Abundance-diversity relationship as a unique signature of temporal scaling in the fossil record

Species diversity increases with the temporal grain of samples according to the species-time relationship (STR), impacting palaeoecological analyses because the temporal grain (time averaging) of fossil assemblages varies by several orders of magnitude. We predict a positive relation between total abundance and sample size-independent diversity (ADR) in fossil assemblages because an increase in time averaging, determined by a decreasing sediment accumulation, should increase abundance and depress species dominance. We demonstrate that, in contrast to negative ADR of non-averaged living assemblages, the ADR of Holocene fossil assemblages is positive, unconditionally or when conditioned on the energy availability gradient. However, the positive fossil ADR disappears when conditioned on sediment accumulation, demonstrating that ADR is a signature of diversity scaling induced by variable time averaging. Conditioning ADR on sediment accumulation can identify and remove the scaling effect caused by time averaging, providing an avenue for unbiased biodiversity comparisons across space and time.

Variety Is the Spice of Life: Diverse Social Networks Are Associated With Social Cohesion and Well-Being

Both homophily and heterophily are observed in humans. Homophily reinforces homogeneous social networks, and heterophily creates new experiences and collaborations. However, at the extremes, high levels of homophily can cultivate prejudice toward out-groups, whereas high levels of heterophily can weaken in-group support. Using data from 24,726 adults (M = 46 years; selected from 10,398 English neighborhoods) and the composition of their social networks based on age, ethnicity, income, and education, we tested the hypothesis that a middle ground between homophily and heterophily could be the most beneficial for individuals. We found that network homophily, mediated by perceived social cohesion, is associated with higher levels of subjective well-being but that there are diminishing returns, because at a certain point increasing network homophily is associated with lower social cohesion and, in turn, lower subjective well-being. Our results suggest that building diverse social networks provides benefits that cannot be attained by homogeneous networks.

Gender ideology and fertility: evidence for a curvilinear hypothesis

Research on the relationship between fertility and gender ideology revealed inconsistent results. In the present study, we argue that inconsistencies may be due to the fact that such a relationship may be nonlinear. We hypothesize a U-shaped relationship between two dimensions of gender ideology (i.e., primacy of breadwinner role and acceptance of male privilege) and fertility rates. We conducted a cross-national analysis of 60 countries using data from the World Values Survey as well as the World Population Prospects 2019. Controlling for gross domestic product, we found support for a U-shaped relationship between gender ideology and fertility. Higher levels of fertility rates were found at lower and especially higher levels of traditional gender ideology, while a medium level of gender ideology was associated with the lowest fertility rate. This curvilinear relationship is in agreement with the phase of the gender revolution in which the country is located.

Psychometric evaluation of the Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire in Polish mothers

Parental reflective functioning (PRF) refers to a parent's capacity to reflect on and understand the inner mental states of their child, their own mental states with regard to their child, and how these mental states may influence their behavior and interactions. This capacity has been shown to foster secure attachment in children and their socio-emotional development. The present study examined the psychometric properties of the Polish translation of the Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (PRFQ), a brief screening measure of PRF, in a large community sample of Polish mothers of children aged 0-5 years (N = 979). Confirmatory factor analysis supported the hypothesized three-factor structure of the PRFQ, which consists of three subscales: prementalizing modes, certainty about mental states, and interest and curiosity in mental states. However, item loadings suggested that the 15-item version fitted the data better than the original 18-item version. These three PRFQ subscales exhibited satisfactory and moderate six-month test-retest reliability. They also correlated in theoretically expected ways with several criterion measures such as maternal attachment, maternal parenting stress, parental role restriction, depression severity, and borderline symptoms. In conclusion, this study is the first to provide preliminary evidence for the reliability and validity of the PRFQ as a measure of parental reflective functioning in Polish mothers.

People Reject Free Money and Cheap Deals Because They Infer Phantom Costs

If money is good, then shouldn't more money always be better? Perhaps not. Traditional economic theories suggest that money is an ever-increasing incentivizer. If someone will accept a job for US$20/hr, they should be more likely to accept the same job for US$30/hr and especially for US$250/hr. However, 10 preregistered, high-powered studies (N = 4,205, in the United States and Iran) reveal how increasing incentives can backfire. Overly generous offers lead people to infer "phantom costs" that make them less likely to accept high job wages, cheap plane fares, and free money. We present a theory for understanding when and why people imagine these hidden drawbacks and show how phantom costs drive judgments, impact behavior, and intersect with individual differences. Phantom costs change how we should think about "economic rationality." Economic exchanges are not merely about money, but instead are social interactions between people trying to perceive (and deceive) each others' minds.

Never Too Much-More talent in football (always) leads to more success

Though it may appear counterintuitive, certain positive attributes can eventually have negative consequences when taken to an extreme. This concept is exemplified in sports, where an increase in talent among team members initially leads to improved success, but beyond a certain threshold, excessive talent can adversely affect the team. This occurrence is known as the Too Much Talent (TMT) effect, wherein status conflicts among highly skilled players can hinder team performance, particularly in sports that require coordination and cooperation. While early evidence supported the TMT effect in team sports, its validity has recently been challenged. In this study, we analyzed a comprehensive dataset consisting of 780 data points across 42 seasons from seven top European football (soccer) leagues to examine the TMT effect's presence. Our findings reveal that football does not exhibit the TMT effect. Instead, we observed a consistent, positive correlation between the number of skilled players on a team and team success. Additionally, talent did not display diminishing returns, as its impact on success remained stable even at the highest concentrations of talent. We relate our results to existing theories and propose that future research comparing more individualistic and interdependent team sports could further enhance the field.

Effects of resistance exercises on inhibitory control and plasma epinephrine levels: A registered report of a crossover randomized controlled trial

According to the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) theory, activity of the LC, the major releaser of NE in the brain, regulates inhibitory control. As there is reciprocal communication between circulating epinephrine and the LC, plasma epinephrine is used as the index of LC-NE activity. The aim of this crossover randomized controlled trial is to expand on previous findings by investigating the effects of free-weight, multiple-joint, and structural barbell resistance exercises. Previous studies have had some methodological limitations, such as failure to report the process of randomization, absence of resistance exercise familiarization before the maximal strength testing, and lack of protocol publication. To address these issues, this study incorporates resistance exercise familiarization, transparent reporting of randomization, and submission as a registered report. The results suggest that a single session of resistance exercise (barbell squat, press, and deadlift) with an intensity of 65%-78% 1RM for five repetitions (70%-90% relative intensity) and three sets with 3-min rest intervals improved Stroop congruent reaction time (RT) only (t(27) = -2.663, mean reduction = -15 ms, p = .013, 95% CI [-26, -3]). No significant enhancements were observed in Stroop incongruent RT, inhibitory control as indexed by Stroop effect, or inhibitory control as indexed by the RT difference between the Stroop task and the simple reaction task. Moreover, the alterations in plasma epinephrine levels did not significantly associate with changes in any measure of cognitive performance.

Bullshit can be harmful to your health: Bullibility as a precursor to poor decision--making

Bullshitting is characterized by sharing information with little to no regard for truth, established knowledge, or genuine evidence. It involves the use of various rhetorical strategies to make one's statements sound knowledgeable, impressive, persuasive, influential, or confusing in order to aid bullshitters in explaining things in areas where their obligations to provide opinions exceed their actual knowledge in those domains. Distinct from gullibility (i.e., a propensity to accept a false premise in the presence of untrustworthiness cues), we highlight the research on bullibility (i.e., believing bullshit even in the face of social cues that signal something is bullshit) and its links to erroneous judgments and decisions. A deeper understanding of bullibility is critical to identifying and correcting poor decision-making.

The Gender-Equality Paradox in Chess Participation Is Partially Explained by the Generational-Shift Account but Fully Inconsistent With Existing Alternative Accounts: A Partial Concession and Reply to Napp and Breda (2023)

Napp and Breda (2023) raised three arguments against the generational-shift account of the gender-equality paradox (GEP) in chess participation. First, using finer operationalizations of the age structure of players, they showed that it partially but not fully accounts for the GEP in chess participation. I find merit in these analyses and conclusion. Second, they argued that the country-level age structure is unrelated to the GEP in chess participation, which undermines the generational-shift account of the GEP. In contrast, I provide new analyses to show that the two are related after adjusting for the U-shaped relation between gender equality and female chess participation. Finally, they argued that previous explanations of the GEP are viable for explaining the GEP in chess participation. In contrast, I argue that the global increase in the proportion of female players is incompatible with previous explanations of the GEP, and I provide new analyses to support this.

The Link Between Age and Partner Preferences in a Large, International Sample of Single Women

Women's capacity to reproduce varies over the life span, and developmental goals such as family formation are age-graded and shaped by social norms about the appropriate age for completing specific developmental tasks. Thus, a woman's age may be linked to her ideas about what an ideal partner should be like. With the goals of replicating and extending prior research, in this study we examined the role of age in women's partner preferences across the globe. We investigated associations of age with ideal long-term partner preferences in a cross-cultural sample of 17,254 single (i.e., unpartnered) heterosexual women, ages 18 to 67, from 147 countries. Data were collected via an online questionnaire, the Ideal Partner Survey. Confirming our preregistered hypotheses, we found no or only negligible age effects on preferences for kindness-supportiveness, attractiveness, financial security-successfulness, or education-intelligence. Age was, however, positively associated with preferences for confidence-assertiveness. Consistent with family formation goals, age was associated with an ideal partner's parenting intentions (high until approximately age 30, then decreasing afterward). Age range deemed acceptable (and in particular, the discrepancy between one's own age and the minimum ideal age of a partner) increased with age. This latter pattern also replicated in exploratory analyses based on subsamples of lesbian and bisexual women. In summary, age has a limited impact on partner preferences. Of the attributes investigated, only preference for confidence-assertiveness was linked with age. However, age range deemed acceptable and an ideal partner's parenting intention, a dimension mostly neglected in earlier research, substantially vary with age.

Developmental changes in exploration resemble stochastic optimization

Human development is often described as a 'cooling off' process, analogous to stochastic optimization algorithms that implement a gradual reduction in randomness over time. Yet there is ambiguity in how to interpret this analogy, due to a lack of concrete empirical comparisons. Using data from n = 281 participants ages 5 to 55, we show that cooling off does not only apply to the single dimension of randomness. Rather, human development resembles an optimization process of multiple learning parameters, for example, reward generalization, uncertainty-directed exploration and random temperature. Rapid changes in parameters occur during childhood, but these changes plateau and converge to efficient values in adulthood. We show that while the developmental trajectory of human parameters is strikingly similar to several stochastic optimization algorithms, there are important differences in convergence. None of the optimization algorithms tested were able to discover reliably better regions of the strategy space than adult participants on this task.

When procrastination pays off: Role of knowledge sharing ability, autonomous motivation, and task involvement for employee creativity

The prime objective of this research was to investigate procrastination as a prospectively constructive element of the creative process among employees working at different hierarchical levels in a Chinese organization. Building on self-determination theory, this research postulates a connection between procrastination and creativity through the incubation of knowledge absorption, autonomous motivation and task engagement as boundary conditions. Data was collected from 213 individuals from the workforce and their immediate managers belonging to a Chinese furniture company; then analyzed with Mplus for simple regression analysis, mediated moderated analyses, and coefficient estimates of all the study variables. The outcomes of this investigation showed an inverse relationship between procrastination with creativity, while creativity being strongest in the medium levels of procrastination; however, when autonomous motivation and/or task engagement are strong, procrastination depicts an inverted-U-shaped association; however, in scenarios where both autonomous motivation and the task engagement are low, procrastination has a negative linear relationship. With the results of this research, we have shown that moderate procrastination has a causal effect on the generation of creative ideas. This research demonstrated that as long as employees had strong autonomous drive or high task engagement, their supervisors awarded them better ratings when they procrastinated moderately on their assignments. Limitations and future research directions were also discussed.

Time and Punishment: Time Delays Exacerbate the Severity of Third-Party Punishment

Punishments are not always administered immediately after a crime is committed. Although scholars and researchers claim that third parties should normatively enact punishments proportionate to a given crime, we contend that third parties punish transgressors more severely when there is a time delay between a transgressor's crime and when they face punishment for it. We theorize that this occurs because of a perception of unfairness, whereby third parties view the process that led to time delays as unfair. We tested our theory across eight studies, including two archival data sets of 160,772 punishment decisions and six experiments (five preregistered) across 6,029 adult participants. Our results suggest that as time delays lengthen, third parties punish transgressors more severely because of increased perceived unfairness. Importantly, perceived unfairness explained this relationship beyond other alternative mechanisms. We explore potential boundary conditions for this relationship and discuss the implications of our findings.

Strategic regulation of memory in dsyphoria: a quantity-accuracy profile analysis

The mechanisms underlying a tendency among individuals with depression to report personal episodic memories with low specificity remain to be understood. We assessed a sample of undergraduate students with dysphoria to determine whether depression relates to a broader dysregulation of balancing accuracy and informativeness during memory reports. Specifically, we investigated metamnemonic processes using a quantity-accuracy profile approach. Recall involved three phases with increasing allowance for more general, or coarse-grained, responses: (a) forced-precise responding, requiring high precision; (b) free-choice report with high and low penalty incentives on accuracy; (c) a lexical description phase. Individuals with and without dysphoria were largely indistinguishable across indices of retrieval, monitoring, and control aspects of metamemory. The results indicate intact metacognitive processing in young individuals with dysphoria and provide no support for the view that impaired metacognitive control underlies either memory deficits or bias in memory reports that accompany dysphoria.

School principals' mental health and well-being under threat: A longitudinal analysis of workplace demands, resources, burnout, and well-being

Schools are critical organisational settings, and school principals face extreme stress levels. However, there are few large-scale, longitudinal studies of demands and resources that drive principals' health and well-being. Using the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) framework, we evaluated longitudinal reciprocal effects over 3 years relating to job demands, job resources (resilience), job-related outcomes (burnout and job satisfaction), and personal outcomes (happiness and physical health) for a nationally representative sample of 3683 Australian school principals. Prior demands and resources led to small changes in subsequent outcomes, beneficial effects of resources, and adverse effects of demands, particularly for job-related outcomes. Furthermore, we also found reverse-reciprocal effects, prior outcomes (burnout and job satisfaction) influencing subsequent job characteristics. However, in response to substantively and theoretically important research questions, we found no support for Yerkes-Dodson Law (nonlinear effects of demands) or Nietzsche effects and inoculation effects (that which does not kill you, makes you stronger; manageable levels of demands build resilience). Relating our study to new and evolving issues in JD-R research, we offer limitations of our research-and JD-R theory and research more generally-and directions for further research in this essentially unstudied application of JD-R to school principals' mental health and well-being.

Understanding the functional form of the relationship between childhood cognitive ability and adult financial well-being

The increasing complexity of the modern financial landscape presents significant challenges for individuals' financial well-being. In this study, we aim to investigate the relationship between cognitive ability and financial well-being by utilizing data from the British Cohort Study, which follows a sample of 13,000 individuals from birth in 1970 to the present day. Our objective is to examine the functional form of this relationship while controlling for factors such as childhood socio-economic status and adult income. Previous research has established a correlation between cognitive ability and financial well-being, but has implicitly assumed a linear relationship. Our analyses indicate that the majority of the relationships between cognitive ability and financial variables are monotonic. However, we also observe non-monotonic relationships, particularly for credit usage, suggesting a curvilinear relationship where both lower and higher levels of cognitive ability are associated with lower levels of debt. These findings have important implications for understanding the role of cognitive ability in financial well-being and for financial education and policy, as the complexity of the modern financial landscape poses significant challenges for individuals' financial well-being. As financial complexity is increasing and cognitive ability is a key predictor of knowledge acquisition, misspecifying the true relationship between cognitive ability and financial outcomes leads to an undervaluation of the role of cognitive ability for financial well-being.

Development and Validation of the Certainty About Mental States Questionnaire (CAMSQ): A Self-Report Measure of Mentalizing Oneself and Others

The Certainty About Mental States Questionnaire (CAMSQ) is a self-report measure of the perceived capacity to understand mental states of the self and others (i.e., mentalizing). In two studies (total N = 1828), we developed the CAMSQ in both English and German as a two-dimensional measure of Self- and Other-Certainty, investigated associations with other measures of mentalizing, and explored relationships to personality functioning and mental health. The CAMSQ performed well in terms of convergent and discriminant validity, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and measurement invariance across the United States and Germany. The present research indicates that the CAMSQ assesses maladaptive forms of having too little or too much certainty about mental states (consistent with hypomentalizing and hypermentalizing). A psychologically adaptive profile of perceived mentalizing capacity appears to be characterized by high Self-Certainty that exceeds Other-Certainty, suggesting that imbalances between Self-Certainty and Other-Certainty (Other-Self-Discrepancy) play an important role within personality pathology.

Biological Burden of Adverse Childhood Experiences in Children

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to examine relationships between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and related life events and allostatic load (AL)-"wear and tear" from chronic stress-in a pediatric population.

METHODS

Children were screened with the PEdiatric ACEs and Related Life Event Screener (PEARLS) tool, a 17-item questionnaire capturing experiences of abuse, neglect, household challenges, and related life events. Biological data were available for 207 participants, and AL was operationalized using clinical or empirical cutoff points across 4 physiological systems (i.e., cardiac, metabolic, inflammatory, neurologic). Covariate-adjusted multivariable regression models were used to examine associations between AL with adversity and health.

RESULTS

Children (mean age = 6.5 years, range = 1-11 years) had an average AL score of 1.9 (standard deviation = 1.7), and a U-shaped relationship was observed with child's age. Continuous PEARLS and original ACE scores were not associated with AL. However, children with a reported PEARLS score of 1 to 2 or original ACEs score of 1 to 3 had 1.5 (incidence rate ratio [IRR] = 1.50, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.09-2.08) and 1.4 (IRR = 1.41, 95% CI = 1.08-1.84) times greater AL, respectively, compared with participants with none reported. In secondary analyses, caregiver mental illness was associated with higher child AL (adjusted IRR = 1.27, 95% CI = 1.01-1.58). AL was also associated with poorer perceived child general health (adjusted β = -0.87, 95% CI = -1.58 to -0.15) and greater odds of child obesity (adjusted odds ratio = 1.51, 95% CI = 1.23-1.89).

CONCLUSIONS

Measuring AL in a pediatric population requires careful consideration of age. Higher AL was associated with a greater number of reported adversities and worse child health.

Rational information search in welfare-tradeoff cognition

One of the most important dimensions along which we evaluate others is their propensity to value our welfare: we like people who are disposed to incur costs for our benefit and who refrain from imposing costs on us to benefit themselves. The evolutionary importance of social valuation in our species suggests that humans have cognitive mechanisms that are able to efficiently extract information about how much another person values them. Here I test the hypothesis that people are spontaneously interested in the kinds of events that have the most potential to reveal such information. In two studies, I presented participants (Ns = 216; 300) with pairs of dilemmas that another individual faced in an economic game; for each pair, I asked them to choose the dilemma for which they would most like to see the decision that the individual had made. On average, people spontaneously selected the choices that had the potential to reveal the most information about the individual's valuation of the participant, as quantified by a Bayesian ideal search model. This finding suggests that human cooperation is supported by sophisticated cognitive mechanisms for information-gathering.

Shape of U: The Nonmonotonic Relationship Between Object-Location Memory and Expectedness

The schema-linked interactions between medial prefrontal and medial temporal lobe (SLIMM) model predicts that memory for object locations is a U-shaped function of the expectancy of those locations. Using immersive virtual reality, we presented participants with 20 objects in locations that varied in their congruency with a kitchen schema. Bayes factors across four experiments (137 adults in total) confirmed the (preregistered) prediction of better memory for highly expected and unexpected locations relative to neutral locations. This U shape was found in location recall and in forced-choice recognition in which the foil locations were matched for expectancy, controlling for the bias toward guessing expected locations. A second prediction was that the two ends of the U shape are associated with different expressions of memory: recollection of unexpected locations and familiarity for expected locations. BFs, propagated across experiments, provided evidence against this second prediction; recollection was associated with both ends of the U shape. These findings further constrain theories about the role of schema in episodic memory.

How uncertainty affects information search among consumers: a curvilinear perspective

Uncertainty is an inherent part of consumers' environment. A large literature in marketing and related disciplines has found a positive relationship between uncertainty and information search: as consumers' uncertainty about a brand, product, or service increases, so does their inclination to seek out and engage with information. In contrast to this conventional view, the present research proposes and demonstrates a curvilinear (inverted-U) relationship between uncertainty and information search. Conceptually, we put forth theoretical insight for this relationship: uncertainty increases both accuracy and efficiency considerations, presenting an inherent tradeoff. This tradeoff is perceived to be more favorable at moderate levels of uncertainty relative to low and high levels. Empirically, we observe an inverted-U relationship between uncertainty and information search across three experiments and find evidence consistent with our theorizing. This research suggests that the conventional view is incomplete and points to the importance of exploring uncertainty at multiple levels.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11002-022-09657-0.

Ideological prejudice is stronger in ideological extremists (vs. moderates)

The agency–beliefs–communion (ABC) model and worldview conflict research show that people rate groups as more moral and likable if they rate their ideology as more similar to the ideology of the self. This paper refers to this effect as ideological prejudice. There is a debate whether ideology moderates the effect size of ideological prejudice. Through three observational studies ( NS1 = 700, NS2 = 974, NS3 = 633), this paper contributes to this debate in three ways. First and primarily, the paper shows that ideological prejudice is stronger in conservatives and progressives compared to people with more moderate ideological beliefs. Second, stronger ideological prejudice in ideological extremists (vs. moderates) holds when controlling for stronger ingroup favoritism in ideological extremists (vs. moderates). And third, the paper suggests that higher importance of own ideology in ideological extremists (vs. moderates) may explain why ideological prejudice is stronger in ideological extremists (vs. moderates). These findings develop a part of the ABC model of stereotypes, contribute to worldview conflict research, and help to explain why ideological polarization is divisive.

Who supports science-related populism? A nationally representative survey on the prevalence and explanatory factors of populist attitudes toward science in Switzerland

Science and its epistemology have been challenged by science-related populism—a variant of populism suggesting that a virtuous “ordinary people,” and not allegedly corrupt academic elites, should determine the “production of truth.” Yet almost no studies have assessed the prevalence of science-related populist attitudes among the population and explanatory factors thereof. Based on a nationally representative survey in Switzerland, our study shows that only a minority of the Swiss exhibit science-related populist attitudes. Comparisons with reference studies suggest that these attitudes may be less prevalent in Switzerland than political populist attitudes. Those who hold stronger science-related populist attitudes tend to have no university education, less personal contact with science, lower scientific literacy, and higher interest in science. Additional analyses show that left-leaning citizens are less likely to hold science-related populist attitudes than moderate and right-leaning citizens. Our findings contribute to current debates about a potential fragmentation of science communication audiences and call for further research on the sociodemographic and attitudinal profiles of people with skeptical orientations toward science.

Who benefits and appreciates more? An evaluation of Online Service-Learning Projects in Mainland China during the COVID-19 pandemic

Previous studies have reported the feasibility and benefits of online service learning, but little is known about who benefits more from online SL and who is more satisfied. This study addressed these questions based on an evaluation of online service learning projects implemented in Xi'an and Chengdu, China, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pretest-posttest comparison showed significant positive changes in two intended learning outcomes (i.e., positive youth development qualities and service leadership qualities) and life satisfaction before and after the service among participating students in the Xi'an project. Cross-lagged modeling based on Xi'an and Chengdu data revealed that students with better initial positive youth development qualities tended to show increased service leadership qualities and life satisfaction after the service, while initial service leadership qualities did not predict positive youth development qualities and life satisfaction after the service. However, the two-line test indicated that some of these relationships might be curvilinear. Finally, Pearson correlation analyses demonstrated that students who experienced greater changes in positive youth development qualities and service leadership qualities reported better appraisal of course qualities, teacher performance, and course effectiveness, while multiple regression analyses showed the unique effects of change in service leadership qualities (but not change in positive youth development qualities) on the perception of teacher performance and course effectiveness. Altogether, this study not only showcases the potential benefits of online SL, but also provides initial evidence suggesting the variation in (perceived) benefits by students' psychosocial competencies and learning experiences.

Learning from Neighbors: The Spatial Spillover Effect of Crisis Learning on Local Government

Accident prevention is an important prerequisite for achieving sustainable development, and effective crisis learning is a necessary path to it. This article focuses on whether local governments in non-accident areas learn from crises in accident areas, that is “learn from the mistakes of neighbors” and “grow in wisdom.” Using panel data from 2006–2017 for 30 provinces in China, our empirical test discovered that there is not a one-to-one relationship between “learning from neighbors” and “growing in wisdom”; it is a U-shaped relationship between the frequency of major accidents and the crisis learning effect of local government. When the occurrence frequency of major accidents is low, the regulatory effect caused by major accidents leads to the effective crisis learning of local governments. However, when major accidents occur frequently and reach a certain threshold, the crisis learning effect will deteriorate due to an excessive deterrent effect. In this non-linear relationship, the impact of political pressure occurs on two fronts, a gentle U-shaped curve and a shift in the inflection point to the left, implying that political pressure plays a dual role in the crisis learning process of local government. Accordingly, local governments should fully seize the window of time to initiate crisis learning with regulatory effects and delegate political authority to supervise local crisis learning with reasonable compliance.

The brain structure and genetic mechanisms underlying the nonlinear association between sleep duration, cognition and mental health

Sleep duration, psychiatric disorders and dementias are closely interconnected in older adults. However, the underlying genetic mechanisms and brain structural changes are unknown. Using data from the UK Biobank for participants primarily of European ancestry aged 38-73 years, including 94% white people, we identified a nonlinear association between sleep, with approximately 7 h as the optimal sleep duration, and genetic and cognitive factors, brain structure, and mental health as key measures. The brain regions most significantly underlying this interconnection included the precentral cortex, the lateral orbitofrontal cortex and the hippocampus. Longitudinal analysis revealed that both insufficient and excessive sleep duration were significantly associated with a decline in cognition on follow up. Furthermore, mediation analysis and structural equation modeling identified a unified model incorporating polygenic risk score (PRS), sleep, brain structure, cognition and mental health. This indicates that possible genetic mechanisms and brain structural changes may underlie the nonlinear relationship between sleep duration and cognition and mental health.

Reinforcement learning and bayesian inference provide complementary models for the unique advantage of adolescents in stochastic reversal

During adolescence, youth venture out, explore the wider world, and are challenged to learn how to navigate novel and uncertain environments. We investigated how performance changes across adolescent development in a stochastic, volatile reversal-learning task that uniquely taxes the balance of persistence and flexibility. In a sample of 291 participants aged 8–30, we found that in the mid-teen years, adolescents outperformed both younger and older participants. We developed two independent cognitive models, based on Reinforcement learning (RL) and Bayesian inference (BI). The RL parameter for learning from negative outcomes and the BI parameters specifying participants’ mental models were closest to optimal in mid-teen adolescents, suggesting a central role in adolescent cognitive processing. By contrast, persistence and noise parameters improved monotonically with age. We distilled the insights of RL and BI using principal component analysis and found that three shared components interacted to form the adolescent performance peak: adult-like behavioral quality, child-like time scales, and developmentally-unique processing of positive feedback. This research highlights adolescence as a neurodevelopmental window that can create performance advantages in volatile and uncertain environments. It also shows how detailed insights can be gleaned by using cognitive models in new ways.

Greater entropy leads to more explicit referential forms during language production

Speakers can refer to previously-mentioned words (e.g., the actor) using attenuated referring expressions such as pronouns (he), or elaborated referential forms such as repeating the original word (the actor). Predictability is theorized to influence form of reference during language production: More attenuated forms may be used to refer to more predictable words, presumably because predictable words are already active in memory, and therefore require less linguistic signal during subsequent reference. However, the reported results are mixed. The current study examines the effect of entropy, an information-theoretic metric that captures the predictability of all, not just one, referential candidate, on the production of referential forms. A meta-analysis combining data from multiple experiments (492 participants, 405 items) revealed that greater entropy leads to more explicit referential forms, suggesting that entropy might intensify the competition between referential candidates during language production, reducing total memory activation.

“Too Much” Self-Efficacy? Understanding the Curvilinear Consequences of Between-Person Self-Efficacy through a Moderated-Mediation Model of Perceived Proximity and Employee Effort

Building from a paradox frame, we argue that at the between-person level the relationship between self-efficacy and effort may be nonlinear. We bound our conceptual model with a focus on perceived proximity, reflecting employees’ perceptions of how close they feel to their organization and colleagues. We test our model in a lagged, multi-source field study, with matching employee survey data from 1502 employees, and archival effort, and performance, metrics collected several months later. The results from our analyses reveal a curvilinear association between self-efficacy and effort, which is moderated by perceived proximity. We also find that the relationship between self-efficacy and performance is mediated by effort for individuals with low self-efficacy (Low SEs), but not for individuals with moderate (Moderate SEs) or high self-efficacy (High SEs). Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Absolute Certainty and Political Ideology: A Systematic Test of Curvilinearity

The present investigation examined curvilinear relations between political ideology, on the one hand, and absolute certainty and dogmatism, on the other, across six online samples ( N = 2,889). Ideological extremists were more likely than others to be absolutely certain: About one in three extremists reported being absolutely (i.e., 100%) certain of the correctness of their political beliefs, whereas about one in 15 non-extremists reported being absolutely certain. Although absolute political certainty was relatively symmetrical across the political left and right, conservatives tended to report greater domain-general dogmatism than liberals. Extremism effects for domain-general dogmatism were also present, however; and ideological asymmetries in dogmatism appeared to be driven by social, rather than economic, ideology. Taken together, these findings underscore the complexity of relations between absolute certainty, dogmatism, and ideology, ultimately challenging the sufficiency of contemporary psychological accounts of ideological (a)symmetries to describe our complex political reality.

Consciousness is supported by near-critical slow cortical electrodynamics

Mounting evidence suggests that during conscious states, the electrodynamics of the cortex are poised near a critical point or phase transition and that this near-critical behavior supports the vast flow of information through cortical networks during conscious states. Here, we empirically identify a mathematically specific critical point near which waking cortical oscillatory dynamics operate, which is known as the edge-of-chaos critical point, or the boundary between stability and chaos. We do so by applying the recently developed modified 0-1 chaos test to electrocorticography (ECoG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) recordings from the cortices of humans and macaques across normal waking, generalized seizure, anesthesia, and psychedelic states. Our evidence suggests that cortical information processing is disrupted during unconscious states because of a transition of low-frequency cortical electric oscillations away from this critical point; conversely, we show that psychedelics may increase the information richness of cortical activity by tuning low-frequency cortical oscillations closer to this critical point. Finally, we analyze clinical electroencephalography (EEG) recordings from patients with disorders of consciousness (DOC) and show that assessing the proximity of slow cortical oscillatory electrodynamics to the edge-of-chaos critical point may be useful as an index of consciousness in the clinical setting.

Examining the Link Between Neutral and Ambivalent Attitudes: Their Association and their Co-Occurrence

We examined the link between neutral and ambivalent attitudes. First, we examined whether they are mutually exclusive, in that when one attitude is present, the other is not, or if they co-occur. Second, we examined whether they are negatively associated, such that as ambivalence increases, neutrality decreases. In three studies, participants indicated their positive, negative, neutral, and ambivalent attitudes toward various stimuli. In contrast to both ideas, (objective and subjective) ambivalence and neutrality co-occurred (no mutual exclusivity), and they, at best, depending on how one looked at the association, were only weakly positively or negatively associated (no strong, negative association). Univalent attitudes co-occurred with and were strongly negatively associated with neutral attitudes. These findings conflict with theories and methodologies that assume mutual exclusivity or an inverse association between neutral and ambivalent attitudes, suggesting that researchers should not assume that presence of neutrality suggests a lack of ambivalence.

Gene and metabolite expression dependence on body mass index in human myocardium

We hypothesized that body mass index (BMI) dependent changes in myocardial gene expression and energy-related metabolites underlie the biphasic association between BMI and mortality (the obesity paradox) in cardiac surgery. We performed transcriptome profiling and measured a panel of 144 metabolites in 53 and 55, respectively, myocardial biopsies from a cohort of sixty-six adult patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (registration: NCT02908009). The initial analysis identified 239 transcripts with biphasic BMI dependence. 120 displayed u-shape and 119 n-shape expression patterns. The identified local minima or maxima peaked at BMI 28–29. Based on these results and to best fit the WHO classification, we grouped the patients into three groups: BMI < 25, 25 ≤ BMI ≤ 32, and BMI > 32. The analysis indicated that protein translation-related pathways were downregulated in 25 ≤ BMI ≤ 32 compared with BMI < 25 patients. Muscle contraction transcripts were upregulated in 25 ≤ BMI ≤ 32 patients, and cholesterol synthesis and innate immunity transcripts were upregulated in the BMI > 32 group. Transcripts involved in translation, muscle contraction and lipid metabolism also formed distinct correlation networks with biphasic dependence on BMI. Metabolite analysis identified acylcarnitines and ribose-5-phosphate increasing in the BMI > 32 group and α-ketoglutarate increasing in the BMI < 25 group. Molecular differences in the myocardium mirror the biphasic relationship between BMI and mortality.

Species specific plant‐mediated effects between herbivores converge at high damage intensity

Plants are often exposed to multiple herbivores and densities of these attackers (or corresponding damage intensities) often fluctuate greatly in the field. Plant‐mediated interactions vary among herbivore species and with changing feeding intensity, but little is known about how herbivore identity and density interact to determine plant responses and herbivore fitness. Here, we investigated this question using Triadica sebifera (tallow) and two common and abundant specialist insect herbivores, Bikasha collaris (flea beetle) and Heterapoderopsis bicallosicollis (weevil). By manipulating densities of leaf‐feeding adults of these two herbivore species, we tested how variations in the intensity of leaf damage caused by flea beetle or weevil adults affected the performance of root‐feeding flea beetle larvae and evaluated the potential of induced tallow root traits to predict flea beetle larval performance. We found that weevil adults consistently decreased the survival of flea beetle larvae with increasing leaf damage intensities. In contrast, conspecific flea beetle adults increased their larval survival at low damage then decreased larval survival at high damage, resulting in a unimodal pattern. Chemical analyses showed that increasing leaf damage from weevil adults linearly decreased root carbohydrates and increased root tannin, whereas flea beetle adults had opposite effects as weevil adults at low damage and similar effects as them at high damage. Furthermore, across all feeding treatments, flea beetle larval survival correlated positively with concentrations of carbohydrates and negatively with concentration of tannin, suggesting that root primary and secondary metabolism might underlie the observed effects on flea beetle larvae. Our study demonstrates that herbivore identity and density interact to determine systemic plant responses and plant‐mediated effects on herbivores. In particular, effects are species‐specific at low densities, but converge at high densities. These findings emphasize the importance of considering herbivore identity and density simultaneously when investigating factors driving plant‐mediated interactions between herbivores, which advances our understanding of the structure and composition of herbivore communities and terrestrial food webs.

Valence biases in reinforcement learning shift across adolescence and modulate subsequent memory

As individuals learn through trial and error, some are more influenced by good outcomes, while others weight bad outcomes more heavily. Such valence biases may also influence memory for past experiences. Here, we examined whether valence asymmetries in reinforcement learning change across adolescence, and whether individual learning asymmetries bias the content of subsequent memory. Participants ages 8-27 learned the values of 'point machines,' after which their memory for trial-unique images presented with choice outcomes was assessed. Relative to children and adults, adolescents overweighted worse-than-expected outcomes during learning. Individuals' valence biases modulated incidental memory, such that those who prioritized worse- (or better-) than-expected outcomes during learning were also more likely to remember images paired with these outcomes, an effect reproduced in an independent dataset. Collectively, these results highlight age-related changes in the computation of subjective value and demonstrate that a valence-asymmetric valuation process influences how information is prioritized in episodic memory.

Conspiracy mentality and political orientation across 26 countries

People differ in their general tendency to endorse conspiracy theories (that is, conspiracy mentality). Previous research yielded inconsistent findings on the relationship between conspiracy mentality and political orientation, showing a greater conspiracy mentality either among the political right (a linear relation) or amongst both the left and right extremes (a curvilinear relation). We revisited this relationship across two studies spanning 26 countries (combined N = 104,253) and found overall evidence for both linear and quadratic relations, albeit small and heterogeneous across countries. We also observed stronger support for conspiracy mentality among voters of opposition parties (that is, those deprived of political control). Nonetheless, the quadratic effect of political orientation remained significant when adjusting for political control deprivation. We conclude that conspiracy mentality is associated with extreme left- and especially extreme right-wing beliefs, and that this non-linear relation may be strengthened by, but is not reducible to, deprivation of political control.

Queen's Gambit Declined: The Gender-Equality Paradox in Chess Participation Across 160 Countries

The gender-equality paradox refers to the puzzling finding that societies with more gender equality demonstrate larger gender differences across a range of phenomena, most notably in the proportion of women who pursue degrees in science, technology, engineering, and math. The present investigation demonstrates across two different measures of gender equality that this paradox extends to chess participation (N = 803,485 across 160 countries; age range: 3-100 years), specifically that women participate more often in countries with less gender equality. Previous explanations for the paradox fail to account for this finding. Instead, consistent with the notion that gender equality reflects a generational shift, mediation analyses suggest that the gender-equality paradox in chess is driven by the greater participation of younger players in countries with less gender equality. A curvilinear effect of gender equality on the participation of female players was also found, demonstrating that gender differences in chess participation are largest at the highest and lowest ends of the gender-equality spectrum.

Patterns of Movement Performance and Consistency From Childhood to Old Age

It is widely accepted that the general process of aging can be reflected by changes in motor function. Typically, optimal performance of a given motor task is observed for healthy young adults with declines being observed for individuals at either end of the lifespan. This study was designed to examine differences in the average and variability (i.e., intraindividual variability) of chewing, simple reaction time, postural control, and walking responses. For this study, 15 healthy children, 15 young adults, and 15 older adults participated. Our results indicated the movement performance for the reaction time and postural sway followed a U shape with young adults having faster reaction times and decreased postural sway compared to the children and older adults. However, this pattern was not preserved across all motor tasks with no age differences emerging for (normalized) gait speed, while chewing rates followed a U-shaped curve with older adults and children chewing at faster rates. Taken together, these findings would indicate that the descriptive changes in motor function with aging are heavily influenced by the nature of the task being performed and are unlikely to follow a singular pattern.

Inhibitory control, dyadic social behavior, and mental health difficulties in preschoolers

Although inhibitory control is typically associated with positive outcomes, several theoretical frameworks suggest that too little and too much inhibitory control may be problematic. Using a longitudinal, latent variable approach, we examined whether a multi-method index of inhibitory control at Time 1 (N = 105, 52 girls, M_age  = 3.50 years, 87% White) predicted observed social behavior with an unfamiliar peer and maternal report of preschoolers' mental health difficulties at Time 2 (M_age  = 4.76 years). Data collection occurred between 2017 and 2019. Inhibitory control displayed a U-shaped relation with prospective outcomes, where high and low levels of inhibitory control were associated with higher levels of avoidant social behaviors and mental health difficulties. The results are discussed in the context of under- and over-regulation in understanding individual differences in children's social behavior and mental health difficulties.

Conceptual replication of , "Self-efficacy as a mediator in the relationship between self-oriented perfectionism and academic procrastination"

BACKGROUND

Self-oriented perfectionism is the tendency to set high standards for oneself and evaluate one's behaviour accordingly. Based on a study of 692 students in Korea, Seo (2008) reported finding a negative relationship between self-oriented perfectionism and academic procrastination - i.e., the tendency to procrastinate on academic tasks. Furthermore, Seo reported that this relationship was completely mediated by self-efficacy. Seo's study has been influential in the literature but to our knowledge has not yet been independently replicated. In this study we report a preregistered conceptual replication testing five hypotheses based on Seo's key findings.

PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE

A detailed preregistration (including data processing and analysis syntax) was lodged in advance of data collection at https://osf.io/xfvd8. Participants were 575 students recruited from OECD countries using prolific.co. Academic procrastination was measured via an adapted version of the Procrastination Assessment Scale - Students, while self-oriented perfectionism was measured via the 5-item self-oriented perfectionism subscale of the Big Three Perfectionism Scale. Self-efficacy was measured via the New General Self-Efficacy Scale. Both ordinary least squares regression and structural equation modelling were used to test hypotheses.

RESULTS

We found no evidence of a bivariate relationship between self-oriented perfectionism and academic procrastination in either set of analyses. However, we did find evidence of a small and negative indirect effect of self-oriented perfectionism on academic procrastination via self-efficacy.

CONCLUSIONS

We were only able to partially replicate Seo's key findings, having found no evidence of a negative relationship between self-oriented perfectionism and academic procrastination.

Algorithm-Augmented Work and Domain Experience: The Countervailing Forces of Ability and Aversion

Past research offers mixed perspectives on whether domain experience helps or hurts algorithm-augmented worker performance. Reconciling these perspectives, we theorize that intermediate levels of domain experience are optimal for algorithm-augmented performance, due to the interplay between two countervailing forces—ability and aversion. Although domain experience can increase performance via increased ability to complement algorithmic advice (e.g., identifying inaccurate predictions), it can also decrease performance via increased aversion to accurate algorithmic advice. Because ability developed through learning by doing increases at a decreasing rate, and algorithmic aversion is more prevalent among experts, we theorize that algorithm-augmented performance will first rise with increasing domain experience, then fall. We test this by exploiting a within-subjects experiment in which corporate information technology support workers were assigned to resolve problems both manually and using an algorithmic tool. We confirm that the difference between performance with the algorithmic tool versus without the tool was characterized by an inverted U-shape over the range of domain experience. Only workers with moderate domain experience did significantly better using the algorithm than resolving tickets manually. These findings highlight that, even if greater domain experience increases workers’ ability to complement algorithms, domain experience can also trigger other mechanisms that overcome the positive ability effect and inhibit performance. Additional analyses and participant interviews suggest that, even though the highest experience workers had the greatest ability to complement the algorithmic tool, they rejected its advice because they felt greater accountability for possible unintended consequences of accepting algorithmic advice.

COVID-19 conspiracy theories and compliance with governmental restrictions: The mediating roles of anger, anxiety, and hope

The COVID-19 pandemic has been an ideal breeding ground for conspiracy theories. Yet, different beliefs could have different implications for individuals’ emotional responses, which in turn could relate to different behaviours and specifically to either a greater or lesser compliance with social distancing and health-protective measures. In the present research, we investigated the links between COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs, emotions (anger, anxiety, and hope), attitudes towards government restrictions, and self-reported compliant behaviour. Results of a cross-sectional survey amongst a large UK sample ( N = 1,579) provided support for the hypothesis that COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs showed a polarizing relationship with compliant behaviour through opposing emotional pathways. The relation was mediated by higher levels of anger, themselves related to a lesser perceived importance of government restrictions, and simultaneous higher levels of anxiety, related to a greater perceived importance. Hope was also related to conspiracy beliefs and to greater perceived importance but played a weaker role in the mediational model. Results suggest that the behavioural correlates of conspiracy beliefs might not be straightforward, and highlight the importance of considering the emotional states such beliefs might elicit when investigating their potential impact.