>Expanding on a recent study that identified a heritable general intelligence factor (g) among individual chimpanzees froma battery of cognitive tasks, we hypothesized that the more g-loaded cognitive abilities would also be more heritable addition to presenting greater additive genetic variance and interindividual phenotypic variability. This pattern was confirmed with multiple analytical approaches, and is comparable to that found in humans, indicating fundamental homology. Finally, tool use presented the highest heritability, the largest amount of additive genetic variance and phenotypic variance, consistent with previous findings indicating that it is associated with high interspecies variance and has evolved rapidly in comparative primate studies.
>The signs of mating competition are written into the physiology of the human male, but they are not written equally into the physiology of all racial groupings of human males. It seems that Asian males are different, different in that they are more fully dissimilar from the gorilla than are other races, showing less sexual dimorphism, muscularity, and less marked secondary sexual characteristics, and different in that they are more fully dissimilar from the chimpanzee than are other races, showing less sexual drive and activity as well as smaller testicles and lower sperm counts. It is presently argued that such anatomical differences are a testament to a more peaceably monogamous mating history. In turn, it is then argued that such physiological markers are directly associated with the collectivist ethos that has been historically, anthropologically, and sociologically observed among the Asian people.
underrated thread
>Racial constructionists, anti-naturalists, and anti-realists have challenged users of the biological race concept to provide and defend, from the perspective of biology, biological philosophy, and ethics, a biologically informed concept of race. In this paper, an onto-epistemology of biology is developed. What it is, by this, to be "biological real" and "biologically meaningful" and to represent a "biological natural division" is explained. Early 18th century race concepts are discussed in detail and are shown to be both sensible and not greatly dissimilar to modern concepts. A general biological race concept (GBRC) is developed. It is explained what the GBRC does and does not entail and how this concept unifies the plethora of specific ones, past and present. Other race concepts as developed in the philosophical literature are discussed in relation to the GBRC. The sense in which races are both real and natural is explained. Racial essentialism of the relational sort is shown to be coherent. Next, the GBRC is discussed in relation to anthropological discourse. Traditional human racial classifications are defended from common criticisms: historical incoherence, arbitrariness, cluster discordance, etc. Whether or not these traditional human races could qualify as taxa subspecies – or even species – is considered. It is argued that they could qualify as taxa subspecies by liberal readings of conventional standards. Further, it is pointed out that some species concepts potentially allow certain human populations to be designated as species. It is explained why, by conventional population genetic and statistical standards, genetic differences between major human racial groups are at least moderate. Behavioral genetic differences associated with human races are discussed in general and in specific. The matter of race differences in cognitive ability is briefly considered. Finally, the race concept is defended from various criticisms. First, logical and empirical critiques are dissected. These include: biological scientific, sociological, ontological, onto-epistemological, semantic, and teleological arguments. None are found to have any merit. Second, moral-based arguments are investigated in context to a general ethical frame and are counter-critiqued. Racial inequality, racial nepotism, and the “Racial Worldview" are discussed. What is dubbed the Anti-Racial Worldview is rejected on both empirical and moral grounds. Finally, an area of future investigation – the politics of the destruction of the race concept – is pointed to.
>Knowing how the human brain is shaped by migration and admixture is a critical step in studying human evolution [1 and 2], as well as in preventing the bias of hidden population structure in brain research [3 and 4]. Yet, the neuroanatomical differences engendered by population history are still poorly understood. Most of the inference relies on craniometric measurements, because morphology of the brain is presumed to be the neurocranium’s main shaping force before bones are fused and ossified [5]. Although studies have shown that the shape variations of cranial bones are consistent with population history [6, 7 and 8], it is unknown how much human ancestry information is retained by the human cortical surface. In our group’s previous study, we found that area measures of cortical surface and total brain volumes of individuals of European descent in the United States correlate significantly with their ancestral geographic locations in Europe [9]. Here, we demonstrate that the three-dimensional geometry of cortical surface is highly predictive of individuals’ genetic ancestry in West Africa, Europe, East Asia, and America, even though their genetic background has been shaped by multiple waves of migratory and admixture events. The geometry of the cortical surface contains richer information about ancestry than the areal variability of the cortical surface, independent of total brain volumes. Besides explaining more ancestry variance than other brain imaging measurements, the 3D geometry of the cortical surface further characterizes distinct regional patterns in the folding and gyrification of the human brain associated with each ancestral lineage.
>Jensen (1971) found that black girls score 3 IQ points higher than black boys, andwhite boys 1.5 IQ points higher than white girls. He, nevertheless, concluded that this did not support his Race × Sex × Ability interaction theory. Jensen (1998) further analyzed data, some from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79), and suggested that there is no sex difference in general intelligence, g. Other studies have questioned Jensen's null sex difference theory.
>The present study tested both theories with data from the ensuring NLSY97 survey, which represents the 15+ million 12–17 year old adolescents living in the US in 1997.
>Total sample analyses confirmed the existence of significant inverse white–black IQ sex differences, and disconfirmed the null sex difference theory.
>Separate race–age analyses demonstrated, however, that robust IQ sex differences materialize only after age 16, with no white–black interaction. At age 17, female IQ trails male by 3.6–7.03 points in three races, respectively.
>Classical IQ probability curves foretell that more males than femaleswill enter the highest echelons of society, irrespective of race, and white Male/Female ratios at IQ 145 successfully predicted real-life sex differences in educational and occupational achievement. White males with IQ 55 can be expected to run a very high risk of encountering severe achievement problems, a risk shared to some extent with Hispanic male, but black females with this low IQ can be expected to perform worse than black males.
>The paper finally proposed models to account for the origin of sex and race differences in IQ and related educational and occupational differences, involving gene copy numbers, brain size, and steroid hormones. It was suggested that the evolutionary background and physiological nature of sex and race differences explain why social engineering fails to eradicate them.
>Previous studies on sex-differentiated mate preferences have focused on univariate analyses. However, because mate selection is inherently multidimensional, a multivariate analysis more appropriately measures sex differences in mate preferences. We used the Mahalanobis distance (D) and logistic regression to investigate sex differences in mate preferences with data secured from participants residing in 37 cultures (n = 10,153). Sex differences are large in multivariate terms, yielding an overall D = 2.41, corresponding to overlap between the sexes of just 22.8%. Moreover, knowledge of mate preferences alone affords correct classification of sex with 92.2% accuracy. Finally, pattern-wise sex differences are negatively correlated with gender equality across cultures but are nonetheless cross-culturally robust. Discussion focuses on implications in evaluating the importance and magnitude of sex differences in mate preferences.
Why do we like the music we do? Research has shown that musical preferences and personality are linked, yet little is known about other influences on preferences such as cognitive styles. To address this gap, we investigated how individual differences in musical preferences are explained by the empathizing-systemizing (E-S) theory. Study 1 examined the links between empathy and musical preferences across four samples. By reporting their preferential reactions to musical stimuli, samples 1 and 2 (Ns = 2,178 and 891) indicated their preferences for music from 26 different genres, and samples 3 and 4 (Ns = 747 and 320) indicated their preferences for music from only a single genre (rock or jazz). Results across samples showed that empathy levels are linked to preferences even within genres and account for significant proportions of variance in preferences over and above personality traits for various music-preference dimensions. Study 2 (N = 353) replicated and extended these findings by investigating how musical preferences are differentiated by E-S cognitive styles (i.e., ‘brain types’). Those who are type E (bias towards empathizing) preferred music on the Mellow dimension (R&B/soul, adult contemporary, soft rock genres) compared to type S (bias towards systemizing) who preferred music on the Intense dimension (punk, heavy metal, and hard rock). Analyses of fine-grained psychological and sonic attributes in the music revealed that type E individuals preferred music that featured low arousal (gentle, warm, and sensual attributes), negative valence (depressing and sad), and emotional depth (poetic, relaxing, and thoughtful), while type S preferred music that featured high arousal (strong, tense, and thrilling), and aspects of positive valence (animated) and cerebral depth (complexity). The application of these findings for clinicians, interventions, and those on the autism spectrum (largely type S or extreme type S) are discussed.
>Published Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS), reporting the presence of alleles exhibiting significant and replicable associations with IQ, are reviewed. The average between-population frequency (polygenic score) of nine alleles positively and significantly associated with intelligence is strongly correlated to country-level IQ (r = .91). Factor analysis of allele frequencies furthermore identified a metagene with a similar correlation to country IQ (r = .86). The majority of the alleles (seven out of nine) loaded positively on this metagene. Allele frequencies varied by continent in a way that corresponds with observed population differences in average phenotypic intelligence. Average allele frequencies for intelligenceGWAS hits exhibited higher inter-population variability than random SNPs matched to theGWAS hits or GWAS hits for height. This indicates stronger directional polygenic selection for intelligence relative to height. Random sets of SNPs and Fst distances were employed to deal with the issue of autocorrelation due to population structure. GWAS hits were much stronger predictors of IQ than random SNPs. Regressing IQ on Fst distances did not significantly alter the results nonetheless it demonstrated that, whilst population structure due to genetic drift and migrations is indeed related to IQ differences between populations, the GWAS hit frequencies are independent predictors of aggregate IQ differences.
>This research establishes that the emergence, prevalence, recurrence, and severity of intrastate conflicts in the modern era reflect the long shadow of prehistory. Exploiting variations across national populations, it demonstrates that genetic diversity, as determined predominantly during the exodus of humans from Africa tens of thousands of years ago, has contributed significantly to the frequency, incidence, and onset of both overall and ethnic civil conflict over the last half-century, accounting for a large set of geographical and institutional correlates of conflict, as well as measures of economic development. Furthermore, the analysis establishes the significant contribution of genetic diversity to the intensity of social unrest and to the incidence of intragroup factional conflict. These findings arguably reflect the contribution of genetic diversity to the degree of fractionalization and polarization across ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups in the national population; the adverse influence of genetic diversity on interpersonal trust and cooperation; the contribution of genetic diversity to divergence in preferences for public goods and redistributive policies; and the potential impact of genetic diversity on economic inequality within a society.
>Most scientific discoveries have originated from Europe, and Europeans have won 20 times more Nobel Prizes than have Northeast Asians. We argue that this is explained not by IQ, but by interracial personality differences, underpinned by differences in gene distribution. In particular, the variance in scientific achievement is explained by differences in inquisitiveness (DRD4 7-repeat), psychological stability (5HTTLPR long form), and individualism (mu-opioid receptor gene; OPRM1 G allele). Northeast Asians tend to be lower in these psychological traits, which we argue are necessary for exceptional scientific accomplishments. Since these traits comprise a positive matrix, we constructed a q index (measuring curiosity) from these gene frequencies among world populations. It is found that both IQ scores and q index contribute significantly to the number of per capita Nobel Prizes.
>Male homosexual preference (MHP) has long been of interest to scholars studying the evolution of human sexuality. Indeed, MHP is partially heritable, induces a reproductive cost and is common. MHP has thus been considered a Darwinian paradox. Several questions arise when MHP is considered in an evolutionary context. At what point did MHP appear in the human evolutionary history? Is MHP present in all human groups? How has MHP evolved, given that MHP is a reproductively costly trait? These questions were addressed here, using data from the anthropological and archaeological literature. Our detailed analysis of the available data challenges the common view of MHP being a “virtually universal” trait present in humans since prehistory. The conditions under which it is possible to affirm that MHP was present in past societies are discussed. Furthermore, using anthropological reports, the presence or absence of MHP was documented for 107 societies, allowing us to conclude that evidence of the absence of MHP is available for some societies. A recent evolutionary hypothesis has argued that social stratification together with hypergyny (the hypergyny hypothesis) are necessary conditions for the evolution of MHP. Here, the link between the level of stratification and the probability of observing MHP was tested using an unprecedented large dataset. Furthermore, the test was performed for the first time by controlling for the phylogenetic non-independence between societies. A positive relationship was observed between the level of social stratification and the probability of observing MHP, supporting the hypergyny hypothesis.
>Toward a Biology of Collectivism
The fuck?
>Immigrants can be classified into groups based on their country of origin. Group-level data concerning immigrant crime by country of origin was obtained from a 2005 Dutch-language report and were from 2002. There are data for 57 countries of origin.
>The crime rates were correlated with country of origin predictor variables: national IQ, prevalence of Islam and general socioeconomic factor (S). For males aged 12-17 and 18-24, the mean correlation with IQ, Islam, and S was, respectively, -.51, .37, and -.42. When subsamples split into 1st and 2nd generations were used, the mean correlation was -.74, .34, and -.40. A general crime factor among young persons was extracted. The correlations with the predictors for this variable were -.80, .34, and -.43. The results were similar when weighing the observations by the population of each immigrant group in the Netherlands. The results were also similar when using crime rates controlled for differences in household income.
>Some groups increased their crime rates from the 1st to 2nd generation, while for others the reverse happened.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/14/us-science-teeth-idUSKCN0S82CB20151014
>Scientists on Wednesday announced the discovery of teeth between 80,000 and 120,000 years old that they say provide the earliest evidence of fully modern humans outside Africa.
>"This finding suggests that Homo sapiens is present in Asia much earlier than the classic, recent 'Out of Africa' hypothesis was suggesting: 50,000 years ago," Martinón-Torres said.
This thread is exclusively for academic journal articles, not popular press articles.
http://ge.tt/api/1/files/2Z3Gp3Q2/0/blob?download
>The hominin record from southern Asia for the early Late Pleistocene epoch is scarce. Well-dated and well-preserved fossils older than ~45,000 years that can be unequivocally attributed to Homo sapiens are lacking1, 2, 3, 4. Here we present evidence from the newly excavated Fuyan Cave in Daoxian (southern China). This site has provided 47 human teeth dated to more than 80,000 years old, and with an inferred maximum age of 120,000 years. The morphological and metric assessment of this sample supports its unequivocal assignment to H. sapiens. The Daoxian sample is more derived than any other anatomically modern humans, resembling middle-to-late Late Pleistocene specimens and even contemporary humans. Our study shows that fully modern morphologies were present in southern China 30,000–70,000 years earlier than in the Levant and Europe5, 6, 7. Our data fill a chronological and geographical gap that is relevant for understanding when H. sapiens first appeared in southern Asia. The Daoxian teeth also support the hypothesis that during the same period, southern China was inhabited by more derived populations than central and northern China. This evidence is important for the study of dispersal routes of modern humans. Finally, our results are relevant to exploring the reasons for the relatively late entry of H. sapiens into Europe. Some studies have investigated how the competition with H. sapiens may have caused Neanderthals’ extinction (see ref. 8 and references therein). Notably, although fully modern humans were already present in southern China at least as early as ~80,000 years ago, there is no evidence that they entered Europe before ~45,000 years ago. This could indicate that H. neanderthalensis was indeed an additional ecological barrier for modern humans, who could only enter Europe when the demise of Neanderthals had already started.
>Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies typically collapse data from many subjects, but brain functional organization varies between individuals. Here we establish that this individual variability is both robust and reliable, using data from the Human Connectome Project to demonstrate that functional connectivity profiles act as a 'fingerprint' that can accurately identify subjects from a large group. Identification was successful across scan sessions and even between task and rest conditions, indicating that an individual's connectivity profile is intrinsic, and can be used to distinguish that individual regardless of how the brain is engaged during imaging. Characteristic connectivity patterns were distributed throughout the brain, but the frontoparietal network emerged as most distinctive. Furthermore, we show that connectivity profiles predict levels of fluid intelligence: the same networks that were most discriminating of individuals were also most predictive of cognitive behavior. Results indicate the potential to draw inferences about single subjects on the basis of functional connectivity fMRI.
> We investigated adult schizotypy and objective and subjective social rank in childhood.
> We found that low objective and subjective rank linked with most schizotypy dimensions.
> In regression analyses, subjective rank was the only significant predictor.
> Subjective rank is a crucial factor in vulnerability to mental distress.
>There has been much recent interest in inequality as a causal predictor of mental distress (Pickett & Wilkinson, 2015). However, research has not yet investigated the relationship between objective and subjective social rank and schizotypy, a personality trait that is associated with vulnerability to mental distress. In the present study, we looked at the relative contribution of childhood objective and subjective social rank in relation to schizotypy in adulthood. In an on-line sample of 365 volunteers based in the United Kingdom, we used post-code information in reconstructing an index of socio-economic status in childhood, as well as asking the participants subjective recollections of their childhood status in relation to others. We found that the subjective, rather than the objective measure of status was a significant predictor of all the dimensions of schizotypy. Individuals who had high objective, and low subjective status had higher scores in Cognitive Disorganisation. Our results highlight the importance of psycho-social route in the development of vulnerability to mental distress, and can be interpreted in light of the social rank theory.
No pdf to be found. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S019188691530026X
For info about schizotypy check: http://www.psych-it.com.au/Psychlopedia/article.asp?id=188
>No pdf to be found.
http://uncnews.unc.edu/2015/11/23/a-huge-chunk-of-a-tardigrades-genome-comes-from-foreign-dna/
>Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have sequenced the genome of the nearly indestructible tardigrade, the only animal known to survive the extreme environment of outer space, and found something they never expected: that they get a huge chunk of their genome – nearly one-sixth or 17.5 percent – from foreign DNA.
>“We had no idea that an animal genome could be composed of so much foreign DNA,” said co-author Bob Goldstein, faculty in the biology department in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences. “We knew many animals acquire foreign genes, but we had no idea that it happens to this degree.”
>The work, publish today in the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences, not only raises the question of whether there is a connection between foreign DNA and the ability to survive extreme environments, but further stretches conventional views of how DNA is inherited.
I know these are not pdfs but this is a decent resource:
http://www.humanbiologicaldiversity.com/
>We investigated Big Five personality traits for a novel sample of individuals engaged in politically and economically-charged protest activity at the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in New York City. We gathered data about protesters’ personality traits by administering the TIPI battery in a survey conducted in October 2011. We compared distributions of Big Five traits for the sample with population norms. We expected our sample to show higher levels of extraversion, openness, and emotional stability, and lower levels of agreeableness, compared to norms, with no difference in conscientiousness. We found mixed support for our hypotheses: our sample showed higher levels of emotional stability and extraversion, lower levels of agreeableness, and no differences in conscientiousness, but lower levels of openness.
>BACKGROUND: Delay discounting (DD), a decline in the subjective value of reward with increasing delay until its receipt, is an established behavioral model of impulsive choice, a key component of a broader impulsivity construct. Greater DD, i.e., a tendency to choose smaller immediate over larger delayed rewards, has been implicated as a potential intermediate phenotype (endophenotype) for addictive disorders and comorbid externalizing psychopathology, particularly in adolescence. However, genetic and environmental origins of DD remain unclear. Accordingly, the goal of the present study was to assess heritability of DD, an important aspect of its utility as an endophenotype.
>METHODS: A commonly used computerized procedure involving choice between varying amounts of money available immediately and a standard amount of $100 presented at variable delays was administered to a populationased sample of twins aged 16 and 18 (n 5 560, including 134 monozygotic and 142 dizygotic pairs). DD was quantified using area under the discounting curve and the k coefficient estimated by fitting a hyperbolic model to individual data. Heritability was assessed using linear structural equation modeling of twin data.
>RESULTS: The genetic analysis revealed significant heritability of both DD measures (area under the discounting curve: 46% and 62%; k: 35% and 55% at age 16 and 18, respectively).
>CONCLUSIONS: The present study provides evidence for heritability of both model-based and model-free DD measures and suggests that DD is a promising intermediate phenotype for genetic dissection of impulsivity and externalizing spectrum disorders.
>Patients diagnosed with psychotic disorders (for example, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder) have elevated risks of committing violent acts, particularly if they are comorbid with substance misuse. Despite recent insights from quantitative and molecular genetic studies demonstrating considerable pleiotropy in the genetic architecture of these phenotypes, there is currently a lack of large-scale studies that have specifically examined the aetiological links between psychotic disorders and violence. Using a sample of all Swedish individuals born between 1958 and 1989 (n=3 332 101), we identified a total of 923 259 twin-sibling pairs. Patients were identified using the National Patient Register using validated algorithms based on International Classification of Diseases (ICD) 8–10. Univariate quantitative genetic models revealed that all phenotypes (schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, substance misuse, and violent crime) were highly heritable (h2=53–71%). Multivariate models further revealed that schizophrenia was a stronger predictor of violence (r = 0.32; 95% confidence interval: 0.30–0.33) than bipolar disorder (r = 0.23; 0.21–0.25), and large proportions (51–67%) of these phenotypic correlations were explained by genetic factors shared between each disorder, substance misuse, and violence. Importantly, we found that genetic influences that were unrelated to substance misuse explained approximately a fifth (21%; 20–22%) of the correlation with violent criminality in bipolar disorder but none of the same correlation in schizophrenia (P bipolar disorder < 0.001; P schizophrenia = 0.55). These findings highlight the problems of not disentangling common and unique sources of covariance across genetically similar phenotypes as the latter sources may include aetiologically important clues. Clinically, these findings underline the importance of assessing risk of different phenotypes together and integrating interventions for psychiatric disorders, substance misuse, and violence.
>Empirical evidence and social commentary demonstrate favoring of Whites over Blacks in attitudes, social judgment, and social behavior. In 6 studies (N > 4,000), we provide evidence for a pro-Black bias in academic decision making. When making multiple admissions decisions for an academic honor society, participants from undergraduate and online samples had a more relaxed acceptance criterion for Black than White candidates, even though participants possessed implicit and explicit preferences for Whites over Blacks. This pro-Black criterion bias persisted among subsamples that wanted to be unbiased and believed they were unbiased. It also persisted even when participants were given warning of the bias or incentives to perform accurately. These results suggest opportunity for theoretical and empirical innovation on the conditions under which biases in social judgment favor and disfavor different social groups, and how those biases manifest outside of awareness or control.
>General socioeconomic factor (S) scores were calculated for US states by SIRE (self-identified race/ethnicity) groups based on 3 indicators. The S factor loadings were generally but not always stable across subgroup analyses and the factor scores were generally stable across factor analytic extraction methods (almost all r's ≈ 1). For Whites, Blacks and Hispanics, there were strong correlations between cognitive ability scores and S factor scores across states (r's = .55 to .78; N's = 28-50). This pattern also held when all data were analyzed together (r = .86, N = 115). Furthermore, the size of the Hispanic-White and Black-White S and cognitive ability gaps strongly correlated across states (r's = .62-.69; N's = 36-37). Lastly, parasite prevalence did not plausibly explain SIRE gaps in cognitive ability because gaps were smaller in more parasite-rich states (combined analysis r = -.17, N = 91).
>Previously, we looked at the association between overall state-level racial ancestry and overall state-level outcomes. It was found that European ancestry relative to African and Amerindian ancestry was associated with better outcomes. This analysis was extended by looking at the state-level ancestry-outcome associations individually for Black and Hispanic SIRE groups. For Blacks, state-level European and Amerindian admixture was positively associated with better outcomes (mean r's = .28 and .27), while African admixture was associated with worse outcomes (mean r = -31, N = 31). For Hispanics, African and European admixture was related to better outcomes (mean r's = .36 and .13), while Amerindian admixture was associated with worse outcomes (mean r = -.40; N = 24-34). These SIRE specific state-level results were only partially consistent with the overall state-level ones.
Finally, it was found that climatic and geospatial variables did not correlate strongly with cognitive ability and S scores when scores were decomposed by SIRE group, but did so at the total state-level, even after statistical control.
>National differences in subjective well-being (SWB) have been attributed to socioeconomic, climatic, and genetic factors. We focus on one particular facet of SWB—happiness or positive affect—measured by the nationally representative World Values Survey (WVS). We find that national percentages of very happy people across the three latest WVS waves (2000–2004, 2005–2009, 2010–2014) are consistently and highly correlated with national prevalence of the rs324420 A allele in the FAAH gene, involved in the hydrolysis of anandamide, a substance that reportedly enhances sensory pleasure and helps reduce pain. Climatic differences are also significantly associated with national differences in happiness, whereas economic wealth, recent economic growth, rule of law, pathogen prevalence, and the distribution of short versus long alleles in the serotonin transporter gene SLC6A4 are not significant predictors of national happiness.
>Prior research suggests that liberals are more complex than conservatives. However, it may be that liberals are not more complex in general, but rather only more complex on certain topic domains (while conservatives are more complex in other domains). Four studies (comprised of over 2,500 participants) evaluated this idea. Study 1 involves the domain specificity of a self-report questionnaire related to complexity (dogmatism). By making only small adjustments to a popularly used dogmatism scale, results show that liberals can be significantly more dogmatic if a liberal domain is made salient. Studies 2–4 involve the domain specificity of integrative complexity. A large number of open-ended responses from college students (Studies 2 and 3) and candidates in the 2004 Presidential election (Study 4) across an array of topic domains reveals little or no main effect of political ideology on integrative complexity, but rather topic domain by ideology interactions. Liberals are higher in complexity on some topics, but conservatives are higher on others. Overall, this large dataset calls into question the typical interpretation that conservatives are less complex than liberals in a domain-general way.
>Ancient population expansions and dispersals often leave enduring signatures in the cultural traditions of their descendants, as well as in their genes and languages. The international folktale record has long been regarded as a rich context in which to explore these legacies. To date, investigations in this area have been complicated by a lack of historical data and the impact of more recent waves of diffusion. In this study, we introduce new methods for tackling these problems by applying comparative phylogenetic methods and autologistic modelling to analyse the relationships between folktales, population histories and geographical distances in Indo-European-speaking societies. We find strong correlations between the distributions of a number of folktales and phylogenetic, but not spatial, associations among populations that are consistent with vertical processes of cultural inheritance. Moreover, we show that these oral traditions probably originated long before the emergence of the literary record, and find evidence that one tale (‘The Smith and the Devil’) can be traced back to the Bronze Age. On a broader level, the kinds of stories told in ancestral societies can provide important insights into their culture, furnishing new perspectives on linguistic, genetic and archaeological reconstructions of human prehistory.
>This study examines the relations between sociodemographic sex differences and life history strategies in the populations of Mexican States. Sex differences in anatomy and behavior was measured with traits such as educational achievement, mortality, and morbidity. The data were obtained from the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI) and sampled from thirty-one Mexican states and the Federal District (N = 32). An extension analysis was performed selecting only the sex ratio variables that had a correlation with the slow Life History factor greater than or equal to an absolute value of .25. A unit-weighted sex ratio factor was created using these variables. Across 32 Mexican states, the correlation between latent slow life history and sex ratio was .57 (p < .05). These results are consistent with our hypothesis that slower life histories favor reduced sexual dimorphism in physiology and behavior among human subnational populations. The results of the study further understanding of variations in population sex differences, male-biased behaviors toward sexual equality, and the differences among subnational (regional) populations within the United States of Mexico.
http://www.nature.com/articles/srep20509
open article
http://phys.org/news/2016-02-genes-latrinesvikings-worms-clues-emphysema.html
In a paper published today in Scientific Reports a group of researchers led by LSTM have found that the key to an inherited deficiency, predisposing people to emphysema and other lung conditions, could lie in their Viking roots.
Archaeological excavations of Viking latrine pits in Denmark have revealed that these populations suffered massive worm infestations. The way that their genes developed to protect their vital organs from disease caused by worms has become the inherited trait which can now lead to lung disease in smokers.
>Last year I cowrote an essay with Greg Lukianoff titled “The Coddling of the American Mind” (Lukianoff & Haidt, 2015). Lukianoff and I analyzed several new concepts that have been spreading rapidly around the academy—but almost nowhere else in American society. The two most colorful are “Trigger warnings” (warnings given to students before professors assign readings that might reactivate painful memories in survivors of trauma) and “microaggressions” (words, questions, or even facial expressions that have the effect—often unintended—of making another person feel marginalized, different, or excluded). A search for these terms on Google Trends shows that they were barely mentioned before 2012 but have been rising rapidly in popularity since late 2013.
>These terms are part of a new conceptual package that includes all of the older concepts long referred to as “political correctness” but with greatly expanded notions of harm, trauma, mental illness, vulnerability, and harassment. These concepts seem to have expanded in just the way that Nick Haslam (this issue) describes—horizontally, to take in new kinds of cases (such as adding the reading of novels to the list of traumatizing activities), and vertically, to take in ever less extreme versions of older cases (as is made explicit by the prefix “micro” in the word “microaggression”). In this conceptually augmented political correctness, the central idea seems to be that many college students are so fragile that institutions and right-thinking people must all work together to protect vulnerable individuals from exposure to words and ideas that could damage them in a lasting way. If this protection requires banning certain speakers from campus, or punishing student newspapers that publish opinions that upset the dominant campus sensibility, then so be it.
Dug up from the journal leak by >>>/pol/4989459
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/11/european-genetic-identity-may-stretch-back-36000-years
The origin of contemporary Europeans remains contentious. We obtain a genome sequence from Kostenki 14 in European Russia dating to 38,700 to 36,200 years ago, one of the oldest fossils of Anatomically Modern Humans from Europe. We find that K14 shares a close ancestry with the 24,000-year-old Mal’ta boy from central Siberia, European Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, some contemporary western Siberians, and many Europeans, but not eastern Asians. Additionally, the Kostenki 14 genome shows evidence of shared ancestry with a population basal to all Eurasians that also relates to later European Neolithic farmers. We find that Kostenki 14 contains more Neandertal DNA that is contained in longer tracts than present Europeans. Our findings reveal the timing of divergence of western Eurasians and East Asians to be more than 36,200 years ago and that European genomic structure today dates back to the Upper Paleolithic and derives from a meta-population that at times stretched from Europe to central Asia.
>We meta-analyzed studies reporting associations between socioeconomic outcomes (S outcomes) and racial ancestries (European, African and Amerindian) in the Americas. 33 studies yielded a total of 120 datapoints and 41 non-overlapping effect sizes.
>We found that European ancestry is positively related to S outcomes r = .17 [95% CI: .12 to .21], Amerindian negatively -.11 [-.16 to -.06] and African negatively -.09 [-.17 to -.01].
>The “shallowing hypothesis” suggests that recent media technologies have led to a dramatic decline in ordinary daily reflective thought. According to this hypothesis, certain types of social media (e.g., texting and Facebook) promote rapid, shallow thought that can result in cognitive and moral “shallowness” if used too frequently. The purpose of this study was to test key claims made by the shallowing hypothesis, while simultaneously advancing our general knowledge regarding the effects of social media usage. The relationships between texting frequency, social media usage, the Big Five personality traits, reflectiveness, and moral shallowness were examined in undergraduate students at a Canadian university (N = 149). Participants completed an online questionnaire comprised of five measures that assessed their social media and texting behavior, use of reflective thought, life goals, personality dimensions, and demographic characteristics. Correlates of both texting frequency and social media usage were consistent with the shallowing hypothesis and previous literature; participants who frequently texted or used social media were less likely to engage in reflective thought and placed less importance on moral life goals.
>There are a number of limitations to the present study that must be taken into consideration. Carr's hypothesis suggests that our frequent use of ultra-brief social media is responsible for a decline in daily reflective thought as well as the moral shallowing of its most frequent users; however, the results of the current study only suggest correlation, not causation. All of the reported associations are cross-sectional and non-experimental which makes it difficult to determine whether there are alternative explanations for the relationships between variables. It is entirely possible that individuals with more shallow life goals and less desire to engage in reflective thought more readily embrace texting and the use of ultra-brief social media. Future studies should utilize longitudinal and experimental methods in order to more effectively test the shallowing hypothesis and determine the relative influences of socialization, selection, or their interactive effects. Secondly, the overrepresentation of female participants makes it impossible to identify any gender differences in texting frequency or social media usage and the reliance on a university's participant pool to acquire participants makes it difficult to examine the effects of education, age, or social economic status, since these variables tend to be restricted in range in a university sample. Future studies should use larger and more diverse samples.
>Same-sex genital interactions (SSGIs) occur across the order Primates, yet explaining their maintenance in evolutionary terms appears problematic; as such interactions seem to counteract reproductive goals. We hypothesised that in more promiscuous species, where sexual motivation, mating effort, and non-conceptive heterosexual behaviour are greater, SSGIs may also occur at greater frequencies without necessarily impeding reproduction. We found that the expression of both male and female SSGIs were greater in multimale systems than in unimale ones. Both male and female SSGIs were positively correlated with the degree of promiscuity (relative testes mass). As mating system confers biases in the sex ratio that may influence the expression of SSGIs, we controlled for availability of members of the same-sex. When employing this control, results were largely congruent. For males, SSGIs were expressed more frequently in multimale systems. For both sexes, SSGIs were expressed more frequently with greater relative testes mass. We suggest SSGIs in primates may be a neutral by-product of selection for increases in promiscuous sexual activity, and that in certain instances these interactions may be co-opted to facilitate adaptive social functions.
>Following Snyderman and Rothman (1987, 1988), we surveyed expert opinions on the current state of intelligence research. This report examines expert opinions on causes of international differences in student assessment and psychometric IQ test results. Experts were surveyed about the importance of culture, genes, education (quantity and quality), wealth, health, geography, climate, politics, modernization, sampling error, test knowledge, discrimination, test bias, and migration. The importance of these factors was evaluated for diverse countries, regions, and groups including Finland, East Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Southern Europe, the Arabian-Muslim world, Latin America, Israel, Jews in the West, Roma (gypsies), and Muslim immigrants. Education was rated by N=71 experts as the most important cause of international ability differences. Genes were rated as the second most relevant factor but also had the highest variability in ratings. Culture, health, wealth, modernization, and politics were the next most important factors, whereas other factors such as geography, climate, test bias, and sampling error were less important. The paper concludes with a discussion of limitations of the survey (e.g., response rates and validity of expert opinions).
>This study examined the association between sexual orientation and nonviolent and violent delinquency across the life course. We analyzed self-reported nonviolent and violent delinquency in a sample of heterosexual males (N = 5220–7023) and females (N = 5984–7875), bisexuals (N = 34–73), gay males (N = 145–189), and lesbians (N = 115–150) from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). The analyses revealed, in general, that bisexuals were the most delinquent of the sexual orientation categories for both males and females. Additional analyses revealed that heterosexual males reported significantly higher levels of both violent and nonviolent delinquency than gay males, whereas lesbians reported more involvement in nonviolent delinquency and, to a lesser extent, violent delinquency relative to heterosexual females. Analyses also revealed that lesbians reported significantly more delinquent behavior, particularly for nonviolent delinquency, than gay males. Future research should explore the mechanisms that account for these observed patterns and how they can be used to more fully understand the etiology of delinquency.
>Research Summary
>Race-related debates often assume that implicit racial bias will result in racially biased decisions to shoot. Previous research has examined racial bias in police decisions by pressing “shoot” or “don’t-shoot” buttons in response to pictures of armed and unarmed suspects. As a result of its lack of external validity, however, this methodology provides limited insight into officer behavior in the field. In response, we conducted the first series of experimental research studies that tested police officers and civilians in strikingly realistic deadly force simulators.
>Policy Implications
>This article reports the results of our most recent experiment, which tested 80 police patrol officers by applying this leading edge method. We found that, despite clear evidence of implicit bias against Black suspects, officers were slower to shoot armed Black suspects than armed White suspects, and they were less likely to shoot unarmed Black suspects than unarmed White suspects. These findings challenge the assumption that implicit racial bias affects police behavior in deadly encounters with Black suspects.
http://www.nature.com/articles/srep24435
>These findings elucidate specific gender differences in essential neurocognitive functions
>We found evidence for differences in performance monitoring functions between men and women both on a behavioural as well as electrophysiological level. Behaviourally, men were found to respond faster in the task overall whereas no difference in error rate was observed. Additionally, we observed an overall negative association between RT and error rate, indicating that subjects who responded faster also made more errors. Thus, independent of this general effect, men performed the task more efficiently. This finding fits well with several other studies that found faster responding in male subjects employing a Flanker task in adults26,32 and children11 and additionally with behavioural studies employing a variety of RT paradigms29,40.
>A possible explanation for this finding would be the ‘extreme male brain’ hypothesis41, which implies that women are more easily distracted by semantic as well as social cues compared to men due to more efficient, autonomic processing of these stimuli.
>Reproductive medicine and commercial sperm banking have facilitated an evolutionary shift in how women are able to choose who fathers their offspring, by notionally expanding women's opportunity set beyond former constraints. This study analyses 1546 individual reservations of semen by women from a private Australian assisted reproductive health facility across a ten year period from 2006 to 2015. Using the time that each sample was available at the facility until reservation, we explore women's preference for particular male characteristics. We find that younger donors, and those who hold a higher formal education compared to those with no academic qualifications are more quickly selected for reservation by women. Both age and education as proxies for resources are at the centre of Parental Investment theory, and our findings further build on this standard evolutionary construct in relation to female mate preferences. Reproductive medicine not only provides women the opportunity to become a parent, where previously they would not have been able to, it also reveals that female preference for resources of their potential mate (sperm donor) remain, even when the notion of paternal investment becomes redundant. These findings build on behavioural science's understanding of large-scale decisions and human behaviour in reproductive medical settings.
>Country-level total fertility rates (TFR) and cognitive ability are negatively correlated, suggesting the existence of a selection pressure that might be reducing global G. Also, the cross-population frequencies of several SNPs have been found to predict cognitive ability between countries. This study applies a cross-cultural sociogenetic approach to explore the role of latent factors among cognitive ability measures and these SNPs in moderating the associations among their indicators and TFR. Using a G factor constructed from five measures of cognitive ability, positive moderation is found on the TFRability relationship (ρ = 0.251 N = 60.6 countries). Using a metagene common factor among eight SNPs, positive moderation is also found on the TFRSNP relationship (ρ = 0.816, N = 18 countries). An inference of polygenic selection for lower G is supported by the findings of two multivector co-moderation analyses. When controlled for one another, Human Development Index and metagene frequency both independently predicted TFR (β = − 0.339, and − 0.678 respectively, N = 18 countries). This indicates a joint impact of intelligent fertility control and life history slowing on the distribution of TFR values. Based on these results, polygenic selection might be reducing heritable G globally by − 0.253 points per decade, highlighting the importance of the Flynn effect as a contributor to global development.
>The Ashkenazi Jewish (AJ) population is important in medical genetics due to its high rate of Mendelian disorders and other unique genetic characteristics. Ashkenazi Jews have appeared in Europe in the 10th century, and their ancestry is thought to involve an admixture of European (EU) and Middle-Eastern (ME) groups. However, both the time and place of admixture in Europe are obscure and subject to intense debate. Here, we attempt to characterize the Ashkenazi admixture history using a large Ashkenazi sample and careful application of new and existing methods. Our main approach is based on local ancestry inference, assigning each Ashkenazi genomic segment as EU or ME, and comparing allele frequencies across EU segments to those of different EU populations. The contribution of each EU source was also evaluated using GLOBETROTTER and analysis of IBD sharing. The time of admixture was inferred using multiple tools, relying on statistics such as the distributions of segment lengths and the total EU ancestry per chromosome and the correlation of ancestries along the chromosome. Our simulations demonstrated that distinguishing EU vs ME ancestry is subject to considerable noise at the single segment level, but nevertheless, conclusions could be drawn based on chromosome-wide statistics. The predominant source of EU ancestry in AJ was found to be Southern European (≈60-80%), with the rest being likely Eastern European. The inferred admixture time was ≈35 generations ago, but multiple lines of evidence suggests that it represents an average over two or more admixture events, pre- and post-dating the founder event experienced by AJ in late medieval times. The time of the pre-bottleneck admixture event was bounded to 25-55 generations ago.
>Job complexity and employee intelligence covary strongly. Likewise, race differences exist on mean IQ / g scores. Spearman’s hypothesis predicts that race differences on cognitive tests are mainly g differences, and that the former should covary with how well mental tests measure the latter. Here we use jobs as “mental tests,” and predict that as job IQ increases, the percent of White and Asian workers will increase, while the percent of Black workers will decrease. We found moderate to strong support for Spearman’s hypothesis across these three racial groups. We also found a very large correlation (.86) between job IQ and complexity, as measured by the U.S. Federal Government’s Dictionary of Occupational Titles classification scheme. In sum, like different mental tests, different jobs are more or less g-loaded. And, consistent with Spearman’s hypothesis, the g-loading of a job predicts its demographic composition.
Genetic origins of the Ainu inferred from combined DNA analyses of maternal and paternal lineages.
J Hum Genet (2004) 49:187–193
DOI 10.1007/s10038-004-0131-x
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monoamine_oxidase_A#Antisocial_behavior
>5.5% of Black men, 0.1% of Caucasian men, and 0.00067% of Asian men carried the 2R allele.
The VNTR 2 repeat in MAOA and delinquent behavior in adolescence and young adulthood: associations and MAOA promoter activity · 2008 Jan 23.
>Genetic studies of delinquent and criminal behavior are rare in spite of the wide recognition that individuals may differ in their propensity for delinquency and criminality. Using 2524 participants in Add Health in the United States, the present study demonstrates a link between the rare 2 repeat of the 30-bp VNTR in the MAOA gene and much higher levels of self-reported serious and violent delinquency. The evidence is based on a statistical association analysis and a functional analysis of MAOA promoter activity using two human brain-derived cell lines: neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y and human glioblastoma 1242-MG. The association analysis shows that men with a 2R report a level of serious delinquency and violent delinquency in adolescence and young adulthood that were about twice (CI: (0.21, 3.24), P = 0.025; and CI: (0.37, 2.5), P = 0.008 for serious and violent delinquency, respectively) as high as those for participants with the other variants. The results for women are similar, but weaker. In the functional analysis, the 2 repeat exhibits much lower levels of promoter activity than the 3 or 4 repeat.
Genetic Background of Extreme Violent Behavior Article in Molecular Psychiatry · October 2014
>In developed countries, the majority of all violent crime is committed by a small group of antisocial recidivistic offenders, but no genes have been shown to contribute to recidivistic violent offending or severe violent behavior, such as homicide. Our results, from two independent cohorts of Finnish prisoners, revealed that a monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) low-activity genotype (contributing to low dopamine turnover rate) as well as the CDH13 gene (coding for neuronal membrane adhesion protein) are associated with extremely violent behavior (at least 10 committed homicides, attempted homicides or batteries). No substantial signal was observed for either MAOA or CDH13 among non-violent offenders, indicating that findings were specific for violent offending, and not largely attributable to substance abuse or antisocial personality disorder. These results indicate both low monoamine metabolism and neuronal membrane dysfunction as plausible factors in the etiology of extreme criminal violent behavior, and imply that at least about 5-10% of all severe violent crime in Finland is attributable to the aforementioned MAOA and CDH13 genotypes.Molecular Psychiatry advance online publication, 28 October 2014; doi:10.1038/mp.2014.130.
if you're a /fit/-fag, you go trolled hard with zinc supplements.
full paper online:
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0055384
>These results indicate that zinc plays an important role in hippocampus-dependent learning and memory and BDNF expression, high dose supplementation of zinc induces specific zinc deficiency in hippocampus, which further impair learning and memory due to decreased availability of synaptic zinc and BDNF deficit.
>Decreased zinc level in hippocampus correlates positively with spatial memory deficit in aged rats [14], and in situ chelating of button zinc disrupts performance of the animal in spatial memory test [15]. There is a large body of evidence showing that dietary zinc deficiency may induce learning and memory impairment [16], [17], [18], but little is known about the effects of zinc overdose on brain zinc homeostasis and memory. Two studies have reported that zinc supplemented rats showed spatial reference memory deficit [19], [20], however, the detailed mechanisms underlying the memory impairment need further exploration.
>In the present study, we enhanced the zinc intake in weaning ICR mice by increasing zinc levels in drinking water for 3 months, and found unexpectedly a zinc deficiency in the hippocampus, which was accompanied with hippocampus dependent memory deficit and decreased expression levels of learning and memory related receptors/synaptic proteins. Furthermore, the zinc-regulated BDNF neurotrophic signaling was also impaired in hippocampus. Thus, hippocampus is susceptible to zinc enhancement, high dose supplementation of zinc may impair hippocampus dependent memory through decreasing synaptic zinc release and BDNF deficit.
full article online on plos.org
http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pgen.1006407
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/science/1.755560
>Energy Metabolism Genes Expressed Differently in Africans, non-Africans
>Change helped the shivering humans-out-of-Africa survive in European conditions, postulate scientists from Ben-Gurion University.
>Objectives. To report characteristics of sexual minority US inmates.
>Methods. We drew our data from the National Inmate Survey, 2011–2012, a probability sample of inmates in US prisons and jails. We determined weighted proportions and odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals to estimate differences between sexual minority and heterosexual inmates.
>Results. Sexual minorities (those who self-identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual or report a same-sex sexual experience before arrival at the facility) were disproportionately incarcerated: 9.3% of men in prison, 6.2% of men in jail, 42.1% of women in prison, and 35.7% of women in jail were sexual minorities. The incarceration rate of self-identified lesbian, gay, or bisexual persons was 1882 per 100 000, more than 3 times that of the US adult population. Compared with straight inmates, sexual minorities were more likely to have been sexually victimized as children, to have been sexually victimized while incarcerated, to have experienced solitary confinement and other sanctions, and to report current psychological distress.
>Many evolutionary psychologists have asserted that there is a panhuman nature, a species typical psychological structure that is invariant across human populations. Although many social scientists dispute the basic assumptions of evolutionary psychology, they seem widely to agree with this hypothesis. Psychological differences among human populations (demes, ethnic groups, races) are almost always attributed to cultural and sociological forces in the relevant literatures. However, there are strong reasons to suspect that the hypothesis of a panhuman nature is incorrect. Humans migrated out of Africa at least 50,000 years ago and occupied many different ecological and climatological niches. Because of this, they evolved slightly different anatomical and physiological traits. For example, Tibetans evolved various traits that help them cope with the rigors of altitude; similarly, the Inuit evolved various traits that help them cope with the challenges of a very cold environment. It is likely that humans also evolved slightly different psychological traits as a response to different selection pressures in different environments and niches. One possible example is the high intelligence of the Ashkenazi Jewish people. Frank discussions of such differences among human groups have provoked strong ethical concerns in the past. We understand those ethical concerns and believe that it is important to address them. However, we also believe that the benefits of discussing possible human population differences outweigh the costs.
>Human populations living in Eurasia during the Holocene experienced considerable microevolutionary change. It has been predicted that the transition of Holocene populations into agrarianism and urbanization brought about culture-gene co-evolution that favored via directional selection genetic variants associated with high general cognitive ability (GCA). To examine whether GCA might have risen during the Holocene, we compare a sample of 99 ancient genomes (ranging from 4.56 to 1.21 kyr BP) with a sample of 503 modern European genomes, using three different cognitive polygenic scores. Significant differences favoring the modern genomes were found for all three polygenic scores (Odds Ratios=0.92, p-0.037; 0.81, p=0.001 and 0.81, p=0.02). Furthermore, a significant increase in positive allele count over 3.25 kyr was found using a subsample of 66 ancient genomes (r=0.217, p one tailed = 0.04). These observations are consistent with the expectation that GCA rose during the Holocene.
>For over a century, social scientists have predicted declines in religious beliefs and their replacement with more scientific/naturalistic outlooks, a prediction known as the secularization hypothesis. However, skepticism surrounding this hypothesis has been expressed by some researchers in recent decades. After reviewing the pertinent evidence and arguments, we examined some aspects of the secularization hypothesis from what is termed a biologically informed perspective. Based on large samples of college students in Malaysia and the USA, religiosity, religious affiliation, and parental fertility were measured using self-reports. Three religiosity indicators were factor analyzed, resulting in an index for religiosity. Results reveal that average parental fertility varied considerably according to religious groups, with Muslims being the most religious and the most fertile and Jews and Buddhists being the least. Within most religious groupings, religiosity was positively associated with parental fertility. While cross-sectional in nature, when our results are combined with evidence that both religiosity and fertility are substantially heritable traits, findings are consistent with view that earlier trends toward secularization (due to science education surrounding advancements in science) are currently being counter-balanced by genetic and reproductive forces. We also propose that the inverse association between intelligence and religiosity, and the inverse correlation between intelligence and fertility lead to predictions of a decline in secularism in the foreseeable future. A contra-secularization hypothesis is proposed and defended in the discussion. It states that secularism is likely to undergo a decline throughout the remainder of the twenty-first century, including Europe and other industrial societies.
This one looks interesting. Thanks for uploading all these, this is a good thread.