2023:

Aus dem Zugzwang, der einen das Jahr hindurch begleitet, einige Stunden, einige Tage herauszutreten, um Pläne zu entwerfen, um Pläne zu schmieden ...

Ich wünsche allen Lesern gegen Ende das Jahres Zeit für Reflexion, für die Rückschau und die Vorausschau.

Einen guten Rutsch ins Jahr 2023!

Leaving a Legacy:

"Individual human beings have long strived to create and curate an enduring post-mortem reputation—their “legacy” (Braudy, 1986). They do this in a variety of ways, such as via sports achievement, creative works, having children, leaving a financial endowment, philanthropy, passing down family heirlooms, or extreme attention-grabbing acts (Hunter, 2008). In lay terms, legacy can be defined as “something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past” or “a gift by will esp. of money or other personal property” (Merriam-Webster, 2014). Some researchers, working in the fields of positive psychology or narratology, have also emphasized the process of legacy, as in “the process of passing oneself through generations, creating continuity from the past through the present to the future” (Hunter, 2008, p. 314).

What is largely missing from these examples is any explicit reference to the fact that legacy centers, rather curiously, on the reputation of the self after death. ... Absent a belief in the continued capacity to know how one is being regarded despite being dead, it is unclear why we should care how others will view us, or our life's work, after our consciousness expires. And yet, the desire and motivation to leave a legacy, even among those who do not believe in an afterlife, is ostensibly a powerful influence on our lives."

A cybernetic theory of autism: Autism as a consequence of low trait Plasticity

A cybernetic theory of autism: Autism as a consequence of low trait Plasticity
Matthew A. Rogers, Jed T. Elison, Scott D. Blain, Colin G. DeYoung (Dec 2022)

Abstract

According to Cybernetic Big Five Theory (CB5T), personality traits reflect variation in the parameters of evolved cybernetic mechanisms, and extreme manifestations of these traits correspond to a risk for psychopathology because they threaten the organism's ability to pursue its goals effectively. Our theory of autism as a consequence of low Plasticity extends CB5T to provide a cybernetic account of the origin of autistic traits. The theory argues that, because all psychological competencies are initially developed through exploration, typical development requires sensitivity to the incentive reward value of the unknown (i.e., the unpredicted). According to CB5T, motivation to explore the unknown is the core function underlying the metatrait Plasticity, the shared variance of Extraversion and Openness/Intellect. This theory makes predictions regarding the downstream developmental consequences of early low Plasticity, and each prediction maps well onto autistic symptomatology. This approach may help to explain the heterogeneity of autism, as there are many ways that rigidity can reinforce itself to create a developmental trap influencing the development of competencies. We end by presenting preliminary meta-analytic and new data showing a strong negative relation between Plasticity and autistic symptomatology.

Rückblick, Vorausblick, Weihnachtszeit:

Am Ende des Jahres sich etwas Zeit nehmen, um zurück zu schauen und um voraus zu blicken. Um Vergangenes zu reflektieren und Künftiges festzulegen. Wozu hat dieser Blog bisher gedient? Was habe ich mit ihm erreicht? Was habe ich nicht erreicht? Klare und besinnliche Stunden gehören mit zu den kostbarsten Stunden. Ein kurzer Rück- und Vorausblick wird Ende des Jahres erscheinen. Ich wünsche allen Lesern eine schöne Weihnachtszeit: Zeit fürs Zusammensein, für Gespräche, Überlegungen, Hobbies, Leidenschaften ...

Aus der Reserve locken:

Bedeutung:

"Jemanden dazu bringen, seine Gefühle zu zeigen oder sein Wissen preiszugeben; jemanden herausfordern; jemanden veranlassen, seine Zurückhaltung aufzugeben"

A Velocity of Being:

"One of the great cruelties and great glories of creative work is the wild discrepancy of timelines between vision and execution. When we dream up a project, we invariably underestimate the amount of time and effort required to make it a reality. Rather than a cognitive bug, perhaps this is the supreme coping mechanism of the creative mind — if we could see clearly the toil ahead at the outset of any creative endeavor, we might be too dispirited to begin, too reluctant to gamble between the heroic and the foolish, too paralyzed to walk the long and tenuous tightrope of hope and fear by which any worthwhile destination is reached."

[Source]

Irritieren:

Synonyme:

ablenken, verunsichern, stören, verwirren, aus der Fassung bringen, aus dem Konzept bringen

-----

Ein bisschen auch das Thema: "Testen". Was macht man, wenn man herausfinden will, wie jemand wirklich tickt, wie jemand in Situationen handelt, in denen es um etwas geht, in denen sich Unsicherheit einfindet? Durch ein Herbeiführen von Irritation, einer Lockerung der Gefasstheit, ..., wird sich zeigen, wie jemand handelt, wenn wenig Erfahrung vorgibt oder vorschreibt, wie gehandelt werden kann, wie gehandelt werden soll.

Security and Freedom of Speech:

Jordan Peterson:

"people think: "i'll say what i have to say when i get to the point where i'm protected and secure." - It's like first of all being protected and secure does not give you the courage to say what you have to say ... That theory couldn't be more backwards. You think you're going to get braver and braver as you get more and more protected? You think that's how the world works?

I mean i've watched university professors think that at some poin they're going to say what they think as they develop their career but by the time they're protected and secure they've spent so much time not saying what they think that they aren't even who they were and they don't know what they think."

Mental Time Travel:

Wenn man einmal noch zurück gehen könnte, fünf, zehn, zwanzig Jahre, um seinem damaligen Ich ein paar Dinge einzuflüstern, welche Dinge würde man da sagen?

"Ich hab Dir da was mitgebracht, und werd's Dir nun auch geben, weisen, ob Du es befolgen wirst, mittragen wirst, das wird sich schon noch zeigen. Manche Fehler gehören gemacht, da führt kein echter Weg vorbei, drum handle, schaffe los mit Kraft, viel sonst ist einerlei."

-----

So, nun wieder zwei Beiträge von Sachthemen abgewichen ... die nächsten Beiträge werden wieder Sachtexten entnommen werden worden sein.

Beeindruckbarkeit:

Die Beeindruckbarkeit ist's ja auch und insbesondere, die uns zu Menschen macht. Das Empfinden, das Gespür, etwas Relevantes gedacht, beobachtet, erlebt, empfunden zu haben. Wertansprechbarkeiten charakterisieren unser Leben. Dass uns maches nicht kalt lässt, sondern anfasst, erfasst, in und an dieser Welt. Der, den alles kalt lässt, lebt recht eigentlich nicht.

Und das ist's ja auch, das große Abenteuer, Züge zu suchen, zu finden, an dieser Welt, die nicht kalt lassen, die wieder und wieder Interesse wecken und so und hierdurch Auge, Ohr, Gedanken, das Empfinden an sich binden. Erfasst, ergriffen zu werden, in Spannung zu leben, darum geht's.

Christmas:

Robin Hanson:

"At Christmas, we mostly give presents, eat, and socialize, mostly with family. Much as we do at many other holidays. But in many places, Christmas is special; it is our premiere holiday, collecting the most time and effort. It has more of its own distinct styles in clothes, decorations, food, movies/stories, and songs. More so than at other holidays, people claim to want to “get into the spirt of” Christmas with others. We are more eager to defend Christmas against enemies real and imagined. Christmas has even induces pauses during wars.

Christmas songs tend to sound bittersweet, older/“timeless”, major key, and they can be more easily sung well by ordinary people. Christmas stories are simpler, more heart-warming, and cover a wide range of relatively sacred themes, including children, family, nostalgia, pro-sociality, and gratitude. Compared to other stories, Christmas stories are more allowed to explicitly endorse and embrace sacred themes. Two common story themes are the power of belief, and characters (re-?) discovering a “true meaning of Christmas”. For both songs and stories, the artist/author tends to fade more into the background.

We humans use gifts, food, and holiday gatherings to bond together ..."

Demanding and supportive:

farnam street:

"Most people think of demanding and supportive as opposite ends of a spectrum. You can either be tough or you can be nice. But the best leaders don’t choose. They are both highly demanding and highly supportive. They push you to new heights and they also have your back."

Risk Avoidance:

The Road Less Traveled, Scott Peck:

"If you are a regular churchgoer you might notice a woman in her late forties who every Sunday exactly five minutes before the start of the service inconspicuously takes the same seat in a side pew on the aisle at the very back of the church. The moment the service is over she quietly but quickly makes for the door and is gone before any of the other parishioners and before the minister can come out onto the steps to meet with his flock. Should you manage to accost her - which is unlikely - and invite her to the coffee social hour following the service, she would thank you politely, nervously looking away from you, but tell you that she has a pressing engagement, and would then dash away. Were you to follow her toward her pressing engagement you would find that she returns directly to her home, a little apartment where the blinds are always drawn, unlocks her door, enters, immidiately locks the door behind her and is not seen again that Sunday. If you could keep watch over her you might see that she has a job as a low ranking typist in a large office, where she accepts her assignments wordlessly, types them faultlessly, and returns her finished work without comment. She eats her lunch at her desk and has no friends. She walks home, stopping always at the same supermarket for a few provisions before she vanishes behind her door until she appears again for the next day's work. On Sunday afternoons she goes alone to a local movie theater that has a weekly change of shows. She has a TV set. She has no phone. She almost never receives mail. Were you somehow able to communicate with her and comment that her life seemed lonely, she would tell you that she rather enjoyed her loneliness. If you asked her if she didn't even have any pets, she would tell you that she had had a dog of whom she was very fond but that he had died eight years ago and no other dog could make his place.

Who is this woman? I do not know the secrets of her heart. What we know is that her whole life is devoted to avoiding risks and that in this endeavor, rather than enlarging her self, she has narrowed and diminished it almost to the point of nonexistence."

Cross Country Comparison of Female Suicide Rates:

Worlds highest female suicide rate (of young females, aged 20 to 29) in India:

https://twitter.com/Schmidt_Erwin/status/1600821483609423872

Countries with more than one scientific nobel price per million capita:

An older post:

https://meinnaturwissenschaftsblog.blogspot.com/2014/12/countries-with-more-than-one-scientific.html

Germanic Toponymy in Europe:

 

Source: 

https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/5hqjqd/germanic_toponymy_in_europe_oc3027_2658/

If there are any problems with copyrights. Please inform me. I will remove the item instantly from my blog.

Cognitive Space:

From Cal Newport:

"Creative insight of any type — be it business strategy, an ad campaign, or computer code — requires cognitive space to emerge."

-----

Ann Patchett: “It used to be a novel lived very nicely in my head as a constant companion,” she explains. “As time goes on and I now have this other thing which is my career, and all the things that people want me to do, that is very distracting to day dreaming and working in your head.”

Trust Problems:

Eric Barker:

"So we have a trust problem. A communication problem. In other words, a signaling problem. ... So what's the solution? >Costly signals<."

Jealousy:

Eric Barker:

"Eugene Mathes of Western Illinois University gave unmarried couples a jealousy test and then circled back seven years later. Three quarters of them had broken up, while the other quarter got married. Guess which group had the higher jealousy score? Exactly. ... a touch of jelousy can motivate couples to maintain the relationship."

Lange Bücher:

Ein paar längere Bücher durcharbeiten: Ein paar hundert Seiten lang einem Gedankenfaden folgen. Die Vertiefung in ein langes Buch lässt sich auch Denkübung oder zumindest als Training der Aufmerksamkeit verstehen.

Sexless Marriage:

Eric Barker:

>The number one Google search related to married problems? "Sexless marriage."<

Lesen:

Es gehört mithin zu den am meisten entspannendenTätigkeiten, zu lesen und zu studieren, ein paar Stunden lang. In Bücher einzutauchen, aus Büchern aufzutauchen, nach Lust und Laune, ein paar Stunden lang.

Bookish:

A. fond of books and reading

B. inclined to rely on book knowledge

Beware The Foe Who Feels No Pain

DMT Fessler et al.; Nov 2022

[Source]

Abstract

Pain is a critical internal regulator of current and future behavior. However, pain also constitutes a tactical liability in agonistic interpersonal conflict. Therefore, information about the pain sensitivity of others should play a functional role in assessments of the formidability of prospective foes or allies. Compared to an individual known to be sensitive to pain, an individual known to be insensitive to pain should be assessed as more formidable, as it would be more difficult to deter the latter from aggressing, and more difficult to motivate them to desist should conflict erupt. Further, knowing that a potential antagonist is armed should lead observers to infer relative insensitivity to pain, as the costs of erroneously presuming that an armed individual is sensitive to pain – and thus is both more vulnerable and less likely to aggress – will generally be higher than the costs of erroneously presuming that they are insensitive to pain, and thus are both less vulnerable and more inclined to aggress. Here, we find support for these predictions in three pre-registered studies conducted with U.S. online crowdsource workers (N = 473; N = 204; N = 301). The intimate association between information regarding pain sensitivity and the process of formidability assessment has implications for a variety of pressing social issues, from the use of excessive force by police, to discriminatory racial biases in the provision of medical care.

Generalized tendency to make extreme trait judgements from faces

Atsunobu Suzuki, Saori Tsukamoto and Yusuke Takahashi

Nov 2022

Abstract

People differ in their tendency to infer others' personalities and abilities from their faces. An extreme form of such face-based trait inference (FBTI) is problematic because of its unwarranted impact on real-world decision making. Evolutionary perspectives on FBTI suggest that its inter-individual variation would be trait-specific: e.g. those who make extreme face-based inferences about trustworthiness may not necessarily do so about dominance. However, there are several psychological variables that can increase the FBTI extremity across traits. Here, we show that there is a generalized individual tendency to make extreme FBTI across traits, in support of the latter view. We found that the degrees of extremity of face-based inferences about seven traits had high cross-trait correlations, constituting a general factor. This generalized FBTI extremity had good test–retest reliability and was neither an artefact of extreme nor socially desirable response biases. Moreover, it was positively associated with facial emotion recognition ability and tendencies to believe physiognomy and endorse stereotypes. Our results demonstrate that there are individuals who have a temporally stable disposition to draw extreme conclusions about various traits of others from facial appearance as well as their psychological characteristics.

[Source]

Elevated Psychiatric Risk in Same-Sex Married Individuals: Large-scale Evidence is Consistent with a Substantial Role of Familial Common Causes

Brendan Zietsch (Nov 2022)

Abstract

Xu et al. present a study of practically the whole Swedish-born population over the age of 25, in which they report an elevated risk in same-sex (compared to opposite-sex) married individuals of depression, substance abuse, and attempted or completed suicide. This elevated psychiatric risk is substantially reduced when same-sex married individuals are compared with their opposite-sex married siblings, which is consistent with a substantial role of familial (e.g., genetic and shared environmental) common causes of both same-sex orientation and psychiatric risk. I discuss the study’s strengths, including its huge, comprehensive sample and its use of objective measures, which avoid some of the potential biases in other studies. I also discuss the study’s limitations and argue that the authors misinterpret the role of shared familial influences as accounting for a “small proportion (less than 20%)” of the elevated psychiatric risk in same-sex married individuals. The proportion shown by their results is much larger than the authors report, and even these larger values are best understood as lower bounds in terms of what could be accounted for by familial common causes. Lastly, I discuss future directions for research aiming to understand elevated psychiatric risk in lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals.

[Source]

-----

"the hazard ratio – i.e. the hazard rate for same-sex married individuals divided by the hazard rate for opposite-sex married individuals – for depression changed from 2.17 to 1.90 in men and 1.71 to 1.43 for women, for substance abuse from 1.90 to 1.57 in men and 2.37 to 2.32 for women, and for attempted or completed suicide from 1.87 to 1.77 in men and 2.29 to 1.95 for women."

Narzissmus:

MSD Manual:

"Patienten mit narzisstischer Persönlichkeitsstörung überschätzen ihre Fähigkeiten und übertreiben ihre Erfolge. Sie denken, sie sind überlegen, einzigartig oder besonders. Ihre Überschätzung ihrer eigenen Werte und Leistungen bedeutet oft eine Unterschätzung des Wertes und der Leistungen anderer."

Bonobo Males:

Frans De Waal:

"male chimps have evolved into opportunistic strategists, endowed by nature with an appropriately aggressive temper and intimidating pysique. They pack enormous muscles, looking coarse and menacing next to bonobo males with their lightweight bodies and more sensitive expressions.

Life in matrifocal societis has, therefore, created a different kind of male. There is nothing wrong with the bonobo male, even though most men would not want to be like him. He lacks the sort of control over his own destiny that males of their nearest relatives, humans and chimpanzees, claim as their birthright."

Charles Darwin über den Moralsinn:

 "Als moralisches Wesen bezeichnet man ein solches, welches fähig ist, seine früheren Handlungen und deren Motive zu überlegen, dabei die einen gutheißend, die anderen verwerfend ..."

A new look at the relations between attachment and intelligence

November 2022
Marco Del Giudice and John D. Haltigan

link

Abstract

In this paper we offer a new perspective on the relations between attachment and intelligence, a topic that has received relatively little attention in the recent decades of attachment research. Based on a review of relevant empirical work, a reanalysis of published data, and novel theoretical arguments, we advance a revised model of attachment and intelligence that challenges a number of widespread assumptions in the field. Specifically, we argue that attachment in infancy and childhood is influenced by general intelligence (with lower cognitive ability in ambivalent and disorganized categories compared with secure and avoidant ones), and that attachment states of mind in adulthood show a parallel pattern (with lower cognitive ability in preoccupied and unresolved/unclassifiable categories). The partially genetic correlation between parent and child intelligence gives rise to a previously unrecognized causal pathway linking parents' states of mind to children's attachment; parental intelligence also predicts aspects of sensitivity and mentalizing, and thus exerts an additional indirect influence on children's attachment. Our revised model suggests that intelligence likely contributes to the "transmission gap" between parental state of mind and child attachment; it also offers a novel (partial) explanation of the increased levels of parent-child concordance observed in older children.

Physiker:

Nehmen wir einmal an, Eysenck hatte diese Aussage damals gar nicht überspitzt:

https://meinnaturwissenschaftsblog.blogspot.com/2018/03/physicists-and-astronomers.html

Worauf wird sich dann die Aussage gegründet haben? Auf die Beobachtung von außergewöhnlicher Interessiertheit? Denkfähigkeit? Von umfassendem, tiefgreifendem Wissen?

Mutual Mate Choice in Humans:

David M. Buss:

"Darwin described intrasexual competition as the primary province of males and preferential mate choice as the primary province of females. Unlike many species, however, humans display mutual mate choice and both sexes compete intensely for desirable mates."

Average Annual U.S. STEM Job Growth:

 Source: https://cs.calvin.edu/images/department/jobs/2028/

Induced narcissism increases self-assessed intelligence

Induced narcissism increases self-assessed intelligence: implications for academic goal-pursuit, expected academic achievement, and psychological well-being
Marcin Zajenkowski, Constantine Sedikides, Gilles E. Gignac, Jeremiasz Górniak, Oliwia Maciantowicz (Dec 2022)

Abstract

We examine the causal direction of the relation between (grandiose agentic) narcissism and self-assessed intelligence (SAI). We manipulated narcissism with a validated procedure. In Studies 1–2, high (vs low) narcissism increased SAI. In Study 2, SAI mediated the effect of narcissism on academic goal-pursuit, expected academic achievement, and psychological wellbeing. The findings have implications for the nature of SAI and for gender differences on narcissism and SAI.

[Source]

Reversible and Irreversible Decisions:

farnam street:

"Reversible decisions are doors that open both ways. Irreversible decisions are doors that allow passage in only one direction; if you walk through, you are stuck there. Most decisions are the former and can be reversed (even though we can never recover the invested time and resources)."

Jeff Bezos:

"Some decisions are consequential and irreversible or nearly irreversible – one-way doors – and these decisions must be made methodically, carefully, slowly, with great deliberation and consultation. If you walk through and don’t like what you see on the other side, you can’t get back to where you were before. We can call these Type 1 decisions. But most decisions aren’t like that – they are changeable, reversible – they’re two-way doors. If you’ve made a suboptimal Type 2 decision, you don’t have to live with the consequences for that long. You can reopen the door and go back through. Type 2 decisions can and should be made quickly by high judgment individuals or small groups.

As organizations get larger, there seems to be a tendency to use the heavy-weight Type 1 decision-making process on most decisions, including many Type 2 decisions. The end result of this is slowness, unthoughtful risk aversion, failure to experiment sufficiently, and consequently diminished invention. We’ll have to figure out how to fight that tendency."

Dogmatismus:

Wenn Überlegungen ins Dogmatische, ins übertrieben Sichere gehen. Die wissenschaftliche Haltung gegenüber der Welt lebt von der Abschätzung der Sicherheit oder Ungewissheit unterschiedlicher Aussagen.

Alter:

Was bedeutet das, erwachsen zu sein?

Die eigenen Verantwortlichkeiten, aber auch die eigenen Grenzen und Schwächen zu kennen.

Insgesamt, einen starken und tragfähigen Kontakt mit der Wirklichkeit hergestellt zu haben.

Jedes Lebensalter hat etwas für sich, so hat auch das Feuer und das starke Streben der Jugend etwas für sich, obwohl es öfters locker in Verbindung mit der Wirklichkeit steht.

Die Grenzen kennen, innerhalb der Grenzen leben und gelegentlich die Grenzen etwas zu erweitern. Handeln, Streben, und hierdurch Ergebnisse, teils gute, teils schlechte herbeiführen, und aus den so gemachten Erfahrungen lernen. Schicht für Schicht sich ein Leben gestalten.

Lernfähigkeit:

Lernfähigkeit, das A und O um sich zu wandeln, um sich verändern zu können. Und irgendwie haben ja doch einige mehr davon abbekommen als andere. Auch deshalb hat das Leben mancher Leute etwas sehr Statisches und Gleichbleibendes an sich. Ein jedes Jahrzehnt bringt seinen eigenen Charakter, seine eigenen Herausforderungen, Hürden, Triumphe und Niederlagen mit sich. In der Mitte bloß ein  Sich-Zubewegen auf das Neue: Die Veränderung, der Wandel.

Kinos:

Hugo v. Hofmannsthal:

"Was die Leute im Kino suchen, sagt mein Freund, mit dem ich auf dieses Thema kam, was all die arbeitenden Leute im Kino suchen, ist Ersatz für die Träume. Sie wollen ihre Fantasie mit Bildern füllen, starken Bildern, in denen sich die Lebensessenz zusammenfasst; die gleichsam aus dem Innern des Schauenden gebildet sind und ihnen an die Nieren gehen. Denn solche Bilder bleibt ihnen das Leben schuldig. - (Ich rede von denen, die in den Städten oder großen zusammenhängenden Industriebezirken wohnen, nicht von den anderen, den Bauern, den Schiffern, Waldarbeitern oder Bergbewohnern.) - Ihre Köpfe sind leer, nicht von Natur aus, sondern eher durch das Leben, das die Gesellschaft sie zu führen zwingt."

Die Wissenschaftliche Methode:

Was charakterisiert die wissenschaftliche Methode?

In meinen Augen das kritische (versus einem spekulativem) Vorgehen. Man schafft eine solide Menge miteinender verknüpfter Aussagen, auf die sich gut weiter aufbauen lässt. Stünde das spekulative Element im Vordergrund, würden diese Bauten viel häufiger noch in sich einstürzen als das geschieht. Die Replikationskrisen in diversen wissenschaftlichen Disziplinen zeigen jedoch, dass das Vorgehen noch mehr ins "Kritische" erweitert werden könnte oder sollte, um zu sichereren oder besser replizierbaren Aussagen zu gelangen (siehe z.B. den Vorschlag das Signifikanzniveau alpha auf 0,005 anstatt 0,05 festzulegen).

Verwahrlosung:

Wikipedia:

"Verwahrlosung bezeichnet einen Zustand, in dem die Mindesterwartungen, die die Gesellschaft an eine Person stellt, nicht erfüllt sind."

Adams's Thoughts on Poor Memory:

https://meinnaturwissenschaftsblog.blogspot.com/2022/02/scott-adamss-thoughts-on-poor-memory.html

Emotional expression in human odour:

 S. Craig Roberts et al., 2022:

Abstract

Recent work has demonstrated that human body odour alters with changing emotional state and that emotionally laden odours can affect the physiology and behaviour of people exposed to them. Here we review these discoveries, which we believe add to a growing recognition that the human sense of smell, and its potential role in social interactions, have been underappreciated. However, we also critically evaluate the current evidence, with particular focus on methodology and interpretation of emotional odour studies. We argue that while the evidence convincingly indicates that humans retain a capacity for olfactory communication of emotion, the extent to which this occurs in ordinary social interaction remains an open question. Future studies should place fewer restrictions on participant selection and lifestyle and adopt more realistic experimental designs. We also need to devote more consideration to underlying mechanisms and to recognise the constraints that these may place on effective communication. Finally, we outline some promising approaches to address these issues, and raise some broader theoretical questions that such approaches may help us to answer.

Wandering:

farnam street, Jeff Bezos:

"Wandering is an essential counterbalance to efficiency. You need to employ both. The outsized discoveries – the “non-linear” ones – are highly likely to require wandering."

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farnam street, Commitment:

"If you’re half trustworthy, you’re not trustworthy.

If you’re often reliable, you’re not reliable.

If you’re mostly consistent, you’re not consistent."

Female Fantasies:

PE:

Bruce Charlton meint, dass es Erfahrungen gibt, die auf Relevanz bestimmter Gedanken oder Erkenntnisse hinweisen:

https://meinnaturwissenschaftsblog.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-meaning-of-pe-ii.html

Vielen Gedanken ziehen an uns vorüber. Hin und wieder "hinterlassen" Gedanken einen bleibenden Eindruck und involvieren unmittelbar stark.

Der Umstand, dass wir manchen Gedanken ein wesentlich höheres Gewicht und einen höheren Wert zuordnen als anderen ist interessant.

Im Beruflichen sind wir zu einem gründlicheren Vorgehen gezwungen, bei Hobbies und Liebhabereien können wir Gedanken, die uns uninteressant erscheinen, sogleich beiseite legen.

Anfängertum:

Man widmet sich schon
eine Zeit lang einer Sache,
ist bereits in seinen Dreißigern
angekommen,
und ist dennoch noch immer
ein Anfänger in diesem
Tätigkeitsgebiet.

-----

Somit die Frage:

"Wozu das alles?"

"Nun ja, es drängt irgendwie dazu."

-----

Ein jedes Hobby im Sinne eines Dranges,

einer bestimmten Tätigkeit nachzugehen.

Schreiben:

Die eigenen Sätze
tragen die eigene Handschrift,
die eigene Prägung,
und man wird den eigenen Stil
nicht so rasch ablegen können,
selbst wenn man es
versuchen würde.

Pausen:

Sich zurückziehen
aus der Welt des Handelns und Leistens
Um sich eine Zeit lang
dem Schauen und Reflektieren
widmen zu können.

Romantic Love:

Helen Fisher:

"Romantic love is a drive ... it evolved to enable our forebears to focus their mating effort on a particular individual and begin the mating process."

-----

"Romantic love affects us on a more personal level. If you are sexually attracted to a person you met at a party and are rejected, you don't tend to slip into a clinical depression or kill yourself. But if you are rejected by your boyfriend, girlfriend or spouse, it has a huge impact."

-----

"We propose that this attraction mechanism evolved to enable individuals to focus their mating energy on specific others, thereby conserving energy and facilitating mate choice—a primary aspect of reproduction."

-----

Romantische Liebe im Sinne eines Bündelns und Konzentrierens des Paarungs-,Werbe- und romantischen Fürsorgeverhaltens

Unscheinbarkeit:

Zur Philosophie der grauen Maus / des grauen Mäuserichs:

Wiki How, In der Masse untergehen:

"Du wirst unsichtbarer, wenn du so bist wie die anderen. Wenn du dich von anderen unterscheidest, ist es wahrscheinlicher, dass du auffällst. Wenn du jedoch unauffällig sein möchtest, solltest du dich so verhalten wie alle anderen. Achte darauf wie sie reden, wie sie antworten, wie sie sich allgemein verhalten und mache es ihnen nach."

"Selbst, wenn du dich wie alle anderen verhältst, fällst du auf, wenn du dich speziell kleidest. ... Kleide dich unauffällig und normal, dann wirst du nicht bemerkt."

"Argumentiere nicht lange mit anderen und halte Diskussionen kurz. Je freundlicher und zustimmender du antwortest, desto unauffälliger wirkst du."

"Wenn du aber nicht auffallen willst, ist es ratsam anderen Menschen nicht in die Augen zu sehen, wenn es nicht nötig ist."

"Du solltest nur mit deinen Freunden reden, wenn du nicht auffallen willst. Falls dich jemand anspricht, antwortest du natürlich höflich, aber wenn du nicht auffallen möchtest, solltest du dich auch bei anderen nicht bemerkbar machen."

"Du solltest dich so oft es geht nur mit dir alleine oder mit deinen engsten Freunden beschäftigen. Wenn du nicht auffallen willst, solltest du den Kontakt zu anderen fremden Personen so oft es geht vermeiden. Gute Möglichkeiten hierzu sind: Ein Instrument lernen, Lesen, Sport, Eine neue Fähigkeit erlernen, Die Natur erkunden (zum Beispiel durch Geocaching, dabei solltest du jedoch immer jemandem sagen wo du bist), Schreiben (Poesie, Tagebuch, Songs, Gedichte…)"

"Du solltest keine Regeln brechen. Habe keine gegenteilige Meinung zu deiner Gruppe, kleide dich nicht anders als sie und sei generell so gut es geht wie sie. Wenn du eine andere Meinung zu etwas hast, solltest du es für dich behalten."

[Siehe auch zu dem Thema die Überlegungen von Eibl-Eibesfeldt]

Maladaptive Agreeableness:

Jordan Peterson:

"You watch all those rom-coms where there's always kind of a beta male guy who's being real friendly and always failing miserably with women because basically he's lying to himself and to them he's a persona and a persona is the face that you show to the world when you're trying to pretend and to convince  yourself and others that you're I would say harmless."

Träumereien:

H. P. Lovecraft:

"Nur wenig Leute wissen um die Wunder, die sich ihnen in den Geschichten und Träumen ihrer Jugend offenbaren; denn wenn wir als Kinder lauschen und träumen, denken wir halbbewusste Gedanken, und wenn wir uns als Männer zu erinnern versuchen, macht uns das Gift des Lebens stumpf und prosaisch."

Erkennen:

"Wir verbringen jedoch sehr wenig Zeit damit, unsere Gedanken zu verbessern."

Marcos Vazquez

Ich finde den obigen Ansatz recht gut und brauchbar: Man kann sich tagtäglich um Gedanken bemühen, die die Wirklichkeit treffen, die die Wirklichkeit möglichst brauchbar abbilden.

Im Zuge dessen geht es darum, unbrauchbare, nichtzutreffende Gedanken mehr und mehr auszumisten.

-----

Eine Schicht an halbwahren Gedanken legt sich oft zwischen Mensch und Wirklichkeit.

Lesen:

Einfach mal wieder ein paar Monate lang viel lesen. Dazu braucht's aber lange Abende, denk' ich. Der Herbst lädt hierzu ein, da die Abende sich von Tag zu Tag mehr und mehr ausdehnen. Wünsche den Lesern dieses Blogs somit dann bald einen gemütlichen Herbstbeginn ...

Why him? Why her?

Dieser Absatz von Anne Campbell gefällt mir ganz gut:

https://meinnaturwissenschaftsblog.blogspot.com/2020/08/why-him-why-her.html

Überhaupt stellt sich die Frage:

Warum begegnet man in seinem Leben einer überschaubaren Anzahl von Personen, die tatsächlich einen tiefen und bleibenden Eindruck hinterlassen?

Der Professionelle Ansatz:

Etwas mit Ernst betreiben.

Eben in einer Weise, dass es Kosten hat, wenn etwas schief geht, wenn eine Leistung nicht hohe oder ausreichende Qualität erreicht.

Eine Hobby kann über Jahre hinweg betrieben werden ohne dass es je zu einer echten Fähigkeitenentwicklung hierbei kommt, ohne dass je das Tun höhere Qualitätsansprüche erfüllt.

Der professionelle Ansatz besteht darin, es Ernst zu nehmen mit der Qualität eigener Erzeugnisse.

-----

Das Verantwortungsgefühl als Grundlage für Leistungen höheren Ranges

-----

In die Verwandlung gehen und also sich auf einem Gebiet solide Fähigkeiten erwerben

Good Software Design:

Clean Code:

"Much of good software design is simply about partitioning - creating appropriate places to put different kinds of code. This separation of concerns makes the code much simpler to understand and maintain."

Motivation to Control:

David C. Geary, The Origin of Mind:

"There is a general consensus among clinical and research psychologists that humans have a basic motibvation to achive some level of control over relationships, events, and resources of significance in their lives ..."

Das Bloggen:

Ein paar Notizen
hier und da,
Reicht das aus
für einen Blog?

Sachbücher:

In ein (Sach-)Buch eintauchen,
Und also
die Gedanken einer anderen Person
durchwandern.

Wöchentlicher Beitrag:

Einmal je Woche eine gute Seite zu schreiben,
das würde zu einer deutlichen Verbesserung
der Beiträge auf diesem Blog führen.

Choices:

Eleanor Roosevelt, farnam street:

“One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes. In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.”

-----

"The quicker you want something, the easier you are to manipulate."

Slow Productivity:

Cal Newport:

“On any given day, Huh does about three hours of focused work. He might think about a math problem, or prepare to lecture a classroom of students, or schedule doctor’s appointments for his two sons. ‘Then I’m exhausted,’ he said. ‘Doing something that’s valuable, meaningful, creative’ — or a task that he doesn’t particularly want to do, like scheduling those appointments — ‘takes away a lot of your energy.'”

One of the core principles of my emerging philosophy of slow productivity is that busyness and exhaustion are often unrelated to the task of producing meaningful results. When zoomed in close, three hours of work per day seems painfully, almost artificially slow — an impossibly small amount of time to get things done. Zoom out to the larger scale of years, however, and suddenly ...

Modelle als Regeln:

Salopp (und also nicht gar so genau augedrückt):

Ein Modell ist eine Regel, die angibt, wie von einer oder von mehreren unabhängigen Variablen auf eine abhängige Variable geschlossen werden kann.

Im Induktiven Schluss erzeugen wir ein Modell oder erstellen eine Regel.

Im Deduktiven Schluss wenden wir die Regel oder das Modell an.

Also:

Beobachten wir die Variablen A, B, C, D, so können wir gegebenenfalls induktiv auf die Regel oder das Modell schließen, das angibt, wie bei gegebenen A, B und C auf D geschlossen werden kann. Sind nun A, B und C gegeben und wissen wir um die Regel oder um das Modell, so können wir deduktiv auf D schließen.

-----

Siehe dazu auch zwei "fundamentale Gesetze" von Spearman:

" ... when a person has in mind any two or more ideas (using this word to embrace any items of mental content, whether perceived or thought of), he has more or less power to bring to mind any relations that essentially hold between them."

"... when a person has in mind any idea together with a relation, he has more or less power to bring up into mind the correlative idea."

Modelle:

Weltmodell:

Wir versuchen den Prozess abzubilden, der sämtliche Ereignisse generiert.

Selbst-Modell:

Wir versuchen ein Etwas abzubilden, dass manche Ereignisse hervorbringt.

Wir erleben uns als handelnd und also als bewusst und aktiv Ereignisse bzw. Veränderungen herbeiführend.

Das Modell:

Z.B. wir haben ein Modell, das zwischen den unabhängigen Variablen A, B und C und der abhängigen Variable Y einen gewissen Zusammenhang abbildet. Dann können wir, wenn wir nun einen konkreten Wert von A (a1), von B (b1) und von C (c1) zur Verfügung haben, durch das Modell auf den Wert von Y (y1) schließen bzw. anhand des Modells eine Vermutung bezüglich dieses Wertes aussprechen.

Aufmerksamkeit:

Die Kernaussage von Winifred Gallagher's Buch "Rapt" besteht darin, dass wir uns in hohem Ausmaß durch das festlegen, worauf wir unsere Aufmerksamkeit richten.

Mathematical Models:

Kelleher:

"In its simplest form, a mathematical model is an equation that describes how one or more input variables are related to an output variable. In this form a mathematical model is the same as a function: a mapping from inputs to outputs.

...

Once the variables in a model have a meaning, we can understand the model as describing a process through which different aspects of the world interact and cause new events. These events are then described by the outputs of the model."

Knowledge Work:

Peter Drucker:

"To be effective is the job of the knowledge worker. Whether he or she works in a business or a hospital, in a government agency or in a labor union, in a university or in the army, the knowledge worker is, first of all, expected to get the right things done. And this means simply that the knowledge worker is expected to be effective."

Ordnung:

Die zentrale Frage:

Welche Mechanismen
legen den Eintritt eines
Ereignisses fest?

Wie sind Veränderungen
miteinander verknüpft?

Allem erkennenden Denken

geht es darum, Ordnung festzustellen,

und also darum,

Ereignisketten aufzudecken.

Festgelegtheit:

Sich festlegen,
in vielem,
da führt kein Weg
vorbei.

Denken:

Man kehrt
in seinem Forschen und Denken
immer wieder zu dem zurück,
was einem interessant scheint,
besonders interessant erscheint.

Gelegenheiten:

Eine Türe geht zu.
Schließt sich.
Für die Ewigkeit.
Endgültig.

-----

Jeder Lebensabschnitt
hat seine Reize.

Doch geht es darum,
zu akzeptieren,
dass manche Türen
geschlossen sind,
geschlossen bleiben,
dass es da aber, immer noch,
und immer wieder, Türen gibt,
die sich öffnen, die weit offen stehen.

-----

Hast Du die Gelegenheit

beim Schopfe gepackt

als sie sich Dir geboten hat?

Damals, als die Gelegenheit

noch frisch war,

als Du sie, ohne weiteres,

realisieren hättest können?

-----

Tausend Türen

plötzlich zu

und Du wanderst weiter,

dennoch weiter.

Informationswert:

Warum erscheinen uns manche Aussagen so interessant?

Warum lassen uns andere Aussagen kalt?

Das individuelle Gespür für den Wert einer Aussage, das ist der Genius im Menschen.

Langfristig hat es negative Konsequenzen, in Widerspruch zu diesem Gespür zu leben.

Smart people know how the economy works

Smart people know how the economy works: Cognitive ability, economic knowledge and financial literacy

Author links open overlay panelChien-AnLin, Timothy C.Bates

Highlights

(o) Tested if cognitive ability drives economic knowledge and financial literacy.
(o) Ability strongly predicted greater economic knowledge.
(o) Ability predicted greater financial literacy.
(o) Effects on financial literacy mediated by economic knowledge.
(o) Associations not influenced by education or economic training.

Abstract

Cognitive ability correlates positively with many financial outcomes but why? One important relationship to understand is the degree to which cognitive ability is associated with greater knowledge of economics, but this has not been tested extensively. Here in two large, pre-registered studies (N = 1356), we tested the relationship between cognitive ability and both economic knowledge and financial literacy. Three predictions were key: i) Cognitive ability would show a large positive association with economic knowledge; ii) Cognitive ability would be associated with better financial literacy and iii) Greater economic knowledge would be positively associated with financial literacy. All three predictions were supported and replicated. Cognitive ability predicted economic knowledge (r = 0.37 to 0.52) independent of and with much larger effects than either educational attainment or economics courses. The findings extend effects of general ability to include greater awareness of economic functions, and improved use of economic information which improves lifetime financial wellbeing.

Uncertainty:

farnam street:

“The most practical decision-making is not making better choices, it's learning to deal with uncertainty. The most common thing holding people back from the right answer is holding on to your previous beliefs. Instead of instinctively rejecting new information, take in what comes your way through a system of evaluating probabilities.”

Begehren und Begehrtwerden:

Nicole Siller, Woman:

"Wir alle lieben das Gefühl, wenn wir uns in unserer Haut richtig wohl und sexy fühlen – und verknüpfen das meist damit, dass wir jemandem wirklich gefallen. Wenn wir merken, wir werden – von der/den „richtigen“ Personen begehrt und geliebt. Dann spüren wir uns gut und weiblich, sexy, begehrenswert. Dann ist ein Teil in uns aktiviert, der eigentlich immer da ist. Wenn wir Glück haben, bringt er uns richtig zum Strahlen. Wir sind gut gelaunt, die anderen auch – wir bekommen mehr Komplimente und sind selbst oft in unbeschwerter Flirtlaune. Man liebt es, in unserer Gesellschaft zu sein, weil wir etwas ausstrahlen, was andere auch haben wollen ..."

Verlobungsringe:

Business Insider:

"Wie die Wissenschaftler herausfanden, sind Aussehen und Preis des Rings eng miteinander verknüpft. Männer würden Frauen, die sie als attraktiv bewertet haben, einen eher teuren Ring kaufen als unattraktiveren Frauen. Frauen hingegen suchen sich wiederum dann einen teureren Ring von Männern aus, die sie als unattraktiver bewertet haben. Bei attraktiven Männern würden sie eher einen günstigeren Ring wählen."

Lesepausen:

Ich hab' mich ein paar Jahre lang eigentlich nirgends so recht eingelesen. Das waren gute und spannende Jahre. Allerdings ist schon eine gewisse Sehnsucht nun wieder aufgetaucht, mich doch einige Nachmittage oder Abende lang in Texte zu vertiefen, um hiernach, im Anschluss dann, ein paar Überlegungen zu diesen Texten auszuarbeiten. So lange solch eine Ausarbeitung nicht geschieht, bleibt das Wissen zu Themen doch recht an der Oberfläche.

Nun, mal sehen, was sich da so ereignen wird.

Dominance and Play Behavior:

"If one rat is only 10 percent larger than the other, he can pretty much win every physical contest, every rat wrestling match - but they still wrestle to find out, and the larger rat almost inevitably pins the smaller.

...

Once dominance is established, the rats can play ... something they can do in a manner very different from genuine fighting ... Now, the larger rat could pin the smaller rat every time. However, that breaks the rules ... Ther purpose of the repeated game is not dominance, but continuing play. This is not to say that the initial dominance is without significance. It matters ... However - and this is a critical issue - if the larger rat does not let the smaller rat win the repeated wrestling matches some substantial proportion of the time (Panksepp estimated 30 to 40 percent of the tome), the smaller rat will stop exhibiting invitations to play. It is just not any fun for the little guy."

Wrecked by Success? Not to Worry

H J Kell et al, 2022

Abstract

We examined the wrecked-by-success hypothesis. Initially formalized by Sigmund Freud, this hypothesis has become pervasive throughout the humanities, popular press, and modern scientific literature. The hypothesis implies that truly outstanding occupational success often exacts a heavy toll on psychological, interpersonal, and physical well-being. Study 1 tested this hypothesis in three cohorts of 1,826 high-potential, intellectually gifted individuals. Participants with exceptionally successful careers were compared with those of their gender-equivalent intellectual peers with more typical careers on well-known measures of psychological well-being, flourishing, core self-evaluations, and medical maladies. Family relationships, comfort with aging, and life satisfaction were also assessed. Across all three cohorts, those deemed occupationally outstanding individuals were similar to or healthier than their intellectual peers across these metrics. Study 2 served as a constructive replication of Study 1 but used a different high-potential sample: 496 elite science/technology/engineering/mathematics (STEM) doctoral students identified in 1992 and longitudinally tracked for 25 years. Study 2 replicated the findings from Study 1 in all important respects. Both studies found that exceptionally successful careers were not associated with medical frailty, psychological maladjustment, and compromised interpersonal and family relationships; if anything, overall, people with exceptionally successful careers were medically and psychologically better off.

The Tomorrow-Self:

farnam street:

"There is a constant battle in all of us between our today-self and our tomorrow-self.

Today-self is like our inner child. Today-self cares only about today. It wants to focus on things that offer an immediate payoff. Whether that’s kicking back with a few too many glasses of wine, spending money on status symbols, or avoiding doing things that can be done tomorrow. Tomorrow-self is like our inner adult.

Tomorrow-self cares about things that take time to get results — like working on your relationship, saving money, or consistently moving the project forward one inch at a time.

Imagine you are tasked with building a brick wall. Today-self looks at the empty space in disbelief, discouraged at the size of the project. Today-self decides to start tomorrow. Only tomorrow never comes because the empty space again seems insurmountable. Today-self decides to talk about the wall they’re going to build, as if it were the same as building the wall. It’s not.

Tomorrow-self knows that no one builds a wall all at once. It’s going to take a month of consistent effort from the time you start before it’s done. Tomorrow-self wishes you’d stop thinking about the wall and focus on one brick.

Everything is a matter of perspective. Where you focus determines what you see. It’s easy to get lost in the magnitude of what you’re doing and completely ignore how it gets done. Focusing on the wall makes the task impossible. You have to focus on the brick.

The lesson applies to everything. If you’re writing a book, focus on writing the best paragraph and not the entire book. If you’re playing sports, focus on the next play and not winning the game. If you’re starting a company, focus on delighting one customer. Or, if you’re my kids, don’t focus on the pile of T-shirts to be folded, focus on one shirt.

Don’t focus on the enormity of the task, rather focus on the smallest thing you can do that moves you forward. As the momentum builds, things get easier. The second paragraph is easier to write than the first. The second T-shirt is easier to fold than the first. The second brick is easier to lay than the first.

Grasping this concept and applying it to what you’re doing is the key to accomplishing anything. Focus on a small but critical part of the task that moves you forward. Execute. Repeat. The logic is simple but not simplistic.

The wisdom of tomorrow-self is this: Focus on one thing you can do today to make tomorrow easier. Repeat."

Einsatz, Involviertheit, Erfolge, Misserfolge und Risiko:

Und setzt Du nicht dein Leben ein,
Nie wird es Dir gewonnen sein!

~ Friedrich Schiller

Es ging um nichts. Nie ist es um etwas gegangen.

Seine Kräfte lernt man erst kennen, wenn man

auf's Ganze geht, und wenn dann,

falls sich ein Misserfolg einstellt,

sich tatsächlich ein großer Misserfolg einstellt

oder einstellen kann.

Und was hat es mit Personen auf sich,

die ihr ganzes Leben lang nie, in keiner Angelegenheit,

je auf's Ganze gehen?

Focus:

farnam street:

"In every area of life, there is a hidden asymmetry. If you apply your focus like everyone else, you will get the same results as everyone else. Understanding where to apply your focus makes a massive difference in results.

Everyone knows that focus matters. Most people don’t know where to focus. Telling people “to focus more” is about as helpful as telling them to “make better decisions.” Common advice but useless in practice.

Not all focus is equal. Some focus is asymmetric. Knowing where to focus makes a difference.

How do you know where to focus? The answer is a deep fluency in the problem. You need to embed yourself in the problem and the details. You need to try things, reflect, and learn. Sooner or later, you start to understand the hidden asymmetry.

A lot of business people treat all decisions the same, no matter the implications. They’ll spend as much time trying to decide a trivial decision as a major one. A lot of authors focus on the work and miss that how it’s positioned for the audience matters more. A lot of people go to the gym 4 days a week only to miss that what goes into their body and the amount of sleep matter more.

The visible problem might appear to be a lack of focus, but the invisible problem is often not knowing where to focus to get the best results.

In any field, a few areas of focus make an asymmetric difference. Often they're hiding in plain sight and ignored by most.

One place to find asymmetry is to listen to people talk about others' success … “that book sold a lot, but did you read it, it’s not well written.” That’s an indication that the quality of writing matters less than you think and something else matters more. Or consider the person that explains another person’s success away with “luck.” There might be an element of luck to it, sure, but when you pull back the curtain, I bet you discover they’re focusing a little bit more on something different. Success leaves clues.

What looks like a lack of focus is often a lack of understanding."

Speaking hard truths:

farnam street podcast:

"But I think if you're going to enter into a very consequential business relationship with somebody whether they're a client or a partner, a lot of money on the line, jobs on the line, I think it's appropriate to test that and you know I think some ways to do that, I don't think it's appropriate to lie, but I think speaking a hard truth is one of my favorite ways to do that, speaking a hard truth right up front and just seeing what it does, like seeing what happens um and you know sometimes you can tell based on the reaction, well if I'm not able to speak truthfully to this person, it's hard to imagine that we'd be able to have a healthy four or five year relationship, and that's something that i've done pretty regularly actually."

Inarticulate Knowledge:

farnam street:

“We know more than we’re able to explain that we know. And I call this inarticulate knowledge — the knowledge that I’m not able to articulate to somebody. And I have inarticulate knowledge about a lot of things, including other people. I could have tacit knowledge of why I trust somebody that I couldn’t explain to you. If you asked me to give you specific things, I wouldn’t be able to point to that, “Oh, there’s that one time when we were hanging out together,” because it’s probably not any one particular thing. It’s probably a series of things, call it a gut feeling. I just have that. And I have the same thing for mistrust. Right? And I think that this kind of tacit knowledge and inarticulate knowledge is undervalued in our society. It’s undervalued because we always want to be able to explain the science and give the hard reasons for it. But a lot of life doesn’t work like that.”

The Mismeasure of Man:

The Mismeasure of Man: Why Intergenerational Occupational Mobility is Much Lower than Conventionally Measured, England, 1800-2021

Gregory Clark, Neil Cummins, Matthew Curtis

Abstract

Using a new database of 1.7 m marriages in England 1837-1939, and a genealogy of 414,000 people in England 1700-2021, we estimate two independent new occupational status indices for England 1800-1939. These new indices show that there was much less social mobility 1800-1939 than previous indices, such as HISCAM, imply. The performance of these two new indices, however, illustrates a general problem with comparing social mobility across time and place using status indices. All such indices embody unknown and varying degrees of error. The more error, the more apparent mobility. So in the paper we develop a way of measuring intergenerational occupational status mobility which eliminates all measurement error. This suggests that intergenerational occupational status persistence in England 1800-2021 was always much greater than conventionally measured, and was largely unchanged over time.

How disgust predicts the adoption of mate shortage solutions

How disgust predicts the adoption of mate shortage solutions

Author links open overlay panel

Kaitlyn P. White, Stanisław K.Czerwiński, Rachel Mulhearn, Peter K.Jonason (2022)

Highlights

(o) Examined willingness to adopt three solutions to mate shortages

(o) Examined how strategies differ as a function of disgust sensitivity

(o) Examined how strategies differ as a function of mating context and sex

(o) Replicated and extended past findings about mate searching strategies and disgust

Abstract

When people cannot find desirable mating prospects, they may abstain, lower their standards, or travel farther to solve this mate shortage. We examined people's (N = 306) willingness to adopt these three solutions to mating shortages in relation to individual differences in disgust in men and women and for long-term and short-term partners. Those with more sexual disgust were more willing to abstain during a shortage of short-term mates and were less willing to lower their standards and to travel farther for short-term partners. Pathogen and moral disgust were associated with choosing to travel farther in the long-term contexts for men only. Our findings support the idea that how people evaluate costs and benefits in mating is expressed in their personality.

farnam street:

"One of the most valuable skills you can adopt in life is doing things when you don’t feel like doing them."

Positiver und Negativer Affekt:

Ein merkwürdiges Leben, das dadurch entsteht, indem man versucht, dem negativen Affekt immer und überall auszuweichen.

Positivem und negativem Affekt kommen gleicherweise sinnvolle Funktionen im Leben zu.

Eine interessante Einführung in diese Thematik ist das Buch "Good Reasons for Bad Feelings" von Randolph M. Nesse.

Versüchtelung:

"In den letzten Jahren scheinen immer mehr Menschen alle möglichen Verhaltensweisen in einem solchen Extrem zu betreiben (von Extremspotarten wie Bungee-Springen und free-climbing über rauschhaftes Einkaufen bis hin zu süchtigem Arbeiten und Börsen-Zocken), dass man von einer zunehmenden "Versüchtelung" der Gesellschaft sprechen kann. Besonders die medialen Abhängigkeiten (TV, Computer, Internet, Handys) scheinen zuzunehmen."

... und an anderer Stelle:

"Die generelle Tendenz, mit sich, den anderen und der Welt süchtig umzugehen, verbreitet sich. Man kann von einer langsamen Versüchtelung immer größerer Teile der Bevölkerung ausgehen. Der süchtige Umgang wird mehr und mehr das Normale."

Werner Gross, Hinter jeder Sucht... & Sucht ohne Drogen, 2002 & 2003

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Problem an sich ist schon, in meinem Augen, die Fokussierung auf einen wertunabhängigen Hedonismus. Anstatt zu differenzieren, in einer Weise: "Es gibt solche und solche Freuden; Freuden die anstrebenswert sind, und Freuden, die nicht anzustreben sind." ... werden Freuden und das Angenehme per se als werthaltig angesehen. Anstatt dessen würde ich folgendes in den Raum stellen: Ob etwas wertvoll oder werthaltig ist hat unabhängig davon geprüft zu werden, ob es Freude bereitet oder angenehm ist. Viel Unangenehmes, viel Anstrengung zum Beispiel, kann doch insgesamt als sehr wesentlich und "gut" eingestuft werden und also ein Umgehen dieser Anstrengungen und Unannehmlichkeiten als "schlecht". Werte zu realisieren, darum geht's in der Moral. Das ist das große Thema: "Wie lässt sich Wertvolles in die Welt bringen? Wie lässt sich vorhandenes Wertvolles wahrnehmen und schätzen?" Nun gut. Soviel meine spontanen Ausführungen zum Thema Hedonismus. Ein Anstreben von Freuden, das eine Erdung und Einbettung hat in persönlichen Werterwägungen und in persönlicher Moral: Das ist eine gute Alternative zum ausufernden Hedonismus bzw. zu einer Überbewertung von Glück.

The Enlightenment and the Romantic Era:

Eric Barker:

"The age of enlightenment was all rules; the Romantic era hated rules and was all emotions."

Knowledge Work:

Cal Newport:

"knowledge work will always be defined by large amounts of autonomous action."

Plays Well with Others

New Book by Eric Barker

The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Relationships Is (Mostly) Wrong

Friendships:

Eric Barker:

"So which costly signals do we want to display (and look for) when it comes to true friends? The experts firmly agree on two, the first one is time. Why is time so powerful? Because it's scarce, and scarce = costly. Want to make someone feel special? Do something for them you simply cannot do for others. If I give you an hour of my time every day, I cannot do that for more than twenty-four people. Cannot. End of discussion."

The Social Role of Inhibition in Primates and Other Animals

Dunbar & Shultz (2022)

Abstract

The capacity to inhibit prepotent actions (inhibitory self-control) plays an important role in many aspects of the behaviour of birds and mammals. Although a number of studies have used it as an index of foraging skills, inhibition is, in fact, also crucial for maintaining the temporal and spatial coherence of bonded social groups. Using two sets of comparative data, we show that, in primates, the capacity to inhibit behaviour correlates better with the demands of social contexts than the demands of foraging contexts, whereas a more generalised capacity for causal reasoning correlates with both social and foraging contexts. In addition, we confirm the Passingham-Wise Conjecture that the capacity to inhibit prepotent action is unique to anthropoid primates, and suggest that it may be crucial for the spatio-temporal integrity of their unique bonded social groups.

Beziehungen:

Letztlich geht's ja doch um die Beziehung,
um die tausenden Stunden Gespräche
mit einer Person;
obwohl das drum herum sehr nett ist
und nett sein kann.

Signal Value of Stress Behavior:

2022, Jamie Whitehouse et al.;

Introduction:

"The experience of stress is often paired with visual cues across a wide range of species (Troisi, 1999). These include self-directed behaviours such as scratching, face touching and lip-biting (Troisi, 2002) as well as some stress-specific facial movements (Giannakakis et al., 2017; Mayo & Heilig, 2019). There is a body of behavioural, physiological and pharmacological evidence demonstrating that the experience of stress is reliably associated with the production of these behaviours (Maestripieri, Schino, Aureli, & Troisi, 1992; Mohiyeddini, Bauer, & Semple, 2015), and their study has gained significant attention in the clinical and health sciences (Mayo & Heilig, 2019; Troisi, 1999) due to their important applied benefits in psychiatry. However, science has somewhat neglected questions concerning why these behaviours evolved and what adaptive benefits they could provide to a stressed individual and those around them (Tinbergen, 1952). Thus, why stress behaviours actually exist remains a mystery. The emergence of these behaviours is not immediately obvious, as displaying overt visual signs of weakness is difficult to understand from an evolutionary perspective. Producing behaviours so strongly associated with stress could provide opportunities for an individual to be taken advantage of by others and an adaptive strategy should be to conceal stress and other weakened states. But at least for stress, this does not seem to be the case. This could reflect the cooperative nature of humans (Tomasello, 2010) and that this risk of competition from others simply does not exist. Or, it could be that the benefits gained from displaying stress to others outweigh the risks of competition, such as providing key opportunities to elicit empathy and help from others (Dezecache, Jacob, & Grèzes, 2015); social benefits which could act as a strong selection pressure. As a comparison, crying (a signal of negative affect) is known to elicit or enhance shared emotional experience (Preston & de Waal, 2002). However, all this this assumes that stress behaviours are salient to others. It may be that these behaviours are not actually perceived as associated with stress in real-world social interactions, for example, because of their significant overlap with other behaviours. The scratching and self-grooming behaviours often associated with stress also have the more basic function of removing irritations from the skin (Maestripieri et al., 1992). Such alternate and non-affective functions could make any information transfer about stress noisy and unreliable if they are also produced readily in situations where stress is not present. All this currently remains unknown, however, as the accuracy in which humans can perceive the stress of others (and what factors determine this accuracy) is yet to be quantified in detail.

Stress behaviours are frequently referred to as displacement behaviours (Mohiyeddini & Semple, 2013), a term coined by early ethologists who thought their emergence was as a consequence of displaced energy (Troisi, 2002). It was proposed that during a motivational/internal conflict (for example, when there is both motivation for conflict and affiliation simultaneously, McFarland, 1966), a third behaviour often irrelevant to the context is often produced, causing a distraction from the negative stimuli or acting as a ‘sensory cut-off’ (Chance, 1962). In humans, these behaviours appear to mainly manifest through self-directed ‘comfort’ behaviours such as self-grooming face-touching, head scratching and through behaviours through the iterative manipulation of objects such as fumbling with jewellery, and chewing on pens (Troisi, 1999). These behaviours may have proximate function to regulate the experience of stress (Mohiyeddini, Bauer, & Semple, 2013), as individuals who produce more stress-associated behaviour seem to recover from a stressful event quicker; measured through lower self-reported stress (Mohiyeddini & Semple, 2013) and through lower heart rate post stressful event (Pico-Alfonso et al., 2007). In non-human primates, there is also strong pharmacological evidence linking these behaviours to stress, and increased rates of self-scratching in monkeys are positively associated with the administration of anxiety-inducing drugs (and negatively associated with anxiety-relieving drugs) (Troisi, 2002).

The observable link between stress and behaviour suggests a communicative function of these behaviours, either as a signal that has been specifically selected and evolved, or as a phenomena occurring as a by-product of other functions (i.e., a cue: Scott-Phillips, Blythe, Gardner, & West, 2012). Although stress associated behaviours have been proposed to be communicative in the past (Bradshaw, 1993; Maestripieri et al., 1992), these inferences have been made largely from quantifying the relationship between individuals' experienced stress and their behaviour. However, to understand if the emergence of these behaviours was driven (or at least, in some part driven) by a signal function, a shift in focus from the producer of these behaviours to the psychology and behaviour of the observer (or receiver; Guilford & Dawkins, 1991) is necessary. This perspective has already been attempted with species of non-human primate (macaques: Whitehouse, Micheletta, & Waller, 2017), who were found to interact differently (i.e. more affiliatively) around individuals displaying stress behaviours, appearing to respond to these behaviours in a meaningful and adaptive way. As we share many similarities in the way stress is manifested in behaviour compared with non-human primates (many species of which have also been reported to produce self-directed behaviour during periods of stress, Maestripieri et al., 1992; Troisi, 2002), it is possible that we also share function, and that producing these behaviours affords us comparable social benefits.

People can vary in both the extent to which they produce signals (Kanai & Rees, 2011; Mayo & Heilig, 2019), and their ability to accurately read and process them (Duesenberg et al., 2016). Whether these individual differences represent noise, or if there is an adaptive reason for people to behave differently, is an unknown but interesting issue. Communicative complexity is known to be linked to social complexity (Freeberg, Dunbar, & Ord, 2012) and it is thought that those species with more complex communication are consequently able to navigate a more complex social environment. We could also hypothesise a similar relationship at an individual level and expect that someone's communicative skills are then positively associated with their social environment and their ability to maintain bigger social networks. Testing such a hypothesis with stress behaviours could be very useful. If producing or processing stress behaviours is linked to the size of an individual's social network, this would provide further evidence that stress behaviours function within a social environment and that they have an evolved signal function. Additionally, looking at the relationship between an individual's ability to display and detect stress and their social environment may even help us explain why we can observe individual variability within expressivity in general.

In order to assess for a potential signal function of stress, or more simply, if people are able to recognise the stress in others by observing their behaviour, we designed an experiment. A group of participants (termed ‘actors’ here on) were exposed to a stressful task whilst video-taped, and several indices of stress, including self-report, behavioural, and physiological measures, were taken. We presented these videos (without an explanation about the context in which they were obtained) to a larger pool of participants (termed ‘raters’ here on) who were required to give these videos ratings (on the actors' experience of stress and their likeability) and provide some details regarding their own social network. Our aim was to explore the relationship between stress, behaviour and its perception. Although a largely exploratory approach was taken, we had the following predictions: First, we hypothesised that the ratings given by the raters would align with the measures of stress taken from the actors, and that the most reliable indicator of stress in others would be displacement behaviour (i.e. stress behaviours). Second, we hypothesised that those who appear more stressed would also be judged as more likeable, a finding which would further suggest an adaptive benefit to the communication of stress (i.e., relationship building). Finally, we assessed how individual variation in stress-reading skills reflected social network size, with the idea these skills are directly linked to an individual's ability to navigate and develop their social environment. Here we predicted that better stress-reading skills would afford a larger social network."

Reputation:

farnam street:

"Trust is earned in drops and lost in buckets."

That internal saying at Amazon reminds me of what Warren Buffett observed, "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently."

The Mating Wars:

David Buss:

People are uncomfortable placing a value on other humans. It offends our sensibilities. But the unfortunate fact is that mate value is not distributed evenly. Contrary to yearnings for equality, all people simply are not equivalent in the currency of mate quality. Some are extremely valuable—fertile, healthy, sexually appealing, resource-rich, well-connected, personable, and willing and able to confer their bounty of benefits. At the other end of the distribution are those less fortunate, perhaps less healthy, with fewer material resources, or imbued with personality dispositions such as aggressiveness or emotional instability that inflict heavy relationship costs.

The competition to attract the most desirable mates is ferocious. Consequently, those most valuable are perpetually in short supply compared to the many who desire them. People who are themselves high in mate value succeed in attracting the most desirable partners. In the crude informal American metric, the 9s and 10s pair off with other 9s and 10s. And with decreasing value from the 8s to the 1s, people must lower their mating sights commensurately. Failure to do so produces a higher probability of rejection and psychological anguish. As one woman advised her male friend who bemoaned his frustration about his lack of interest in the women attracted to him and the unreciprocated interest by women to whom he was attracted, "you're an 8 looking for 9s and being sought after by 7s."

Another source of problems on the mating market comes from deception. Scientific studies of on-line dating profiles reveal that men and women both try to appear higher in mate value than they truly are on precisely the dimensions valued by the opposite sex. Men exaggerate their income and status, and tack on a couple of inches to their real height. Women present as 10 to 15 pounds lighter than their real weight and some shave years off of their actual age. Both show unrepresentative photos, sometimes taken many years earlier. Men and women deceive in order to attract mates at the outer limit of their value range. Sometimes they deceive themselves. Just as 94% of professors believe they are 'above average' for their department, on the mating market many think they are hot when they're not.

Despite valiant efforts, men's attempts to increase their market value in women's eyes do not always work. Many fail. Dating anxiety can paralyze men brave in other contexts. Some spurned men become bitter and hostile toward women after repeated rejections. As Jim Morrison of 'The Doors' once noted, "women seem wicked when you're unwanted."

Mating difficulties do not end among those successful enough to attract a partner. Mate value discrepancies open a Pandora's box of problems. An omnipresent challenge within romantic relationships derives from mate value discrepancies—when an 8 mistakenly pairs up with a 6, when one member of an initially matched couple plummets in mate value, or even when one ascends more rapidly professionally than the other. Jennifer Aniston's hold on Brad Pitt proved tenuous. Mate poachers lure the higher value partner, driving wide initially small wedges: "He's not good enough for you;" "She doesn't treat you well;" "You deserve someone better . . . like me." Empirically, the higher mate value partner is more susceptible to sexual infidelity, emotional infidelity, and outright defection.

The lower mate-value partners typically struggle mightily to prevent infidelity and breakup. They use tactics ranging from vigilance to violence. Intimate partner battering, abhorrent as it is, has a disturbing functional logic. Since self-esteem is, in part, a psychological adaptation designed to track one's own mate value, blows to self-esteem cause reductions in self-perceived mate value. Physical and psychological abuse predictably harm the victim's self-esteem, narrowing the perceived discrepancy between a woman's and her partner's mate value, and sometimes causing her to stay with her abuser.

Those who succeed in breaking up and leaving are sometimes stalked by former partners—typically men who know or sense that they will never again be able to attract a woman as valuable as the one they have lost.