Female monkeys more dominant in groups with relatively more males

Female monkeys are more dominant when they live in groups with a higher percentage of males. This is caused by self-organisation. This surprising discovery was made by researchers at the University of Groningen. What makes the study particularly interesting is that the researchers used a computer model which can simulate interaction between monkeys. Their findings will be published on July 16 in the open-access journal PLoS ONE.
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Psychiatric Forensic Patients With Tattoos More Likely To Have Antisocial Personality Disorder

ScienceDaily (July 16, 2008) — The presence of tattoos on forensic psychiatric inpatients should alert clinicians to a possible diagnosis of Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD), and also about the potential for histories of suicide attempt, substance abuse, and sexual abuse, according to research recently published in Personality and Mental Health.
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Men and women are programmed differently when it comes to temptation

Temptation may be everywhere, but it’s how the different sexes react to flirtation that determines the effect it will have on their relationships. In a new study, psychologists determined men tend to look at their partners in a more negative light after meeting a single, attractive woman. On the other hand, women are likelier to work to strengthen their current relationships after meeting an available, attractive man.

Patterns in religious behavior

Author/s 1. Magnus Magnusson, University of Iceland, Republic of Iceland;

Abstract This paper primarily concerns a particular type of repeated temporal patterns in religious behavior and possible biological roots regarding their form and function are discussed. Repetion is here a focal term as structural similarity and symmetry both presuppose repetition. This is in good accordance with the following words of F. Crick, (who with Watson discovered of the structure of DNA): “Another key feature of biology is the existence of many identical examples of complex structures.” (1989, p. 138.) Behavior is clearly a case in point while its patterning is often hidden from the naked eye or ear: “Behavior consists of patterns in time. Investigations of behavior deal with sequences that, in contrast to bodily characteristics, are not always visible”, the opening words of Eibl-Eibesfeldt’ s “Ethology: the Biology of Behavior”(1970) . Not denying, of course, the spatial aspect of behavioral patterning. The work behind this paper has primarily focused on the structure of both visible and hidden behavioral patterns and their detection. It has lead to the definition of a general mathematical pattern type, called a t-pattern, (and corresponding detection algorithms) apparently highly characteristic of human and animal behavior and interactions. The definition relies on repetition and focuses simultaneously on the order of pattern components and a particular relationship between the real-time distributions of the components when they occur independently of such patterns (Magnusson, 2000). Search for this kind of patterns has lead to the detection of a multitude of otherwise hidden patterns in neuronal, animal, and human interactions (Anolli et al, 2005; Magnusson, 2004, 2006). Unexpectedly, recent application of the same pattern detection algorithm to DNA analysis has brought attention to spatial patterns of the same type in DNA molecules, notably, patterns corresponding to genes. Repeated rituals characteristic of religious behavior appear to be clear examples of this kind of pattern. Apparently, functional symmetries also exist between such patterns in DNA and in human social and religious behavior (Magnusson, 2005). The t-pattern type will be described and illustated with examples from both religious behavior and DNA. Anolli, L., S. Duncan Jr., M.S. Magnusson and G. Riva (Eds.) (2005). The Hidden Structure of Interaction: From Neurons to Culture Patterns. Amsterdam: IOSPRESS. Hardcover. ISBN: 1-58603-509- 6 Crick, F.H.C. (1988) What Mad Pursuit: A Personal View of Science. Basic Books, New York. Eibl-Eibesfeldt I (1970) Ethology. The Biology of Behavior. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., New York. Magnusson, M. S. (2000). Discovering Hidden Time Patterns in Behavior: T-Patterns and their Detection. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments and Computers, 32(1): pp. 93-110. Magnusson, M.S. (2003). Analyzing complex real-time streams of behavior: repeated patterns in behavior and DNA. L’éthologie appliquée aujourd’hui. (C. Baudoin, ed), Volume 3 - Ethologie humaine. Levallois-Perret, France: Editions ED. ISBN 2-7237-0025- 9. Magnusson, M.S. (2004). Repeated Patterns in Behavior and Other Biological Phenomena. In Evolution of Communication Systems : A Comparative Approach (Vienna Series in Theoretical Biology). D. Kimbrough Oller (Editor), Ulrike Griebel (Editor). London: The MIT Press. ISBN: 0262151111 Magnusson, M.S. (2005). Understanding Social Interaction: Discovering Hidden Structure with Model and Algorithms. (View/Download PDF version). In Anolli, L., S. Duncan Jr., M.S. Magnusson and G. Riva (Eds.) (2005). The Hidden Structure of Interaction: From Neurons to Culture Patterns. Amsterdam: IOSPRESS. Hardcover. ISBN: 1-58603-509- 6. Magnusson, M.S. (2006) Structure and Communication in Interaction. In G. Riva, M.T. Anguera, B.K. Wiederhold, F. Mantovani (eds.) 2006. From Communication to Presence: Cognition, Emotions and Culture Towards the Ultimate Communicative Experience. Amsterdam: IOS Press.

Mean girls get the goods

GIRLS are no less competitive than boys, they’re simply subtler about it, a study of pre-schoolers suggests. While boys use head-on aggression to get what they want, girls rely on the pain of social exclusion.

All in the mind

Findings of an excess of de novo structural variants in cases of autism and schizophrenia have raised hopes that neuropsychiatric conditions may yet prove genetically tractable. Past experience suggests that success in finding causative variants will require exceptional rigor and caution.

Women Have Not Adapted To Casual Sex, Research Shows

ScienceDaily (June 26, 2008) — The sexual and feminist revolutions were supposed to free women to enjoy casual sex just as men always had. Yet according to Professor Anne Campbell from Durham University in the UK, the negative feelings reported by women after one-night stands suggest that they are not well adapted to fleeting sexual encounters.

Mothers’ influence is decisive in tots’ first year

Study says parenting style and baby’s temperament predict challenging behavior in later childhood
The way mothers interact with their babies in the first year of life is strongly related to how children behave later on. Both a mother’s parenting style and an infant’s temperament reliably predict challenging behavior in later childhood, according to Benjamin Lahey and his team from the University of Chicago in the US. Their findings (1) have just been published online in Springer’s Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology.

The objectively assessed femininity of women and the relationship with Cattell’s personality traits

Author/s 1. Vera Pivonkova, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic;
2. Jitka Lindova, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic;
3. Anna Kotrcova, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic;
4. Ales Kubena, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic;
5. Jan Havlicek, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic;

Abstract Evolutionarily based theories predict that feminine morphological features should correspond to female fertility and reproductive success. Previous studies have found that attractive women are rated as more feminine. Moreover, one recent study showed that female femininity as assessed by photogrammetric measurements was connected with levels of oestrogen, a ‘female’ hormone. Some authors have suggested that cues of masculinity or femininity could constitute signals of dominance and non-dominance, respectively. In our study, we focused on the association between facial femininity and psychological characteristics. In previous studies, female femininity has been assessed by subjective ratings or by photogrammetric methods. Yet these methods can meet with confounds such as individual rater variability or methodological limitations of photogrammetric techniques. Therefore, femininity in our study was assessed by anthroposcopy, a technique which is commonly used in the field of plastic surgery for the qualitative assessment of morphological features. The anthroposcopic approach provides more complex information on relative proportions of physical features rather than absolute metric data. In our sample, we took both frontal and profile neutral-expression facial photographs, and anthropometrical head measurements, of 119 female students. Participants also completed Cattell’s 16PF questionnaire. Due to the great morphological complexity of most facial features, we carried out an anthroposcopic analysis of the two photographs (frontal view and profile) for each subject. We created a femininity index (16 features), which included the most distinctive sexually dimorphic features: facial form; size of arcus superciliares and glabella; forehead height and profile; tubera frontalia; chin width, height, shape and profile; eyebrow thickness; nose height; direction of nose tip; shape of nose profile; lip thickness; and height of eye opening. Anthropometrical head measurements included the following measures: face width, jawbone angle width, depth of jawbone, cheekbone arch, jawbone arch, distance between the inner corners of the eyes, distance between the outer corners of the eyes, inter-pupilary distance, nose width, mouth width, physiognomic face height, morphological face height, upper face physiognomic height, upper face anatomical height, nose height, nose depth, nose width and lower face height. We used linear regression to assess the relationship between the anthroposcopy index of femininity and the anthropometric measurements. We found a negative correlation with face width, jawbone angle width, depth of jawbones, cheekbone arch and jawbone arch. Assessment of the relationship among the anthropometric measurements, with Principal Component Analysis with varimax rotation, revealed six separate components. The first component explained 23.8% of variability and was loaded with the anthropometrical measurements, which simultaneously correlated negatively with the femininity index (face width, jawbone angle width, depth of jawbones, cheekbone arch and jawbone arch). Of the six components, it was the only one that was positively correlated with the index of femininity. These results showed that our index of femininity based on the classification of individual morphological features (i.e. anthroposcopy) and their position relative to the other facial feature was intercorrelated with objectively assessed metrical data. The femininity index correlated with two primary factors from Cattell’s personality questionnaire: negatively with the factor Low integration (undisciplined self-conflict) and positively with the factor High tension. Additionally, the femininity index correlated positively with one secondary factor, Anxiety. We suggest that these morphological features and psychological characteristics might develop under the control of steroid hormones, particularly during puberty.

Research shows: religion is for low income, stupid, fat, ugly losers

Title IQ, anthropometrics and religious involvement in a students’ sample

Author/s 1. Daniele Marzoli, Università di Chieti, Italy;
2. Victor Lugli, Università di Chieti, Italy;
3. Silvia Di Lanzo, Università di Chieti, Italy;
4. Patrizia Carluccio, Università di Chieti, Italy;
5. Alessia Mitaritonna, Università di Chieti, Italy;
6. Alfredo Brancucci, Università di Chieti, Italy;
7. Luca Tommasi, Università di Chieti, Italy;

Abstract Many studies underline the relationship of personality and psychological factors with religious behaviour and attitude. However, IQ was investigated in only a few studies. Moreover, the possible link between anthropometric features and religious behaviour have been neglected in such studies. We report a correlational study on the relationship between IQ and anthropometric measures on the one hand and a self-rating of participants’ involvement in their own religious community on the other hand. Our hypothesis is that certain psychological and physical traits related to reduced fitness, such as low IQ, low attractiveness, high body mass index, and, for females, non-optimal waist-to-hip ratio, might result in considerable coping difficulties, and that such difficulties could in turn motivate individuals to seek the social support offered by the religious community. Moreover, these coping difficulties could foster an external locus of control, a likely predictor of the tendency to seek such support. Data on about ninety undergraduate students were collected. Subjects’ photographs and anthropometric measurements were taken. Then, they were administered Raven’s Matrices (measuring IQ) and Rotter’s Test (measuring locus of control). Ultimately, they indicated the degree (if any) of the involvement in their own religious community. We expected that low IQ, low attractiveness (as judged by independent ratings of the participants’ photographs) , high body mass index, and high departure from optimal waist-to-hip ratio (in females) would predict subjects’ high religious involvement. In contemporary Western society, physical attractiveness, as well as being a reliable cue of fitness, is much valued a trait in interpersonal relations and social success. Thus, in our opinion, the relationship between religious involvement and low attractiveness might turn out to be quite strong. In sum, our aim was to test the existence of the hypothesized correlations and to examine their relative strength. The analyses carried out up to now (seventy female subjects) seem to indicate a negative correlation both a) between IQ and religious involvement and b) between physical attractiveness and religious involvement, and a positive correlation between body mass index and religious involvement.

Great apes think ahead

Apes can plan for their future needs just as we humans can – by using self-control and imagining future events. Mathias and Helena Osvath’s research, from Lunds University Cognitive Science in Sweden, is the first to provide conclusive evidence of advanced planning capacities in non-human species. Their findings are published online this week in Springer’s journal, Animal Cognition.

News: Chimps Not So Selfish - Comforting Behavior May Well Be Expression Of Empathy

ScienceDaily (Jun. 19, 2008) — Compared to their sex-mad, peace-loving bonobo counterparts, chimpanzees are often seen as a scheming, war-mongering, and selfish species. As both apes are allegedly our closest relatives, together they are often depicted as representing the two extremes of human behaviour.
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Society’s attitudes have little impact on choice of sexual partner

A unique new study from the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institute suggests that the attitude of families and the public have little impact on if adults decide to have sex with persons of the same or the opposite sex. Instead, hereditary factors and the individual’s unique experiences have the strongest influence on our choice of sexual partners.

Scans see ‘gay brain differences’

The brains of gay men and women look like those found in heterosexual people of the opposite sex, research suggests.

African-Americans and Caucasians have similar emotional brain activity when seeing African-Americans [FEAR]

African Americans and Caucasians viewing African American faces display extremely similar changes in the activity of brain structures that respond to emotional events, a new UCLA study finds.
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What Brain Science Tells Us About Religious Belief

What does brain science add to age-old debates about the existence of God and the value of religion? Can political parties and religious groups use scientific insights to influence the beliefs of others? Are scientists as a group becoming more open to ideas of religion and spirituality? Recent advances in neuroscience and brain-imaging technology have offered researchers a look into the physiology of religious experiences. In observing Buddhist monks as they meditate, Franciscan nuns as they pray and Pentecostals as they speak in tongues, Dr. Andrew Newberg, a radiologist at the University of Pennsylvania, has found that measurable brain activity matches up with the religious experiences described by worshippers. The social, political and religious implications of these and other findings are just beginning to permeate the broader culture, according to New York Times columnist David Brooks, who has been tracking new developments in the field.

Male circumcision is a weapon in the sperm wars

A disgusting, barbaric, primitive procedure that would’ve been made illegal in the West a long time ago if it weren’t for Jewish pressure.

Kurt Kleiner

Circumcision and other forms of male genital mutilation have always been a puzzle. The ritual mutilations can leave the man vulnerable to infection and even death. So why do some societies insist on such a risky ritual for their men?
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Packing people like rats in little, tiny cubicles is bad for them

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Keep your feelings to yourself [”Esto vir!” Be a man!]

Britain’s traditional stiff upper lip may be a better strategy for dealing with shock than letting your feelings spill out, a new study claims.

Being deprived of sleep even for one night makes the brain unstable and prone to sudden shutdowns

Being deprived of sleep even for one night makes the brain unstable and prone to sudden shutdowns akin to a power failure — brief lapses that hover between sleep and wakefulness, according to researchers.
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