Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Sick and tired
Does Retirement Age Impact Mortality?
Erik Hernaes et al.
Journal of Health Economics, May 2013, Pages 586-598
Abstract:
The relationship between retirement and mortality is studied with a unique administrative data set covering the full population of Norway. A series of retirement policy changes in Norway reduced the retirement age for a group of workers but not for others. Difference-in-differences estimation based on monthly birth cohorts and treatment group status show that the early retirement programme significantly reduced the retirement age; this holds true also when we account for programme substitution, for example into the disability pension. Instrumental variables estimation results show no effect on mortality of retirement age; neither do estimation results from a hazard rate model.
----------------------
Racial Disparities in Survival Among Injured Drivers
Amy Haskins, David Clark & Lori Travis
American Journal of Epidemiology, 1 March 2013, Pages 380-387
Abstract:
Prior studies on racial and ethnic disparities in survival after motor vehicle crashes have examined only population-based death rates or have been restricted to hospitalized patients. In the current study, we examined 3 components of crash survival by race/ethnicity: survival overall, survival to reach a hospital, and survival among those hospitalized. Nine years of data (from 2000 through 2008) from the National Automotive Sampling System Crashworthiness Data System were used to examine white non-Hispanic, black non-Hispanic, and Hispanic drivers aged ≥15 years with serious injuries (injury severity scores of ≥9). By using multivariable logistic regression, we found that a driver's race/ethnicity was not significantly associated with overall survival after being injured in a crash (for blacks, odds ratio (OR) = 0.69, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.36, 1.32; for Hispanics, OR = 1.00, 95% CI: 0.59, 1.72), and blacks and Hispanics were equally likely to survive to be treated at a hospital compared with whites (for blacks, OR = 1.00, 95% CI: 0.52, 1.93; for Hispanics, OR = 1.13, 95% CI: 0.71, 1.79). However, among patients who were treated at a hospital, blacks were 50% less likely to survive 30 days compared with whites (OR = 0.50, 95% CI: 0.33, 0.76). The disparity in survival after serious traffic injuries among blacks appears to occur after hospitalization, not in prehospital survival.
----------------------
Practices of Unregulated Tanning Facilities in Missouri: Implications for Statewide Legislation
Brundha Balaraman et al.
Pediatrics, March 2013, Pages 415 -422
Background: The incidence of skin cancer has increased in the United States, concomitant with increased UV radiation (UVR) exposure among young adults. We examined whether tanning facilities in Missouri, a state without indoor-tanning regulations, acted in accordance with the Food and Drug Administration's recommendations and consistently imparted information to potential clients about the known risks of UVR.
Methods: We conducted a statewide telephone survey of randomly selected tanning facilities in Missouri. Each tanning facility was surveyed twice, in the morning (7 AM-3 PM) and evening (3-10 PM), on different days, to determine intrasalon consistency of information provided to potential clients at different times.
Results: On average, 65% of 243 tanning-facility operators would allow children as young as 10 or 12 years old to use indoor-tanning devices, 80% claimed that indoor tanning would prevent future sunburns, and 43% claimed that there were no risks associated with indoor tanning. Intrasalon inconsistencies involved allowable age of use, and UVR exposure type and duration. Morning tanning-facility employees were more likely to allow consumers to start with maximum exposure times and UV-A-emitting devices (P < .001), whereas evening employees were more likely to allow 10- or 12-year-old children to use indoor-tanning devices (P = .008).
Conclusions: Despite increasing evidence that UVR exposure in indoor-tanning devices is associated with skin cancer, ocular damage, and premature photoaging, tanning facilities in Missouri often misinformed consumers regarding these risks and lack of health benefits and inconsistently provided information about the Food and Drug Administration's guidelines for tanning devices.
----------------------
Belinda Needham et al.
Social Science & Medicine, May 2013, Pages 1-8
Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to examine the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and leukocyte telomere length (LTL) - a marker of cell aging that has been linked to stressful life circumstances - in a nationally representative, socioeconomically and ethnically diverse sample of US adults aged 20-84. Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), 1999-2002, we found that respondents who completed less than a high school education had significantly shorter telomeres than those who graduated from college. Income was not associated with LTL. African-Americans had significantly longer telomeres than whites, but there were no significant racial/ethnic differences in the association between education and telomere length. Finally, we found that the association between education and LTL was partially mediated by smoking and body mass index but not by drinking or sedentary behavior.
----------------------
Diagnosing Discrimination: Stress from Perceived Racism and the Mental and Physical Health Effects
Kathryn Freeman Anderson
Sociological Inquiry, February 2013, Pages 55-81
Abstract:
Differences in health between racial groups in the United States are significant and persistent. Many studies have documented these differences as a result of a variety of different social factors. An emerging emphasis is the impact of racism in its various forms on physical and mental health. Social stress theory conceptualizes racism as a social stresssor which can produce negative health consequences for racial minorities. This study uses binary logit and negative binomial regression models of four items from the 2004 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) to test social stress theory and examine the relationship between stress symptoms from perceived racism and overall health (N = 32,585). The effect of race on the experience of emotional and physical stress symptoms from racism is substantial. Furthermore, experiencing both emotional and physical stress from perceived racist treatment is an important factor in predicting the number of poor mental and physical health days, indicating that the experience of stress from perceived racism is related to overall poorer health.
----------------------
How does race get "under the skin"?: Inflammation, weathering, and metabolic problems in late life
Aniruddha Das
Social Science & Medicine, January 2013, Pages 75-83
Abstract:
Using nationally representative data from the 2005-2006 U.S. National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project, this study queries the mechanisms underlying worse metabolic outcomes - blood sugar control and cardiovascular health - among black than white men ages 57 to 85. Results indicate that contrary to much of the academic literature as well as media accounts - implicitly rooted in a "culture of irresponsibility" model - older black men's social isolation, poor health behaviors, or obesity may not play a major role in their worse metabolic problems. Instead, these outcomes seem to derive more consistently from a factor almost unexamined in the literature - chronic inflammation, arguably a biological "weathering" mechanism induced by these men's cumulative and multi-dimensional stress. These findings highlight the necessity of focusing attention not simply on proximal behavioral interventions, but on broader stress-inducing social inequalities, to reduce men's race disparities in health.
----------------------
Intergenerational Health Responses to Adverse and Enriched Environments
Lars Olov Bygren
Annual Review of Public Health, 2013, Pages 49-60
Abstract:
Health consequences of relative or absolute poverty constitute a definitive area of study in social medicine. As demonstrated in the extreme example of the Dutch Hunger Winter from 1944 to 1945, prenatal hunger can lead to adult schizophrenia and depression. A Norwegian study showed how childhood poverty resulted in a heightened risk of myocardial infarction in adulthood. In England, a study of extended impaired prenatal nutrition indicated three different types of increased cardiovascular risk at older ages. Current animal and human studies link both adverse and enriched environmental exposures to intergenerational transmission. We do not fully understand the molecular mechanisms for it; however, studies that follow up epigenetic marks within a generation combined with exploration of gametic epigenetic inheritance may help explain the prevalence of certain conditions such as cardiovascular disease, schizophrenia, and alcoholism, which have complex etiologies. Insights from these studies will be of great public health importance.
----------------------
Nataria Joseph, Karen Matthews & Hector Myers
Health Psychology, forthcoming
Objective: The long-term health impact of acute unemployment and socioeconomic resource deficit has not been shown to be unique from the effects of stable socioeconomic status (SES) and serious life circumstances, such as trauma. This study examined associations between these acute socioeconomic declines and health of hurricane survivors, independent of prehurricane SES and hurricane trauma.
Method: Participants were 215 African American adults (60% female, mean age = 39 years) living in the Greater New Orleans area at the time of Hurricane Katrina and survey 4 years later. The survey included prehurricane SES measures (i.e., education and neighborhood poverty level); acute unemployment and deficits in access to SES resources following Hurricane Katrina; and posthurricane health events (i.e., cardiometabolic events, chronic pain, posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD], and major depressive disorder [MDD]).
Results: Acute unemployment was associated with odds of experiencing a cardiometabolic event (odds ratio [OR] = 5.65, p < .05), MDD (OR = 2.76, p < .05) and chronic pain (OR = 2.76, p < .05), whereas acute socioeconomic resource deficit was associated with odds of chronic pain (OR = 1.93, p < .001) and MDD (OR = 1.19, p < .05). Associations were independent of prehurricane SES, hurricane trauma, potentially chronic SES resource deficits, and current unemployment.
Conclusions: This study shows that acute socioeconomic decline following a natural disaster can create long-term health disparities beyond those created by prehurricane SES level and traumatic hurricane experiences. Findings suggest that early intervention postdisaster to reduce pervasive socioeconomic disruption may reduce the long-term health impact of disasters.
----------------------
How Many Infants Likely Died in Africa as a Result of the 2008-2009 Global Financial Crisis?
Jed Friedman & Norbert Schady
Health Economics, May 2013, Pages 611-622
Abstract:
The human consequences of the recent global financial crisis for the developing world are presumed to be severe, but few studies have quantified them. This letter estimates the human cost of the 2008-2009 global financial crisis in one critical dimension - infant mortality - for countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The analysis pools birth-level data, as reported in female adult retrospective birth histories from all Demographic and Health Surveys collected in sub-Saharan Africa. This results in a data set of 639,000 births to 264,000 women in 30 countries. We use regression models with flexible controls for temporal trends to assess an infant's likelihood of death as a function of fluctuations in national income. We then calculate the expected number of excess deaths by combining these estimates with growth shortfalls as a result of the crisis. The results suggest 28,000-50,000 excess infant deaths in sub-Saharan Africa in the crisis-affected year of 2009. Notably, most of these additional deaths were concentrated among girls. Policies that protect the income of poor households and that maintain critical health services during times of economic contraction may reduce the expected increase in mortality. Interventions targeted at female infants and young girls can be particularly beneficial.
----------------------
Was the Economic Crisis of 2008 Good for Icelanders? Impact on Health Behaviors
Tinna Laufey Ásgeirsdóttir et al.
Economics & Human Biology, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study uses the 2008 economic crisis in Iceland to identify the effects of a macroeconomic downturn on a range of health behaviors. We use longitudinal survey data that include pre- and post- reports from the same individuals on a range of health-compromising and health-promoting behaviors. We find that the crisis led to large and significant reductions in health-compromising behaviors (such as smoking, drinking alcohol or soft drinks, and eating sweets) and certain health-promoting behaviors (consumption of fruits and vegetables), but to increases in other health-promoting behaviors (consumption of fish oil and recommended sleep). The magnitudes of effects for smoking are somewhat larger than what has been found in past research in other contexts, while those for alcohol, fruits, and vegetables are in line with estimates from other studies. Changes in work hours, real income, financial assets, mortgage debt, and mental health, together, explain the effects of the crisis on some behaviors (such as consumption of sweets and fast food), while the effects of the crisis on most other behaviors appear to have operated largely through general price increases.
----------------------
Who Should Pay for Global Health, and How Much?
Luis Carrasco, Richard Coker & Alex Cook
PLoS Medicine, February 2013
Abstract:
Mechanisms to establish the expected financial contribution from each country to achieve the health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) could encourage scaling-up of contributions. Mirroring global carbon permit markets to mitigate climate change, we propose a cap-and-trade system consisting of a global cost-effectiveness criterion and a disability-adjusted life year (DALY) global credit market. Under this system, high-income and middle-income countries should contribute, respectively, 74% and 26% of the additional US$36-US$45 billion annually needed to attain the health MDGs. The change relative to current contributions would vary, with some countries needing to scale-up substantially their expected annual contributions under the proposed market (e.g., US, US$7-US$10 billion; China, US$2-US$3 billion; Japan, US$2 billion; Germany, US$1.5-US$2 billion), while a few already meet or exceed their required contributions (i.e., Norway, the United Arab Emirates, Luxembourg, and the UK). A DALY tradable credit market offers the potential to increase the efficiency of global health investments while promoting international obligations to the pursuit of an agreed global common good.
----------------------
Trends and Socioeconomic Gradients in Adult Mortality around the Developing World
Damien De Walque & Deon Filmer
Population and Development Review, March 2013, Pages 1-29
Abstract:
We combine data from 84 Demographic and Health Surveys from 46 countries to analyze trends and socioeconomic differences in adult mortality, calculating mortality based on the sibling mortality reports collected from female respondents aged 15-49. The analysis yields four main findings. First, adult mortality is different from child mortality: while under-5 mortality shows a definite improving trend over time, adult mortality does not, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. The second main finding is the increase in adult mortality in sub-Saharan African countries. The increase is dramatic among those most affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Mortality rates in the highest HIV-prevalence countries of southern Africa exceed those in countries that experienced episodes of armed conflict. Third, even in sub-Saharan countries where HIV prevalence is not as high, mortality rates appear to be at best stagnating, and even increasing in several cases. Finally, the main dimension along which mortality appears to differ in the aggregate is by sex. Adult mortality rates in sub-Saharan Africa have risen substantially higher for men than for women-especially so in the high HIV-prevalence countries. On the whole, the data do not show large gaps by urban/rural residence or by school attainment.
----------------------
Lauren Johns et al.
American Journal of Public Health, April 2013, Pages 733-739
Objectives: Heart disease death overreporting is problematic in New York City (NYC) and other US jurisdictions. We examined whether overreporting affects the premature (< 65 years) heart disease death rate disparity between non-Hispanic Blacks and non-Hispanic Whites in NYC.
Methods: We identified overreporting hospitals and used counts of premature heart disease deaths at reference hospitals to estimate corrected counts. We then corrected citywide, age-adjusted premature heart disease death rates among Blacks and Whites and a White-Black premature heart disease death disparity.
Results: At overreporting hospitals, 51% of the decedents were White compared with 25% at reference hospitals. Correcting the heart disease death counts at overreporting hospitals decreased the age-adjusted premature heart disease death rate 10.1% (from 41.5 to 37.3 per 100 000) among Whites compared with 4.2% (from 66.2 to 63.4 per 100 000) among Blacks. Correction increased the White-Black disparity 6.1% (from 24.6 to 26.1 per 100 000).
Conclusions: In 2008, NYC's White-Black premature heart disease death disparity was underestimated because of overreporting by hospitals serving larger proportions of Whites. Efforts to reduce overreporting may increase the observed disparity, potentially obscuring any programmatic or policy-driven advances.
----------------------
Daniel Powers
Social Science Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
We investigate three interrelated sources of change in infant mortality rates over a 20 year period using the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) linked birth and infant death cohort files. The effects of maternal age, maternal birth cohort, and time period of childbirth on infant mortality are estimated using a modified age/period/cohort (APC) model that identifies age, period, cohort effects. We document black-white differences in the patterning of these effects and find that maternal age effects follow the predictable U-shaped pattern, net of period and cohort, but with a less steep gradient in the black population. The largest relative maternal age-specific disparity in IMR occurs among older African American mothers. Cohort effects, while considerably smaller than age and period effects, present an interesting pattern of a modest decline in IMR among later cohorts of African American mothers coupled with an increasing IMR among the same cohorts of non-Hispanic whites. However, period effects dominate the time trends, implying that period-related technologies overwhelmingly shape U.S. infant survival in today's population. These general findings are mirrored in APC analyses carried out for several leading underlying causes of infant mortality.
----------------------
Ying Zhang et al.
PLoS ONE, April 2013
Background: The 2009 H1N1 outbreak provides an opportunity to identify strengths and weaknesses of disease surveillance and notification systems that have been implemented in the past decade.
Methods: Drawing on a systematic review of the scientific literature, official documents, websites, and news reports, we constructed a timeline differentiating three kinds of events: (1) the emergence and spread of the pH1N1 virus, (2) local health officials' awareness and understanding of the outbreak, and (3) notifications about the events and their implications. We then conducted a "critical event" analysis of the surveillance process to ascertain when health officials became aware of the epidemiologic facts of the unfolding pandemic and whether advances in surveillance notification systems hastened detection.
Results: This analysis revealed three critical events. First, medical personnel identified pH1N1in California children because of an experimental surveillance program, leading to a novel viral strain being identified by CDC. Second, Mexican officials recognized that unconnected outbreaks represented a single phenomenon. Finally, the identification of a pH1N1 outbreak in a New York City high school was hastened by awareness of the emerging pandemic. Analysis of the timeline suggests that at best the global response could have been about one week earlier (which would not have stopped spread to other countries), and could have been much later.
Conclusions: This analysis shows that investments in global surveillance and notification systems made an important difference in the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. In particular, enhanced laboratory capacity in the U.S. and Canada led to earlier detection and characterization of the 2009 H1N1. This includes enhanced capacity at the federal, state, and local levels in the U.S., as well as a trilateral agreement enabling collaboration among U.S., Canada, and Mexico. In addition, improved global notification systems contributed by helping health officials understand the relevance and importance of their own information.
----------------------
Symmetry of the face in old age reflects childhood social status
David Hope et al.
Economics & Human Biology, March 2013, Pages 236-244
Abstract:
The association of socioeconomic status (SES) with a range of lifecourse outcomes is robust, but the causes of these associations are not well understood. Research on the developmental origins of health and disease has led to the hypothesis that early developmental disturbance might permanently affect the lifecourse, accounting for some of the burden of chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease. Here we assessed developmental disturbance using bodily and facial symmetry and examined its association with socioeconomic status (SES) in childhood, and attained status at midlife. Symmetry was measured at ages 83 (facial symmetry) and 87 (bodily symmetry) in a sample of 292 individuals from the Lothian Birth Cohort 1921 (LBC1921). Structural equation models indicated that poorer SES during early development was significantly associated with lower facial symmetry (standardized path coefficient -.25, p = .03). By contrast, midlife SES was not significantly associated with symmetry. The relationship was stronger in men (-.44, p = .03) than in women (-.12, p = .37), and the effect sizes were significantly different in magnitude (p = .004). These findings suggest that SES in early life (but not later in life) is associated with developmental disturbances. Facial symmetry appears to provide an effective record of early perturbations, whereas bodily symmetry seems relatively imperturbable. As bodily and facial symmetries were sensitive to different influences, they should not be treated as interchangeable. However, markers of childhood disturbance remain many decades later, suggesting that early development may account in part for associations between SES and health through the lifecourse. Future research should clarify which elements of the environment cause these perturbations.
----------------------
Katherine Weisensee
American Journal of Human Biology, forthcoming
Objectives: This study examines the relationship between craniofacial fluctuating asymmetry and cause of death in an identified skeletal collection. This study tests the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease hypothesis using fluctuating asymmetry as the measure of developmental instability.
Methods: The skeletal sample used in this study comes from Lisbon, Portugal, and individuals in the sample were born between 1806 and 1935. This represents a period during which Lisbon was beginning to undergo the modern health transition, in which mortality from infectious disease began to decline while mortality from degenerative diseases began to increase. Approximately equal numbers of individuals in the sample died from infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, and from degenerative diseases. Fluctuating asymmetry is examined using three-dimensional landmark data collected from 392 individuals with documented causes of death. Landmark data may provide a more robust measure of fluctuating asymmetry, although it has not often been used in studies of fluctuating asymmetry in human skeletal samples.
Results: The results of the study show that individuals who died from degenerative diseases have higher rates of fluctuating asymmetry compared to individuals who died from infectious diseases. Males also exhibit higher rates of fluctuating asymmetry compared to females.
Conclusions: The results of this study confirm earlier findings that early development has a significant impact on adult health outcomes. Furthermore, the results suggest that fluctuating asymmetry in skeletal samples may offer a means of testing the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease hypothesis.
----------------------
Month of Birth and Mortality in Sweden: A Nation-Wide Population-Based Cohort Study
Peter Ueda et al.
PLoS ONE, February 2013
Background: Month of birth - an indicator for a variety of prenatal and early postnatal exposures - has been associated with life expectancy in adulthood. On the northern hemisphere, people born in the autumn live longer than those born during the spring. Only one study has followed a population longitudinally and no study has investigated the relation between month of birth and mortality risk below 50 years.
Methods and results: In this nation-wide Swedish study, we included 6,194,745 subjects, using data from population-based health and administrative registries. The relation between month of birth (January - December) and mortality risk was assessed by fitting Cox proportional hazard regression models using attained age as the underlying time scale. Analyses were made for ages >30, >30 to 50, >50 to 80 and >80 years. Month of birth was a significant predictor of mortality in the age-spans >30, >50 to 80, and >80 years. In models adjusted for gender and education for ages >30 and >50 to 80 years, the lowest mortality was seen for people born in November and the highest mortality in those born in the spring/summer, peaking in May for mortality >30 years (25‰ excess hazard ratio compared to November, [95% confidence interval = 16-34 ]) and in April for mortality >50 to 80 years (42‰ excess hazard ratio compared to November, [95% confidence interval = 30-55]). In the ages >80 years the pattern was similar but the differences in mortality between birth months were smaller. For mortality within the age-span >30 to 50 years, results were inconclusive.
Conclusion: Month of birth is associated to risk of mortality in ages above 50 years in Sweden. Further studies should aim at clarifying the mechanisms behind this association.
----------------------
Vitamin D Status Is a Biological Determinant of Health Disparities
Tom Weishaar & Joyce Marcley Vergili
Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, forthcoming
Background: In human beings, dark skin requires more exposure to ultraviolet light to synthesize the same amount of vitamin D as lighter skin. It is has been repeatedly shown that at the latitude of the United States there are vitamin D disparities related to skin color. Although inadequate vitamin D status and health disparities have been associated with many of the same diseases, neither nutrition policy nor public health policy in the United States currently recognizes any role at all for vitamin D as a determinant of health disparities.
Objective: This study investigated the relationship between health, skin color, and vitamin D nutriture in the US population.
Design: The design is cross-sectional, correlational, and can be generalized to the population of the United States.
Participants: We used data from 12,505 (unweighted) subjects (3,402 non-Hispanic blacks, 3,143 Mexican Americans, and 5,960 non-Hispanic whites), aged 13 years or older, from the continuous National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003-2006.
Main outcome measure: Self-rated health, a repeatedly validated indicator of objective health status, was used as a continuous measure of health.
Statistical analyses performed: Using software appropriate for the complex survey design of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the study consisted of six regression models, one predicting vitamin D status and five predicting self-rated health.
Results: Controlling for the covariates sex, interview language, country of birth, tobacco use, age, body mass index, and leisure exercise as well as the socioeconomic variables education and family income, remaining disparities in self-rated health are greatly reduced or eliminated by controlling for serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels.
Conclusions: We found that socioeconomic factors are the strongest determinant of skin-color based health disparities in the US population, but that it may not be possible to eliminate health disparities in the United States without eliminating the skin-color-related disparities in vitamin D nutriture.
----------------------
25-hydroxyvitamin D levels in African American and Nigerian women
Ramon Durazo-Arvizu et al.
American Journal of Human Biology, forthcoming
Objectives: African Americans (AA) have substantially lower levels of circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) than whites. We compared population-based samples of 25(OH)D in women of African descent from Nigeria and metropolitan Chicago.
Methods: One hundred women of Yoruba ethnicity from southwest Nigeria and 94 African American women from metropolitan Chicago were recruited and compared using a standardized survey protocol and the same laboratory assay for 25(OH)D.
Results: Mean 25(OH)D levels were 64 nmol/l among the Nigerians and 29 nmol/l among the AA. Only 10% of the values were shared in common between the groups, and 76% of the Nigerians were above the currently defined threshold for adequate circulating 25(OH)D compared to 5% of the AA. Modest associations were seen between 25(OH)D and measures of obesity, although adjustment for these traits did not materially affect the group differences.
Conclusion: These data support the presumption that skin color is an adaptive trait which has evolved in part to regulate 25(OH)D. It remains undetermined, however, whether lower values observed in AA have negative health consequences.
----------------------
Childhood Conscientiousness Relates to Objectively Measured Adult Physical Health Four Decades Later
Sarah Hampson et al.
Health Psychology, forthcoming
Objective: Many life span personality-and-health models assume that childhood personality traits result in life-course pathways leading through morbidity to mortality. Although childhood conscientiousness in particular predicts mortality, there are few prospective studies that have investigated the associations between childhood personality and objective health status in adulthood. The present study tested this crucial assumption of life span models of personality and health using a comprehensive assessment of the Big Five traits in childhood (M age = 10 years) and biomarkers of health over 40 years later (M age = 51 years).
Methods: Members of the Hawaii Personality and Health Cohort (N = 753; 368 men, 385 women) underwent a medical examination at mean age 51. Their global health status was evaluated by well-established clinical indicators that were objectively measured using standard protocols, including blood pressure, lipid profile, fasting blood glucose, and body mass index. These indicators were combined to evaluate overall physiological dysregulation and grouped into five more homogeneous subcomponents (glucose intolerance, blood pressure, lipids, obesity, and medications).
Results: Lower levels of childhood conscientiousness predicted more physiological dysregulation (β = -.11, p < .05), greater obesity (β = -.10, p < .05), and worse lipid profiles (β = -.10, p < .05), after controlling for the other Big Five childhood personality traits, gender, ethnicity, parental home ownership, and adult conscientiousness.
Conclusions: These findings are consistent with a key assumption in life span models that childhood conscientiousness is associated with objective health status in older adults. They open the way for testing mechanisms by which childhood personality may influence mortality through morbidity; mechanisms that could then be targeted for intervention.
----------------------
Season of Conception in Rural Gambia Affects DNA Methylation at Putative Human Metastable Epialleles
Robert Waterland et al.
PLoS Genetics, March 2013
Abstract:
Throughout most of the mammalian genome, genetically regulated developmental programming establishes diverse yet predictable epigenetic states across differentiated cells and tissues. At metastable epialleles (MEs), conversely, epigenotype is established stochastically in the early embryo then maintained in differentiated lineages, resulting in dramatic and systemic interindividual variation in epigenetic regulation. In the mouse, maternal nutrition affects this process, with permanent phenotypic consequences for the offspring. MEs have not previously been identified in humans. Here, using an innovative 2-tissue parallel epigenomic screen, we identified putative MEs in the human genome. In autopsy samples, we showed that DNA methylation at these loci is highly correlated across tissues representing all 3 embryonic germ layer lineages. Monozygotic twin pairs exhibited substantial discordance in DNA methylation at these loci, suggesting that their epigenetic state is established stochastically. We then tested for persistent epigenetic effects of periconceptional nutrition in rural Gambians, who experience dramatic seasonal fluctuations in nutritional status. DNA methylation at MEs was elevated in individuals conceived during the nutritionally challenged rainy season, providing the first evidence of a permanent, systemic effect of periconceptional environment on human epigenotype. At MEs, epigenetic regulation in internal organs and tissues varies among individuals and can be deduced from peripheral blood DNA. MEs should therefore facilitate an improved understanding of the role of interindividual epigenetic variation in human disease.
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Know your place
Climato-Economic Imprints on Chinese Collectivism
Evert Van de Vliert et al.
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, May 2013, Pages 589-605
Abstract:
A still unsolved question is why humans create collectivism. A new theory proposes that poorer populations coping with more demanding winters or summers become more collectivist. Preliminary support comes from a province-level analysis of survey data from 1,662 native residents of 15 Chinese provinces. Collectivism is weakest in provinces with temperate climates irrespective of income (e.g., Guangdong), negligibly stronger in higher income provinces with demanding climates (e.g., Hunan), and strongest in lower income provinces with demanding climates (e.g., Heilongjiang). Multilevel analysis consolidates the results by demonstrating that collectivism at the provincial level fully mediates the interactive impact of climato-economic hardships on collectivist orientations at the individual level, suggesting that culture building is a collective top-down rather than bottom-up process.
----------------------
How Macro-Historical Change Shapes Cultural Taste: Legacies of Democratization in Spain and Portugal
Robert Fishman & Omar Lizardo
American Sociological Review, April 2013, Pages 213-239
Abstract:
In this article, we show that large-scale macro-political change can powerfully condition how institutional practices shape individual cultural choice. We study the paired comparison of Portugal and Spain, two long-similar societies that moved from authoritarianism to democracy through divergent pathways in the 1970s. Data from the 2001 Eurobarometer indicate that while the cultural choices of persons born before democratic transition are comparable across the two cases, Portuguese youth born under democracy are substantially more omnivorous than their Spanish counterparts. We shed light on this puzzle through a structured, focused comparison. Our argument is that whereas revolution in Portugal overturned hierarchies in numerous social institutions and unleashed an ambitious program of cultural transformation, Spain's consensus-oriented transition was largely limited to remaking political institutions. We show that this macro-political divergence resulted in a key cross-case difference at the institutional level. Whereas pedagogical practices in Portugal encourage young people to adopt the post-canonical, anti-hierarchical orientation toward aesthetics constitutive of the omnivorous orientation, corresponding practices in Spain restrict omnivorousness by instilling a hierarchical, largely canonical attitude toward cultural works.
----------------------
A Different Look at Lenin's Legacy: Social Capital and Risk Taking in the two Germanies
Guido Heineck & Bernd Süssmuth
Journal of Comparative Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
What are the long-term effects of Communism on economically relevant notions such as social trust, fairness, and scope of cooperation? To answer this question, we study the post-unification trajectory of convergence between East and West German individuals with regard to trust, cooperation, and risk. Our hypotheses are derived from a model of German unification that incorporates individual responses both to incentives and to values inherited from earlier generations as recently suggested in the literature. Using two waves of balanced panel data, we find that despite twenty years of unification East Germans are still characterized by a persistent level of social distrust. In comparison to West Germans, they are less inclined to see others as cooperative. East Germans are also found to have been more risk loving than West Germans. However, risk attitudes fully converged recently.
----------------------
Dejun Tony Kong
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, May 2013, Pages 574-588
Abstract:
Social science research has focused on polieconomic factors for generalized social trust. Yet psychological research has shown that ecological factors can influence cognition, mood, and behavior. Following Van de Vliert's climatic demands-resources theory, I proposed the view of a climatoeconomic contextualization of generalized social trust. Specifically, I found that the interplay of thermal climates (harshness) and wealth (GDP per capita) was related to generalized social trust, mediated by uncertainty avoidance rather than other cultural dimensions such as individualism-collectivism, masculinity-femininity, and power distance. These findings render direct support to Hofstede's hypothesis that societal cultures are first-stage outcomes of climatic factors and second-stage intermediaries between these climatic factors and the sociopsychological functioning of markets, organizations, groups, and individuals. They also provide important implications for trust theory and climatic demands-resources theory.
----------------------
Disgust and contamination: A cross-national comparison of Ghana and the United States
Alexander Skolnick & Vivian Dzokoto
Frontiers in Psychology, February 2013
Abstract:
The emotion of disgust, with feelings of revulsion and behavioral withdrawal, make it a prime emotion to aid in the avoidance of sources of contamination, including sources of potential infectious disease. We tested the theory that living in a region with a historically high prevalence of infectious diseases would promote higher levels of disgust and contamination sensitivity as a protective measure. A sample of undergraduates from Ghana (n = 103, 57 women), a country with a historically high prevalence of infectious diseases, showed significantly higher scores on scales assessing disgust, contamination, and disease susceptibility than a sample of undergraduates from the United States (n = 96, 58 women), a country with lower levels of disease threat. Contamination sensitivity mediated the national differences in disgust. Disgust connoting contamination also produced larger cross-national effect sizes than other types of disgust. Finally, a factor analysis on the Ghanaian responses to one of the disgust scales did not resemble the usual three-factor solution found in West. Taken together, the results were consistent with the hypothesis that a region with a higher prevalence of infectious disease threats would produce greater sensitivity to disgust and contamination than seen in lower disease threat regions. This first study on disgust in Africa showed that disgust sensitivity could differ considerably from that in the West.
----------------------
Choice and dissonance in a European cultural context: The case of Western and Eastern Europeans
Michail Kokkoris & Ulrich Kühnen
International Journal of Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Prior research demonstrates that members of collectivistic cultures are less likely to reduce cognitive dissonance after making a choice, compared to members of individualistic cultures. This difference has been attributed to different conceptualizations of choice that derive from different self-construals across cultures. In individualistic cultures, choice leads to stronger commitment to the chosen option compared to collectivistic cultures, because it implicates core aspects of the independent self, such as personal preferences. However, this cultural variation in postchoice dissonance has thus far been studied exclusively by comparing East Asians and North Americans. Building on the assumption that this difference is due to different construals of the self, we conducted an experiment with movie choices using the classic free-choice paradigm to examine differences in dissonance reduction between Western and Eastern Europeans, two populations known to differ with respect to interdependence. The results show that Eastern Europeans are less likely than Western Europeans to reduce postchoice dissonance by spreading their alternatives. Our findings speak to the generalizability of the hypothesis that in cultures differing in independence or interdependence people also differ in the way they construe choice, as well as in the way the act of choosing affects their self-concept.
----------------------
Yat Laam Lau et al.
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, April 2013, Pages 461-477
Abstract:
Chinese, Chinese-Canadian, and Euro-Canadian children 7, 9, and 11 years of age were presented scenarios in which story characters either lied or told the truth to help themselves but harm a collective, or vice versa. Children classified, evaluated, and justified their evaluations of the truthful or untruthful statements in each scenario. Cultural differences emerged in the children's evaluations but were especially apparent in their justifications. Chinese children rated more positively statements that helped a collective and harmed an individual than vice versa, and they showed concerns for a group over the self when evaluating moral statements, thus reflecting collectivist inclinations. Euro-Canadian children did the reverse, demonstrating individualistic tendencies. Bicultural, Chinese-Canadian, children's judgments and justifications were situation specific, offering preliminary evidence for the possibility that bicultural individuals shift, at a relatively early age, between cultural frames in their interpretations and evaluations of moral dilemmas, depending upon the context.
----------------------
Increasing Rejection of Intimate Partner Violence: Evidence of Global Cultural Diffusion
Rachael Pierotti
American Sociological Review, April 2013, Pages 240-265
Abstract:
This study extends existing world society research on ideational diffusion by going beyond examinations of national policy change to investigate the spread of ideas among nonelite individuals. Specifically, I test whether recent trends in women's attitudes about intimate partner violence are converging toward global cultural scripts. Results suggest that global norms regarding violence against women are reaching citizens worldwide, including in some of the least privileged parts of the globe. During the first decade of the 2000s, women in 23 of the 26 countries studied became more likely to reject intimate partner violence. Structural socioeconomic or demographic changes, such as urbanization, rising educational attainment, increasing media access, and cohort replacement, fail to explain the majority of the observed trend. Rather, women of all ages and social locations became less likely to accept justifications for intimate partner violence. The near uniformity of the trend and speed of the change in attitudes about intimate partner violence suggest that global cultural diffusion has played an important role.
----------------------
Cultural Variation in the Focus on Goals Versus Processes of Actions
Yuri Miyamoto et al.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
Everyday actions (e.g., riding a bike) can be described in ways that emphasize either the goals of the action by adapting a higher level identification (e.g., getting exercise) or the processes of the action by adapting a lower level identification (e.g., pedaling). In Studies 1 and 2, we demonstrate cultural differences in focusing on the process or goal of actions at the individual level: Americans are more likely than Japanese to focus on the goal (rather than the process) of actions. Study 3 recruited Chinese participants in addition to American and Japanese participants and found that cultural differences in action identification are partly explained by cultural differences in self-consistency. Study 4 further showed cultural differences at the collective level: American media presents more goal-oriented information and less process-oriented information than does Japanese media. These findings highlight the role of culture in shaping how people attend to different aspects of actions.
----------------------
Eva Dreikurs Ferguson et al.
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Does culture shape reported parenting styles and cognitive processes like transitive reasoning, of choosing A over B, B over C, and then A over C (transitivity)? Asian-American, Caucasian-American, and Indian university students differed significantly in transitivity and in reported parental styles. India participants were more intransitive and, contrary to traditional findings in the literature, reported their parents as more laissez-faire, individualistic, and competitive than did Caucasian-Americans. Recent technological and industrial advances in India likely explain some of these obtained differences. Predictions from Adlerian theory and work of Kurt Lewin, that parenting styles would relate to transitivity of choices, were indirectly supported. Stronger evidence was found that culture impacts both reported parental styles and transitivity of simple choices.
----------------------
Xinfa Yi et al.
Creativity Research Journal, Winter 2013, Pages 97-108
Abstract:
Empirical research on the relationship between culture and creativity has thus far yielded no consistent results. Investigations of the differences are mostly post-hoc, and results are inconclusive. A creativity-value-oriented theory is proposed to explain cultural differences, as an alternative to ethnic and language effects. This study was conducted to compare the performances of artistic creativity of Germans and Chinese. Results revealed that the four groups of students examined (German students of Caucasian descent, German students of Asian descent, Chinese students studying abroad, and Chinese students studying in China) differed in their artistic creativity. German participants (Caucasian Germans and Asian Germans) produced more creative and aesthetically pleasing artwork than did their Chinese counterparts (Chinese studying abroad and domestic Chinese). This difference was observed by both German and Chinese judges. There no significant subgroup differences in creative performances - no difference between the two German groups, and no difference between the two Chinese groups. Finally, although there were significant differences between German judges, Chinese judges studying abroad, and domestic Chinese judges in judging the artworks, these were not due to a preference for artwork from students from their own cultural background. Chinese and German judges roughly agreed on what constitutes creativity. These results suggest that cultural differences affect creative performances.
----------------------
A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Pretend Play in U.S. and Italian Children
Daphne Chessa et al.
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, May 2013, Pages 640-656
Abstract:
Pretend play reflects cognitive, representational, and affective expression abilities in children. Cross-cultural studies stress the importance of culture-specific practices involved in shaping the context for play. Differences in the cultural environment and the parental care-giving system could influence children's pretend play activities. There is a need for cross-cultural comparisons of play that use the same standardized measure of play. The current study was a cross-cultural comparison of two samples of American and Italian children 6 to 8 years old. All children were administered the Affect in Play Scale. As hypothesized, Italian children had significantly more types of affect expression in play than children in the United States, showing a medium effect size. Children in the United States had more imagination in their play, although with a small effect size. Implications of these findings are discussed.
----------------------
Error-Related Brain Activity Reveals Self-Centric Motivation: Culture Matters
Shinobu Kitayama & Jiyoung Park
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, forthcoming
Abstract:
To secure the interest of the personal self (vs. social others) is considered a fundamental human motive, but the nature of the motivation to secure the self-interest is not well understood. To address this issue, we assessed electrocortical responses of European Americans and Asians as they performed a flanker task while instructed to earn as many reward points as possible either for the self or for their same-sex friend. For European Americans, error-related negativity (ERN) - an event-related-potential component contingent on error responses - was significantly greater in the self condition than in the friend condition. Moreover, post-error slowing - an index of cognitive control to reduce errors - was observed in the self condition but not in the friend condition. Neither of these self-centric effects was observed among Asians, consistent with prior cross-cultural behavioral evidence. Interdependent self-construal mediated the effect of culture on the ERN self-centric effect. Our findings provide the first evidence for a neural correlate of self-centric motivation, which becomes more salient outside of interdependent social relations.
----------------------
Explaining the World Heritage List: An empirical study
Bruno Frey, Paolo Pamini & Lasse Steiner
International Review of Economics, March 2013, Pages 1-19
Abstract:
The UNESCO World Heritage List is designed to protect the global heritage. We show that, with respect to countries and continents, the existing World Heritage List is highly imbalanced. Major econometric determinants of this imbalance are historical GDP, historical population, area in square kilometers of a country, and number of years of high civilization. Surprisingly, economic and political factors, such as membership on the UN Security Council, which should be unrelated to the value of a country's heritage and therefore should have no impact, are shown to have a systematic impact on the composition of the World Heritage List.
----------------------
Condoned or Condemned: The Situational Affordance of Anger and Shame in the United States and Japan
Michael Boiger et al.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, April 2013, Pages 540-553
Abstract:
Two studies tested the idea that the situations that people encounter frequently and the situations that they associate most strongly with an emotion differ across cultures in ways that can be understood from what a culture condones or condemns. In a questionnaire study, N = 163 students from the United States and Japan perceived situations as more frequent to the extent that they elicited condoned emotions (anger in the United States, shame in Japan), and they perceived situations as less frequent to the extent that they elicited condemned emotions (shame in the United States, anger in Japan). In a second study, N = 160 students from the United States and Japan free-sorted the same situations. For each emotion, the situations could be organized along two cross-culturally common dimensions. Those situations that touched upon central cultural concerns were perceived to elicit stronger emotions. The largest cultural differences were found for shame; smaller, yet meaningful, differences were found for anger.
----------------------
Perceived social image and life satisfaction across cultures
Patricia Rodriguez Mosquera & Toshie Imada
Cognition & Emotion, forthcoming
Abstract:
We studied the relationship between perceived social image and life satisfaction in four different cultural groups. One-hundred nine Indian (63 females, 46 males), 67 Pakistani/Bangladeshi (36 females, 31 males), 76 White British (43 females, 33 males), and 94 European Americans (43 females, 48 males) completed measures on the cultural importance of social image, positive and negative emotions, academic achievement, and perceived social image. Indian and Pakistani/Bangladeshi participants valued social image more than White British and European-American participants. Consistent with this value difference, a positive perceived social image predicted life satisfaction among Indian and Pakistani/Bangladeshi participants only. For these participants, perceived social image predicted life satisfaction above and beyond the effects of emotions and academic achievement. Academic achievement only predicted life satisfaction among White British and European Americans. Emotions were significant predictors of life satisfaction for all participants.
----------------------
Need Satisfaction and Well-Being: Testing Self-Determination Theory in Eight Cultures
Timothy Church et al.
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, May 2013, Pages 507-534
Abstract:
According to Self-Determination Theory (SDT), satisfaction of needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness is a universal requirement for psychological well-being. We tested this hypothesis with college students in the United States, Australia, Mexico, Venezuela, the Philippines, Malaysia, China, and Japan. Participants rated the extent to which these needs, plus needs for self-actualization and pleasure-stimulation, were satisfied in various roles and reported their general hedonic (i.e., positive and negative affect) and eudaimonic (e.g., meaning in life, personal growth) well-being. Asian participants averaged lower than non-Asian participants in perceived satisfaction of autonomy, competence, and self-actualization needs and in most aspects of eudaimonic well-being, and these differences were partially accounted for by differences in dialecticism and independent self-construals. Nonetheless, perceived need satisfaction predicted overall well-being to a similar degree in all cultures and in most cultures provided incremental prediction beyond the Big Five traits. Perceived imbalance in the satisfaction of different needs also modestly predicted well-being, particularly negative affect. The study extended support for the universal importance of SDT need satisfaction to several new cultures.
----------------------
Agency and Facial Emotion Judgment in Context
Kenichi Ito, Takahiko Masuda & Liman Man Wai Li
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
Past research showed that East Asians' belief in holism was expressed as their tendencies to include background facial emotions into the evaluation of target faces more than North Americans. However, this pattern can be interpreted as North Americans' tendency to downplay background facial emotions due to their conceptualization of facial emotion as volitional expression of internal states. Examining this alternative explanation, we investigated whether different types of contextual information produce varying degrees of effect on one's face evaluation across cultures. In three studies, European Canadians and East Asians rated the intensity of target facial emotions surrounded with either affectively salient landscape sceneries or background facial emotions. The results showed that, although affectively salient landscapes influenced the judgment of both cultural groups, only European Canadians downplayed the background facial emotions. The role of agency as differently conceptualized across cultures and multilayered systems of cultural meanings are discussed.
----------------------
The Construction of the Multilingual Internet: Unicode, Hebrew, and Globalization
Nicholas John
Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, April 2013, Pages 321-338
Abstract:
This paper examines the technologies that enable the representation of Hebrew on websites. Hebrew is written from right to left and in non-Latin characters, issues shared by a number of languages which seem to be converging on a shared solution - Unicode. Regarding the case of Hebrew, I show how competing solutions have given way to one dominant technology. I link processes in the Israeli context with broader questions about the ‘multilingual Internet,' asking whether the commonly accepted solution for representing non-Latin texts on computer screens is an instance of cultural imperialism and convergence around a western artifact. It is argued that while minority languages are given an online voice by Unicode, the context is still one of western power.
----------------------
Hummus: The making of an Israeli culinary cult
Dafna Hirsch & Ofra Tene
Journal of Consumer Culture, March 2013, Pages 25-45
Abstract:
Hummus - an Arab dish adopted by Jews in Israel and made into a ‘national dish' and a culinary cult - was first industrialized in Israel in 1958. In this article we look at the impact of the food industry on shaping both consumption patterns and the signification of the dish. Contrary to accounts that contrast mass production to authenticity and tradition, fast to slow food, globalized trade to local production, we regard the industrial and the artisanal as interdependent and mutually constitutive realms of production and consumption. We argue, first, that the Israeli food industry has played a crucial role in turning hummus into a national symbol and a culinary cult. Second, we argue that the growing popularity of industrial hummus not only did not replace the consumption of artisanal hummus, but the other way around. Third, we argue that the industry is simultaneously an agent of globalization and of localization of hummus: it expands the spread of hummus globally and at the same time it sometimes tries to fix to it a local (‘national') identity.
Monday, April 8, 2013
Bordering on passage
The Dynamics of Immigration Opinion in the United States, 1992-2012
Christopher Muste
Public Opinion Quarterly, forthcoming
Abstract:
Integrating trend data from ANES, GSS, Gallup, Pew, and media surveys from 1992 to 2012, this article updates and extends previous Poll Trends analyses of public opinion about immigration levels, the impacts of recent immigrants, and immigration policies. The combined data demonstrate continued negativity and ambivalence, consistent with earlier reviews, and reveal a pattern of rapid, steep increases in anti-immigrant sentiment in response to events such as the 1994 election and 9/11, followed by declines over several years that stabilize at lower levels. Since 2001, opinions about most aspects of immigration have become less volatile, and consistent differentiation in opinion has emerged. Concerns about job competition and border enforcement are high, whereas fears about other immigration impacts have declined or stabilized and support for deporting illegal immigrants already in the United States is low. To improve understanding of trends in immigration opinion, survey questions about immigration must be asked more often and more consistently.
----------------------
Race, Legality, and the Social Policy Consequences of Anti-Immigration Mobilization
Hana Brown
American Sociological Review, April 2013, Pages 290-314
Abstract:
With the dramatic rise in the U.S. Hispanic population, scholars have struggled to explain how race affects welfare state development beyond the Black-White divide. This article uses a comparative analysis of welfare reforms in California and Arizona to examine how anti-Hispanic stereotypes affect social policy formation. Drawing on interviews, archival materials, and newspaper content analysis, I find that animus toward Hispanics is mobilized through two collective action frames: a legality frame and a racial frame. The legality frame lauds the contributions of documented noncitizens while demonizing illegal immigrants. The racial frame celebrates the moral worth of White citizens and uses explicit racial language to deride Hispanics as undeserving. These subtle differences in racialization and worth attribution create divergent political opportunities for welfare policy. When advocates employ the legality frame, they create openings for rights claims by documented noncitizens. Use of the racial frame, however, dampens cross-racial mobilization and effective claims-making for expansive welfare policies. These findings help to explain why the relationship between race and welfare policy is less predictable for Hispanics than for Blacks. They also reveal surprising ways in which race and immigration affect contemporary politics and political mobilization.
----------------------
Racial Threat and White Opposition to Bilingual Education in Texas
Lynn Hempel et al.
Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, February 2013, Pages 85-102
Abstract:
This study examines local contextual conditions that influence opposition to bilingual education among non-Hispanic Whites, net of individual-level characteristics. Data from the Texas Poll (N = 615) are used in conjunction with U.S. Census data to test five competing hypotheses using binomial and multinomial logistic regression models. Our results support a "racial threat" hypothesis, suggesting that increasing opposition to bilingual education among Whites corresponds to changes in the Hispanic population. We find opposition to bilingual education among non-Hispanic Whites to be most pronounced in areas with substantial growth in an already sizeable Hispanic population, and least pronounced in areas of high growth rates and historically low proportions of Hispanics. Importantly, our results highlight the relevance of the interaction between minority group size and minority growth rates in generating majority opposition to bilingual education programs in the United States.
----------------------
Henrik Jacobsen Kleven et al.
NBER Working Paper, March 2013
Abstract:
This paper analyzes the effects of income taxation on the international migration and earnings of top earners using a Danish preferential foreigner tax scheme and population-wide Danish administrative data. This scheme, introduced in 1991, allows new immigrants with high earnings to be taxed at a preferential flat rate for a duration of three years. We obtain three main results. First, the scheme has doubled the number of highly paid foreigners in Denmark relative to slightly less paid ineligible foreigners, which translates into a very large elasticity of migration with respect to the net-of-tax rate on foreigners, between 1.5 and 2. Hence, preferential tax schemes for highly paid foreign workers could create severe tax competition between countries. Second, we find compelling evidence of a negative effect of scheme-induced increases in the net-of-tax rate on pre-tax earnings at the individual level. This finding cannot be explained by the standard labor supply model where pay equals marginal productivity, but it can be rationalized by a matching frictions model with wage bargaining where there is a gap between pay and marginal productivity. Third, we find no evidence of positive or negative spillovers of the scheme-induced influx of high-skilled foreigners on the earnings of highly paid natives.
----------------------
Who Gets a Swiss Passport? A Natural Experiment in Immigrant Discrimination
Jens Hainmueller & Dominik Hangartner
American Political Science Review, February 2013, Pages 159-187
Abstract:
We study discrimination against immigrants using microlevel data from Switzerland, where, until recently, some municipalities used referendums to decide on the citizenship applications of foreign residents. We show that naturalization decisions vary dramatically with immigrants' attributes, which we collect from official applicant descriptions that voters received before each referendum. Country of origin determines naturalization success more than any other applicant characteristic, including language skills, integration status, and economic credentials. The average proportion of "no" votes is about 40% higher for applicants from (the former) Yugoslavia and Turkey compared to observably similar applicants from richer northern and western European countries. Statistical and taste-based discrimination contribute to varying naturalization success; the rewards for economic credentials are higher for applicants from disadvantaged origins, and origin-based discrimination is much stronger in more xenophobic municipalities. Moreover, discrimination against specific immigrant groups responds dynamically to changes in the groups' relative size.
----------------------
Wage Effects of High-Skilled Migration: International Evidence
Volker Grossmann & David Stadelmann
World Bank Economic Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
The international migration of high-skilled workers may trigger productivity effects at the macro level such that the wage rate of skilled workers increases in host countries and decreases in source countries. We exploit data on international bilateral migration flows and provide evidence consistent with this theoretical hypothesis. We propose various instrumentation strategies to identify the causal effect of skilled migration on log differences of GDP per capita, total factor productivity, and the wages of skilled workers between pairs of source and destination countries. These strategies aim to address the endogeneity problem that arises when international wage differences affect migration decisions.
----------------------
Peter Dixon, Maureen Rimmer & Bryan Roberts
Contemporary Economic Policy, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper builds on earlier work that used a general-equilibrium model to show that reducing employment of unauthorized immigrants in the United States through a tighter border-security policy lowers the average income of legal residents. Here we exploit further the detail available in the general-equilibrium model to look at distributional effects, recognizing that the policy increases wage rates for low-paid legal workers. We assess the social welfare effect on legal workers using a constant elasticity of substitution social welfare function. We contrast our general-equilibrium approach to immigration analysis with the more commonly used partial-equilibrium, econometric approach.
----------------------
Choice of Country by the Foreign Born for PhD and Postdoctoral Study: A Sixteen-Country Perspective
Paula Stephan, Chiara Franzoni & Giuseppe Scellato
NBER Working Paper, February 2013
Abstract:
We analyze the decisions of foreign-born PhD and postdoctoral trainees to come to the United States vs. go to another country for training. Data are drawn from the GlobSci survey of scientists in sixteen countries working in four fields. We find that individuals come to the U.S. to train because of the prestige of its programs and/or career prospects. They are discouraged from training in the United States because of the perceived lifestyle. The availability of exchange programs elsewhere discourages coming for PhD study; the relative unattractiveness of fringe benefits discourages coming for postdoctoral study. Countries that have been nibbling at the U.S.-PhD and postdoc share are Australia, Germany, and Switzerland; France and Great Britain have gained appeal in attracting postdocs, but not in attracting PhD students. Canada has made gains in neither.
----------------------
Immigration and Wealth Inequality in Old Age: The Case of Israel
Noah Lewin-Epstein & Moshe Semyonov
Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, forthcoming
Abstract:
Relatively little research has been devoted to the long term implications of immigration for the accumulation of household wealth. This accumulation has significance both for the well-being in old age and for intergenerational transmission of advantage and disadvantage. Our study addresses the nativity wealth gap and examines its sources. Data for the analysis were obtained from the SHARE-Israel study conducted in 2005-06. Our sample includes 1,366 Jewish households, either native-born or immigrant. We use OLS regression to estimate the nativity wealth gap and arrive at a number of noteworthy findings. First, immigrant-native disparities are large and do not disappear even after many decades of residence. Second, an important source of the disparity in accumulated household wealth is the fact that immigrants are considerably less likely than natives to have received a substantial inheritance. Third, wealth is strongly related to household income and more so among some immigrant groups than among natives. Fourth, there is substantial variation in the wealth of immigrant groups defined by their geo-cultural origin.
----------------------
Linda Berg & Andrea Spehar
Policy Studies, March/April 2013, Pages 142-161
Abstract:
While the free movement of labour in the EU is generally depicted as a positive feature of the single market, it was also controversial in the debate on EU enlargement. Actors opposing enlargement argued that large waves of migrants from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) would 'swamp' Western labour markets, leading to so-called social tourism and increasing xenophobia. Contrary to the developments in other countries, Sweden was one of the only three Member States to immediately open its doors to citizens from the EU accession countries of 2004 and 2007. Sweden has also been one of the few EU countries to actively promote greater liberalisation of labour migration policy for third-country nationals (TCNs) within the EU, and the new Swedish Immigration Law of 2008 dramatically liberalised the TCN labour migration policy and made it more employer-driven. We argue that in order to understand why Sweden has supported increased labour mobility within and from outside of the EU, we need to complement existing explanations by analysing the preferences of the political parties. A two-dimensional analysis focusing on economy and culture provides an understanding of why so-called unholy coalitions of parties in support of liberal labour policies have emerged in Sweden during the 2000s. The article ends with a discussion of lessons learned from the Swedish case and wider implications for rights-based mobility in the EU.
----------------------
Binational Marriages in Sweden: Is There an EU Effect?
Karen Haandrikman
Population, Space and Place, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper explores and explains the partner choice of Swedes in the period 1991-2008. The partner market for Swedes has expanded considerably in the last few decades, because of EU expansion, globalisation processes, and an increased diversity of the migrant population. Besides increased opportunities, citizens who are better educated, younger, and more mobile might prefer foreign partners of their own kind. The paper focuses on marriages between Swedish-born and foreign-born partners and distinguishes people with Swedish-born parents from those with foreign-born parents. Using full-population register data, I conducted a systematic comparison between Swedes marrying EU partners and those marrying non-EU partners. I find that the binational marriage rate has increased over time, especially for native Swedish men and men who are second-generation Swedes. The increase is for the greater part attributable to an increase in the number of marriages to partners from outside the EU, whereas binational EU marriages have remained stable with no effects from EU accession. Patterns of binational marriages are highly gender specific: Finland being the most important supplier for foreign husbands, whereas Thai women are most popular amongst men. Against expectation, native Swedes in binational marriages are, by and large, older and less well educated.
----------------------
Patricia Greenfield & Blanca Quiroz
Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, March-April 2013, Pages 108-118
Abstract:
We documented cross-cultural similarities and differences in values concerning personal achievement between Latino immigrant parents, a group of multiethnic teachers, and European American parents. We also explored intergenerational similarities and differences between parents and their fifth-grade children. The theoretical premise was that sociodemographic factors, such as education, drive cultural values, with more formal education associated with individualistic values and less formal education associated with collectivistic/familistic values. Responding to open-ended social dilemmas relevant to family life, Latino immigrant parents, averaging a fifth-grade education, responded more familistically than the more highly educated multiethnic teachers or European American parents. In contrast, no group differences in values showed up in situations where school practices do not directly impact family life. Intergenerational differences were few; but, in family-centered scenarios, European American fifth graders were significantly more collectivistic than European American parents, a finding that suggested the possibility that, in an individualistic culture, individualism is socialized with age.
----------------------
Openness, Extraversion and the Intention to Emigrate
Damarys Canache et al.
Journal of Research in Personality, August 2013, Pages 351-355
Abstract:
Economic, demographic and sociological factors influence the intention to emigrate, but variation in personality also may be consequential. In this report, data on intention to emigrate are drawn via nationally-representative samples from 22 countries in the Americas. Multivariate analyses permit attention to the key factors identified in past empirical research, but also enable examination of the effects of openness to experience and extraversion. Openness and extraversion both are shown to exert modest positive influence on the intention to emigrate. Additionally, heterogeneity in these effects is observed in that the influence of both traits is found to be conditional on a respondent's level of education.
----------------------
Matthew Sanderson
Social Science Research, May 2013, Pages 683-697
Abstract:
This paper empirically assesses how immigration affects international inequality by testing the relationship between immigration and national economic development across countries in different world income groups. A series of cross-national, longitudinal analyses demonstrate that, on average, immigration has a rather small, but positive long-term effect on development levels. However, the findings also indicate that immigration has a Matthew Effect (Merton, 1968) in the world-economy: immigration disproportionately benefits higher-income countries. Moreover, the wealthiest countries reap the largest gains from immigration. Thus, from the perspective of destination countries, immigration does not appear to be a panacea for international inequality. Instead, the results indicate that immigration actually reproduces, and even exacerbates, international inequality.
----------------------
Kim Ebert & Dina Okamoto
Social Forces, forthcoming
Abstract:
Collective action has been examined in studies of worker insurgency, homeless protest, the Civil Rights movement and white backlash against racial minorities. Relatively few studies, however, focus on noncontentious forms of immigrant collective action. Utilizing a new data set comprising over 1,000 immigrant civic events, we examine whether the civic and political environment within metropolitan areas affect civic engagement. Our results indicate that political opportunities and resources did not have uniform effects, but that institutional threats to immigrants deterred civic activity. Furthermore, we find that local restrictive efforts instigated solidarity events, while outreach efforts directed at immigrants facilitated community improvement projects. These findings suggest that conditions intensifying group boundaries between immigrants and natives and encouraging collective efficacy are important predictors of immigrant civic engagement.
----------------------
The politics of immigrant policy in the 50 US states, 2005-2011
James Monogan
Journal of Public Policy, April 2013, Pages 35-64
Abstract:
This article asks what shaped immigrant policy in the 50 states between 2005 and 2011. Theoretically, politicians are influenced by electoral considerations as they craft laws. Law-makers consider both current public opinion and how the electorate is likely to change, at least in the near future. Empirically, the article analyses an original dataset on immigrant-related laws enacted by the states with a Bayesian spatial conditionally autoregressive model. The analysis shows that state immigrant policy is affected primarily by legislative professionalism, electoral ideology, state wealth and change in the foreign-born population.
----------------------
Attracting Talent: Location Choices of Foreign-Born PhDs in the US
Jeffrey Grogger & Gordon Hanson
NBER Working Paper, February 2013
Abstract:
We use data from the NSF Survey of Earned Doctorates to examine the post-degree location choices of foreign-born students receiving PhDs from US universities in science and engineering. Over the period 1960 to 2008, 77% of foreign-born S&E PhDs state that they plan to stay in the United States. The foreign students more likely to stay in the US are those with stronger academic ability, measured in terms of parental educational attainment and the student's success in obtaining graduate fellowships. Foreign students staying in the United States thus appear to be positively selected in terms of academic ability. We also find that foreign students are more likely to stay in the United States if in recent years the US economy has had strong GDP growth or the birth country of the foreign student has had weak GDP growth. Foreign students are less likely to remain in the US if they are from countries with higher average income levels or that have recently democratized. Education and innovation may therefore be part of a virtuous cycle in which education enhances prospects for innovation in low-income countries and innovation makes residing in these countries more attractive for scientists and engineers.
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Clever
Can counter-stereotypes boost flexible thinking?
Małgorzata Gocłowska, Richard Crisp & Kirsty Labuschagne
Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, March 2013, Pages 217-231
Abstract:
To reduce prejudice psychologists design interventions requiring people to think of counter-stereotypes (i.e., people who defy stereotypic expectations - a strong woman, a Black President). Grounded in the idea that stereotypes constrain the ability to think flexibly, we propose that thinking of counter-stereotypes can have benefits that extend beyond the goal of prejudice reduction - in particular to tasks measuring cognitive flexibility and creative performance. Findings supported this conjecture. In Experiment 1 priming a gender counter-stereotype enhanced cognitive flexibility. This effect could not be attributed to changes in mood. In Experiment 2, using a gender-independent manipulation, priming various social counter-stereotypes brought a boost to creative performance. We discuss implications of these extended benefits of counter-stereotypic thinking for developing future prejudice-reduction interventions.
----------------------
An increase of intelligence in Saudi Arabia, 1977-2010
Adel Batterjee et al.
Intelligence, March-April 2013, Pages 91-93
Abstract:
Normative data for 8-15 year olds for the Standard Progressive Matrices in Saudi Arabia were obtained in 1977 and 2010. The 2010 sample obtained higher average scores than the 1977 sample by .78d, equivalent to 11.7 IQ points. This represents a gain of 3.55 IQ points a decade over the 33 year period.
----------------------
Michael Mrazek et al.
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Given that the ability to attend to a task without distraction underlies performance in a wide variety of contexts, training one's ability to stay on task should result in a similarly broad enhancement of performance. In a randomized controlled investigation, we examined whether a 2-week mindfulness-training course would decrease mind wandering and improve cognitive performance. Mindfulness training improved both GRE reading-comprehension scores and working memory capacity while simultaneously reducing the occurrence of distracting thoughts during completion of the GRE and the measure of working memory. Improvements in performance following mindfulness training were mediated by reduced mind wandering among participants who were prone to distraction at pretesting. Our results suggest that cultivating mindfulness is an effective and efficient technique for improving cognitive function, with wide-reaching consequences.
----------------------
Evangelia Chrysikou et al.
Cognitive Neuroscience, forthcoming
Abstract:
Recent neuroscience evidence suggests that some higher-order tasks might benefit from a reduction in sensory filtering associated with low levels of cognitive control. Guided by neuroimaging findings, we hypothesized that cathodal (inhibitory) transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) will facilitate performance in a flexible use generation task. Participants saw pictures of artifacts and generated aloud either the object's common use or an uncommon use for it, while receiving cathodal tDCS (1.5mA) either over left or right PFC, or sham stimulation. A forward digit span task served as a negative control for potential general effects of stimulation. Analysis of voice-onset reaction times and number of responses generated showed significant facilitative effects of left PFC stimulation for the uncommon, but not the common use generation task and no effects of stimulation on the control task. The results support the hypothesis that certain tasks may benefit from a state of diminished cognitive control.
----------------------
Cultural differences in the development of processing speed
Robert Kail et al.
Developmental Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
The aim of the present work was to examine cultural differences in the development of speed of information processing. Four samples of US children (N = 509) and four samples of East Asian children (N = 661) completed psychometric measures of processing speed on two occasions. Analyses of the longitudinal data indicated that, although processing speed was comparable among US and East Asian children at the youngest age (~4.5 years), it developed more rapidly in some but not all of the East Asian samples. Results are discussed in terms of factors that may promote more rapid development of processing speed in some East Asian cultures.
----------------------
The Effects of Poor Neonatal Health on Children's Cognitive Development
David Figlio et al.
NBER Working Paper, February 2013
Abstract:
We make use of a new data resource, merged birth and school records for all children born in Florida from 1992 to 2002, to study the effects of birth weight on cognitive development from kindergarten through schooling. Using twin fixed effects models, we find that the effects of birth weight on cognitive development are essentially constant through the school career; that these effects are very similar across a wide range of family backgrounds; and that they are invariant to measures of school quality. We conclude that the effects of poor neonatal health on adult outcomes are therefore set very early.
----------------------
Enhancing Cognition with Video Games: A Multiple Game Training Study
Adam Oei & Michael Patterson
PLoS ONE, March 2013
Background: Previous evidence points to a causal link between playing action video games and enhanced cognition and perception. However, benefits of playing other video games are under-investigated. We examined whether playing non-action games also improves cognition. Hence, we compared transfer effects of an action and other non-action types that required different cognitive demands.
Methodology/Principal Findings: We instructed 5 groups of non-gamer participants to play one game each on a mobile device (iPhone/iPod Touch) for one hour a day/five days a week over four weeks (20 hours). Games included action, spatial memory, match-3, hidden- object, and an agent-based life simulation. Participants performed four behavioral tasks before and after video game training to assess for transfer effects. Tasks included an attentional blink task, a spatial memory and visual search dual task, a visual filter memory task to assess for multiple object tracking and cognitive control, as well as a complex verbal span task. Action game playing eliminated attentional blink and improved cognitive control and multiple-object tracking. Match-3, spatial memory and hidden object games improved visual search performance while the latter two also improved spatial working memory. Complex verbal span improved after match-3 and action game training.
Conclusion/Significance: Cognitive improvements were not limited to action game training alone and different games enhanced different aspects of cognition. We conclude that training specific cognitive abilities frequently in a video game improves performance in tasks that share common underlying demands. Overall, these results suggest that many video game-related cognitive improvements may not be due to training of general broad cognitive systems such as executive attentional control, but instead due to frequent utilization of specific cognitive processes during game play. Thus, many video game training related improvements to cognition may be attributed to near-transfer effects.
----------------------
Common DNA Markers Can Account for More Than Half of the Genetic Influence on Cognitive Abilities
Robert Plomin et al.
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
For nearly a century, twin and adoption studies have yielded substantial estimates of heritability for cognitive abilities, although it has proved difficult for genomewide-association studies to identify the genetic variants that account for this heritability (i.e., the missing-heritability problem). However, a new approach, genomewide complex-trait analysis (GCTA), forgoes the identification of individual variants to estimate the total heritability captured by common DNA markers on genotyping arrays. In the same sample of 3,154 pairs of 12-year-old twins, we directly compared twin-study heritability estimates for cognitive abilities (language, verbal, nonverbal, and general) with GCTA estimates captured by 1.7 million DNA markers. We found that DNA markers tagged by the array accounted for .66 of the estimated heritability, reaffirming that cognitive abilities are heritable. Larger sample sizes alone will be sufficient to identify many of the genetic variants that influence cognitive abilities.
----------------------
Kevin Beaver
Personality and Individual Differences, forthcoming
Abstract:
Selective attrition is a potentially serious problem that can bias the findings that are generated from longitudinal samples. Although the extent to which IQ might be involved in selective attrition has been studied, the results from these studies have been decidedly mixed. The current study adds to the literature examining the link between IQ and selective attrition by examining four waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Analysis of these data revealed that IQ is related to attrition, with lower IQ respondents more likely to drop out of the study when compared against higher IQ respondents. The evidence suggests that dropouts score about 4.5 IQ points lower than subjects who did not drop out. Limitations of the study are noted and directions for future research are discussed.
----------------------
The joys of spring: Changes in mental alertness and brain function
Leigh Riby
Experimental Psychology, Spring 2013, Pages 71-79
Abstract:
This study used Vivaldi's Four Seasons, an extraordinary example of program music, to explore the consequence of music exposure on cognitive event-related potentials (ERPs). Seventeen participants performed a three-stimulus visual odd-ball task while ERPs were recorded. Participants were required to differentiate between a rare target stimulus (to elicit a memory updating component; P3b), a rare novel stimulus (to elicit a novelty attention component; P3a), and a frequent nontarget stimulus. During task performance participants listened to the four concertos: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter in comparison to a silent control condition. Additionally, the three movements of each concerto have a fast, slow, fast structure that enabled examination of the impact of tempo. The data revealed that "Spring," particularly the well-recognized, vibrant, emotive, and uplifting first movement, had the ability to enhance mental alertness and brain measures of attention and memory.
----------------------
Chewing gum moderates the vigilance decrement
Kate Morgan, Andrew Johnson & Christopher Miles
British Journal of Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
We examine the impact of chewing gum on a Bakan-type vigilance task that requires the continual updating of short-term order memory. Forty participants completed a 30-min auditory Bakan-task either with, or without, the requirement to chew gum. Self-rated measures of mood were taken both pre- and post-task. As expected, the vigilance task produced a time-dependent performance decrement indexed via decreases in target detections and lengthened correct reaction times (RTs), and a reduction in post-task self-rated alertness scores. The declines in both performance and subjective alertness were attenuated in the chewing-gum group. In particular, correct RTs were significantly shorter following the chewing of gum in the latter stages of the task. Additionally, the gradients of decline for target detection and incline for correct RTs were both attenuated for the chewing-gum group. These findings are consistent with the data of Tucha and Simpson (2011), Appetite, 56, 299-301, who showed beneficial effects of chewing gum in the latter stages of a 30 min visual attention task, and extend their data to a task that necessitates the continuous updating of order memory. It is noteworthy that our data contradict the claim (Kozlov, Hughes, & Jones, 2012, Q. J. Exp. Psychology, 65, 501-513) that chewing gum negatively impacts short-term memory task performance.
----------------------
Does Multitasking Impair Studying? Depends on Timing
Harold Pashler, Sean Kang & Renita Ip
Applied Cognitive Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
It is often said that contemporary students frequently study while 'multitasking'. However, this rather diffuse term encompasses situations that vary as to the whether the learner controls the pace at which educational materials are provided. On the basis of prior cognitive research, we hypothesize that this may well be a critical determinant of interference. Three studies required students to read or listen to several short historical narratives and also to engage in five to eight very short conversations (akin to an instant messaging conversation). In Experiment 1, subjects read the narratives; here, multitasking marginally increased total time spent reading the narratives, especially when it occurred at random times. However, final memory for the narratives was not significantly affected. Similar results were obtained when the narratives were presented in audio format and the learner could pause them while conversing (Experiment 2). By contrast, when audio narratives did not pause, interruptions reduced comprehension performance (Experiment 3).
----------------------
Mikko Myrskylä et al.
American Journal of Epidemiology, 1 April 2013, Pages 649-655
Abstract:
Parental ages are increasing in the developed world, and postponed parenthood may have a negative association with the cognitive ability of offspring. There is, however, inconclusive evidence regarding the impact of both maternal and paternal ages. We have been able to reduce or eliminate unobserved confounding by using methods that account for fixed parental characteristics shared by brothers. Associations between parental age and intelligence quotient (IQ) among 565,433 Swedish males (birth cohorts 1951 to 1976) were analyzed, with IQ measured at conscription examinations (given between ages 17 and 20 years). When we accounted for the IQ time trend by adjusting for birth year, advanced paternal age showed no association with offspring IQ; however, maternal ages above 30 years were inversely associated with offspring IQ. For example, maternal ages 40-44 years were associated with an offspring IQ that was 0.07 standard deviations lower than that for maternal ages 25-29 years (P < 0.001). However, the IQ trend more than offset the impact of age, as without birth year adjustment, advanced maternal age was positively associated with IQ. Although the results confirmed that maternal age was negatively associated with offspring IQ, the association was small enough that delaying parenthood resulted in higher offspring IQ scores because of the positive IQ test score trend.
----------------------
The Genetic Correlation between Height and IQ: Shared Genes or Assortative Mating?
Matthew Keller et al.
PLoS Genetics, April 2013
Abstract:
Traits that are attractive to the opposite sex are often positively correlated when scaled such that scores increase with attractiveness, and this correlation typically has a genetic component. Such traits can be genetically correlated due to genes that affect both traits ("pleiotropy") and/or because assortative mating causes statistical correlations to develop between selected alleles across the traits ("gametic phase disequilibrium"). In this study, we modeled the covariation between monozygotic and dizygotic twins, their siblings, and their parents (total N = 7,905) to elucidate the nature of the correlation between two potentially sexually selected traits in humans: height and IQ. Unlike previous designs used to investigate the nature of the height-IQ correlation, the present design accounts for the effects of assortative mating and provides much less biased estimates of additive genetic, non-additive genetic, and shared environmental influences. Both traits were highly heritable, although there was greater evidence for non-additive genetic effects in males. After accounting for assortative mating, the correlation between height and IQ was found to be almost entirely genetic in nature. Model fits indicate that both pleiotropy and assortative mating contribute significantly and about equally to this genetic correlation.
----------------------
White-black differences in g and non-g effects for the SAT and ACT
Thomas Coyle, Jason Purcell & Anissa Snyder
Personality and Individual Differences, forthcoming
Abstract:
This research examined g and non-g effects for the SAT and ACT for whites and blacks. SAT scores, ACT scores, and college GPAs were obtained from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. g was estimated using the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery. Results indicated that (a) the g loadings of SAT and ACT composite scores were lower for whites than blacks, (b) group differences in the g loadings were related to the math subtests of the SAT and ACT, and (c) non-g variance accounted for surprisingly large percentages of SAT-GPA and ACT-GPA relations (range = 37-67%). The findings are discussed in terms of Spearman's Law of Diminishing Returns.
----------------------
Marsha Zhang et al.
PLoS ONE, February 2013
Abstract:
Does frequent head-to-ball contact cause cognitive dysfunctions and brain injury to soccer players? An iPad-based experiment was designed to examine the impact of ball-heading among high school female soccer players. We examined both direct, stimulus-driven, or reflexive point responses (Pro-Point) as well as indirect, goal-driven, or voluntary point responses (Anti-Point), thought to require cognitive functions in the frontal lobe. The results show that soccer players were significantly slower than controls in the Anti-Point task but displayed no difference in Pro-Point latencies, indicating a disruption specific to voluntary responses. These findings suggest that even subconcussive blows in soccer can result in cognitive function changes that are consistent with mild traumatic brain injury of the frontal lobes. There is great clinical and practical potential of a tablet-based application for quick detection and monitoring of cognitive dysfunction.
----------------------
Perceptual-cognitive expertise in elite volleyball players
Heloisa Alves et al.
Frontiers in Psychology, March 2013
Abstract:
The goal of the current study was to investigate the relationship between sport expertise and perceptual and cognitive skills, as measured by the component skills approach. We hypothesized that athletes would outperform non-athlete controls in a number of perceptual and cognitive domains and that sport expertise would minimize gender differences. A total of 154 individuals (87 professional volleyball players and 67 non-athlete controls) participated in the study. Participants performed a cognitive battery, which included tests of executive control, memory, and visuo-spatial attention. Athletes showed superior performance speed on three tasks (two executive control tasks and one visuo-spatial attentional processing task). In a subset of tasks, gender effects were observed mainly in the control group, supporting the notion that athletic experience can reduce traditional gender effects. The expertise effects obtained substantiate the view that laboratory tests of cognition may indeed enlighten the sport-cognition relationship.
Saturday, April 6, 2013
A bit of the old ultra-violence
Childhood and Adolescent Television Viewing and Antisocial Behavior in Early Adulthood
Lindsay Robertson, Helena McAnally & Robert Hancox
Pediatrics, March 2013, Pages 439 -446
Objective: To investigate whether excessive television viewing throughout childhood and adolescence is associated with increased antisocial behavior in early adulthood.
Methods: We assessed a birth cohort of 1037 individuals born in Dunedin, New Zealand, in 1972-1773, at regular intervals from birth to age 26 years. We used regression analysis to investigate the associations between television viewing hours from ages 5 to 15 years and criminal convictions, violent convictions, diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder, and aggressive personality traits in early adulthood.
Results: Young adults who had spent more time watching television during childhood and adolescence were significantly more likely to have a criminal conviction, a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder, and more aggressive personality traits compared with those who viewed less television. The associations were statistically significant after controlling for sex IQ, socioeconomic status, previous antisocial behavior, and parental control. The associations were similar for both sexes, indicating that the relationship between television viewing and antisocial behavior is similar for male and female viewers.
Conclusions: Excessive television viewing in childhood and adolescence is associated with increased antisocial behavior in early adulthood. The findings are consistent with a causal association and support the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation that children should watch no more than 1 to 2 hours of television each day.
----------------------
Neuroprediction of future rearrest
Eyal Aharoni et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, forthcoming
Abstract:
Identification of factors that predict recurrent antisocial behavior is integral to the social sciences, criminal justice procedures, and the effective treatment of high-risk individuals. Here we show that error-related brain activity elicited during performance of an inhibitory task prospectively predicted subsequent rearrest among adult offenders within 4 y of release (N = 96). The odds that an offender with relatively low anterior cingulate activity would be rearrested were approximately double that of an offender with high activity in this region, holding constant other observed risk factors. These results suggest a potential neurocognitive biomarker for persistent antisocial behavior.
----------------------
Daniel Fessler & Colin Holbrook
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
In situations of potential violent conflict, deciding whether to fight, flee, or try to negotiate entails assessing many attributes contributing to the relative formidability of oneself and one's opponent. Summary representations can usefully facilitate such assessments of multiple factors. Because physical size and strength are both phylogenetically ancient and ontogenetically recurrent contributors to the outcome of violent conflicts, these attributes provide plausible conceptual dimensions that may be used by the mind to summarize the relative formidability of opposing parties. Because the presence of allies is a vital factor in determining victory, we hypothesized that men accompanied by male companions would therefore envision a solitary foe as physically smaller and less muscular than would men who were alone. We document the predicted effect in two studies, one using naturally occurring variation in the presence of male companions and one employing experimental manipulation of this factor.
----------------------
Enhancing Static Facial Features Increases Intimidation
Eric Hehman, Jordan Leitner & Samuel Gaertner
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Previous research has established that a face's width-to-height ratio (fWHR) is pivotal in influencing observer evaluations, as individuals with a high fWHR are perceived as intimidating along multiple dimensions. Specifically, high-fWHR individuals are considered untrustworthy, aggressive, and prejudiced. Unlike other facial features involved in intimidation, fWHR is dependent upon bone structure and thus static. The current research examines whether individuals, in an effort to appear more intimidating, increase their perceived fWHR by manipulating the angle at which their faces are viewed. In Study 1, participants spontaneously posing as "intimidating" for photos had a greater fWHR compared to when they posed for a baseline photo. Additionally, individuals with smaller Baseline fWHRs, who would be particularly likely to benefit from augmenting their perceived fWHR, increased their fWHR more than individuals with larger fWHRs by tilting their heads more sharply. In Study 2 participants evaluated targets posed with their faces tilted or non-tilted. When targets were presented with their faces tilted they were evaluated as more intimidating than non-tilted baseline photos of the same target. This effect was greater for targets with larger baseline fWHRs. Up- or down-tilt and target gender differentially moderated this relationship. The current research presents evidence that individuals behaviorally manipulate their perceived fWHR in order to appear more intimidating.
----------------------
Kathleen Beullens & Jan Van den Bulck
Media Psychology, Winter 2013, Pages 88-114
Abstract:
The aim of the study is to examine whether the playing of driving games and the viewing of music videos during adolescence predict crash involvement in emerging adulthood. A prospective cohort study (N = 471) with a five-year interval was used to measure adolescents' gender, media use, personality characteristics (baseline measurement), and crash involvement (follow-up). At baseline measurement (2006), respondents were 17 or 18 years old and did not yet have their driver's license. Data were analyzed by means of logistic regression analyses and the calculation of attributable risks. Respondents who watched music videos at least several times a week (OR = 4.319) or respondents who played drive'em up games at least a few times a month (OR = 3.125) had a heightened chance of being involved in a car crash five years later, even after controlling for their total media exposure, gender, and personality characteristics. Implications for prevention are discussed.
----------------------
Ian Penton-Voak et al.
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
The ability to identify emotion in other people is critical to social functioning. In a series of experiments, we explored the relationship between recognition of emotion in ambiguous facial expressions and aggressive thoughts and behavior, both in healthy adults and in adolescent youth at high risk of criminal offending and delinquency. We show that it is possible to experimentally modify biases in emotion recognition to encourage the perception of happiness over anger in ambiguous expressions. This change in perception results in a decrease in self-reported anger and aggression in healthy adults and high-risk youth, respectively, and also in independently rated aggressive behavior in high-risk youth. We obtained similar effects on mood using two different techniques to modify biases in emotion perception (feedback-based training and visual adaptation). These studies provide strong evidence that emotion processing plays a causal role in anger and the maintenance of aggressive behavior.
----------------------
Fitness benefits of coalitionary aggression in male chimpanzees
Ian Gilby et al.
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, March 2013, Pages 373-381
Abstract:
Coalitionary aggression occurs when at least two individuals jointly direct aggression at one or more conspecific targets. Scientists have long argued that this common form of cooperation has positive fitness consequences. Nevertheless, despite evidence that social bond strength (which is thought to promote coalition formation) is correlated with fitness in primates, cetaceans, and ungulates, few studies have directly examined whether coalitionary aggression improves reproductive success. We tested the hypothesis that among free-ranging chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii), participation in coalitionary aggression increases reproductive output. Using 14 years of genetic and behavioral data from Gombe National Park, Tanzania, we found that coalitionary aggression increased a male's chances of (A) siring offspring, compared to other males of similar dominance rank, and (B) ascending in rank, a correlate of future reproductive output. Because male chimpanzees form coalitions with many others within a complex network, we used social network analysis to identify the types of connections correlated with these fitness benefits. The beneficiaries of coalitionary aggression were males with the highest "betweenness" - that is, those who tended to have coalition partners who themselves did not form coalitions with each other. This suggests that beyond simply recognizing third-party relationships, chimpanzees may use this knowledge to choose coalition partners. If so, this is a significant step forward in our knowledge of the adaptive value of social intelligence. Regardless of mechanism, however, this is the first evidence of genetic benefits of coalitionary aggression in this species, and therefore has important implications for understanding the evolution of cooperation.
----------------------
Third Party Involvement in Barroom Conflicts
Michael Parks et al.
Aggressive Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study examines the effect of situational variables on whether third parties intervene in conflicts in barroom settings, and whether they are aggressive or not when they intervene. Based on research on bystander intervention in emergencies, we hypothesized that third parties would be most likely to become involved in incidents with features that convey greater danger of serious harm. The situational variables indicative of danger were severity of aggression, whether the aggression was one-sided or mutual, gender, and level of intoxication of the initial participants in the conflict. Analyses consist of cross-tabulations and three-level Hierarchical Logistic Models (with bar, evening, and incidents as levels) for 860 incidents of verbal and physical aggression from 503 nights of observation in 87 large bars and clubs in Toronto, Canada. Third party involvement was more likely during incidents in which: (1) the aggression was more severe; (2) the aggression was mutual (vs. one-sided) aggression; (3) only males (vs. mixed gender) were involved; and (4) participants were more intoxicated. These incident characteristics were stronger predictors of non-aggressive third party involvement than aggressive third party involvement. The findings suggest that third parties are indeed responding to the perceived danger of serious harm. Improving our knowledge about this aspect of aggressive incidents is valuable for developing prevention and intervention approaches designed to reduce aggression in bars and other locations.
----------------------
Sex differences in structural brain asymmetry predict overt aggression in early adolescents
Troy Visser et al.
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, forthcoming
Abstract:
The devastating social, emotional, and economic consequences of human aggression are laid bare nightly on newscasts around the world. Aggression is principally mediated by neural circuitry comprising multiple areas of the prefrontal cortex and limbic system, including the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), amygdala, and hippocampus. A striking characteristic of these regions is their structural asymmetry about the midline (i.e., left vs. right hemisphere). Variations in these asymmetries have been linked to clinical disorders characterized by aggression and the rate of aggressive behavior in psychiatric patients. Here we show for the first time that structural asymmetries in prefrontal cortical areas are also linked to aggression in a normal population of early adolescents. Our findings indicate a relationship between parent reports of aggressive behavior in adolescents and structural asymmetries in the limbic and paralimbic ACC and OFC, and moreover, that this relationship varies by sex. Furthermore, while there was no relationship between aggression and structural asymmetries in the amygdala or hippocampus, hippocampal volumes did predict aggression in females. Taken together, the results suggest that structural asymmetries in the prefrontal cortex may influence human aggression, and that the anatomical basis of aggression varies substantially by sex.
----------------------
Jamie Ostrov et al.
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
The central goal of this study was to examine the prospective associations between forms (i.e., physical and relational) and functions (i.e., proactive and reactive) of aggressive behavior with social (i.e., peer rejection) and affective (i.e., anger, emotion regulation skills) processes during early childhood (N = 96, mean age = 42.80 months, SD = 7.57). A cross-lagged path analysis revealed that proactive relational aggression was uniquely associated with decreases in peer rejection, whereas reactive relational aggression was associated with increases in peer rejection over time. Proactive relational aggression predicted decreases in anger, whereas reactive relational aggression tended to be associated with increases in anger. Proactive relational aggression uniquely predicted increases in emotion regulation skills, whereas reactive relational aggression tended to be associated with decreases in emotion regulation skills over time. Finally, anger was significantly associated with increases in several subtypes of aggressive behavior. In sum, the findings provide further support for the distinction between subtypes of aggressive behavior in young children.
----------------------
Video Games, Immersion, and Cognitive Aggression: Does the Controller Matter?
Rory McGloin, Kirstie Farrar & Marina Krcmar
Media Psychology, Winter 2013, Pages 65-87
Abstract:
The influence of video game realism and controller naturalness on aggression was examined with an experiment that manipulated game realism and controller naturalness. Perceived controller naturalness increased perceptions of realism of the game and led to greater immersion. The more realistic game was perceived as such and led to greater immersion. Ultimately, greater immersion led to more cognitive aggression. Results are discussed in terms of a mental models approach and the process of model matching.
----------------------
Ki Joon Kim & Shyam Sundar
Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, forthcoming
Abstract:
Aggressiveness attributed to violent video game play is typically studied as a function of the content features of the game. However, can interface features of the game also affect aggression? Guided by the General Aggression Model (GAM), we examine the controller type (gun replica vs. mouse) and screen size (large vs. small) as key technological aspects that may affect the state aggression of gamers, with spatial presence and arousal as potential mediators. Results from a between-subjects experiment showed that a realistic controller and a large screen display induced greater aggression, presence, and arousal than a conventional mouse and a small screen display, respectively, and confirmed that trait aggression was a significant predictor of gamers' state aggression. Contrary to GAM, however, arousal showed no effects on aggression; instead, presence emerged as a significant mediator.
----------------------
Exploring the Genetic Origins of Adolescent Victimization in a Longitudinal Sample of Adoptees
Kevin Beaver et al.
Victims & Offenders, Spring 2013, Pages 148-163
Abstract:
Behavioral genetic research has consistently revealed that genetic factors explain a significant proportion of variance in antisocial phenotypes. Despite some initial evidence, the extent to which genetic factors influence adolescent victimization remains largely undetermined. The current study partially addresses this gap in the literature by employing an adoption-based research design to estimate genetic influences on victimization. Participants consisted of adoptees drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Multivariate analyses revealed that adoptees who had a biological criminal father or a biological criminal mother were at increased risk for being victimized in adolescence and also to be victimized repeatedly. This is the first study to use an adoption-based research design to show an association between genetic factors and the risk for adolescent victimization.
----------------------
The Willingness to Pay to Reduce School Bullying
Mattias Persson & Mikael Svensson
Economics of Education Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
The number of programs used to reduce bullying in schools is increasing, but often with a lack of understanding of the effectiveness and monetary benefits. This paper uses a discrete choice experiment conducted in Sweden in the spring of 2010 to elicit the willingness to pay (WTP) to reduce school bullying. Non-parametric and parametric approaches indicate a mean marginal WTP of 5.95 to 8.48 Swedish kronor (€0.66 to €0.95) for each reduced victim of bullying. The aggregate societal WTP for each reduced statistical victim of bullying, referred to here as the value of a statistical bullying-victim (VSBV), is then 585,090 to 835,280 Swedish kronor (€65,446 to €93,431). The VSBV may be interpreted as the aggregate WTP to prevent one statistical case of a bullying-victim. The result may be used to conduct economic evaluations of antibullying programs, which is demonstrated here by a simple cost-benefit analysis of one of the most common antibullying programs. The VSBV may also be relevant for providing policymakers with useful information on taxpayers' preferred allocations to antibullying programs in general.
----------------------
Yoshito Kawabata & Nicki Crick
Asian American Journal of Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
The purpose of the present study was to examine the role of ethnicity in the associations between forms of aggression or experiences of peer victimization and externalizing and internalizing problems. The sample consisted of 232 (146 European American and 86 Asian American) children who were in the fourth grade (ages 9-10). Asian American children were in the visible minority group based on the demographic information regarding the neighborhoods, school districts, and school diversity. Results demonstrated that relative to European American children, Asian American children displayed lower levels of relational and physical aggression and experienced less relational and physical victimization. Moreover, the associations of relational aggression and relational victimization with internalizing adjustment problems were moderated by the ethnicity of children, such that the magnitude of these associations was stronger for Asian American children. In contrast, the relations of physical aggression and physical victimization with externalizing adjustment problems were evidenced only for European American children. Cross-ethnic differences in the links between forms of aggression or peer victimization and the development of psychopathology are discussed.
----------------------
Brian Boutwell et al.
Journal of Theoretical Biology, 7 April 2013, Pages 72-80
Abstract:
The study of human crime and violence represents a flashpoint for discussion across academia. Multiple theories exist pertaining to the topic, all aimed at organizing numerous findings surrounding correlates of antisocial behavior. Along these lines, Moffitt's developmental taxonomy has emerged as a theory well supported by empirical research. Noticeably absent, though, has been an effort to apply an evolutionary framework to Moffitt's dual taxonomy of offending. With this in mind, the current study is intended to examine Moffitt's different typologies in the context of Rushton's Differential K theory (an adaptation of r-K selection from life history theory). Our findings suggest that life-course persistent offending may represent a viable reproductive strategy characterized by higher levels of sexual involvement over the life-course.
----------------------
J.C. Barnes
Criminal Justice and Behavior, May 2013, Pages 519-540
Abstract:
Moffitt's developmental taxonomy has sparked much attention among criminologists interested in explaining the etiology of life-course-persistent (LCP) offending. The taxonomy suggests that genetic factors influence LCP offending, that genetic risk factors will be mediated by neuropsychological deficits, and that genetic factors interact with environmental factors to influence LCP offending. Various behavior genetic methodologies were used to estimate the genetic influence on LCP offending, to determine whether these genetic factors were mediated by the presence of neuropsychological deficits, and to control for genetic factors while simultaneously estimating the impact of numerous environmental influences. The findings suggested that genetic factors influence persistent offending and that these influences are partially mediated by levels of self-control. No parental influences predicted persistent offending after controlling for genetic effects, no Gene × Environment interactions were found, and few environmental influences operated as a nonshared environmental predictor of persistent offending.
----------------------
Life History theory and social deviance: The mediating role of Executive Function
C.J. Wenner et al.
Intelligence, March-April 2013, Pages 102-113
Abstract:
The present work examined predicted relations among Life History strategies, Executive Functions, socially antagonistic attitudes, socially antagonistic behaviors, and general intelligence. Life History (LH) theory predicts that Executive Functions and socially antagonistic attitudes and behaviors underpin an interrelated and coherent set of behavioral strategies (LH strategies) designed to enhance reproductive success. Specifically, LH theory predicts a positive relation between Executive Functioning and LH strategies; a negative relation between socially antagonistic attitudes and behaviors and LH strategies; and that Executive Functions mediate relations among LH strategies and socially antagonistic attitudes and behaviors. Results from a Structural Equation Model (SEM), based on self-reported Life History strategies, Executive Functioning, socially antagonistic attitudes and behaviors, and general intelligence support these predictions. The structure of the model suggests that Executive Functions serve a mediating role in the relations between LH strategy and social deviance.
----------------------
Dena Carson
Journal of Criminal Justice, May-June 2013, Pages 151-161
Purpose: This study uses social learning and balance theories to explore the relationship between a youth's perceptions of both prosocial and antisocial peer behavior and their own delinquent attitudes.
Methods: The current research examines both the contemporaneous and lagged relationships between peer behavior and a youth's delinquent attitudes, the relative effect of prosocial versus antisocial peer behavior on attitudes as well as the effects of changes in these variables. Relationships are examined using data from a multi-site longitudinal sample of 3,820 youth. Analyses are completed using random-effects regression techniques as well as change scores.
Results: Findings indicate that perceptions of prosocial peer behavior have a lasting protective effect on the formation of delinquent attitudes. However, when focusing on change over time, changes in perceptions of delinquent peer behavior produce a stronger change in delinquent attitudes.
Conclusions: The current study was able to make advancements to both social learning and balance theory by focusing on perceptions of peer behavior and delinquent attitudes. The results justify the significance of continuing to examine factors that relate to how peer associations matter for delinquent attitudes and behavior.
----------------------
Nicholas Kelley, Ruud Hortensius & Eddie Harmon-Jones
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Anger is associated with various responses. Research on the neuroscience of anger has revealed that greater left than right frontal cortical activity is associated with angry approach-oriented responses, such as aggression, whereas greater right than left frontal cortical activity is associated with inhibited angry responses mixed with anxiety. In the current research, we extended these past studies by manipulating asymmetric frontal cortical activity using transcranial direct current stimulation and assessing its influence on ruminative responses to an interpersonal insult. Results revealed that self-reported rumination was greatest for participants who received a manipulated increase in relative right frontal cortical activity compared with those who received either a manipulated increase in relative left frontal cortical activity or sham stimulation. Taken together with past findings, the current results suggest that anger associated with greater relative left frontal cortical activity predicts approach-oriented aggressive action, whereas anger associated with greater relative right frontal cortical activity predicts inhibited rumination.
Friday, April 5, 2013
Executive decision
Corporate boards' political ideology diversity and firm performance
Incheol Kim, Christos Pantzalis & Jung Chul Park
Journal of Empirical Finance, March 2013, Pages 223-240
Abstract:
We investigate whether diversity in points of view within corporate boards. as captured by the diversity in political ideology of board members, can affect a firm's performance. We employ personal political contributions' data to measure political ideology distance among groups of inside, outside directors and the CEO. Our empirical evidence strongly supports the notion that outside directors' monitoring effectiveness is more likely to be enhanced when their viewpoints are distinct from those of management. We find that ideologically diverse boards are associated with better firm performance, lower agency costs and less insiders' discretionary power over the firm's Political Action Committee (PAC) spending. Taken together, our results lead us to conclude that multiplicity of standpoints in corporate boardrooms is imperative for board effectiveness.
----------------------
Toward more accurate contextualization of the CEO effect on firm performance
Donald Hambrick & Timothy Quigley
Strategic Management Journal, forthcoming
Abstract:
We introduce multiple refinements to the standard method for assessing CEO effects on performance, variance partitioning methodology, more accurately contextualizing CEOs' contributions. Based on a large 20-year sample, our new "CEO in Context" technique points to a much larger aggregate CEO effect than is obtained from typical approaches. As a validation test, we show that our technique yields estimates of CEO effects more in line with what would be expected from accepted theory about CEO influence on performance. We do this by examining the CEO effects in subsamples of low, medium, and high-discretion industries. Finally, we show that our technique generates substantially different - and we argue more logical - estimates of the effects of many individual CEOs than are obtained through customary analyses.
----------------------
Managerial Compensation: Luck, Skill or Labor Markets?
Jeff Brookman & Paul Thistlee
Journal of Corporate Finance, forthcoming
Abstract:
Luck, skill and labor markets all have empirical support as determinants of managerial compensation. We examine the relative importance of pay for luck, managerial skill and labor market opportunities in determining compensation. We measure luck as the predictable component of firm performance, measure skill using managerial fixed effects and measure labor market opportunities as the compensation of executives at matched firms. Our results imply that managerial skill is the most important determinant of managers' compensation, followed by firm size and labor market opportunities, and that luck is not an important determinant of managerial compensation.
----------------------
Laura Casares Field, Michelle Lowry & Anahit Mkrtchyan
Journal of Financial Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Busy directors have been widely criticized as being ineffective. However, we hypothesize that busy directors offer advantages for many firms. While busy directors may be less effective monitors, their experience and contacts arguably make them excellent advisors. Among IPO firms, which have minimal experience with public markets and likely rely heavily on their directors for advising, we find busy boards to be common and to contribute positively to firm value. Moreover, these positive effects of busy boards extend to all but the most established firms. Benefits are lowest among Forbes 500 firms, which likely require more monitoring than advising.
----------------------
Self Attribution Bias of the CEO: Evidence from CEO interviews on CNBC
Han (Andy) Kim
Journal of Banking & Finance, forthcoming
Abstract:
Self attribution bias (SAB, hereafter) is a mechanism that engenders overconfidence by attributing good performance to one's ability and bad performance to bad luck or the environment (Gervais and Odean, 2001). Using the transcripts of CEO interviews on CNBC, we measure the SAB of the CEO. Consistent with the prediction by Gervais, Heaton, and Odean (2011) and Goel and Thakor (2008), we find concave non-linear relation between SAB and the market response to acquisition announcements. We also find that the CEOs with SAB are more likely to be fired and more sensitively to performance, especially under stronger governance regime of Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX). Our results are robust after controlling for the selection bias to be in the CNBC interview. We consider and rule out alternative explanations, such as journalists' impact on governance and CEO's narcissism.
----------------------
Trond Randøy & Lars Oxelheim
Journal of Economics and Business, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study examines globalization of monitoring practices by focusing on how American (U.S.) influences on European firms impact the dismissal risk for these firms' CEOs. Specifically, we argue that the stronger short term orientation of the American corporate governance system increase the dismissal performance sensitivity faced by European CEOs, indirectly and directly. The former materializes via European firms cross-listing on U.S. exchanges, the latter results from European firms hiring U.S. independent board members. Both influences are expected to result in increased dismissal performance sensitivity. Based on data from the 250 largest European publicly traded firms we find a significant increase in the dismissal sensitivity of poorly performing companies with American board members and a support for migration of American executive pay practice. However, no significant increase in dismissal performance sensitivity was identified from U.S. cross-listing. In line with our agency theory based prediction, this indicates an institutional contagion driven by the presence of U.S. board members on European corporate boards. To policy makers the message is that internationalization of boards should not be banned or restricted, since it provides owners with more options to influence the corporate governance of the firm.
----------------------
Smokescreen: How Managers Behave When They Have Something To Hide
Tanja Artiga González, Markus Schmid & David Yermack
NBER Working Paper, March 2013
Abstract:
We study financial reporting and corporate governance in 216 U.S. companies accused of price fixing by antitrust authorities. We document a range of strategies used by these firms when reporting financial results, including frequent earnings smoothing, segment reclassification, and restatements. In corporate governance, cartel firms favor outside directors who are likely to be inattentive monitors due to their status as foreign or "busy." When directors resign, they are often not replaced, and new auditors are rarely engaged. Cartel managers exercise their stock options faster than managers of other firms. While our results are based only upon firms engaged in price fixing, we expect that they should apply generally to all companies in which managers seek to conceal poor performance or personal wrongdoing.
----------------------
Fair Pay or Power Play? Pay Equity, Managerial Power, and Compensation Adjustments for CEOs
Taekjin Shin
Journal of Management, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study examines how firms use benchmarking information about peers to determine the compensation that they offer to chief executive officers (CEOs). It jointly addresses two distinct perspectives: pay equity and managerial power. Pay inequity provides strong motivation for CEOs to restore equity, by promoting the logic of external fairness and urging boards of directors to implement peer benchmarking and adjust the focal CEO's compensation levels. Although pay inequity may motivate CEOs to restore equity, their reaction to inequity may be effective only when they have sufficient power over the board of directors to influence the pay-setting process. Results from a sample of 1,555 CEOs generally support predictions about the moderating effects of CEO power in the relationship between a focal CEO's pay and peer CEOs' pay. The compensation for underpaid CEOs with relatively greater power over the board is associated with their peers' compensation, suggesting that peer benchmarking is more aggressively used to adjust CEO compensation upward. For overpaid CEOs, the relationship between the focal CEO's pay and peer CEOs' pay is weaker when the CEOs have greater influence over the board, suggesting that such CEOs are able to avoid the use of benchmarking and downward adjustments of pay.
----------------------
The cost of sin: The effect of social norms on audit pricing
Stergios Leventis, Iftekhar Hasan & Emmanouil Dedoulis
International Review of Financial Analysis, forthcoming
Abstract:
In this paper we provide evidence for the effects of social norms on audit pricing by studying companies belonging to the alcohol, firearms, gambling, military, nuclear power, and tobacco industries, which are often described as "sin" companies. We hypothesize that the disparities between "sin" firms operations and prevailing social norms create an adverse context which heightens the client's business risk assessment by auditors and is, thereby, reflected in the pricing decisions for audit and consulting services. Having controlled for the impact of variables relating to client attributes, auditor attributes and engagement attributes, we demonstrate that audit firms charge significantly higher audit and consulting fees to companies that deviate from prevailing social norms. Additionally, we show that audit pricing levels within the "sin" group depend both on prevailing political views and on the level of "vice" exhibited by "sin" companies.
----------------------
Competition, Bonuses, and Risk-taking in the Banking Industry
Christina Bannier, Eberhard Feess & Natalie Packham
Review of Finance, April 2013, Pages 653-690
Abstract:
Remuneration systems in the banking industry, in particular bonus payments, have frequently been blamed for contributing to the buildup of risks leading to the recent financial crisis. In our model, banks compete for managerial talent that is private information. Competition for talent sets incentives to offer bonuses inducing risk-taking that is excessive not only from society's perspective but also from the viewpoint of the banks themselves. In fact, bonus payments and excessive risk-taking are increasing with competition. Thus, our model offers a rationale why bonuses are paid even when reducing the expected profits of banks.
----------------------
Takeover defenses as drivers of innovation and value-creation
Mark Humphery-Jenner
Strategic Management Journal, forthcoming
Abstract:
The desirability of anti-takeover provisions (ATPs) is a contentious issue. ATPs might enable managerial empire building by insulating managers from disciplinary takeovers. However, some companies, such as ‘hard-to-value' (HTV) companies, might trade at a discount due to valuation difficulties, thereby exposing HTV companies to opportunistic takeovers, and creating agency conflicts of managerial risk-aversion. ATPs might ameliorate such managerial risk aversion by inhibiting opportunistic takeovers. This paper analyzes acquisitions made by HTV firms, focusing on whether the acquirer (not the target) is entrenched in order to examine the impact of entrenchment managerial decision-making. The results show that HTV firms that are entrenched make acquisitions that generate more shareholder wealth and are more likely to increase corporate innovation, suggesting that ATPs can be beneficial in some firms.
----------------------
Information manipulation and rational investment booms and busts
Praveen Kumar & Nisan Langberg
Journal of Monetary Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
A model of endogenous investment booms and busts with rational agents is presented where outside investors are uncertain about both industry (aggregate) and firm-specific capital productivity, and insiders manipulate information through strategic productivity disclosures. For intermediate and high levels of agency conflict, there are aggregate investment distortions along the equilibrium path, investment dynamics are history-dependent, and depict patterns of persistent investment booms or investment busts even though investors design optimal incentive contracts based on Bayes-rational beliefs. Moreover, the aggregate uncertainty may not be resolved in the limit, as the number of firms and disclosures gets arbitrarily large.
----------------------
Monitoring and corporate disclosure: Evidence from a natural experiment
Rustom Irani & David Oesch
Journal of Financial Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Using an experimental design that exploits exogenous reductions in coverage resulting from brokerage house mergers, we find that a reduction in coverage causes a deterioration in financial reporting quality. The effect of coverage on disclosure is more pronounced for firms with weak shareholder rights, consistent with a substitution effect between analyst monitoring and other corporate governance mechanisms. The effects we uncover using our experimental design are an order of magnitude larger than estimates from ordinary least squares regressions that do not account for the endogeneity of coverage. Overall, our results suggest that security analysts monitor managers and entrenched managers adopt less informative disclosure policies in the absence of such scrutiny.
----------------------
Say on Pay Votes and CEO Compensation: Evidence from the UK
Fabrizio Ferri & David Maber
Review of Finance, April 2013, Pages 527-563
Abstract:
We examine the effect of say on pay regulation in the UK. Consistent with the view that shareholders regard say on pay as a value-creating mechanism, the regulation's announcement triggered a positive stock price reaction at firms with weak penalties for poor performance. UK firms responded to negative say on pay voting outcomes by removing controversial CEO pay practices criticized as rewards for failure (e.g., generous severance contracts) and increasing the sensitivity of pay to poor realizations of performance.
----------------------
Learning about CEO Ability and Stock Return Volatility
Yihui Pan, Tracy Yue Wang & Michael Weisbach
NBER Working Paper, March 2013
Abstract:
When there is uncertainty about a CEO's quality, news about the firm causes rational investors to update their expectation of the firm's profitability for two reasons: Updates occur because of the direct effect of the news, and also because the news can cause an updated assessment of the CEO's quality, affecting expectations of his ability to generate future cash flows. As a CEO's quality becomes known more precisely over time, the latter effect becomes smaller, lowering the stock price reaction to news, and hence lowering the stock return volatility. Thus, in addition to uncertainty about fundamentals, uncertainty about CEO quality is also a source of stock return volatility, which decreases over a CEO's tenure as the market learns the CEO's quality more accurately. We formally model this idea, and evaluate its implications using a large sample of CEO turnovers in U.S. public firms. Our estimates indicate that there is statistically significant and economically important market learning about CEO ability, even for CEOs whose appointments appear to be unrelated to their predecessors' performance. Also consistent with the learning model is the fact that the learning curve appears to be convex in time, and learning is faster when there is higher ex ante uncertainty about the CEO's ability and more transparency about the firm's prospects. Overall, uncertainty about management quality appears to be an important source of stock return volatility.
----------------------
Acquisitions driven by stock overvaluation: Are they good deals?
Fangjian Fu, Leming Lin & Micah Officer
Journal of Financial Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Theory and recent evidence suggest that overvalued firms can create value for shareholders if they exploit their overvaluation by using their stock as currency to purchase less overvalued firms. We challenge this idea and show that, in practice, overvalued acquirers significantly overpay for their targets. These acquisitions do not, in turn, lead to synergy gains. Moreover, these acquisitions seem to be concentrated among acquirers with the largest governance problems. CEO compensation, not shareholder value creation, appears to be the main motive behind acquisitions by overvalued acquirers.
----------------------
Do Managers Define Non-GAAP Earnings to Meet or Beat Analyst Forecasts?
Jeffrey Doyle, Jared Jennings & Mark Soliman
Journal of Accounting and Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
We provide evidence consistent with firm managers opportunistically defining non-GAAP earnings in order to meet or beat analyst expectations. This result is robust to controlling for other tools of benchmark beating (e.g., discretionary accruals, real earnings management, and expectation management). We also find that managers tend to exclude more expenses from non-GAAP earnings when it is costlier to use accrual earnings management due to balance sheet constraints, indicating that these tools are substitutes. Lastly, we find that investors discount positive earnings surprises when accompanied by exclusions from GAAP earnings, suggesting that the market partially understands the opportunistic nature of these exclusions. Our evidence is consistent with managers opportunistically defining non-GAAP earnings in a way that analysts fail to fully anticipate, resulting in an increased likelihood of exceeding analyst forecasts.
----------------------
The Relation Between Equity Incentives and Misreporting: The Role of Risk-Taking Incentives
Christopher Armstrong et al.
Journal of Financial Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Prior research argues that a manager whose wealth is more sensitive to changes in the firm's stock price has a greater incentive to misreport. However, if the manager is risk-averse and misreporting increases both equity values and equity risk, the sensitivity of the manager's wealth to changes in stock price (portfolio delta) will have two countervailing incentive effects: a positive "reward effect" and a negative "risk effect." In contrast, the sensitivity of the manager's wealth to changes in risk (portfolio vega) will have an unambiguously positive incentive effect. We show that jointly considering the incentive effects of both portfolio delta and portfolio vega substantially alters inferences reported in prior literature. Using both regression and matching designs, and measuring misreporting using discretionary accruals, restatements, and enforcement actions, we find strong evidence of a positive relation between vega and misreporting and that the incentives provided by vega subsume those of delta. Collectively, our results suggest that equity portfolios provide managers with incentives to misreport when they make managers less averse to equity risk.
----------------------
Kelly Richmond Pope & Chih-Chen Lee
Journal of Business Ethics, February 2013, Pages 597-607
Abstract:
The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the availability of financial bounties and anonymous reporting channels impact individuals' general reporting intentions of questionable acts and whether the availability of financial bounties will prompt people to reveal their identities. The recent passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 creates a financial bounty for whistle-blowers. In addition, SOX requires companies to provide employees with an anonymous reporting channel option. It is unclear of the effect of these provisions as they relate to whistle-blowing. Our results indicate that a financial bounty has the potential to increase participants' propensity to report questionable acts and their willingness to reveal their identities when reporting, but the availability of an anonymous reporting channel does not affect participants' propensity to report questionable acts. These findings could potentially help corporate management, government policy makers and accounting researchers to assess the effectiveness of their internal compliance programs and help determine if financial bounties in the private sector could encourage whistle-blowing.
----------------------
CEO turnover in a competitive assignment framework
Andrea Eisfeldt & Camelia Kuhnen
Journal of Financial Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
There is widespread concern about whether Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) are appropriately punished for poor performance. While CEOs are more likely to be forced out if their performance is poor relative to the industry average, overall industry performance also matters. This seems puzzling if termination is disciplinary, however, we show that both absolute and relative performance-driven turnover can be natural and efficient outcomes in a competitive assignment model in which CEOs and firms form matches based on multiple characteristics. The model also has new predictions about replacement managers' equilibrium pay and performance. We document CEO turnover events during 1992-2006 and provide empirical support for our model.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Honorable mention
Does "Science" Make You Moral? The Effects of Priming Science on Moral Judgments and Behavior
Christine Ma-Kellams & Jim Blascovich
PLoS ONE, March 2013
Background: Previous work has noted that science stands as an ideological force insofar as the answers it offers to a variety of fundamental questions and concerns; as such, those who pursue scientific inquiry have been shown to be concerned with the moral and social ramifications of their scientific endeavors. No studies to date have directly investigated the links between exposure to science and moral or prosocial behaviors.
Methodology/Principal Findings: Across four studies, both naturalistic measures of science exposure and experimental primes of science led to increased adherence to moral norms and more morally normative behaviors across domains. Study 1 (n = 36) tested the natural correlation between exposure to science and likelihood of enforcing moral norms. Studies 2 (n = 49), 3 (n = 52), and 4 (n = 43) manipulated thoughts about science and examined the causal impact of such thoughts on imagined and actual moral behavior. Across studies, thinking about science had a moralizing effect on a broad array of domains, including interpersonal violations (Studies 1, 2), prosocial intentions (Study 3), and economic exploitation (Study 4).
Conclusions/Significance: These studies demonstrated the morally normative effects of lay notions of science. Thinking about science leads individuals to endorse more stringent moral norms and exhibit more morally normative behavior. These studies are the first of their kind to systematically and empirically test the relationship between science and morality. The present findings speak to this question and elucidate the value-laden outcomes of the notion of science.
----------------------
The Allure of the Forbidden: Breaking Taboos, Frustration, and Attraction to Violent Video Games
Jodi Whitaker et al.
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Although people typically avoid engaging in antisocial or taboo behaviors, such as cheating and stealing, they may succumb in order to maximize their personal benefit. Moreover, they may be frustrated when the chance to commit a taboo behavior is withdrawn. The present study tested whether the desire to commit a taboo behavior, and the frustration from being denied such an opportunity, increases attraction to violent video games. Playing violent games allegedly offers an outlet for aggression prompted by frustration. In two experiments, some participants had no chance to commit a taboo behavior (cheating in Experiment 1, stealing in Experiment 2), others had a chance to commit a taboo behavior, and others had a withdrawn chance to commit a taboo behavior. Those in the latter group were most attracted to violent video games. Withdrawing the chance for participants to commit a taboo behavior increased their frustration, which in turn increased their attraction to violent video games.
----------------------
Motivated to "Forget": The Effects of In-Group Wrongdoing on Memory and Collective Guilt
Katie Rotella & Jennifer Richeson
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Reminders of in-group wrongdoing can prompt defensive responses that affect intergroup relations. Across two studies, American participants were randomly assigned to have their American identity increased (or not), then read a passage describing the negative treatment of Native American Indians by perpetrators described as either early Americans (i.e., in-group members) or European settlers (i.e., out-group members). Memory for the content of the passage and feelings of collective guilt were assessed. Participants demonstrated poorer memory when the perpetrators were framed as in-group (Americans), rather than out-group (Europeans), members. Further, participants in the in-group perpetrator condition whose American identification was primed experienced less collective guilt compared with participants in the in-group perpetrator condition whose American identification was not primed. Implications for intergroup relations and the understanding of collective memory are discussed.
----------------------
Selling the War? System-Justifying Effects of Commercial Advertising on Civilian Casualty Tolerance
Ronald Friedman & Barbara Sutton
Political Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
In times of war, news media coverage of the plight of civilian casualties plays a critical role in shaping attitudes regarding war's human costs. We proposed that these attitudes may also be surreptitiously influenced by the commercial advertisements that often accompany this coverage. Specifically, we hypothesized that when newspaper articles pertaining to civilian victims of war are flanked by luxury ads, conservatives, relative to liberals, will subsequently exhibit less concern for these victims. This proposition was based on the notion that commercial ads, particularly those promoting luxury items, make salient the gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots" and thereby, at least implicitly, threaten the legitimacy of the current socioeconomic system. Drawing upon system justification theory, we posited that this threat would lead individuals with stronger system-justification tendencies (conservatives), relative to those more open to challenging the current system (liberals), to show greater tolerance for civilian war casualties in order to defend the system's integrity. Evidence consistent with this hypothesis was found in a quasi-experimental study (n = 329).
----------------------
Nobody likes a rat: On the willingness to report lies and the consequences thereof
Ernesto Reuben & Matt Stephenson
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, forthcoming
Abstract:
We investigate the intrinsic motivation of individuals to report, and thereby sanction, fellow group members who lie for personal gain. We further explore the changes in lying and reporting behavior that result from giving individuals a say in who joins their group. We find that enough individuals are willing to report lies such that in fixed groups lying is unprofitable. However, we also find that when groups can select their members, individuals who report lies are generally shunned, even by groups where lying is absent. This facilitates the formation of dishonest groups where lying is prevalent and reporting is nonexistent.
----------------------
Miroslaw Kofta & Patrycja Slawuta
Journal of Social Issues, March 2013, Pages 54-73
Abstract:
This paper addresses the role of collective memory of post-Holocaust crimes in contemporary Polish-Jewish relations. We examined how reminding Polish participants of ingroup atrocities affects constructive as well as destructive attitudes and behavioral intentions toward the Jewish victim group. We address the question of how experimentally induced feelings of cultural closeness between the outgroup and the ingroup modify the effects of these reminders on intergroup relations. Our two experiments suggest that perceived sharing of culture is a crucial factor in dealing constructively with the "problematic past" in intergroup relations. In the baseline condition (where cultural closeness of Jews and Poles was not made salient), reminders of ingroup atrocities activated group-defensive strategies, resulting in more negative intergroup attitudes and dehumanization of Jews. In stark contrast, in the "culturally close" condition (where feelings of shared culture were induced), reminders of ingroup atrocities actually resulted in more positive intergroup attitudes and humanization of Jews.
----------------------
Rules or Consequences? The Role of Ethical Mind-Sets in Moral Dynamics
Gert Cornelissen et al.
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Recent research on the dynamics of moral behavior has documented two contrasting phenomena - moral consistency and moral balancing. Moral balancing refers to the phenomenon whereby behaving ethically or unethically decreases the likelihood of engaging in the same type of behavior again later. Moral consistency describes the opposite pattern - engaging in ethical or unethical behavior increases the likelihood of engaging in the same type of behavior later on. The three studies reported here supported the hypothesis that individuals' ethical mind-set (i.e., outcome-based vs. rule-based) moderates the impact of an initial ethical or unethical act on the likelihood of behaving ethically on a subsequent occasion. More specifically, an outcome-based mind-set facilitated moral balancing, and a rule-based mind-set facilitated moral consistency.
----------------------
Surveying the Moral Landscape: Moral Motives and Group-Based Moralities
Ronnie Janoff-Bulman & Nate Carnes
Personality and Social Psychology Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
We present a new six-cell Model of Moral Motives that applies a fundamental motivational distinction in psychology to the moral domain. In addition to moral motives focused on the self or another, we propose two group-based moralities, both communal in orientation, but reflecting distinct moral motives (Social Order/Communal Solidarity vs. Social Justice/Communal Responsibility) as well as differences in construals of group entitativity. The two group-based moralities have implications for intragroup homogeneity as well as intergroup conflict. Our model challenges the conclusions of Haidt and colleagues that only conservatives (not liberals) are group oriented and embrace a binding morality. We explore the implications of this new model for politics in particular and for the self-regulation versus social regulation of morality more generally.
----------------------
Overlooking the Obvious: Incentives to Lie
Charles Bond et al.
Basic and Applied Social Psychology, March/April 2013, Pages 212-221
Abstract:
Over the years, people have searched for deception cues in the liar's behavior. However, the sender's incentives to lie might be more revealing than behavior. In Experiment 1, an incentive was developed that was predictive of lying. Judges with access to incentive information in addition to behavior achieved almost perfect lie/truth detection. This was not a result of the speakers' behavior being transparent (Experiment 2) but because incentive information was useful to separate lies from truths (Experiments 2 and 3). Experiment 3 revealed that people may forego perfectly diagnostic contextual cues to base their judgments on illusory behavioral cues.
----------------------
Separating Will from Grace: An Experiment on Conformity and Awareness in Cheating
Toke Fosgaard, Lars Gaarn Hansen & Marco Piovesan
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, forthcoming
Abstract:
In this paper we investigate if people cheat more when they observe their peers cheating because they conform or because they become aware that cheating is something to actively consider. In our experiment subjects toss a coin in private and report the outcome (white or black). We reward only those who report white and leave them the possibility to cheat without being discovered. In our 2x2 experimental design, we manipulated subjects' report sheet to i) suggest (or not) that cheating is an option; ii) suggest that their peers were honest (or dishonest). We find that increasing awareness of cheating as an option significantly increases the probability that women cheat; whereas men - who are already aware that cheating is an option - are not affected. When we suggest that peers have cheated, men cheat significantly more, whereas women do not.
----------------------
Diminishing parochialism in intergroup conflict by disrupting the right temporo-parietal junction
Thomas Baumgartner et al.
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, forthcoming
Abstract:
Individuals react to violation of social norms by outgroup members differently than to transgressions of those same norms by ingroup members: namely outgroup perpetrators are punished much more harshly than ingroup perpetrators. This parochial punishment pattern has been observed and extensively studied in social psychology and behavioral economics. Despite progress in recent years, however, little is known about the neural underpinnings of this socially highly relevant phenomenon. Here we demonstrate by means of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) that the transient disruption of the right, but not the left temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) reduces parochial punishment in a third-party punishment paradigm with real social groups. Moreover, we show that this observed TMS effect on parochial punishment is mediated by a classical punishment motive, i.e., retaliation. These findings provide the first causal evidence that the right TPJ plays a pivotal role in the implementation of parochial behaviors.
----------------------
Katie Rotella & Jennifer Richeson
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Research demonstrates that people are sensitive to information that portrays either themselves or their ingroups in a negative light. Indeed, confronting individuals with their own past misdeeds or those committed by important ingroups can result in victim-blaming and refusals to apologize or make amends. Studies suggest that one reason why people demonstrate these backlash effects is that they immediately blunt the experience of guilt when confronted with either their own or group misdeeds from the past. The more individuals actually experience guilt, however, the more likely they are to respond to information about past wrongdoing with prosocial behavior (e.g., apologies, reparations, etc.). The present research sought to examine how subtle inductions of guilt shape responses to personal and group wrongdoing; namely, by manipulating individuals' body postures. Consistent with predictions, results suggest that embodiment-induced guilt reduces negative backlash and increases prosocial interpersonal and intergroup intentions.
----------------------
Stretching the Moral Gray Zone: Positive Affect, Moral Disengagement, and Dishonesty
Lynne Vincent, Kyle Emich & Jack Goncalo
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
We propose that positive affect promotes dishonest behavior by providing the cognitive flexibility necessary to reframe and to rationalize dishonest acts. This hypothesis was tested in two studies. The results of Study 1 showed that individuals experiencing positive affect morally disengage to a greater extent than do individuals experiencing neutral affect. Study 2 built on this finding by demonstrating that the ability to morally disengage can lead individuals who experience positive affect to behave dishonestly. Specifically, the results of Study 2 showed that people experiencing positive affect are more likely to steal than individuals experiencing neutral affect, particularly when self-awareness is low. Furthermore, moral disengagement fully mediated this effect. Taken together, the results suggest that positive affect paves the way for the commission of dishonest acts by altering how individuals evaluate the moral implications of their own behavior.
----------------------
Motivation, Money, Prestige and Cheats
David Pascual-Ezama, Drazen Prelec & Derek Dunfield
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper investigates the effects of supervision and incentives on subjects' performance and cheating behavior in a real effort task. With a sample of 540 participants in three different experiments, we investigated the interaction between motivation and monetary and social rewards, with and without supervision. Our results suggest: 1) lack of supervision promotes cheating, though workers tend to cheat moderately; 2) both economic and social incentives increase motivation but only when workers like their jobs; 3) workers do not increase their band of acceptable dishonest behavior for possible economic rewards, but they do increase dishonest behavior for possible social rewards, like prestige.
----------------------
Luke (Lei) Zhu, Aaron Kay & Richard Eibach
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
We hypothesize that the system justification motive increases individuals' susceptibility to ideological priming effects. We tested this hypothesis in a sample of 308 participants in which system justification, accessibility of meritocratic or egalitarian ideology, and judgment of a meritocratic or equal funding system were manipulated. As predicted, when the system justifying motive was activated, participants primed with meritocracy (egalitarianism) judged a meritocratic (equal) funding system as relatively more fair. The same pattern was not found when system justification motives were not activated. Theoretical implications are discussed.
----------------------
Bribery, blackmail, and the double standard for leader transgressions
Georgina Randsley de Moura & Dominic Abrams
Group Dynamics, March 2013, Pages 43-52
Abstract:
How does a person's leadership or membership role within a group affect how others judge that person's transgressions? Participants evaluated either a leader or a regular member of either an ingroup or an outgroup who transgressed by engaging in either bribery (Experiment 1) or blackmail (Experiment 2). In both experiments, transgressors were judged less punitively if they were ingroup leaders than ingroup members, outgroup members, or outgroup leaders. The severity of the transgression and whether it served group interests did not alter this effect, which shows that people may apply a double standard to an ingroup leader's transgressions. Implications are discussed for the spread of corruption among leaders and followers.
----------------------
How luck and performance affect stealing
Christina Gravert
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper investigates how the way of earning payoff affects the probability of stealing. The participants who earned their payoff according to performance were three times more likely to take the (undeserved) maximum payoff than participants with randomly allocated payoff. Conditional on stealing something, most subjects steal the full amount available.
----------------------
Does Injustice Affect Your Sense of Taste and Smell? The Mediating Role of Moral Disgust
Daniel Skarlicki et al.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Unfair treatment can activate strong negative emotions among victims and third parties. Less is known about other innate and evolutionary-based reactions to unfairness, such as those that manifest themselves through our senses. In three experiments, we found that interpersonally unfair treatment at work, defined as treatment that violates individual's sense of dignity and respect, triggered disgust emotions over and above anger which subsequently related to stronger taste and smell reactions to gustatory and olfactory stimuli. This effect was observed for pleasant and unpleasant tasting products, for agreeable and malodorous scents, and among both mistreatment victims and third parties. Our findings suggest that violations of dignity and respect can trigger an evolutionary based reaction that activates a human alarm system, warning individuals of impending threats even when no oral threat is imminent.
----------------------
The Personality Profile of Brave Exemplars: A Person-Centered Analysis
William Dunlop & Lawrence Walker
Journal of Research in Personality, forthcoming
Abstract:
What accounts for the actions of people who exhibit exceptional bravery, voluntarily risking their lives to save others? Previous research on this topic has been restricted to the variable approach. Here, we examine this phenomenon via the person approach, by deriving a personality profile distinctive of exceptional bravery. A cluster analysis, based on a broadband assessment of 11 personality variables, revealed that awardees for bravery were distinguished from comparison participants on the basis of their personality composition, challenging a situational explanation for their actions. The cluster corresponding with exceptional bravery embodied an expanded worldview (epistemic development, early advantage), positivity (redemption), and efficacy (dominance and agency). These findings inform understanding regarding the psychological factors underlying brave action.
----------------------
Do customers return excessive change in a restaurant? A field experiment on dishonesty
Ofer Azar, Shira Yosef & Michael Bar-Eli
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, forthcoming
Abstract:
The article reports the results of a field experiment used to study dishonest behavior in a natural setting. Customers in a restaurant in tables of one or two diners who paid with cash received excessive change of either 10 or 40 Shekels (about $3 or $12). A majority of customers (128 out of 192) did not return the excessive change. Repeated customers returned the excessive change much more often than one-time customers. Women returned the extra change much more often than men, especially among repeated customers. Interestingly, a table with a woman and a man behaves similarly to one or two males and not to a female table. Surprisingly, tables with two diners were not significantly more likely to return the excessive change. Customers receiving 10 extra Shekels were much less likely to return them than those who received 40 extra Shekels, but it is hard to know to what extent this comes from intentional behavior versus lower likelihood to observe the extra change when it is lower. We also found evidence for variation in dishonesty as a function of the time during the day.
----------------------
Daryl Cameron, Keith Payne & John Doris
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Changing people's emotions can change their moral judgments, even when the emotions are incidental to the judgment and hence morally irrelevant. It has commonly been assumed that people lack the motivation or ability to correct against such incidental emotional influences. We provide evidence that the ability to make fine-grained distinctions between emotions is an important moderator of these effects. In two experiments, we found that measured (Experiment 1) and manipulated (Experiment 2) emotion differentiation calibrated the relationship between incidental disgust and moral judgments. Whereas unskilled emotion differentiators made stronger moral judgments after incidental disgust priming, skilled emotion differentiators did not. Emotion differentiation may sharpen moral perception, by enabling people to discount incidental emotions while making moral judgments.
----------------------
Belief about immutability of moral character and punitiveness toward criminal offenders
Kim-Pong Tam et al.
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, March 2013, Pages 603-611
Abstract:
The present research examined the association between belief about immutability of moral character and punitiveness toward criminal offenders. Overall, participants who believed that moral character is immutable (entity theorists) were more punitive than those who believed that it is changeable (incremental theorists). More important, the present research identified two mediational paths: Entity theorists made more internal attribution of criminal behavior and held stronger expectation of offenders' recidivism, both of which in turn led to stronger punitiveness. Also, contrary to some researchers' speculation, entity theorists did not perceive less controllability in criminal behavior. Implications for implicit theory research and criminal justice research are discussed.
----------------------
Unethical Behavior in the Field: Demographic Characteristics and Beliefs of the Cheater
Alessandro Bucciol, Fabio Landini & Marco Piovesan
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, forthcoming
Abstract:
What are the individual demographic characteristics that correlate with unethical behavior? To answer this question we randomly interviewed 541 passengers who used the bus in Reggio Emilia (Italy). Exploiting the high level of fare evasion (43% without a valid ticket) we find that young individuals, males and non-European immigrants in our sample are more likely to travel without a ticket. Interestingly, traveling with other people correlates with the probability of holding a valid ticket but its effect depends on who the passenger and the others are. Finally, we find that all passengers' beliefs on fine costs, ticket inspection frequency, and percentage of passengers without a ticket are surprisingly close to actual figures. However, cheaters perceive inspections as more frequent than those traveling with a valid ticket.
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Trade craft
Is Protectionism on the Rise? Assessing National Trade Policies during the Crisis of 2008
Hiau Looi Kee, Cristina Neagu & Alessandro Nicita
Review of Economics and Statistics, March 2013, Pages 342-346
Abstract:
This paper quantifies trade policy changes and the associated trade impacts for about 100 countries between 2008 and 2009. Results show that there has been no widespread increase in protectionism. Only a few countries, including Russia, Argentina, Turkey, and China, have increased tariffs on major imported products. The United States and the EU, by contrast, rely mainly on antidumping duties to shield domestic industries. Overall, while the rise in tariffs and antidumping duties may have jointly caused global trade to drop by US$43 billion, it explains less than 2% of the collapse in world trade during the crisis period.
----------------------
The Effect of Confucius Institutes on US Exports to China: A State Level Analysis
Donald Lien & Catherine Yap Co
International Review of Economics & Finance, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper uses the trade gravity model to examine the effects of Confucius Institutes (CIs) on the exports of US states to China in 2006-2010. Overall, we detect a 5-6% increase in state exports for each additional CI branch established in a given state. This provides strong robust evidence that CIs provide direct economic benefits to the United States.
----------------------
Ronald Davies
Journal of Public Economics, May 2013, Pages 68-76
Abstract:
An increasing number of international agreements require "non-discrimination" from their participants, i.e. the government of one country cannot treat foreign firms differently from domestic firms. This is at odds with a government's desire to benefit its own citizens rather than foreign citizens. I show that the use of red tape - a wasteful application process - can achieve de-facto discrimination. Key to this result is firm heterogeneity since, although the red tape cost is the same across firms, only those sufficiently benefiting from an incentive program will find it worth the cost of applying. If the benefits of targeting subsidies outweigh the burden of red tape, red tape will be used.
----------------------
Foreign Corporations and the Culture of Transparency: Evidence from Russian Administrative Data
Serguey Braguinsky & Sergey Mityakov
Journal of Financial Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Firms from developed countries carry a culture of transparency in business transactions that is opposite to the culture of hiding and insider dealing in developing and transition economies. We employ Russian administrative data on reported earnings and market values of cars to measure wage misreporting for individual employees of domestic firms in Moscow. We show that closer ties to multinationals lead to improved transparency of wage reporting in private Russian companies. Employees located closest to movers from multinationals in the job quality space experience the largest gains in transparency. We find a robust correlation between wage misreporting and accounting fraud.
----------------------
Menzie Chinn & Shang-Jin Wei
Review of Economics and Statistics, March 2013, Pages 168-184
Abstract:
It is often asserted that a flexible exchange rate regime would facilitate current account adjustment. Using data on over 170 countries over the 1971-2005 period, we examine this assertion systematically. We find no strong, robust, or monotonic relationship between exchange rate regime flexibility and the rate of current account reversion, even after accounting for the degree of economic development and trade and capital account openness. This finding presents a challenge to the Friedman (1953) hypothesis and a popular policy recommendation by international financial institutions.
----------------------
Quantifying Productivity Gains from Foreign Investment
Christian Fons-Rosen et al.
NBER Working Paper, March 2013
Abstract:
We quantify the causal effect of foreign investment on total factor productivity (TFP) using a new global firm-level database. Our identification strategy relies on exploiting the difference in the amount of foreign investment by financial and industrial investors and simultaneously controlling for unobservable firm and country-sector-year factors. Using our well identified firm level estimates for the direct effect of foreign ownership on acquired firms and for the spillover effects on domestic firms, we calculate the aggregate impact of foreign investment on country-level productivity growth and find it to be very small.
----------------------
A Network Analysis of Global Banking: 1978-2010
Camelia Minoiu & Javier Reyes
Journal of Financial Stability, June 2013, Pages 168-184
Abstract:
We analyze the global banking network using data on cross-border banking flows for 184 countries during 1978-2010. We find that the density of the global banking network defined by these flows is pro-cyclical, expanding and contracting with the global cycle of capital flows. We also find that country connectedness in the network tends to rise before banking and debt crises and to fall in their aftermath. Despite a historically unique build-up in aggregate flows prior to the global financial crisis, network density in 2007 was comparable to earlier peaks. This suggests that factors other than connectedness, such as the location of the initial shock to the core of the network, have contributed to the severity of the crisis. The global financial crisis stands out as an unusually large perturbation to the global banking network, with indicators of network density in 2008 reaching all-time lows.
----------------------
Saudi Arabia and the Oil Market
Anton Nakov & Galo Nuño
Economic Journal, forthcoming
Abstract:
In this paper we document two features that have made Saudi Arabia different from other oil producers. First, it has typically maintained ample spare capacity. Second, its production has been quite volatile even though it has witnessed few domestic shocks. These features can be rationalised in a general equilibrium model in which the oil market is modelled as a dominant producer with a competitive fringe. We show that the net welfare effect of oil tariffs on consumers is null. The reason is that Saudi Arabia's monopolistic rents fall entirely on fringe producers.
----------------------
Political Credit Cycles: The Case of the Euro Zone
Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde, Luis Garicano & Tano Santos
NBER Working Paper, March 2013
Abstract:
We study the mechanisms through which the adoption of the Euro delayed, rather than advanced, economic reforms in the Euro zone periphery and led to the deterioration of important institutions in these countries. We show that the abandonment of the reform process and the institutional deterioration, in turn, not only reduced their growth prospects but also fed back into financial conditions, prolonging the credit boom and delaying the response to the bubble when the speculative nature of the cycle was already evident. We analyze empirically the interrelation between the financial boom and the reform process in Greece, Spain, Ireland, and Portugal and, by way of contrast, in Germany, a country that did experience a reform process after the creation of the Euro.
----------------------
Domestic Institutions and the Taxing of Multinational Corporations
Nathan Jensen
International Studies Quarterly, forthcoming
Abstract:
Political scientists have examined how domestic politics and the competition for international capital affect the setting of national tax rates. In this paper, I explore how political institutions, specifically the level of democracy, affect firm-level taxation across the world. I argue that electoral competition leads democratic governments to higher levels of taxation on firms. Using a data set on firm tax payments on the foreign affiliates of US multinational corporations from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, I show that there are large variations within countries on the tax burdens faced by firms that are not explained by national tax rates. I find evidence that the mobility of the specific investment project, the types of spillovers these investments provide to a community, and attributes of the parent firm are all important determinants of taxation. While firm-level factors clearly affect corporate taxation, I argue that democratic institutions limit the offering of tax incentives and generate electoral benefits to policing tax avoidance by multinational corporations. After controlling for parent firm and foreign affiliate-level factors, I find that democratic countries generate as much as 26% more tax revenues from multinational corporations relative to authoritarian countries.
----------------------
Media coverage and location choice
Elena Kulchina
Strategic Management Journal, forthcoming
Abstract:
Emphasizing the importance of informed location choice, prior strategy research has examined how private information about locations affects foreign direct investment. Publicly available media information has received little attention, however, perhaps because its impact on location choice is expected to be trivial. This study examines the relationship between the extent of a location's media coverage and the number of entering foreign firms in Russia, using a novel instrumental variable for media coverage, a major anniversary of a city's establishment date. The results suggest that extensive foreign media coverage of a city increases the number of foreign entrants. This effect is stronger for firms with less private information about Russian cities, i.e., more socially and geographically distant firms and foreign entrepreneurs.
----------------------
How Big are the Gains from International Financial Integration?
Indrit Hoxha, Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan & Dietrich Vollrath
Journal of Development Economics, July 2013, Pages 90-98
Abstract:
The literature has shown that the implied welfare gains from international financial integration are very small. We revisit the existing findings and document that welfare gains can be substantial if capital goods are not perfect substitutes. We use a model of optimal savings that includes a production function where the elasticity of substitution between capital varieties is less then infinity, but more than the value that would generate endogenous growth. This production structure is consistent with empirical estimates of the actual elasticity of subsitution between capital types, as well as with the relatively slow speed of convergence documented in the growth literature. Calibrating the model, our results are that welfare gains from financial integration are equivalent to a 9% increase in consumption for the median developing country, and up to 14% for the most capital-scarce. These gains rise substantially if capital's share in output increases even modestly above the baseline value of 0.3 or if the elasticity of substitution is set so that our model matches the observed convergence speed of output per capita. The gains remain large even if inflows of foreign capital after integration are limited to a fraction of the existing capital stock.
----------------------
David Bearce et al.
International Studies Quarterly, March 2013, Pages 163-170
Abstract:
After a decade of Aid for Trade (AfT) allocations, we can now begin to assess whether this new development strategy has been effective. Focusing on the short-term goal of export growth, we examine whether AfT from the US government promoted exports within recipient national economies over the period 1999-2008. Our results suggest that a $1 dollar increase in total US AfT has been associated with about a $69 increase in recipient exports 2 years later. We also show that the export effect of US AfT has not been confined to the US market and is driven primarily by exports to the rest of the world. In addition, we show that US AfT has been effective in reaching more needy countries as the substantive effect of US aid for trade has been larger in lesser-developed, landlocked, and more distant recipient countries.
----------------------
Time zone differences as trade barriers
Peter Egger & Mario Larch
Economics Letters, May 2013, Pages 172-175
Abstract:
This paper estimates the impact of time zone differences between trading locations on trade costs and trade in general equilibrium. Using homogeneous bilateral trade data between U.S. states and Canadian provinces, time zone differences are found to reduce bilateral trade by 11% on average, which amounts to about one-sixth of the international border effect between the U.S. and Canada.
----------------------
Sven Stöwhase
Journal of Public Economic Theory, April 2013, Pages 185-207
Abstract:
This paper models a Stackelberg tax setting game between two revenue-maximizing countries which compete for the location of a single production plant owned by a multinational firm. We introduce the possibility of profit-shifting activities by the multinational firm and investigate how a change in the costs of profit shifting affects equilibrium tax rates, revenue, and the tax burden of the multinational firm. We show that in most cases, tax rates of the two countries will be higher under profit shifting than without. If the costs for profit shifting are not too low, the strategic adjustment of profit tax rates will typically harm the multinational firm.
----------------------
The Olympic Games and the Improvement of Economic Well Being
Terence Chong & Pik Hung Hui
Applied Research in Quality of Life, March 2013, Pages 1-14
Abstract:
This paper investigates whether hosting the Olympic Games will improve economic well being of host countries. It is shown that the economic benefits of hosting the Games can last for up to 16 years. The economy of the host country improves after announcement of successful bid. The improvement peaks in the year of the Games and remains significant for 8 years after the Games.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
The right parents
Parents Reap What They Sow: Child-Centrism and Parental Well-Being
Claire Ashton-James, Kostadin Kushlev & Elizabeth Dunn
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
A controversial feature of modern parenting is "child-centrism," the tendency for parents to prioritize their children's well-being above their own. It has been suggested that child-centric parenting in its various forms may undermine parental well-being. Contrary to popular belief, more child-centric parents reported deriving more happiness and meaning from parenthood (Study 1). Study 2 employed the day reconstruction method (Kahneman, Krueger, Schkade, Schwarz, & Stone, 2004) to capture parents' actual experiences while taking care of their children. Consistent with Study 1, greater child-centrism was associated with the experience of greater positive affect, less negative affect, and greater meaning in life when engaged in child care activities. This link between child-centrism and well-being stands in contrast to recent arguments about the pitfalls of overinvestment in children, while dovetailing with a growing body of evidence that personal well-being is associated with investing in others rather than oneself.
----------------------
Race and Girls' Self-Evaluations: How Mothering Matters
Heather Ridolfo, Valerie Chepp & Melissa Milkie
Sex Roles, April 2013, Pages 496-509
Abstract:
Research conducted in the United States shows that Black adolescent girls have higher self-esteem and, to a lesser extent, a higher sense of control than White girls. However, few studies conducted with representative samples of Black and White girls systematically examine why Black girls may have higher self-esteem and sense of control. Drawing on Black feminist thought, we posit that Black mothers' socialization of their daughters may explain Black girls' higher self-esteem and sense of control. Using survey data collected in 1994 from a nationally representative sample of U.S. Black (N = 1,330) and White (N = 3,797) girls and their mothers, we examine racial differences across two key components of the self-concept: self-esteem and sense of control. We ask: 1) Do Black girls have higher self-esteem and sense of control than White girls? 2) Do Black girls have more positive relationships with their mothers and receive more encouragement of academic achievement and independence from their mothers than White girls? and 3) Do more positive mother-daughter relationships and mothers' encouragement help to explain Black girls' higher self-esteem and sense of control in comparison to White girls? Findings indicate that Black girls have higher self-esteem and sense of control than White girls, and Black mothers' relationship with their daughters and stronger encouragement of daughters' independence in part explain race differences in self-evaluations.
----------------------
The Importance of Family, Race, and Gender for Multiracial Adolescent Well-being
Sarah Schlabach
Family Relations, February 2013, Pages 154-174
Abstract:
Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), this study investigates patterns of well-being among multiracial adolescents. Specifically, this article addresses three questions. First, using various categorizations for multiracial background, are there measurable differences in emotional and social well-being among White, minority, and multiracial adolescents? Second, do multiracial adolescents with a White mother tend to fare differently than those with a minority mother? Third, does variation in family-based social capital - including parental involvement, parent-child relationship quality, and family structure - contribute to observed well-being differences among multiracial and monoracial adolescents? Results suggest that multiracial adolescents experience more negative social and emotional well-being outcomes when their mother is a minority. This finding persists even when controlling for sources of family-based social capital.
----------------------
Fatima Varner & Jelani Mandara
Child Development, forthcoming
Abstract:
Discrimination concerns and parental expectations were examined as mediators of the relations between gender and parenting practices among 796 African American mothers of 11- to 14-year-olds from the Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study. Mothers of sons had more concerns about racial discrimination impacting their adolescents' future, whereas mothers of daughters had more gender discrimination concerns. Racial discrimination concerns, but not gender discrimination concerns, were related to lower maternal academic and behavioral expectations. Maternal expectations were related to mothers' responsiveness, rule enforcement, monitoring, and parent-adolescent conflict. The relations between gender and parenting practices were partially explained through mothers' racial discrimination concerns and expectations. These findings demonstrate the importance of contextual factors on African American family processes.
----------------------
Why do men feel more attractive after childbirth?
Alicia Cast, Susan Stewart & Megan Erickson
Journal of Gender Studies, forthcoming
Abstract:
A great deal of research has examined women's bodily experiences with respect to pregnancy, childbirth, and the postnatal period. Men's experience of this significant life event is less scrutinized. Using longitudinal data from 182 newly married couples in the United States, we examine the effects of childbearing on wives' and husbands' feelings about their bodies. Our results suggest that whereas wives' perceived physical attractiveness declines after the birth of a child, husbands' perceived physical attractiveness increases.
----------------------
Daniel Romer, Zhanna Bagdasarov & Eian More
Journal of Adolescent Health, forthcoming
Purpose: To determine the effects of both older and newer media use on academic, social, and mental health outcomes in adolescents and young adults.
Methods: We interviewed a nationally representative panel of youth ages 14-24 years (N = 719) twice 1 year apart to determine time spent with television, the Internet, videogames, and book reading, as well as the purpose of those uses. A cluster analysis identified major combinations of media use. Regression models tested hypotheses regarding changes in self-reported school grades, participation in clubs and sports, and symptoms of depression, as predicted by recent media use and differences in cluster membership.
Results: Use of older media was related to grades, with television inversely and book reading positively related to performance. Moderate use of the Internet was positively related to participation in both sports and clubs. Although heavy use of the Internet and videogames was associated with an increase in depression, increased depression also predicted greater use of these media as well as withdrawal from sports and clubs. Clusters that used media in moderation with an emphasis on information gathering were most associated with healthy outcomes.
Conclusions: Despite concerns that excessive use of new media is harmful to adolescent development, the findings reinforce previous conclusions that television detracts from academic performance and book reading supports it. Heavy use of the Internet and video gaming may be more a symptom of mental health problems than a cause. Moderate use of the Internet, especially for acquiring information, is most supportive of healthy development.
----------------------
Sean Sall
Economic Inquiry, forthcoming
Abstract:
In the 1980s and 1990s, many states and districts began to provide funding for prekindergarten (PK) programs for the first time. This paper takes advantage of the staggered timing in program funding to investigate the effect that increased availability of PK programs has on the labor supply of mothers with 4-year-olds. I find that mothers with a 4-year-old and no younger children were significantly more likely to be in the labor force and employed once PK became available. Mothers with a 4-year-old and other younger children were also significantly more likely to be in the labor force and employed.
----------------------
Steven Kogan et al.
Family Relations, April 2013, Pages 341-353
Abstract:
Sexually transmitted infections disproportionately affect African Americans, particularly young women. The influence of a set of interrelated protective parenting processes - instrumental and emotional support, sexual risk communication, and encouragement of goals for employment or education - on emerging adult women was examined. Parenting was hypothesized to affect consistent condom use through its association with women's reports of power equity in their intimate relationships. Hypotheses were tested with 135 sexually active women 18 to 21 years of age living in rural southern communities. Structural equation modeling indicated that (a) parenting processes predicted women's self-reported relationship power equity and consistent condom use and (b) relationship power equity predicted consistent condom use. Limited support emerged for a mediational role of relationship power equity in explaining the influence of parenting on consistent condom use. Parental involvement and young women's establishment of personal control in their intimate relationships are important goals for sexual risk reduction programs.
----------------------
Selective Impact of Early Parental Responsivity on Adolescent Stress Reactivity
Daniel Hackman et al.
PLoS ONE, March 2013
Abstract:
Research in animals has shown that early life experience, particularly parenting behaviors, influences later-life stress reactivity. Despite the tremendous relevance of this finding to human development and brain function, it has not been tested prospectively in humans. In this study two aspects of parenting were measured at age 4 in a sample of healthy, low socioeconomic status, African American children, and stress reactivity was measured in the same children 11-14 years later using a modified version of the Trier Social Stress Test (n = 55). Salivary cortisol was measured before, during and after the stressor and data were analyzed using piecewise hierarchical linear modeling. Parental responsivity, independent of the use of physical discipline, was positively related to cortisol reactivity. Effects were independent of subjective appraisals of the stressor and were also independent of other environmental risk factors and current psychosocial functioning. Therefore this study demonstrates in a novel and precise fashion that early childhood parental responsivity prospectively and independently predicts stress reactivity in adolescence.
----------------------
Claire Baker & Iheoma Iruka
Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Summer 2013, Pages 509-519
Abstract:
Decades of educational research has documented an achievement gap in kindergarten reading and math achievement between African American children and their European American counterparts. Research has also shown that specific parenting practices (e.g., home literacy involvement) have the potential to narrow school readiness gaps by at least half. The current study examined whether and how maternal depression and parenting stress may influence specific parenting practices, as well as whether maternal warmth, home learning stimulation and cultural socialization mediated the relation between maternal depression, parenting stress, and children's kindergarten reading and math achievement. Path analyses revealed a direct negative effect of maternal depression and parenting stress on maternal warmth, home learning stimulation, and cultural socialization. Home learning stimulation emerged as an important mediator between maternal parenting stress and math achievement. Further, maternal warmth mediated the relation between maternal depression and reading achievement. Implications for early childhood research, practice and policy are discussed.
----------------------
Like Mother Like Son? Experimental Evidence on the Transmission of Values from Parents to Children
Marco Cipriani, Paola Giuliano & Olivier Jeanne
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper studies whether prosocial values are transmitted from parents to their children. We do so through an economic experiment in which children and their parents play a standard public goods game. The experimental data presents us with a surprising result. While we find significant heterogeneity in cooperative preferences in both parents and children, we cannot reject the null that the correlation between the degree of cooperation of a child and that of his or her parent is zero. That is, there is lack of evidence in our data that prosocial values are transmitted from parents to children. This finding is robust to the inclusion of demographic and socio-economic controls. Finally, parents show a significant degree of conditional cooperation, thus confirming the results of the existing experimental literature; such conditional cooperation is however absent in children.
----------------------
Do Time in Child Care and Peer Group Exposure Predict Poor Socioemotional Adjustment in Norway?
Elisabet Solheim et al.
Child Development, forthcoming
Abstract:
Extensive exposure to nonparental child care during the first 4.5 years of life has been demonstrated in some American studies to negatively affect children's socioemotional functioning. Data from 935 preschool children who averaged 54.9 (SD = 3.0) months of age, from Trondheim, Norway were used to examine whether such negative effects, would emerge in Norway, a country with a different child-care system. The children's externalizing problems and social competence were unrelated to their child-care experience. More time spent in child care during the first 4.5 years of life and experiencing peer groups of < 16 or > 18 children predicted greater caregiver-child conflict. The effect sizes were small. The results are discussed in terms of cross-national child-care differences.
----------------------
From Child to Parent? The Significance of Children's Education for Their Parents' Longevity
Jenny Torssander
Demography, April 2013, Pages 637-659
Abstract:
In addition to own education and other socioeconomic resources, the education of one's children may be important for individual health and longevity. Mothers and fathers born between 1932 and 1941 were analyzed by linking them to their children in the Swedish Multi-generation Register, which covers the total population. Controlling for parents' education, social class, and income attenuates but does not remove the association between children's education and parents' mortality risk. Shared but unmeasured familial background characteristics were addressed by comparing siblings in the parental generation. In these fixed-effects analyses, comparing parents whose children had tertiary education with parents whose children completed only compulsory schooling (the reference group) yields a hazard ratio of 0.79 (95 % CI: 0.70-0.89) when the socioeconomic position of both parents is controlled for. The relationship is certainly not purely causal, but part of it could be if, for example, well-educated adult children use their resources to find the best available health care for their aging parents. I therefore introduce the concept of "social foreground" and suggest that children's socioeconomic resources may be an important factor in trying to further understand social inequalities in health.
----------------------
Alice Graham, Philip Fisher & Jennifer Pfeifer
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Experiences of adversity in the early years of life alter the developing brain. However, evidence documenting this relationship often focuses on severe stressors and relies on peripheral measures of neurobiological functioning during infancy. In the present study, we employed functional MRI during natural sleep to examine associations between a more moderate environmental stressor (nonphysical interparental conflict) and 6- to 12-month-old infants' neural processing of emotional tone of voice. The primary question was whether interparental conflict experienced by infants is associated with neural responses to emotional tone of voice, particularly very angry speech. Results indicated that maternal report of higher interparental conflict was associated with infants' greater neural responses to very angry relative to neutral speech across several brain regions implicated in emotion and stress reactivity and regulation (including rostral anterior cingulate cortex, caudate, thalamus, and hypothalamus). These findings suggest that even moderate environmental stress may be associated with brain functioning during infancy.
----------------------
Analyzing the Origins of Childhood Externalizing Behavioral Problems
J.C. Barnes et al.
Developmental Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Drawing on a sample of twin children from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B; Snow et al., 2009), the current study analyzed 2 of the most prominent predictors of externalizing behavioral problems (EBP) in children: (a) parental use of spankings and (b) childhood self-regulation. A variety of statistical techniques were employed, and, overall, the findings can be summarized into 2 points. First, the results show that the relationships among spanking, self-regulation, and EBP are highly nuanced in that multiple explanations for their intercorrelations appear to fit the data (e.g., bidirectional relationships and shared methods variance). Second, genetic influences accounted for variance in each variable (EBP, spankings received, self-regulation) and even explained a portion of the covariance among the different variables. Thus, research that does not consider genetic influences when analyzing these associations runs a risk of model misspecification.
----------------------
Nina Santavirta & Torsten Santavirta
Health Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper combined data collected from war time government records with survey data including background characteristics, such as factors that affected eligibility, to examine the adult depression outcomes of individuals who were evacuated from Finland to temporary foster care in Sweden during World War II. Using war time government records and survey data for a random sample of 723 exposed individuals and 1321 matched unexposed individuals, the authors conducted least squares adjusted means comparison to examine the association between evacuation and adult depression (Beck Depression Inventory). The random sample was representative for the whole population of evacuees who returned to their biological families after World War II. The authors found no statistically significant difference in depressive symptoms during late adulthood between the two groups; for example, the exposed group had a 0.41 percentage points lower average Beck Depression Inventory score than the unexposed group (p = 0.907). This study provides no support for family disruption during early childhood because of the onset of sudden shocks elevating depressive symptoms during late adulthood.
----------------------
Cognitive ability and decline after early life stress exposure
Anu-Katriina Pesonen et al.
Neurobiology of Aging, June 2013, Pages 1674-1679
Abstract:
We examined the effects of early life stress on cognitive ability and decline among men of the Helsinki Birth Cohort Study, 10% of whom were separated temporarily (mean age at separation = 4.1 years) from their parent(s) during World War II. The men underwent the Finnish Defense Forces Basic Intellectual Ability Test twice, at 20 years and retest at 70 years. Compared with the men without childhood separation and matched for year of birth (n = 186), men separated from their parents (n = 93) scored lower by 5.5 (95% confidence interval [CI], -9.2 to -1.7), 4.2 (95% CI, -8.1 to -0.3), 3.1 (95% CI, -7.0 to 0.8), and 4.5 (95% CI, -10.5 to -1.4) standardized points (SD = 15) on verbal, visuospatial, arithmetic, and general cognitive ability, respectively, at 70 years. Longer duration of separation was associated with lower test scores. Though early life stress was also associated significantly with weaker cognitive performance at the ages 20 and 70 years, it was not associated with cognitive decline over the 50-year period within this sample.
----------------------
The role of parenting and dopamine D4 receptor gene polymorphisms in children's inhibitory control
Heather Smith et al.
Developmental Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Temperamental effortful control has important implications for children's development. Although genetic factors and parenting may influence effortful control, few studies have examined interplay between the two in predicting its development. The current study investigated associations between parenting and a facet of children's effortful control, inhibitory control (IC), and whether these associations were moderated by whether children had a 7-repeat variant of the DRD4 exon III VNTR. A community sample of 409 3-year-olds completed behavioural tasks to assess IC, and observational measures of parenting were also collected. Negative parenting was associated with lower child IC. The association between children's IC and positive parenting was moderated by children's DRD4 7-repeat status, such that children with at least one 7-repeat allele displayed lower IC than children without this allele when positive parenting was lower. These effects appeared to be primarily influenced by parent support and engagement. Results extend recent findings suggesting that some genetic polymorphisms may increase vulnerability to contextual influences.
----------------------
Daniel Berry et al.
Developmental Psychobiology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Intervention studies indicate that children's early child-care experiences can be leveraged to foster their development of effective self-regulation skills. It is less clear whether typical child-care experiences play a similar role. In addition, evidence suggests that children with a common variant of the DRD4 gene (48-bp VNTR, 7-repeat) may be more sensitive to their experiences than those without this variant. Using data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, we considered the degree to which children's early child-care experiences - quantity, quality, and type - were associated with their attention and self-regulation abilities in prekindergarten, and, in particular, whether these relations were conditional on DRD4 genotype. G × E interactions were evident across multiple neuropsychological and observational measures of children's attention and self-regulation abilities. Across most outcome measures, DRD4 7+ children spending fewer hours in child care showed more effective attention/self-regulation abilities. For those without a copy of the DRD4 7-repeat allele, such associations were typically null. The results for child-care quality and type indicated no interactions with genotype; the main-effect associations were somewhat inconsistent.
----------------------
Teen Birth Rates in Sexually Abused and Neglected Females
Jennie Noll & Chad Shenk
Pediatrics, forthcoming
Objective: Prospectively track teen childbirths in maltreated and nonmaltreated females and test the hypothesis that child maltreatment is an independent predictor of subsequent teen childbirth over and above demographic characteristics and other risk factors.
Methods: Nulliparous adolescent females (N = 435) aged 14 to 17 years were assessed annually through age 19 years. Maltreated females were referred by Child Protective Services agencies for having experienced substantiated sexual abuse, physical abuse, or neglect within the preceding 12 months. Comparison females were matched on race, family income, age and family constellation. Teen childbirth was assessed via self-report during annual interviews. Births were confirmed using hospital delivery records.
Results: Seventy participants gave birth during the study, 54 in the maltreated group and 16 in the comparison group. Maltreated females were twice as likely to experience teen childbirth after controlling for demographic confounds and known risk factors (odds ratio = 2.17, P = 0.01). Birth rates were highest for sexually abused and neglected females. Sexual abuse and neglect were both independent predictors of teen childbirth after controlling for demographic confounds, other risk factors and alternative forms of maltreatment occurring earlier in development.
Conclusions: Results provide evidence that sexual abuse and neglect are unique predictors of subsequent teen childbirth. Partnerships between protective service providers and teen childbirth prevention strategists hold the best promise for further reducing the US teen birth rate. Additional research illuminating the pathways to teen childbirth for differing forms of maltreatment is needed so that tailored interventions can be realized.
----------------------
Maternal Age at Child Birth, Birth Order, and Suicide at a Young Age: A Sibling Comparison
Johan Håkon Bjørngaard et al.
American Journal of Epidemiology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Previous studies have reported strong associations between birth order, maternal age, and suicide, but these results might have been confounded by socioeconomic and other factors. To control for such factors, we compared suicide risk between siblings and studied how maternal age at child birth and birth order influenced risk in a cohort study of 1,690,306 Norwegians born in 1967-1996 who were followed up until 2008. Using stratified Cox regression, we compared suicide risk within families with 2 or more children in which one died from suicide. Altogether, 3,005 suicides occurred over a mean follow-up period of 15 years; 2,458 of these suicides occurred among 6,741 siblings within families of 2 or more siblings. Among siblings, a higher position in the birth order was positively associated with risk; each increase in birth order was associated with a 46% (adjusted hazard ratio = 1.46, 95% confidence interval: 1.29, 1.66) higher risk of suicide. For each 10-year increase in maternal age at child birth, the offspring's suicide risk was reduced by 57% (adjusted hazard ratio = 0.43, 95% confidence interval: 0.30, 0.62). Our study suggests that confounding due to familial factors is not likely to explain the associations of birth order and maternal age at child birth with suicide risk.
----------------------
Perceived Economic Strain Exacerbates the Effect of Paternal Depressed Mood on Hostility
Ben Reeb, Katherine Conger & Monica Martin
Journal of Family Psychology, April 2013, Pages 263-270
Abstract:
Depression in fathers has been associated with impaired parenting, which, in turn, may function as a central environmental mechanism underlying the adverse effects of paternal depression on children's development. Despite this, evidence suggests that many depressed fathers are able to maintain positive relationships with their children, and little is known about factors associated with better or worse parenting outcomes when fathers experience depression. Using two waves of prospective, longitudinal data from a community sample of fathers and their high school-aged adolescent offspring (N = 324), perceived economic strain was examined as a moderator of the effect of fathers' depressive symptoms on subsequent observer ratings of hostile parenting behaviors. Among fathers experiencing high levels of economic strain, depressive symptoms at offspring age 15 were a significant predictor of hostility toward their adolescent sons at age 18, controlling for family demographics and previous hostile parenting behaviors. Findings and directions for future research are discussed in relation to contemporary models of intergenerational psychopathology transmission.
----------------------
Gregory Fosco et al.
Journal of School Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Family-school interventions are a well-established method for preventing and remediating behavior problems in at-risk youth, yet the mechanisms of change underlying their effectiveness are often overlooked or poorly understood. The Family Check-Up (FCU), a school-based, family-centered intervention, has been consistently associated with reductions in youth antisocial behavior, deviant peer group affiliation, and substance use. The purpose of this study was to explore proximal changes in student-level behavior that accounts for links between implementation of the FCU and changes in youth problem behavior. Data were drawn from a randomized controlled trial study of the efficacy of the FCU among 593 ethnically diverse middle school students followed longitudinally from 6th through 8th grades. Latent growth curve analyses revealed that random assignment to the FCU intervention condition was related to increased mean levels of students' self-regulation from 6th to 7th grades, which in turn reduced the risk for growth in antisocial behavior, involvement with deviant peers, and alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use through the 8th grade. Overall, these findings highlight the robust implications of self-regulation as a proximal target for family-centered interventions.
----------------------
Lauretta Brennan et al.
Journal of Educational Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
This project examined the hypothesis that the impact of the Family Check-Up on parent use of positive behavior support would indirectly improve academic achievement scores at school age. The study included a sample of 731 high-risk families recruited from Women, Infant, and Children Supplemental Nutrition Program settings in 3 geographically distinct areas. The results demonstrated that changes in positive parenting between the child ages of 2 and 3 were associated with higher scores on children's school-age academic achievement, as measured by the Woodcock-Johnson III (W-J) Academic Skills composite. Moreover, structural equation modeling revealed that random assignment to the intervention was associated with higher levels of children's academic achievement at age 5 and age 7.5 indirectly, through greater increases in parents' use of positive behavior support in intervention families than in control families. Results are discussed with respect to the potential of a brief parenting intervention for improving parenting practices that promote academic achievement up to 5 years later. The results have promising implications for efforts to promote child adaptation in the school environment.
----------------------
The Paradox of Children and Life Satisfaction
Leonardo Becchetti, Elena Giachin Ricca & Alessandra Pelloni
Social Indicators Research, May 2013, Pages 725-751
Abstract:
Empirical analyses of the determinants of life satisfaction routinely include the number of children as one of the socio demographic controls, without explicitly considering that, for a given household income, more children imply a lower level of income per family member. The variable "number of children" then often attracts a negative or insignificant coefficient. Using data from the German Socio Economic Panel 1984-2007 we confirm that the sign of the coefficient for the variable "number of children in the household" is negative when introducing household income without correction for the number of members in a life satisfaction regression. On the contrary, when we equivalise income with the most commonly adopted equivalence scales, so eliminating the monetary cost of raising children, the impact of the variable is positive and significant when a high level of economies of scale is assumed. Our results however lead us to reject slope homogeneity as we find strong differences by gender and region. In particular, the positive effect of children on life satisfaction is stronger for males and East Germans. We interpret these subsample split results as driven by heterogeneous opportunity costs and cultural traits.
----------------------
The causal effects of Vietnam-era military service on post-war family dynamics
Jennifer Heerwig & Dalton Conley
Social Science Research, March 2013, Pages 299-310
Abstract:
Past work has suggested a lasting impact of military service on the lives of veterans. By intervening at a critical stage in the lives of young men, service may open up opportunities for disadvantaged youth. In contrast, the negative consequences of exposure to combat may offset these presumed advantages. Induction into the military is also a nonrandom process that makes identifying the effects of service exceedingly difficult. In this study we use an instrumental variable (IV) approach to model the causal impact of Vietnam-era military service on two outcomes, marital stability and co-residence with adult offspring. We find limited evidence to suggest that military service may have a lasting effect on family life. In particular, we find that service reduces the probability of marital dissolution for white men. Service also significantly increases the probability of filial co-residence for men of other races.
----------------------
Brian Houston et al.
Journal of Loss and Trauma, Spring 2013, Pages 103-119
Abstract:
Frequency and quality of family deployment communication was assessed and examined in conjunction with emotions and behaviors reported by military children and spouses (N = 26) before, during, and after deployment. Child deployment communication with siblings was associated with positive child outcomes. Conversely, before and during deployment child communication with a deployed parent was related to more child emotional reactions and behavioral problems. For spouses, more and better communication with children and the deployed partner was related to the spouse's having less negative temper or stress reactions. Use of newer communication technology during deployment was related to negative child outcomes.
Monday, April 1, 2013
Preaching to the choir
Michela Menegatti & Monica Rubini
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
Three studies examined the production of political messages and their persuasive impact on recipients as a function of speaker-audience similarity. The first two studies found support for the hypothesis that political leaders (Study 1) and party activists (Study 2) formulate more abstract messages when the audience is politically similar to them than when the audience is dissimilar or heterogeneous. The third study examined the persuasive impact of message abstractness versus concreteness. We predicted and found that abstract messages are more effective in convincing an audience whose political positions are similar to the speaker's and concrete messages are more effective in convincing an audience whose political positions differ from the speaker's or are heterogeneous. Implications of these findings for the relation between language and social cognition are discussed.
----------------------
Writing Autobiographical Narratives Increases Political Conservatism
Joris Lammers & Travis Proulx
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Two experiments show that writing chronological autobiographical narratives increases political conservatism, defined as an ideology of resistance to social change. When writing chronological autobiographical narratives, we hypothesized that people would re-experience the events of their life in a way that portrays the current situation as the result of past personal actions and choices. This awareness should evoke a general sense that the current situation is not the result of chaos and randomness, but that the way things are is the way things should be. This sense of order makes people feel that the status quo should be maintained and causes a corresponding shift towards resisting social change. Experiment 1 shows that only writing chronological autobiographical narratives increase political conservatism. Experiment 2 shows that only writing autobiographical narratives increase political conservatism. Together, these experiments demonstrate that the experience of writing chronological autobiographies systematically affects political thinking.
----------------------
The Polarizing Effect of a Partisan Workplace
David Jones
PS: Political Science & Politics, January 2013, Pages 67-73
Abstract:
The workplace provides an exceptional outlet for citizens to encounter different viewpoints and discuss politics with people with whom they may disagree. In Washington, DC, however, many people work in partisan environments where like-minded coworkers rarely encounter alternate points of view. Group polarization theory suggests that these environments push individuals to the partisan and ideological extremes. This study tests this hypothesis by comparing opinion change among interns who worked in a partisan workplace with that of interns who were employed in less-partisan environments. The results suggest that partisan workplace environments foster opinion polarization, especially among Republicans.
----------------------
The New Deal Realignment in Real Time
Helmut Norpoth, Andrew Sidman & Clara Suong
Presidential Studies Quarterly, March 2013, Pages 146-166
Abstract:
Right after the 1936 election the Gallup Poll began probing party identification. From then on until 1952, when the National Election Studies entered the field, nearly 200 surveys produced measurements of partisanship in the American electorate. We exploit this largely unexplored data set to examine the partisan transformation commonly called the New Deal Realignment in real time. It turns out that it was not until the late 1940s that the Democratic Party secured an enduring hold on the American electorate. The New Deal and the Depression had less to do with this change than did World War II and the postwar prosperity. The lead cohort of the Democratic surge in party identification was the generation that came of age during the 1940s, not the 1930s. The findings suggest that a historic crisis or a new policy program may not be enough to realign partisanship in the electorate but that it takes the success of the ascendant party in mastering historic crises.
----------------------
Biased assimilation, homophily, and the dynamics of polarization
Pranav Dandekar, Ashish Goel & David Lee
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, forthcoming
Abstract:
We study the issue of polarization in society through a model of opinion formation. We say an opinion formation process is polarizing if it results in increased divergence of opinions. Empirical studies have shown that homophily, i.e., greater interaction between like-minded individuals, results in polarization. However, we show that DeGroot's well-known model of opinion formation based on repeated averaging can never be polarizing, even if individuals are arbitrarily homophilous. We generalize DeGroot's model to account for a phenomenon well known in social psychology as biased assimilation: When presented with mixed or inconclusive evidence on a complex issue, individuals draw undue support for their initial position, thereby arriving at a more extreme opinion. We show that in a simple model of homophilous networks, our biased opinion formation process results in polarization if individuals are sufficiently biased. In other words, homophily alone, without biased assimilation, is not sufficient to polarize society. Quite interestingly, biased assimilation also provides a framework to analyze the polarizing effect of Internet-based recommender systems that show us personalized content.
----------------------
The Politicization of Knowledge Claims: The "Laffer Curve" in the U.S. Congress
Elizabeth Popp Berman & Laura Milanes-Reyes
Qualitative Sociology, March 2013, Pages 53-79
Abstract:
Political debates over knowledge claims often become emotionally charged, with two sides not only disputing what is true but seeing those on the other side as deluded or worse. By looking at use of the term "Laffer curve" in the U.S. Congress from 1977 to 2010, we draw attention to two ways such debates over knowledge claims can evolve. The Laffer curve is a simple schematic representation of the relationship between tax rates and government revenue that was influential in U.S. tax policy in the late 1970s. Early on, Republicans and Democrats faced off over the Laffer curve as a cognitive symbol to be debated with argument, evidence, and reference to experts. Over time, Republicans continued to treat the Laffer curve as a cognitive symbol, but for Democrats it became a polluted expressive symbol that could be dismissed without debate. Democrats also articulated the Laffer curve as part of an ironic narrative about the failure of the Reagan administration, which ended the possibility of serious deliberation. We suggest that the dynamics seen here may also be present around other politicized knowledge claims, such as the claim that human activity is causing climate change.
----------------------
Media and Polarization: Evidence from the Introduction of Broadcast TV in the United States
Filipe Campante & Daniel Hojman
Journal of Public Economics, April 2013, Pages 79-92
Abstract:
This paper sheds light on the links between media and political polarization by looking at the introduction of broadcast TV in the US. We provide causal evidence that broadcast TV decreased the ideological extremism of US representatives. We then show that exposure to radio was associated with decreased polarization. We interpret this result using a simple framework that identifies two channels linking media environment to politicians' incentives to polarize. First, the ideology effect: changes in the media environment may affect the distribution of citizens' ideological views, with politicians moving their positions accordingly. Second, the motivation effect: the media may affect citizens' political motivation, changing the ideological composition of the electorate and thereby impacting elite polarization while mass polarization is unchanged. The evidence on polarization and turnout is consistent with a prevalence of the ideology effect in the case of TV, as both of them decreased. Increased turnout associated with radio exposure is in turn consistent with a role for the motivation effect.
----------------------
Opening "Openness to Change": Political Events and the Increased Sensitivity of Young Adults
Elias Dinas
Political Research Quarterly, forthcoming
Abstract:
The impressionable years thesis asserts that early adulthood is accompanied by increased attitudinal vulnerability. Although there is tentative empirical evidence to support this idea, it remains unclear whether this sensitivity is due to exposure to change-inducing circumstances, typically encountered in early adulthood, or due to the weight attached by young people to new information. I address this question, focusing on a political event - the Watergate - that offers a test of youth's heightened susceptibility, holding exposure constant. The results confirm the impressionable years thesis and shed light on how it is most likely to be manifested empirically.
----------------------
Benjamin Highton
The Forum, February 2013, Pages 11-19
Abstract:
This paper analyzes variation in presidential outcomes across the American states from 1972 through 2012. The findings show that differences in cultural policy preferences across the states are more important than economic preferences for explaining state outcomes in 2012. This result fits a long-term trend of the growing importance of cultural issues - absolutely and relative to economic issues - for sorting the states, which has had the effect of rotating the "party cleavage" line that divides the Democratic and Republican parties in presidential elections.
----------------------
Alexis Alabastro et al.
Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, January 2013, Pages 58-67
Abstract:
Drawing on the social identity theory of leadership and optimal distinctiveness theory, this research examined differences in perceived attitude similarity to in- and outgroup leaders among Liberals and Conservatives before and after the 2008 U.S. presidential election. We predicted Liberals and Conservatives alike would perceive their ingroup leaders (Obama or McCain) to be attitudinally similar to themselves before the election. After the election, however, Conservatives were expected to distance themselves from McCain and to accentuate similarity to Obama. Using a longitudinal design, analysis of American National Election Survey (N = 742) data showed that Liberals and Conservatives viewed themselves to be similar to their respective ingroup leader and dissimilar to the outgroup leader. Consistent with expectations, Conservatives significantly accentuated perceived similarity with Obama following his electoral victory, and significantly distanced themselves from McCain following his loss. Liberals' similarity with either candidate did not change from pre- to postelection. Implications for social identity in inter- and intragroup leadership contexts are discussed.
----------------------
James Davis
Social Science Research, May 2013, Pages 571-583
Abstract:
Two generations (1972-1976 and 2006-2008) are compared using 43 replicated attitudes in the NORC General Social Survey. The report describes the generational changes (primarily liberal), weighs the causal impact of rising educational levels (liberal), cohort replacement (liberal) and period effects (mildly conservative). It argues that this long term causal mechanism is slowly eroding.
----------------------
Joost van Spanje & Claes de Vreese
Party Politics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Hate speech prosecution of politicians is a common phenomenon in established democracies. Examples of politicians tried for hate speech include Nick Griffin in Britain and Jean-Marie Le Pen in France. Does hate speech prosecution of politicians affect the electoral support for their party? This is an important question, as the parties involved typically are controversial, often accused of stirring up political cynicism or political violence. The relevant literature has largely ignored this question, however. In this article, we use data from a representative sample of Dutch voters interviewed before and re-interviewed after the unexpected court decision to prosecute MP Geert Wilders. We demonstrate empirically that the decision substantially enhanced his party's appeal. This resulted in an immediate increase in support for the party by one to five percentage points among those who are moderately in favour of the assimilation of ethnic minorities into Dutch culture. In addition, the evidence suggests that the decision contributed to the party's subsequent electoral lift-off. Our findings call for investigations into the electoral effects of legal proceedings against political actors in democratic systems worldwide.
----------------------
Itai Himelboim, Stephen McCreery & Marc Smith
Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, January 2013, Pages 40-60
Abstract:
This study integrates network and content analyses to examine exposure to cross-ideological political views on Twitter. We mapped the Twitter networks of 10 controversial political topics, discovered clusters - subgroups of highly self-connected users - and coded messages and links in them for political orientation. We found that Twitter users are unlikely to be exposed to cross-ideological content from the clusters of users they followed, as these were usually politically homogeneous. Links pointed at grassroots web pages (e.g.: blogs) more frequently than traditional media websites. Liberal messages, however, were more likely to link to traditional media. Last, we found that more specific topics of controversy had both conservative and liberal clusters, while in broader topics, dominant clusters reflected conservative sentiment.
----------------------
Motivated Misperception? Party, Education, Partisan News, and Belief in "Death Panels"
Patrick Meirick
Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, March 2013, Pages 39-57
Abstract:
This study drew on the literature in motivated reasoning and 2009 Pew survey data to examine the roles of partisanship, education, news exposure, and their interactions in the misperception that health care reform would create "death panels." Radio news exposure encouraged the misperception only among Republicans, while newspaper exposure discouraged it, especially among non-Republicans. But rather than polarize perceptions along partisan lines as predicted, Fox News exposure contributed to misperception mainstreaming. Finally, this study identified a complex role for education in both inhibiting misperceptions (as a main effect) and promoting them (as an interaction with Fox News exposure).
----------------------
Red State/Blue State Divisions in the 2012 Presidential Election
Avi Feller, Andrew Gelman & Boris Shor
The Forum, February 2013, Pages 127-131
Abstract:
The so-called "red/blue paradox" is that rich individuals are more likely to vote Republican but rich states are more likely to support the Democrats. Previous research argued that this seeming paradox could be explained by comparing rich and poor voters within each state - the difference in the Republican vote share between rich and poor voters was much larger in low-income, conservative, middle-American states like Mississippi than in high-income, liberal, coastal states like Connecticut. We use exit poll and other survey data to assess whether this was still the case for the 2012 Presidential election. Based on this preliminary analysis, we find that, while the red/blue paradox is still strong, the explanation offered by Gelman et al. no longer appears to hold. We explore several empirical patterns from this election and suggest possible avenues for resolving the questions posed by the new data.
----------------------
The Illusion of Argument Justification
Matthew Fisher & Frank Keil
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, forthcoming
Abstract:
Argumentation is an important way to reach a new understanding. Strongly caring about an issue, which is often evident when dealing with controversial issues, has been shown to lead to biases in argumentation. We suggest that people are not well calibrated in assessing their ability to justify a position through argumentation, an effect we call the illusion of argument justification. Furthermore, we find that caring about the issue further clouds this introspection. We first show this illusion by measuring the difference between ratings before and after producing an argument for one's own position. The strength of the illusion is predicted by the strength of care for a given issue (Study 1). The tacit influences of framing and priming do not override the effects of emotional investment in a topic (Study 2). However, explicitly considering counterarguments removes the effect of care when initially assessing the ability to justify a position (Study 3). Finally, we consider our findings in light of other recent research and discuss the potential benefits of group reasoning.
----------------------
Trash or treasure: Recycling narratives and reducing political polarization
Donna Lybecker, Mark McBeth & Elizabeth Kusko
Environmental Politics, March/April 2013, Pages 312-332
Abstract:
Recycling is an increasingly important tool in global and national efforts for sustainability. Yet, particularly in the United States, there remains disconnect between those who view recycling as a necessity and those who see it as a waste: many conservatives do not support recycling activities, while many liberals do. However, recycling can be framed in language that draws support from both conservatives and liberals. Data from a survey sample of 429 individuals shows that conservative frames of recycling are supported by both conservatives and liberals, whereas liberal frames are supported only by liberals. Similarly 'duty-based' citizenship frames are supported by both duty-based and engaged citizens, while 'engaged' citizenship frames are supported mainly by engaged citizens. The implications for researchers, educators, administrators, and others involved in recycling are detailed.
----------------------
Third-Party Labels Bias Evaluations of Political Platforms and Candidates
Geoffrey Munro et al.
Basic and Applied Social Psychology, March/April 2013, Pages 151-163
Abstract:
The current research investigated the role that partisanship plays in evaluations of third-party political policies and candidate evaluations. Democratic and Republican participants read political party and candidate brochures labeled with their own party or with an ideologically similar third party (Green or Libertarian). All other brochure information was identical. Participants evaluated the policies and candidate more favorably and indicated a greater intention to vote for the candidate when the brochure was labeled with their own party than the third party. Study 2 suggested that these effects were not due to strategic voting and that emotion may be a mediating variable.
----------------------
Benjamin Lauderdale
Public Opinion Quarterly, February 2013, Pages 2-23
Abstract:
Recent studies of the U.S. Congress have demonstrated a substantial difference between the level of partisan polarization displayed by legislators' votes and that shown in citizens' survey responses about those votes. Perhaps public polarization would increase if citizens were more attentive to political debates in Congress. Using natural variation in citizens' levels of political information, I show that citizens who are informed about the partisan alignment of issues have a preference distribution similar to that of Congress, even after the sample is reweighted to resemble the entire public in their political, social, and demographic characteristics via matching. In contrast, using a survey experiment, I show that cue and argument treatments only partially reduce the discrepancy between the views expressed by the public and the voting behavior of Congress on the same issues. Both experimental and observational studies have significant limitations for measuring counterfactuals involving public opinion, and so our understanding of the polarization gap remains unfortunately limited.
----------------------
Proximity Voting in the 2010 U.S. House Elections
Elizabeth Simas
Electoral Studies, forthcoming
Abstract:
Utilizing data that allows for the placement of both of the candidates running and voters on the same ideological scale, I model proximity voting in the 2010 House elections. I demonstrate that though the literature predominantly emphasizes partisanship and incumbency, relative distance from the candidates also plays a significant role in the voting decision. Additionally, I show that these proximity effects are conditional upon the type of candidate running and the individual's partisan attachment. In total, these results show that while the rates of partisan voting and incumbent victory are high in House elections, voters do consider ideological proximity and can punish candidates who take positions that are too far out of line.
----------------------
Geoffrey Wetherell & Mark Brandt
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Despite ample research linking conservatism to discrimination and liberalism to tolerance, both groups may discriminate. In two studies, we investigated whether conservatives and liberals support discrimination against value violators, and whether liberals' and conservatives' values distinctly affect discrimination. Results demonstrated that liberals and conservatives supported discrimination against ideologically dissimilar groups, an effect mediated by perceptions of value violations. Liberals were more likely than conservatives to espouse egalitarianism and universalism, which attenuated their discrimination; whereas the conservatives' value of traditionalism predicted more discrimination, and their value of self-reliance predicted less discrimination. This suggests liberals and conservatives are equally likely to discriminate against value violators, but liberal values may ameliorate discrimination more than conservative values.
----------------------
When does the left do the right thing? A study of party position change on welfare policies
Gijs Schumacher
Party Politics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Why did pro-welfare Social Democrats and Christian Democrats cease to support the welfare state in the 1980s and 1990s, and support measures such as tighter welfare programme conditionality rules and lower social security benefits instead? Building on the party position change literature, I argue and empirically demonstrate that parties with an activist-dominated party organization adapt their position to shifts in the party voter position. Parties with a leadership-dominated party organization adapt their position to shifts in the median voter position. Parties in which neither leaders nor activists dictate party policy shift in the opposite direction of the previous policy shift if they are excluded from office. Using a cross-sectional time-series regression analysis of 181 position shifts of European Socialist, Social Democratic and Christian Democratic parties in the period 1977-2003, I find strong evidence that party organization is a crucial mediating variable in explaining when these parties shift to the right or left. Demonstrating that differences in party organizations motivate parties to respond to different incentives, this study has implications for the relationship between party behaviour and welfare state policy-making.
----------------------
Secular geographical polarization in the American South: The case of Texas, 1996-2010
Adam Myers
Electoral Studies, March 2013, Pages 48-62
Abstract:
This article uses fine-grained data to demonstrate that, since 1996, the State of Texas has undergone a process of 'secular geographical polarization' - a continuous divergence in the geographical bases of its political parties. It is suggested that this process exemplifies a new era of partisan politics in the American South. Analyses of spatial regression models show that the geographical polarization can be partially explained by a tighter link between demographic characteristics and aggregate voting patterns, but that growth in spatial clustering cannot be attributed entirely to demographics. The possibility that spatially-bounded social contexts are affecting partisan change is thus explored. Finally, the article's findings are considered in light of the growing debate about geographical polarization in the American electorate.
----------------------
Mauro Bertolotti et al.
Social Psychology, Spring 2013, Pages 117-128
Abstract:
In two experimental studies (conducted in Britain and Italy), participants read about a politician answering to leadership- versus morality-related allegations using either downward counterfactuals ("things could have been worse, if ...") or upward counterfactuals ("things could have been better, if ..."). Downward messages increased the perception of the politician's leadership, while both downward and upward messages increased morality perception. Political sophistication moderated the effect of message direction, with downward messages increasing perceived morality in low sophisticates and upward messages increasing perceived morality in high sophisticates. In the latter group, the acknowledgment of an intent to take responsibility mediated morality judgment. Results were consistent across different countries, highlighting previously unexplored effects of communication on the perception of the "Big Two" dimensions.
