Let loose
Daniel Fessler et al.
Evolution and Human Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
Wilson and Daly’s Young Male Syndrome thesis seeks to explain why young men are disproportionally involved in both violence and non-violent activities entailing a risk of injury or death. One interpretation of this thesis, which we term the Crazy Bastard Hypothesis, holds that the correlation between violence and other forms of physical risk-taking occurs because the latter behaviors inherently index the general propensity to take risks with one’s life. In violent conflicts, individuals who are indifferent to the prospect of injury or death constitute dangerous adversaries, and valuable allies. Voluntary physical risk-taking may thus serve a signaling function such that risk-prone individuals are perceived as more formidable than risk-averse individuals. Prior work has demonstrated that relative formidability is represented using the dimensions of conceptualized size and strength, providing an avenue for testing the Crazy Bastard Hypothesis. In multiple studies conducted in two disparate societies, we demonstrate that physically risk-prone men are envisioned to be larger, stronger, and more violent than risk-averse men. A separate study reveals that such conceptualizations are unlikely to reflect actual correlations between size/strength and physical risk-proneness, and are instead plausibly interpreted as revealing the contribution of observed physical risk-proneness to assessments of relative formidability.
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Coren Apicella, Anna Dreber & Johanna Mollerstrom
Psychoneuroendocrinology, January 2014, Pages 58–64
Abstract:
While baseline testosterone has recently been implicated in risk-taking in men, less is known about the effects of changing levels of testosterone on financial risk. Here we attempt to influence testosterone in men by having them win or lose money in a chance-based competition against another male opponent. We employ two treatments where we vary the amount of money at stake so that we can directly compare winners to losers who earn the same amount, thereby abstracting from income effects. We find that men who experience a greater increase in bioactive testosterone take on more risk, an association that remains when controlling for whether the participant won the competition. In fact, whether subjects won the competition did not predict future risk. These results suggest that testosterone change, and thus individual differences in testosterone reactivity, rather than the act of winning or losing, influence financial risk-taking.
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Frank May & Ashwani Monga
Journal of Consumer Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
This article introduces time anthropomorphism: a tendency to imbue time with humanlike mental states (e.g., time has a will of its own). This tendency, which varies across individuals and may also be induced, changes patience (e.g., for standard over expedited shipping). Specifically, time anthropomorphism reduces patience for low-power (but not high-power) individuals because anthropomorphism makes the aversive force of wait time seem more potent (i.e., more aversive) to those who feel less potent themselves (i.e., low-power individuals). In a field study with real money at stake and four experiments, the authors verify the effect on patience and confirm the process via both mediation (i.e., the effect is mediated by how aversively time is perceived) and moderation (i.e., the effect reverses when time is made to seem beneficent). Thus, they introduce time as a consequential anthropomorphic entity, present novel effects on intertemporal preferences, and delineate a potency process for power.
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Kevin Beaver, Brian Boutwell & J.C. Barnes
Criminal Justice and Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
There is growing interest in examining whether the findings generated from biosocial studies of crime can be integrated into existing criminological theories. To this point, however, not much empirical research has focused on this possibility. The current study addresses this gap in the literature by examining the nexus between biosocial criminology and the social support perspective as it relates to levels of self-control. To do so, a sample of twin pairs from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) was analyzed using quantitative genetic analyses. The analyses revealed three key findings. First, genetic factors account for about 50% of the variance in measures of social support. Second, the covariance between social support and self-control is largely due to a common genetic pathway. Third, even after holding genetic influences constant, social support has a significant effect on levels of self-control.
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Adolescent Time Preferences Predict Lifetime Outcomes
Bart Golsteyn, Hans Grönqvist & Lena Lindahl
Economic Journal, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper investigates the relationship between time preferences and lifetime social and economic outcomes. We use a Swedish longitudinal dataset that links information from a large survey on children's time preferences at age 13 to administrative registers spanning over five decades. Our results indicate a substantial adverse relationship between high discount rates and school performance, health, labour supply, and lifetime income. Males and high ability children gain significantly more from being future-oriented. These discrepancies are largest regarding outcomes later in life. We also show that the relationship between time preferences and long-run outcomes operates through early human capital investments.
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Ozkan Eren & Serkan Ozbeklik
Labour Economics, October 2013, Pages 293–304
Abstract:
Utilizing the National Educational Longitudinal Study data, this paper examines the role of pre-market cognitive and noncognitive ability, as measured in tenth grade, on the earnings of young men. In addition to the conditional mean, we estimate the impact over the earnings distribution using recently developed (instrumental) quantile regression method. Our results show that noncognitive ability is an important determinant of earnings, but the effects are not uniform across the distribution. We find noncognitive ability to be most important at lower quantiles. The impact of cognitive ability, on the other hand, shows a more homogenous pattern. Several robustness checks support these results.
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Improving Self-control by Practicing Logical Reasoning
Alex Bertrams & Brandon Schmeichel
Self and Identity, forthcoming
Abstract:
We tested the hypothesis that practicing logical reasoning can improve self-control. In an experimental training study (N = 49 undergraduates), for one week participants engaged in daily mental exercises with or without the requirement to practice logical reasoning. Participants in the logic group showed improvements in self-control, as revealed by anagram performance after a depleting self-control task. The benefits of the intervention were short-lived; participants in the two groups performed similarly just one week after the intervention had ended. We discuss the findings with respect to the strength model of self-control and consider possible benefits of regular cognitive challenges in education.
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Development of Risk Taking: Contributions from Adolescent Testosterone and the Orbito-frontal Cortex
Jiska Peper, P. Cédric Koolschijn & Eveline Crone
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, December 2013, Pages 2141-2150
Abstract:
The role of puberty in the development of risk taking remains poorly understood. Here, in a normative sample of 268 participants between 8 and 25 years old, we applied a psycho-endocrine neuroimaging approach to investigate the contribution of testosterone levels and OFC morphology to individual differences in risk taking. Risk taking was measured with the balloon analogue risk-taking task. We found that, corrected for age, higher endogenous testosterone level was related to increased risk taking in boys (more explosions) and girls (more money earned). In addition, a smaller medial OFC volume in boys and larger OFC surface area in girls related to more risk taking. A mediation analysis indicated that OFC morphology partly mediates the association between testosterone level and risk taking, independent of age. Mediation was found in such a way that a smaller medial OFC in boys potentiates the association between testosterone and risk taking but suppresses the association in girls. This study provides insights into endocrinological and neural underpinnings of normative development of risk taking, by indicating that OFC morphology, at least partly, mediates the association between testosterone and risk-taking behavior.
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Sex differences in impulsive action and impulsive choice
Jessica Weafer & Harriet de Wit
Addictive Behaviors, forthcoming
Abstract:
Here, we review the evidence for sex differences in behavioral measures of impulsivity for both humans and laboratory animals. We focus on two specific components of impulsivity: impulsive action (i.e., difficulty inhibiting a prepotent response) and impulsive choice (i.e., difficulty delaying gratification). Sex differences appear to exist on these measures, but the direction and magnitude of the differences vary. In laboratory animals, impulsive action is typically greater in males than females, whereas impulsive choice is typically greater in females. In humans, women discount more steeply than men, but sex differences on measures of impulsive action depend on tasks and subject samples. We discuss implications of these findings as they relate to drug addiction. We also point out the major gaps in this research to date, including the lack of studies designed specifically to examine sex differences in behavioral impulsivity, and the lack of consideration of menstrual or estrous phase or sex hormone levels in the studies.
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Jessie De Witt Huberts, Catharine Evers & Denise De Ridder
Personality and Social Psychology Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
Self-regulation failure is often explained as being overwhelmed by impulse. The present article proposes a novel pathway, presenting a theoretical framework and empirical review of a justification-based account of self-regulation failure. With justification we refer to making excuses for one’s discrepant behavior, so that when experiencing a self-regulation dilemma between immediate impulses and long-term intentions, people resolve the conflict by developing and employing justifications that allow violations of the goal they endorse. Accordingly, rather than inhibiting motivations from the impulsive system, the reflective system can also facilitate them, leading to self-regulation failure. We bring together empirical evidence from various domains demonstrating that justifications can instigate self-regulation failure and rule out alternative accounts. Having established that justification processes contribute to self-regulation failure, we then propose several mechanisms that may fuel the effect. Finally, routes for future research and the conceptual and practical implications of these novel insights for self-regulation are discussed.
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Humor styles, risk perceptions, and risky behavioral choices in college students
Arnie Cann & Adam Cann
Humor, October 2013, Pages 595–608
Abstract:
Sense of humor has been identified as a possible factor that leads to riskier behavioral choices, which could, in turn, contribute to health problems and reduced longevity. In previous studies, sense of humor was viewed as a one-dimensional, positive personal quality: the potential impact of maladaptive styles of humor was not acknowledged. The current study assesses both adaptive and maladaptive humor styles and relates them to perceived risk, and to the performance of risky behavior. The results do not support the suggestion that a sense of humor – when considered as a cheerful, carefree, and optimistic orientation – is related to assessments of risk or risky choices. Although humor styles did predict risk perception and risky behavior, it was the maladaptive, aggressive humor style that was related to a lower perception of risk, and higher rates of predicted and actual risky behavior. Humor styles that reflect a positive mindset, and that were predictive of less chronic worry, were not consistently or reliably associated with perceiving situations as less risky or with higher rates of risky behavior. Further research is needed to clarify why an aggressive humor style was predictive of risk assessment and risky choices.
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Wesley Burge et al.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, October 2013
Abstract:
Cognitive training has been shown to improve performance on a range of tasks. However, the mechanisms underlying these improvements are still unclear. Given the wide range of transfer effects, it is likely that these effects are due to a factor common to a wide range of tasks. One such factor is a participant's efficiency in allocating limited cognitive resources. The impact of a cognitive training program, Processing Speed Training (PST), on the allocation of resources to a set of visual tasks was measured using pupillometry in 10 young adults as compared to a control group of a 10 young adults (n = 20). PST is a well-studied computerized training program that involves identifying simultaneously presented central and peripheral stimuli. As training progresses, the task becomes increasingly more difficult, by including peripheral distracting stimuli and decreasing the duration of stimulus presentation. Analysis of baseline data confirmed that pupil diameter reflected cognitive effort. After training, participants randomized to PST used fewer attentional resources to perform complex visual tasks as compared to the control group. These pupil diameter data indicated that PST appears to increase the efficiency of attentional resource allocation. Increases in cognitive efficiency have been hypothesized to underlie improvements following experience with action video games, and improved cognitive efficiency has been hypothesized to underlie the benefits of PST in older adults. These data reveal that these training schemes may share a common underlying mechanism of increasing cognitive efficiency in younger adults.