Monday 28 October 2013

The Morning Morality Effect - The Influence of Time of Day on Unethical Behavior

Psychological Science
January 2014 vol. 25 no. 1 95-102
October 28, 2013
doi: 10.1177/0956797613498099

Maryam Kouchaki [1], Isaac H. Smith [2]

1 Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, Harvard University, 124 Mount Auburn St., Suite 520N, Cambridge, MA
2 Department of Management, University of Utah

Abstract

Are people more moral in the morning than in the afternoon? We propose that the normal, unremarkable experiences associated with everyday living can deplete one’s capacity to resist moral temptations. In a series of four experiments, both undergraduate students and a sample of U.S. adults engaged in less unethical behavior (e.g., less lying and cheating) on tasks performed in the morning than on the same tasks performed in the afternoon. This morning morality effect was mediated by decreases in moral awareness and self-control in the afternoon. Furthermore, the effect of time of day on unethical behavior was found to be stronger for people with a lower propensity to morally disengage. These findings highlight a simple yet pervasive factor (i.e., the time of day) that has important implications for moral behavior.

http://pss.sagepub.com/content/25/1/95

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Monday 21 October 2013

Impulsive frotteurism: A case report

Medicine, Science and the Law
October 21, 2013 vol. 53 no. 4 235-238
doi: 10.1177/0025802412474813

Ambika Prasad Patra [1], Balaji Bharadwaj [2], Kusa Kumar Shaha [1], Siddhartha Das [1], Anand P Rayamane [3], Chandra Sekhara Tripathi [4]

[1] Department of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research (JIPMER), Puducherry, 605006 India
[2] Department of Psychiatry, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Research, India
[3] Department of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology, BGS Global Institute of Medical Sciences, India
[4] Department of Psychiatry, M.K.C.G. Medical College & Hospital, India

Abstract

Frotteurism is a perverted sexual behaviour wherein the person tends to rub or bring about physical contact between his genitals and an unrelated female or male to derive sexual pleasure. Moreover, frotteurism is a common phenomenon among the general population which usually goes unnoticed or overlooked. Nevertheless, public frottage has legal implications in almost all countries over the world. But, when frotteurism manifests on the backdrop of psychiatric illness or as a developmental abnormality then it is worth discussing what the legal liability would be. The present case report is based on hypersexual frotteuristic behaviour manifested on the background of a concealed psychiatric illness, featuring depression and obsessive compulsive disease. The hypersexual behaviour manifested in the form of masturbation with features of frotteurism and subsequent development of depression. Nevertheless, compulsive manifestation of frotteuristic behaviour and subsequent development of morbid depression is rare. This paper describes a 12-year-old boy having unrestrained impulsive frotteurism with his peers, school mates and with his younger brother. He was conscious of the fact and feeling guilty of what he was doing but unable to restrain himself. It was followed by the development of symptoms of depression which was treated with Sertraline. Concurrent psychiatric counseling and rehabilitation measures were taken too. There was complete remission of the symptoms 6 months after the onset of treatment and without relapse thereafter. The paper discusses the differential diagnosis and management of hypersexual behaviour.

http://msl.sagepub.com/content/53/4/235.abstract?etoc

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Saturday 19 October 2013

Joking in the face of death: A terror management approach to humor production

Humor
Volume 26, Issue 4 (19 Oct 2013), Pages 493–509
DOI: 10.1515/humor-2013-0012

Christopher R. Long [1], Dara N. Greenwood [2]

[1] Ouachita Baptist University
[2] Vassar College

Abstract

Terror management theory has spawned a body of experimental research documenting a multitude of defensive responses to mortality salience manipulations (e.g., rigid adherence to dominant cultural values, self-esteem bolstering). Another substantive body of work suggests that humor functions as a natural and often effective means of down-regulating stressful or traumatic experiences. Integrating a terror management paradigm with a cartoon captioning task, the present study finds that participants subliminally primed with death wrote funnier captions than those primed with pain, as judged by outside raters. Interestingly, a reverse pattern was obtained for participants' own ratings of their captions; explicitly death-primed participants rated themselves more successful at generating humorous captions than their pain-primed counterparts, while no significant difference emerged between the two subliminal priming conditions. Findings contribute new insights to recent research suggesting that death reminders may sometimes facilitate creativity and open-mindedness.

Keywords: humor; terror management; mortality; creativity

http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/humr.2013.26.issue-4/humor-2013-0012/humor-2013-0012.xml

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Monday 7 October 2013

Testicular Augmentation Using Chin Implants

The Journal of Sexual Medicine
Volume 10, Issue 10, pages 2582–2585, October 2013
Issue published online: 7 Oct 2013
DOI: 10.1111/j.1743-6109.2012.02963.x

Fernando Ugarte y Romano MD [1] and Adolfo González Serrano GP [2]

1 Department of Urology, Hospital Ángeles del Pedregal, México, México
2 Department of Sexology, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México 10700, México

Introduction

Disturbances in testicular integrity have the potential to cause severe concerns about masculinity, body image, and sexual function. Testicular volume replacement surgery with prosthesis has been known about since 1941, although esthetic procedures for testicular augmentation have not been satisfactory.

Aim

To describe an unprecedented testicular augmentation surgical technique that is specially focused on preserving testicular function and providing a favorable esthetic outcome.

Methods

We present a case of a 45-year-old man with body dysmorphic disorder. Surgical treatment using a new technique by placing a chin implant on the testicle was offered and accepted.

Results

Good symmetry between both testicles was achieved. No complications were reported. One month after the procedure, the patient started a satisfactory sex life. Functional monitoring was normal during the year after the procedure.

Conclusions

This technique is unprecedented in literature, it represents a safe and effective therapeutic alternative; nevertheless, more experience in performing this procedure is needed.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1743-6109.2012.02963.x/abstract

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Sunday 6 October 2013

Apparatus and method for wearing replica cauliflower ears

United States Patent Application
Publication number US20130326793 A1
December 12, 2013

Canadian Patents Database
Patent Application: CA 2812333
Open to Public Inspection: 2013-10-06

Andrew James Bingley, Walter David McCrindle, Christopher Brian Prickett

Fergus, CA

Abstract

There is disclosed an apparatus and method for wearing replica “cauliflower” ears which are molded from the actual cauliflower ears of athletes contact sports including mixed martial arts (MMA), wrestling, rugby, boxing and others. In an embodiment, the apparatus comprises support means adapted to support left and right replica cauliflower ears on a wearer's head. A fastening means is adapted to fasten the left and right replica cauliflower ears, respectively, to the support means. The left and right replica cauliflower ears are modeled from a mold of an athlete's cauliflower ears, and suitably resized and shaped to be worn over the ears of the wearer. In another embodiment, the supporting means comprises a flexible head band, and the left and right replica cauliflower ears are fastened to the left and right arms, respectively, of the head band, and wherein the left and right arms am configured to at least partially wrap around a wearer's head.

BACKGROUND

In mixed martial arts (MMA), wrestling, rugby, boxing and other contact sports, athletes may sustain injuries which may become scarred when the injuries heal. More particularly, athletes in contact sports such as MMK wrestling, rugby and boxing may sustain injuries to the ears resulting in hematoma auris, perichondrial hematoma, or traumatic auricular hematoma, more commonly known as “cauliflower” ears. These cauliflower ears are often unique and distinctive for each athlete, and are often considered by the athletes and their fans to be badges of honor.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure relates to an apparatus and method for wearing replica “cauliflower” ears which are modeled from the ears of an athlete in MMA, wrestling, or other contact sports.

http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&d=PG01&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/srchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=20130326793.PGNR.

http://brevets-patents.ic.gc.ca/opic-cipo/cpd/eng/patent/2812333/summary.html

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Friday 4 October 2013

Mice Genetically Deficient in Vasopressin V1a and V1b Receptors Are Resistant to Jet Lag

Science 4 October 2013:
Vol. 342 no. 6154 pp. 85-90
DOI: 10.1126/science.1238599

Received for publication 1 April 2013

Yoshiaki Yamaguchi [1], Toru Suzuki [1], Yasutaka Mizoro [1], Hiroshi Kori [2,3], Kazuki Okada [1], Yulin Chen [1], Jean-Michel Fustin [1], Fumiyoshi Yamazaki [1], Naoki Mizuguchi [1], Jing Zhang [4], Xin Dong [4], Gozoh Tsujimoto [5], Yasushi Okuno [6], Masao Doi [1], Hitoshi Okamura [1,4]

[1] Department of Systems Biology, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyoto University, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan.
[2] Department of Information Sciences, Ochanomizu University, Tokyo 112-8620, Japan.
[3] CREST, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Kawaguchi, Saitama 332-0012, Japan.
[4] Division of Molecular Brain Science, Department of Brain Science, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Chuo-ku, Kobe 650-0017, Japan.
[5] Department of Genomic Drug Discovery Science, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan.
[6] Department of Systems Biosciences for Drug Discovery, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan.

Jet-lag symptoms arise from temporal misalignment between the internal circadian clock and external solar time. We found that circadian rhythms of behavior (locomotor activity), clock gene expression, and body temperature immediately reentrained to phase-shifted light-dark cycles in mice lacking vasopressin receptors V1a and V1b (V1a–/–V1b–/–). Nevertheless, the behavior of V1a–/–V1b–/– mice was still coupled to the internal clock, which oscillated normally under standard conditions. Experiments with suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) slices in culture suggested that interneuronal communication mediated by V1a and V1b confers on the SCN an intrinsic resistance to external perturbation. Pharmacological blockade of V1a and V1b in the SCN of wild-type mice resulted in accelerated recovery from jet lag, which highlights the potential of vasopressin signaling as a therapeutic target for management of circadian rhythm misalignment, such as jet lag and shift work.

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6154/85.abstract

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Tuesday 1 October 2013

The minds of gods: A comparative study of supernatural agency

Cognition
Volume 129, Issue 1, October 2013, Pages 163–179
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2013.06.010

Benjamin Grant Purzycki

Centre for Human Evolution, Cognition, and Culture, University of British Columbia, 1871 West Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z2, Canada

Highlights

• Christians show higher responses to God’s knowledge of moral than nonmoral information.
• Tyvans show a bias towards moralizing explicitly nonmoral Tyvan spirit-masters.
• Tyvans reason about spirit-masters’ knowledge and concerns spatially.
• Wider attributed knowledge breadth of spirit-masters predicts attributed concern for morality.

Abstract

The present work is the first study to systematically compare the minds of gods by examining some of the intuitive processes that guide how people reason about them. By examining the Christian god and the spirit-masters of the Tyva Republic, it first confirms that the consensus view of the Christian god’s mind is one of omniscience with acute concern for interpersonal social behavior (i.e., moral behaviors) and that Tyvan spirit-masters are not as readily attributed with knowledge or concern of moral information. Then, it reports evidence of a moralization bias of gods’ minds; American Christians who believe that God is omniscient rate God as more knowledgeable of moral behaviors than nonmoral information. Additionally, Tyvans who do not readily report pro- or antisocial behavior among the things that spirit-masters care about will nevertheless rate spirit-masters’ knowledge and concern of moral information higher than nonmoral information. However, this knowledge is distributed spatially; the farther away from spirits’ place of governance a moral behavior takes place, the less they know and care about it. Finally, the wider the breadth of knowledge Tyvans attribute to spirit-masters, the more they attribute moral concern for behaviors that transpire beyond their jurisdiction. These results further demonstrate that there is a significant gulf between expressed beliefs and intuitive religious cognition and provides evidence for a moralization bias of gods’ minds.

Keywords

Religion; Minds of gods; Supernatural Punishment Hypothesis; Omniscience; Cultural consensus analysis; Theological correctness

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010027713001224

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Fear of Holes

Psychological Science
October 2013 vol. 24 no. 10 1980-1985
doi: 10.1177/0956797613484937

Geoff G. Hole, Arnold J. Wilkins

Centre for Brain Science, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester CO4 3SQ

Abstract

Phobias are usually described as irrational and persistent fears of certain objects or situations, and causes of such fears are difficult to identify. We describe an unusual but common phobia (trypophobia), hitherto unreported in the scientific literature, in which sufferers are averse to images of holes. We performed a spectral analysis on a variety of images that induce trypophobia and found that the stimuli had a spectral composition typically associated with uncomfortable visual images, namely, high-contrast energy at midrange spatial frequencies. Critically, we found that a range of potentially dangerous animals also possess this spectral characteristic. We argue that although sufferers are not conscious of the association, the phobia arises in part because the inducing stimuli share basic visual characteristics with dangerous organisms, characteristics that are low level and easily computed, and therefore facilitate a rapid nonconscious response.

http://pss.sagepub.com/content/24/10/1980

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Is a Woman’s Preference for Chest Hair in Men Influenced by Parasite Threat?

Archives of Sexual Behavior
October 2013, Volume 42, Issue 7, pp 1181-1189
Cover Date 2013-10-01
DOI 10.1007/s10508-012-0007-7

Pavol Prokop (1,2), Markus J. Rantala (3), Muhammet Usak (4), Ibrahim Senay (5)

1. Department of Biology, Faculty of Education, Trnava University, Priemyselná 4, 918 43, Trnava, Slovakia
2. Institute of Zoology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia
3. Department of Biology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
4. Faculty of Education, Dumlupinar University, Kutahya, Turkey
5. Department of Psychological Counseling, Zirve University, Gaziantep, Turkey

Abstract

Humans (Homo sapiens) are unique primates due to a lack of a thermally insulating fur covering, typical of all other primates. Our primary goal was to examine the “ectoparasite avoidance mediated by mate choice hypothesis” suggesting that women prefer men lacking chest hair in order to avoid ectoparasite loads. We predicted that women living in areas with high prevalence of pathogens (n = 161) would be less likely to show a preference for a male with chest hair in comparison with women living in areas with low pathogen prevalence (n = 183). We found that overall preference for man chest hair was low, but there were no significant associations between perceived vulnerability to diseases or disgust sensitivity and preference of men who have had experimentally removed chest hair. Women who lived in an environment with a high parasite prevalence rate (Turkey) showed a similar preference for man chest hair as did women from an environment with low parasite prevalence (Slovakia). The participants biological fathers’ chest hair had no significant effect on their preference for men with chest hair. Women living in a high-parasite-prevalence environment reported a higher disgust score in the sexual domain and more recent experiences with illnesses, suggesting that parasites influence sensitivity to sexual disgust. These results provide no support for the ectoparasite avoidance hypothesis mediated by mate choice and suggest that shaved men bodies are preferred more by women.

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-012-0007-7

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