relatively higher emphasis on mate seeking, but even those samples rated kin-care motives as more important. Furthermore, motives linked to long-term familial bonds are positively associated with psychological well-being, but mate-seeking motives are associated with anxiety and depression. We address theoretical and empirical reasons why there has been extensive research on mate seeking and why people prioritize goals related to long-term familial bonds over mating goals. Reallocating relatively greater research effort toward long-term familial relationships would likely yield many interesting new findings relevant to everyday people's highest social priorities.

Keywords:  evolutionary psychology; family; goals; interpersonal relations; motivation; reward

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691619872986
Drug Alcohol Rev. 2019 Dec 03.

The influence of alcohol consumption among partners in newly cohabiting relationships.

Leggat G, Livingston M, Kuntsche E, Kuntsche S, Callinan S.

  INTRODUCTION AND AIMS: Research has linked exposure to the drinking of one's partner or spouse and changes in alcohol-related behaviours. However, there is a dearth of studies which consider only cohabiting relationships. More couples are preferring to cohabit prior to and in place of marriage. As a result, studies focused on cohabiting couples may provide a more representative consideration of modern long-term relationships. The present study uses a representative, longitudinal sample with annual follow-up and aims to determine if cohabiting partner's drinking habits are influenced by their partner's consumption, as well as consider the role of intimacy as a key component of these influences compared to a relationship's label or legal status.DESIGN AND METHODS: Data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey identified 1483 newly cohabiting, Australian heterosexual couples between 2001 and 2016. Individual alcohol consumption was analysed using a cross-lagged, three-wave actor-partner structural equation model.
RESULTS: A respondent's own drinking was a stable and significant predictor of future consumption, and a greater predictor of later drinking than their partner's. Female consumption generally exerted significant influence on their male partner's later consumption, while male drinking was non-significant for all but the first year following cohabitation. Overall, women generally had greater influence on their partner's drinking than men.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: This study furthers our understanding of each partner's role in influencing consumption within intimate relationships. Cohabiting couples appear to have some similarities with married couples regarding partner influence and may better represent the typical contemporary long-term relationship.

Keywords:  Australia; actor-partner interdependence model; alcohol consumption; cohabitation; longitudinal

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.13007
Int J Psychol. 2019 Dec 03.

Not only assholes drive Mercedes. Besides disagreeable men, also conscientious people drive high-status cars.

Lönnqvist JE, Ilmarinen VJ, Leikas S.

  In a representative sample of Finnish car owners (N = 1892) we connected the Five-Factor Model personality dimensions to driving a high-status car. Regardless of whether income was included in the logistic model, disagreeable men and conscientious people in general were particularly likely to drive high-status cars. The results regarding agreeableness are consistent with prior work that has argued for the role of narcissism in status consumption. Regarding conscientiousness, the results can be interpreted from the perspective of self-congruity theory, according to which consumers purchase brands that best reflect their actual or ideal personalities. An important implication is that the association between driving a high-status car and unethical driving behaviour may not, as is commonly argued, be due to the corruptive effects of wealth. Rather, certain personality traits, such as low agreeableness, may be associated with both unethical driving behaviour and with driving a high-status car.

Keywords:  Consumption; Driving behaviour; Five-Factor Model; Personality; Status

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1002/ijop.12642
Hum Nat. 2019 Dec 04.

Sex Differences in the Association of Family and Personal Income and Wealth with Fertility in the United States.

Hopcroft RL.

  Evolutionary theory predicts that social status and fertility will be positively related. It also predicts that the relationship between status and fertility will differ for men and women. This is particularly likely in modern societies given evidence that females face greater trade-offs between status and resource acquisition and fertility than males. This paper tests these hypotheses using newly released data from the 2014 wave of the Survey of Income and Program Participation by the US Census, which has the first complete measures of fertility and number of childbearing partners for a large, representative, national probability sample of men and women and also contains comprehensive measures of economic status as measured by personal and family resources, including income from all sources and all assets. Multivariate analyses show that personal income is positively associated with total fertility and number of childbearing unions for men only. For men, personal net worth is positively associated with number of childbearing unions; it is also positively associated with fertility for married men with a spouse present. These findings support evolutionary predictions of a positive relationship between status, access to mates, and reproductive success for males. Whereas personal income and personal net worth are negatively associated with total fertility and number of childbearing unions for women, family income (net of personal income) is positively associated with total fertility for women. For married men living with a spouse, family income (net of personal income) is negatively associated with total fertility. These findings are consistent with evolutionary theory given the existence of greater trade-offs between production and reproduction for women in an advanced industrial society. For women and men, family net worth (net of personal net worth) is negatively associated with number of childbearing unions and fertility. Implications are discussed.

Keywords:  Fertility; Income; SIPP; Sex differences; Status; Wealth

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-019-09354-4
Front Psychol. 2019 ;10 2588

Working Desks as a Classification Tool for Personality Style: A Pilot Study for Validation.

Render A, Siebertz M, Günther B, Jansen P.

  We shape our surroundings; form the rooms we live in, so that we feel comfortable in them. This shows parts of our personality - it can be inferred from our environment. In this study, we created stereotypical desks embodying different personality styles and let 190 students choose which desk fits - in their subjective perspective - the most to their personality. To determine their personality style, the personality style and disorder inventory (PSSI) was used. Correspondence analysis (CA) was conducted to investigate the relationship between personality styles and choice of desks. Results did not show convergence of personality styles and desks. Contrary to the popular scientific idea, personality and creation of surroundings were not related; regarding our study, the relation is uninterpretable suggesting an individual's desk choice is not statistically dependent on one's individual's highest PSSI subscale. The study can be regarded as a pilot project for desk designs as classification tool for personality.

Keywords:  PSSI; correspondence analysis; personality styles; screening; working desks

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02588
Horm Behav. 2019 Nov 27. pii: S0018-506X(19)30455-6. [Epub ahead of print] 104648

Lower digit ratio and higher endogenous testosterone are associated with lower empathic accuracy.

Nitschke JP, Bartz JA.

  Empathy is a cornerstone of human sociality. It has important consequences for our interpersonal relationships and for navigating our social world more generally. Although research has identified numerous psychological factors that can influence empathy, evidence suggests that empathy may also be rooted in our biology and, in particular, the gonadal steroid hormone testosterone. To date, much of the research linking testosterone and empathy has focused on the 2D:4D ratio (i.e., the ratio of the lengths of the index and ring fingers), and the results have been mixed. These mixed results, however, may be due to reliance on self-report measures to assess empathy, which can be vulnerable to self-presentation, as well as social-cultural norms about gender/sex differences in empathy. Moreover, although some have argued that digit ratio is an indicator of prenatal androgen exposure, the evidence for this to date is weak. Here, we aimed to follow up on this prior work, using a naturalistic "empathic accuracy" task in which participants dynamically track, in real-time, the emotional state of targets. We show that both digit ratio (Study 1; N = 107) and circulating testosterone (Study 2; N = 76) are associated with impaired empathic accuracy; critically, these effects that hold when controlling for sex/gender. In neither study, however, did we find effects for self-reported empathy. Our results highlight the limitations of self-report measures and support the notion that endogenous testosterone levels as well as 2D:4D ratio are related to key social-cognitive competencies like empathy.

Keywords:  Digit ratio; Empathic accuracy; Person perception; Social cognition; Testosterone

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2019.104648
J Pers Soc Psychol. 2019 Dec 02.

The vicarious construal effect: Seeing and experiencing the world through different eyes.

Jung MH, Gonzalez FJ, Critcher CR.

That 2 individuals can look at the same stimulus and experience it differently speaks to the power of construal. People's construals are shaped by their idiosyncratic attitudes, belief systems, and personal histories. Eleven studies provide support for and explain the origin of a vicarious construal effect: Considering perspectives one once had but seemingly lost, one ordinarily would have only with more experience, or one would not have had spontaneously, all exerted an assimilative pull on one's ongoing experiences. This means habituation can be slowed or stalled by considering another's fresh perspective (Studies 1-6), desensitization can be preemptively achieved by considering another's stale perspective (Study 5), and the experience of a performance can change by considering how fans or nonfans would see it (Study 7). Blind to the power of construal in defining their experiences, participants believed they were learning about a stimulus's properties or their own underlying preferences, not simply the experience-distorting effects of the perspective manipulations (Studies 6-7). These effects emerged in examinations of positive emotions, negative emotions, interest, and perceptions of humor. The final 2 pairs of studies used causal chain designs to elucidate an underlying mechanism. Trying to understand another's perspective encouraged participants to approach a stimulus by posing different questions or directional hypotheses to themselves (Studies 8a and 9a), which caused participants' own experiences of the stimulus to shift (Studies 8b and 9b). The implications of this account for when considering another's perspective should change one's own experience are detailed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000179
J Pers Soc Psychol. 2019 Dec 02.

Development is in the details: Age differences in the Big Five domains, facets, and nuances.

Mõttus R, Rozgonjuk D.

We examined the extent to which the Big Five domains, 30 facets, and nuances (uniquely represented by individual questionnaire items) capture age differences in personality, expecting domains to contain the least and nuances the most age-related information. We used an Internet sample (N = 24,000), evenly distributed between ages of 18 and 50 years and tested with a 300-item questionnaire. Separately based on domains, facets, and items, we trained models to predict age in one part of the sample and tested their predictive accuracy in another part. Big Five domains predicted age with an accuracy of r = .28, whereas facets' (r = .44) and items' (r = .65) predictions were more accurate. Less than 15% of the sample was needed to train models to their optimal accuracy. Residualizing the 300 items for all facets had no impact on their predictive accuracy, suggesting that age differences in specific behaviors, thoughts, and feelings (i.e., items) were not because of domains and facets but mostly unique to nuances. These findings replicated in a multisample dataset tested with another questionnaire. We found little evidence that age differences only appeared nuanced because items referred to age-graded roles or experiences. Therefore, a substantial part of personality development may be uniquely ascribed to narrow personality characteristics, suggesting the possibility for a many-dimensional representation of personality development. Besides theoretical implications, we provide concrete illustrations of how this can open new research avenues by enabling to study systematic variations between traits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000276