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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]

It may be that evolution has molded men to respond with aggression towards anyone they perceive to be an outsider, according to a new study published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. Lead researcher Mark van Vugt conducted a review of prior studies in an attempt to support or discredit what has been called the “male warrior hypothesis.” Van Vugt concluded that there was evidence for the existence of an instinct for violence against outsiders. This instinct was very useful during humanity’s hunter-gatherer period, in part because it helped males gain status and improved their access to potential mates. However, it is not as adaptive in today’s world, leading to conflicts that arise over what appear to observers to be trifling issues. These conflicts range from disputes between supporters of rival sports teams to full-scale wars over territorial boundaries. According to Van Vugt, the available evidence suggests that hunter-gatherers frequently fought over resources and took women as the spoils of victory. Men who were more aggressive killed less aggressive men and produced children with their widows, effectively removing from the gene pool men who lacked the genetic predisposition towards belligerence. This trend continued into more recent history, with famous examples including Ghengis Khan, who is believed to have 16 million direct male descendants due to his combined military and sexual conquests, and the Vikings, whose genes made their way to areas as diverse as the Scottish Western Isles and North America. Indeed, a 2008 study conducted by researchers in California showed that genes heavily influence traits like aggression. Women, on the other hand, may have been more likely to survive the upheaval of conquest and enemy occupation if they possessed what researchers call a tendency to “tend and befriend” outsiders. Women who were more likely to resolve conflicts peacefully even at great personal cost may have been more likely to survive and to pass their pacifistic tendencies on to their daughters. Van Vugt asserts that men in every culture throughout history are more apt than women to become violent upon encountering outsiders. He cites evidence that men identify more strongly with their groups and that pulling together to defeat a common enemy helps men to develop stronger relationships with each other. The tendency to respond with aggression towards rival groups probably served to protect the group and make it less vulnerable to attack. Taking the fight away from the women and infants and into the surrounding area before a potential enemy has an opportunity to behave aggressively is an age-old defense tactic, after all. However, in today’s world of professional armies, when most men are no longer the only thing standing between their pregnant wives and infants and invading marauders, this trait often results in unnecessary violence. “A solution to conflict, which is an all too common problem in societies today, remains elusive. One reason for this might be the difficulty we have in changing our mindset, which has evolved over thousands of years,” wrote Van Vugt. “Our review of the academic literature suggests that the human mind is shaped in a way that tends to perpetuate conflict with outsiders.” Related posts: Male and Female Rappers Have Two Different Perspectives About the Definition of the “Independent Woman”

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Male Sex Drive: The Root of World Conflicts [Study]

A British couple who kept their child’s gender a secret for five years have revealed that the child is male. Beck Laxton and Kieran Cooper say that they kept their son’s sex under wraps because they wanted him to grow up free from society’s preconceived ideas about what constitutes gender-appropriate behavior. The couple, who asked their midwives to withhold information even from them about the child’s gender for a half-hour after his birth, named their child Sasha and referred to him as “the infant,” rather than using gender-specific pronouns. Until recently, even most of the child’s relatives were uncertain whether Sasha was a girl or a boy. Sasha’s parents allowed no television in their home and restricted him to gender-neutral toys. Rather than restricting him to gender-neutral clothing, however, they dressed him in boys’ clothing and girls’ clothing on alternate days. Sasha’s enrollment in school prompted the decision to finally reveal his gender. His parents say that it became too difficult to keep Sasha’s gender a secret once he was attending school regularly. Laxton and Cooper are still unwilling to bow to convention, however. Even though his fellow students now know that Sasha is a boy, his school uniform still contains the same shirt girls at his school wear, complete with feminine gathers across the front. Further, his parents encourage him to wear flowered blouses on weekends. In an interview, Laxton stated that she wanted to avoid exposing Sasha to gender stereotyping because she considers it “fundamentally stupid,” and reported that she considers her own early gender conditioning harmful. “Gender affects what children wear and what they can play with, and that shapes the kind of person they become…I just want him to fulfill his potential, and I wouldn’t push him in any direction.” Decades ago, psychologist Sandra Bem pioneered the idea that masculine and feminine gender roles are restrictive and advanced the theory that androgyny is healthier. Although she later revised her theories somewhat, Bem attempted to raise her children without confining them to gender roles. However, she never tried to hide their sex or to force them to be gender neutral. Psychologist Daragh McDermott, of Anglia Ruskin University, said that no one knows how raising a child to be gender neutral will affect the child because there has been little research conducted on the subject. However, he points out that it is impossible to raise a child without exposure to gender conditioning or stereotypes, since school, the media and society in general consciously and unconsciously enforce society’s gender roles. Studies have shown that even parents unconsciously reinforce gender norms during their interactions with their newborn infants. No matter what parents do, he says, children will develop their own gender identification, whether masculine, feminine or gender-neutral. Related posts: Being An Only Child Does Not Hurt Social Skills Gender Gap In Spatial Ability Can Be Reduced Through Training Gender Wage Gap [Infographic]

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Child Raised ‘Gender Neutral’ to Avoid Stereotyping

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]