Search results for "PsyArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Social and Personality Psychology|Social Influence"
showing 10 items of 192 documents
Do Women Prefer More Complex Music around Ovulation?
2012
The evolutionary origins of music are much debated. One theory holds that the ability to produce complex musical sounds might reflect qualities that are relevant in mate choice contexts and hence, that music is functionally analogous to the sexually-selected acoustic displays of some animals. If so, women may be expected to show heightened preferences for more complex music when they are most fertile. Here, we used computer-generated musical pieces and ovulation predictor kits to test this hypothesis. Our results indicate that women prefer more complex music in general; however, we found no evidence that their preference for more complex music increased around ovulation. Consequently, our f…
Ancient DNA reveals prehistoric gene-flow from Siberia in the complex human population history of North East Europe.
2013
North East Europe harbors a high diversity of cultures and languages, suggesting a complex genetic history. Archaeological, anthropological, and genetic research has revealed a series of influences from Western and Eastern Eurasia in the past. While genetic data from modern-day populations is commonly used to make inferences about their origins and past migrations, ancient DNA provides a powerful test of such hypotheses by giving a snapshot of the past genetic diversity. In order to better understand the dynamics that have shaped the gene pool of North East Europeans, we generated and analyzed 34 mitochondrial genotypes from the skeletal remains of three archaeological sites in northwest Ru…
openSNP–A Crowdsourced Web Resource for Personal Genomics
2014
Genome-Wide Association Studies are widely used to correlate phenotypic traits with genetic variants. These studies usually compare the genetic variation between two groups to single out certain Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) that are linked to a phenotypic variation in one of the groups. However, it is necessary to have a large enough sample size to find statistically significant correlations. Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) genetic testing can supply additional data: DTC-companies offer the analysis of a large amount of SNPs for an individual at low cost without the need to consult a physician or geneticist. Over 100,000 people have already been genotyped through Direct-To-Consumer genet…
Happy Aged People Are All Alike, While Every Unhappy Aged Person Is Unhappy in Its Own Way
2011
Aging of the world’s population represents one of the most remarkable success stories of medicine and of humankind, but it is also a source of various challenges. The aim of the collaborative cross-cultural European study of adult well being (ESAW) is to frame the concept of aging successfully within a causal model that embraces physical health and functional status, cognitive efficacy, material security, social support resources, and life activity. Within the framework of this project, we show here that the degree of heterogeneity among people who view aging in a positive light is significantly lower than the degree of heterogeneity of those who hold a negative perception of aging. We base…
Redefining habits and linking habits with other implicit processes
2019
In their commentaries on Hagger (2019), Gardner, Rebar, and Lally (2019) and Phillips (2019) provide welcome debate on the conceptualization and operation of habits in physical activity. In this response, I extend their comments by (i) calling for a redefining of habits to encompass contemporary views of habit, and (ii) suggesting that descriptions of physical activity habits should make reference to their relations with other implicit constructs that reflect automatic processes. Specifically, I contend that extant definitions of habits for complex behaviors like physical activity should move away from definitions of unitary responses to specific cues or contexts, and, focus on ‘macro’ expr…
The reasoned action approach applied to health behavior: Role of past behavior and tests of some key moderators using meta-analytic structural equati…
2018
Abstract Rationale The reasoned action approach (RAA) is a social cognitive model that outlines the determinants of intentional behavior. Primary and meta-analytic studies support RAA predictions for multiple health behaviors. However, including past behavior as a predictor in the RAA may attenuate model effects. Direct effects of past behavior on behavior may reflect non-conscious processes whereas indirect effects of past behavior through social cognitive variables may represent reasoned processes. Objective The present study extended a previous meta-analysis of the RAA by including effects of past behavior. The analysis also tested effects of candidate moderators of model predictions: be…
Power and Legitimizing Ideologies in Hierarchy-Enhancing vs. Hierarchy-Attenuating Environments
2012
According to social dominance theory, intergroup dynamics are strongly influenced by the social positions which individuals hold in society. Several studies suggest that holding a position of power can, sometimes automatically, generate negative attitudes and hostile behaviors toward subordinate social groups. However, at present, the studies carried out on these effects of power have not taken into account the influence of the normative context. Based on the distinction made by Sidanius and Pratto between “hierarchy-enhancing” (HE) vs. “hierarchy-attenuating” (HA) environments, this study examines if the effects of power on legitimizing cognitions vary as a function of the normative enviro…
RAISE study protocol: a cross-sectional, multilevel, neurobiological study of resilience after individual stress exposure
2021
IntroductionThis paper describes the protocol for an ongoing project funded by the Royal Society, the Resilience After Individual Stress Exposure (RAISE) study; which aims to examine the factors and mechanisms that facilitate resilient functioning after childhood adversity (CA).Methods and analysisWe aim to recruit up to 200 participants. We will use dimension reduction techniques (principal component analysis) on standard-normally transformed individual parameters of mental health, social functioning and CA to calculate a composite measure of adaptive (ie, ‘resilient’) psychosocial functioning. To examine the neuroimmune responses to stress and their relationship with the brain and social …
Dominating Clasp of the Financial Sector Revealed by Partial Correlation Analysis of the Stock Market
2010
What are the dominant stocks which drive the correlations present among stocks traded in a stock market? Can a correlation analysis provide an answer to this question? In the past, correlation based networks have been proposed as a tool to uncover the underlying backbone of the market. Correlation based networks represent the stocks and their relationships, which are then investigated using different network theory methodologies. Here we introduce a new concept to tackle the above question--the partial correlation network. Partial correlation is a measure of how the correlation between two variables, e.g., stock returns, is affected by a third variable. By using it we define a proxy of stoc…
Learning to perceive time: A connectionist, memory-decay model of the development of interval timing in infants
2011
International audience; We present the first developmental model of interval timing. It is a memory-based connectionist model of how infants learn to perceive time. It has two novel features that are not found in other models. First, it uses the uncertainty of a memory for an event as an index of how long ago that event happened. Secondly, embodiment – specifically, infant motor activity – is crucial to the calibration of time-perception both within and across sensory modalities. We describe the model and present three simulations which show (1) how it uses sensory memory uncertainty and bodily representaions to index time, (2) that the scalar property of interval timing (Gibbon, 1977) emer…