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Archive for the ‘Communication and Linguistics’ Category

How different are we? The issue of whether the differences between men and women are real or imaginary has been a matter of much debate. Now a new study conducted by the University of Turin in Italy and published in the journal PLoS ONE claims to have uncovered evidence that large differences in personality exist between men and women. Previous research has lent little credence to the popular school of thought that men and women are so different that they may as well live on different planets. However, lead author Marco Del Giudice claims to have developed a more accurate method to measure and analyze what he says are significant personality differences between men and women. Under Del Giudice, investigators took personality measurements from more than 5,000 men and 5,000 women. They measured 15 different traits, including warmth and sensitivity. Unlike previous studies, Del Giudice’s project compared comprehensive personality profiles that considered many different traits, rather than focusing upon differences in the incidence of individual traits between the sexes. When the data is looked at this way, very large differences between men and women are seen. Del Giudice admits that these individual differences, taken separately, do appear much less significant. He contends, however, that previous researchers not only neglected to correct for measurement errors, but that their practice of looking at one trait at a time obscured the big picture. As a result, according to Del Giudice, previous investigators failed to recognize the full extent of personality differences between men and women. Related posts: Beautiful people convey personality traits better during first impressions Study Finds Surprising Gender Differences Related to Sexual Harassment Evidence Says Women Are Better Multitaskers Than Men [Study]

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Significant Personality Differences Between Men And Women Found [Study]

Forked Fungus Beetles Maybe they are your younger brother’s gang. Maybe they are the guys you hung out with in high school before you had your growth spurt and went off to college. Regardless of how you know them, chances are you can name a group of guys who live their lives like perpetual middle-schoolers, hanging out with each other but rarely dating and never really establishing long-term romantic relationships. A new study by evolutionary biologists from the University of Virginia’s College of Arts & Sciences takes a closer look at these males who live on the fringes of the social world in order to determine how social interactions shape and are shaped by natural selection. Like many other insects, forked fungus beetles live in complex societies. While most of them live highly engaged social lives, a surprising minority have a lot in common with the former members of your old garage band. You know; the ones who are always trying to get you to ditch the wife and kids and come hang out like you used to back in the good old days. These beetles spend most of their time in small groups composed solely of males. The biologists, led by Vince Formica and Butch Broody, could not help noticing what your wife remarked on from day one: The males in these groups were less likely to have encounters with females that lead to mating and reproduction. Formica and Brodie are interested in what happens in beetle societies because social interactions are inextricably intertwined with natural selection, which is Darwin’s term for the natural process that occurs when members of a species possess characteristics that help them survive and pass those beneficial characteristics on to their offspring. The flip side of the evolutionary coin is that characteristics that tend to get members of a species killed at an early age or that make them less likely to mate often die along with the childless individuals who possess them. Formica and Brodie, both from the University of Virginia’s College of Arts & Sciences, conducted their research on the evolution of social behavior by studying the society-in-miniature that is the milieu of the forked fungus beetle. Specifically, their team wondered whether a beetle’s social role had any connection to its chances of producing offspring. The results of their investigation were published in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology . Forked fungus beetles were chosen as subjects because in addition to their rich social life, they were readily available for the researchers to study in the wild and they can easily be captured, tagged and observed. Once the beetles were tagged for easy tracking, the researchers were able to observe and map their social activities. The research team noticed that the beetles with the most active social lives had large social circles and had a lot of sexual encounters, leading to a lot of reproduction on their part. The males with small social circles made up of just a few males rarely had social encounters with females and had little opportunity to pass their genes on to a new generation. According to Formica, learning how social networks operate is crucial to understanding the evolution of societies. “We’ve shown that the trait of sociability is under natural selection, but we don’t know yet if it’s heritable,” he said. “This is one of only a few studies that have shown that position in a social network is a trait that can experience natural selection and therefore has the potential to evolve. It is clear in this study that being central in a large social network is key to high reproductive success. If a trait – such as an individual’s position in a network – is related to reproductive success, you can say it is experiencing natural selection and has the potential to evolve.” Related posts: Social Network Analysis and the Dynamics of Web-Based Networking [Study]

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Want More Sex? Widen Your Social Network, Beetle Research Says

Television’s bad influence on viewers’ eating habits has long been a source of concern for health experts and parents. However, a new study by researchers in Italy shows that the more exposure to newspapers, television and the Internet people have, the healthier they eat. The study, conducted by researchers at the Fondazione di Ricerca e Cura “Giovanni Paolo II” in Campobasso, Italy, found that the more participants used television, newspapers and the Internet as a source of information, the more closely they adhered to a traditional Mediterranean diet. The Mediterranean diet is the eating pattern that was historically followed by inhabitants of the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Ocean. It has long been considered the ideal diet for humans. The current pattern of eating that is prevalent in Europe and North America is known as the Western diet. It is considered one of the least healthy diets and is known to lead to both short-term and long-term health problems. In recent decades, the Western diet has spread across many parts of the globe along with Western clothing, pastimes and entertainments, including television. Often, observers have placed part of the blame for the spread of unhealthy eating habits on television viewing. Some experts had assumed that the spread of other forms of mass media would have a similar effect. The new study, however, highlights the folly of lumping all use of television or other media together and assuming the consequences will all be negative. The results suggest that the effect of mass media, like most other things, often depends upon how and why it is used. The research, which is the first of its kind to look closely at the types of media accessed and to take into account how they are used, was published in the International Journal of Public Health . Previous studies analyzed only the impact television viewing had upon watchers’ health and generalized the results to include other types of media. The investigators studied 1,000 participants in the largest Moli-sani Project, a famous epidemiological study that involves 25,000 inhabitants of Molise, Italy. The goal of the Moli-sani Project is to determine the effect of environmental and genetic factors on the development of cardiovascular disease and tumors. As part of the larger study that included gathering information on individual dietary habits, participants were asked to answer questions regarding their use of mass media. The data was plugged into a specially created instrument designed to measure participants’ exposure to mass media information, and then the results were analyzed. According to researcher Americo Bonanni, “Results have shown that people most exposed to information delivered by any mass media source reported higher adherence to the Mediterranean-like eating patterns. “In particular, people…reported higher consumption of some key foods of the Mediterranean diet pyramid, such as fruits and fresh fish, and a lower consumption of less healthy food such as animal fats.” The researchers concluded that health experts should stop viewing mass media, including television, as the enemy and begin figuring out how to use it to get better information to the public more effectively. Related posts: For Teens, Early Sex and Media Exposure Not Linked Body Image and the Media [Videographic] UW-Madison’s joint mass communication degree ranked top in nation

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Exposure to Mass Media Improves Diet [Study]

You often hear about “the little people,” even when actual height is not discussed. Often times, it is people who converse with upcoming celebrities, telling them not to forget “the little people.” A research study from the authors of a new paper published in Psychological Science , a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, found that there is some psychological truth to these kinds of statements. Though non-celebrities are often normal heights, they may actually feel smaller then what they are when compared to a celebrity. The study suggests that people who feel powerful overestimate their size. Alternatively, people who feel weak, usually in a work setting, tend to feel physically smaller than what they actually are. One of the paper’s co-writers, Jack A. Goncalo of Cornell University, stated that there is physical experience that goes along with the study. He also went on to state that people who feel less powerful may actually see objects and other people larger than what they actually are. Alternatively, people who feel powerful may see things smaller than what they are. Of course, there is plenty of prior research that proves taller people generally make more money, are more likely to be promoted, and are viewed as more attractive, but this paper’s research proves the reverse to be true, that power makes people feel tall. One experiment had people come into the lab in pairs. Their height measurements were taken, and then they were given a leadership aptitude test. They were told that, based on their feedback, they would either be assigned to play the role of a manager or employee. The feedback the participants received was fake, and then they were assigned their roles. After they received their roles, they were asked to fill out a personal questionnaire, answering questions that involved their height, eye color, and other physical attributes. The participants who were given roles of manager, having complete power over crucial decision, stated that they were taller than the actual measurement. Alternatively, people who were given the role of employee answered that their height was either the same or less than the taken measurement. This could explain the psychology of people who wear high-heels to feel powerful or bosses who work in the top-floor office. Related posts: Breaking Rules of Social Behavior Makes You Appear Powerful Study shows why people read magazines featuring envy-inspiring models People Over 50 Prefer Negative Stories About Young People

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Powerful People Are Shorter Than They Think [Study]

“The art of storytelling has remained unchanged and for the most part stories are recycled, but the way that humans tell the stories has always evolved with pure consistent novelty,” says iPad storyteller Joe Sabia. From cave walls to books, opera to vaudeville, radio to radio theater, silent films and now 3D movies, we are constantly embracing new technologies that help enhance our stories. Through a story of his own filled with music, video, and pictures all delivered over his iPad, Sabia gives us some insight into the history how stories have evolved over the years. And while he covers many mediums, he gives credit to one man for kickstarting this evolution: Lothar Meggendorfer, the creator of popup books. Related posts: The Art of Purposeful Storytelling

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The Technology of Storytelling

A new study conducted by researchers from the Alberta School of Business in cooperation with the University of Calgary suggests that, in many cases, people are willing to lie in order to help a close friend avoid embarrassment in a social situation. According to Jennifer Argo, most people will step in to help preserve or even enhance a friend’s social image or to save a friend from social embarrassment. The investigators set out to determine which conditions would be necessary for most people to tell a direct lie in order to protect another person’s reputation. They discovered that it is very common for people to be willing to lie to keep a friend from looking foolish. The researchers dubbed their discovery the wingman theory, or the Barney Stinson principle, after the character portrayed by Neil Patrick Harris on the sitcom How I Met Your Mother . Like Harris’s character, many people are willing to wait in the wings and step forward with so-called white lies designed to help a friend look good. According to Argo, “This is an instance when you don’t have the opportunity to make yourself look good, so somebody else does it for you.” The study involved setting up a scenario in which a person is present when a friend comes face to face with an individual who paid less for the same new car. The researchers discovered that, even if the price difference was small, people were eager to lie to help a friend save face. Perhaps even more surprising, when the price difference was large, people were often willing to lie to help a stranger avoid looking foolish. According to Argo, participants reported that they identified with the person on the hot seat and lied because they would want someone to lie for them under the same circumstances. The rule only held true when the chagrined friend was actually present, however. If the conversation occurred away from the friend, people were likely to lie for them only when the price difference was very large. Argo noted that a person’s willingness to dissemble on behalf of a friend was proportionate to the depth of the friendship involved. “If it’s the best friend, I think most people would lie, even at the risk of possibly being found out.” Argo says that she believes that her findings can be generalized to apply to any situation in which a person perceives that a friend is in danger of being cast in a bad light. She speculates that the same principle may be behind the common practice of playing up a friend’s qualifications on a job recommendation or exaggerating a friend’s good points to a potential date. Argo suggests that further study could shed light on the social cost to the friend who steps forth to take on the wingman role. For example, Argo wonders what effect the telling of the lie might have upon the beneficiary of the lie, speculating that the friend whose reputation was saved might later question the veracity and overall character of the wingman. Related posts: ‘The Friend of My Enemy Is My Enemy’: Virtual Universe Study Proves 80-Year-Old Theory on How Humans Interact Study Supports Theory That Violent Video Games Contribute To Desensitization and Increased Aggression

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The Wingman Theory: Most Lie to Help Friends Save Face [Study]