Female Choice Key to Evolutionary Shift to Modern Family

It is a question that has puzzled evolutionary biologists for years: Why did we stop being promiscuous and decide to settle down to start families?

Sergey Gavrilets, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, may have found the answer, and it lies in the power of female choice. The study reveals how females chose their mates played a critical role in human evolution by leading to monogamous relationships, which laid the foundation for the institution of the modern family.

Using mathematical modeling, the associate director for scientific activities at the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS) at UT has discovered that the transformation may have occurred when early-hominid females started choosing males who were good providers.

Gavrilets' findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The "sexual revolution" entailed males first competing with other males for dominance, as a way to get matings. However, low-ranked males—and eventually all males except those with the highest societal stature—began supplying females with provisions in what is called "food-for-mating" to get a leg up on the competition. Females showed preference for the "provisioning" males, leading males' energy to be spent on providing for females and females becoming increasingly faithful. This spurred self-domestication and the modern family as we know it today.

"This change has confounded scientists for a long time because many species would be much better off evolutionarily if the effort spent on males competing for mates was redirected towards increasing female fertility or survivorship of their offspring," said Gavrilets.

The study demonstrates mathematically that the most commonly proposed theories for the transition to human pair bonding—or coupling—are not biologically feasible.

However, the study advances a new model showing that the transition to pair-bonding can occur when female choice and faithfulness, among other factors, are included. The result is an increased emphasis on males provisioning females over male competition for mating.

"The study reveals that female choice played a crucial role in human evolution," said Gavrilets.

According to Gavrilets, the transition to coupling has opened the path to intensified male parental investment, which was a breakthrough adaptation with multiple anatomical, behavioral and physiological consequences for early hominids and for all of their descendants. It shifted the dynamic away from males competing with each other for sex to males competing with each other to see who is a better provider to get better mates.

"Pair bonding laid the foundation for a later emergence of the institution of the modern family," said Gavrilets.

Source: University of Tennessee [May 30, 2012]

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Stressed Men Are More Social

Freiburg researchers have refuted the common belief that stress always causes aggressive behavior. A team of researchers led by the psychologists and neuroscientists Prof. Markus Heinrichs and Dr. Bernadette von Dawans at the University of Freiburg, Germany, examined in a study how men react in stressful situations -- and have refuted a nearly 100-year-old doctrine with their results.

According to this doctrine, humans and most animal species show the "fight-or-flight" response to stress. Only since the late 1990s have some scientists begun to argue that women show an alternate "tend-and-befriend" response to stress -- in other words, a protective ("tend") and friendship-offering ("befriend") reaction. Men, in contrast, were still assumed to become aggressive under stress. Von Dawans refuted this assumption, saying: "Apparently men also show social approach behavior as a direct consequence of stress."

With this study, the research team experimentally investigated male social behavior under stress for the first time. The results are published in the  journal Psychological Science. The economists Prof. Ernst Fehr of the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and Prof. Urs Fischbacher of the University of Konstanz, Germany, as well as the psychologist Prof. Clemens Kirschbaum from the Technical University of Dresden, Germany, also participated in the study. Last year, Heinrichs and von Dawans already developed a standardized procedure for inducing stress in groups using a public speaking task. The researchers examined the implications of this stressor for social behavior using specially designed social interaction games.. These games allowed them to measure positive social behavior -- for example, trust or sharing -- and negative social behavior -- for example, punishment.

In the study, subjects who were under stress showed significantly more positive social behavior than control subjects who were not in a stressful situation. Negative social behavior, on the other hand, was not affected by stress. For Markus Heinrichs, this has far-reaching consequences for our understanding of the social significance of stress: "From previous studies in our laboratory, we already knew that positive social contact with a trusted individual before a stressful situation reduces the stress response. Apparently, this coping strategy is anchored so strongly that people can also change their stress responses during or immediately after the stress through positive social behavior."

Source: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg [May 21, 2012]

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The gifts we keep on giving

Birthdays, graduations, Christmas, baby showers, bridal showers, bar and bat mitzvahs, Mother's Day, Father's Day, first marriages (and second.. and third…), wedding anniversaries, the spontaneous friendship gesture, the occasional sorry-about-that gesture, hostess gifts and presents that don't even fall into a recognizable category. The year is filled with opportunities and obligations to give and receive.

So who can blame someone for doing a little recycling, or as it is commonly known, regifting? Not the person who actually gave the original gift, despite what a regifter may think.

In an article to be published in a forthcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, researchers from Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Harvard Business School and the London Business School explore the whole question of regifting from the perspective of both the original giver and the receiver who may or may not rewrap and regift.

In five studies they investigate whether the practice of "regifting", which is a social taboo, really is as offensive to givers as regifters assume. Over and over again, participants who had received gifts and were told to contemplate regifting thought that the original givers would be more offended than givers reported feeling.

"Regifitng isn't bad," said Gabrielle Adams from the London Business School. "In fact it is one way to ensure that gifts are passed along to those who will truly enjoy them. People shouldn't be afraid to pass along a gift they received to someone else."

In one study, 178 participants were divided into the roles of givers and receivers. They all read a scenario in which they were asked to imagine that they had recently been given a watch as a graduation gift. Givers were asked to imagine that the receiver had either regfited the watch to a friend or had thrown the watch in the trash. Receivers were asked to imagine that they had either regifted or trashed the watch.

The reactions to each scenario were measured on a five point "offensiveness" scale, which ranged from "very slightly or not at all" to extremely offended. Those who contemplated regifting the watch or pitching it, were asked to rate how offended the giver would be with either scenario. Givers did the same.

Givers were less offended when they learned that the receiver had regifted the watch than when they learned the receiver threw the gift away. But those who received the gift believed that givers would be equally offended no matter what option they took. They basically equated regifting with discarding.

"The finding that receivers think that regifting is as bad as throwing a gift in the trash was particularly interesting to us, " said Adams. "Givers thought throwing a gift away would be much worse than regifting it."

It all boils down to beliefs about entitlement, researchers say. Receivers feel that givers should have a say in what happens to their gifts, while givers feel that receivers are entitled to do whatever they like with a gift.

How to get everyone on the same page? Just add another holiday to the gift giving list; this one could be called National Regifting Day. Adams explains, "It turns out that National Regifting Day is one way to make receivers think regifting is less offensive."

Source: Association for Psychological Science [May 07, 2012]

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Women happier in relationships when men feel their pain

Men like to know when their wife or girlfriend is happy while women really want the man in their life to know when they are upset, according to a new study published by the American Psychological Association. 

The study involved a diverse sample of couples and found that men's and women's perceptions of their significant other's empathy, and their abilities to tell when the other is happy or upset, are linked to relationship satisfaction in distinctive ways, according to the article published online in the Journal of Family Psychology. 

"It could be that for women, seeing that their male partner is upset reflects some degree of the man's investment and emotional engagement in the relationship, even during difficult times. This is consistent with what is known about the dissatisfaction women often experience when their male partner becomes emotionally withdrawn and disengaged in response to conflict," said the study's lead author, Shiri Cohen, PhD, of Harvard Medical School. 

Researchers recruited 156 heterosexual couples for the experiment. Of those, 102 came from the Boston area and were younger, urban, ethnically and economically diverse and in a committed but not necessarily married relationship. In an effort to find couples who varied in the ways they resolved conflicts and controlled their emotions, they also looked for couples with a history of domestic violence and/or childhood sexual abuse. The remaining participants, from Bryn Mawr, Pa., were older, suburban and middle-class married couples with strong ties to the community. In all, 71 percent of couples were white, 56 percent were married and their average length of relationship was three-and-a-half years. 

Each participant was asked to describe an incident with his or her partner over the past couple of months that was particularly frustrating, disappointing or upsetting. The researchers' audio recorded the participant making a one- to two-sentence statement summarizing the incident and reaction and then brought the couples together and played each participant's statements. The couples were told to try to come to a better understanding together of what had happened and were given approximately 10 minutes to discuss it while the researchers videotaped them. Following the discussions, the participants viewed the videotape and simultaneously rated their negative and positive emotions throughout, using an electronic rating device. The device had a knob that moved across an 11-point scale that ranged from "very negative" to "neutral" to "very positive." 

Using these ratings, the researchers selected six 30-second clips from the videotape that had the highest rated negative or positive emotions by each partner. The researchers showed the clips to the participants and had them complete questionnaires about their feelings during each segment as well as their perceptions of their partner's feelings and effort to understand them during the discussion. They also measured the participants' overall satisfaction with their relationships and whether each partner considered his or her partner's efforts to be empathetic. 

Relationship satisfaction was directly related to men's ability to read their female partner's positive emotions correctly. However, contrary to the researchers' expectations, women who correctly understood that their partners were upset during the videotaped incident were much more likely to be satisfied with their relationship than if they correctly understood that their partner was happy. Also, when men understood that their female partner was angry or upset, the women reported being happier, though the men were not. The authors suggest that being empathetic to a partner's negative emotions may feel threatening to the relationship for men but not for women. 

The findings also show that the more men and women try to be empathetic to their partner's feelings, the happier they are. The authors suggest that this research should encourage couples to better appreciate and communicate one another's efforts to be empathetic. 

Source: American Psychological Association [March 05, 2012]

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Lust makes you smarter and seven deadly sins are good for you

Good news for lovers - the seven deadly sins, including Lust, are good for you. University of Melbourne social psychologist Dr Simon Laham uses modern research to make a compelling case for the virtues of living a sinful life in his latest book The Joy of Sin: The Psychology of the Seven Deadlies (And Why They Are So Good For You). 

Dr Laham argues that human behavior is more complex than simple “good” or “evil” and shows us that Pride, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Envy, Sloth and Anger are not soul-condemning offenses, but ever-present and, if indulged wisely, are largely functional human tendencies. 

In particular, for lovers intent on indulging in a bit of lust this Valentine’s Day, Dr Laham reveals: 

Lust can make you smarter. Research shows that people with sex on the brain are better at solving ‘analytic thinking’ problems. Lust triggers us to become focused on the present and the details of satisfying a rather pressing current goal, namely sex. 

Lust makes you helpful. Lust is so well designed to fulfill its function of getting people into bed, that it leads us to behave in ways that potential partners will find more attractive. 

Lust builds love. Research shows that lustful participants are more likely to display a range of loving, relationship maintenance strategies – like adopting constructive conflict resolution strategies – to increase the chances of sex in the future. 

Gluttony - People who have eaten a piece of cake are more likely to donate to charity. 

Greed – Money can buy you happiness as long as you spend it the right way. Studies show that people are happier when they spend their money on experiences rather than material possessions. 

Sloth - The ultimate slothful state, sleep and even napping, improves your memory and makes you more insightful.  Research has also shown that slowing down makes you more helpful.  Studies in cities in which people walk more slowly, such as Bakersfield in California, pedestrians are more likely to stop and offer help. 

Anger - Anger triggers an oppositional mindset which makes people more willing to entertain beliefs contrary to their own. In addition, angry negotiators, tend to be more likely to get what they want in a negotiation. 

Envy - Comparing yourself to those better off than you can lead to boosts in mood, self-image and creativity. 

School students who compared themselves to superior students got better grades. 

Pride – Proud people persist longer at difficult tasks and adopt leadership roles. Studies show that the proud are more liked. 

Dr Laham said that when you take a look at the evidence, the seven deadly sins can really serve us quite well despite being told for centuries they are bad for us. 

“This is great news for Australians as a recent BBC poll deemed Australia the most sinful country on earth,” he said.
 

So research now shows that it’s ok to indulge in a bit of Lust this Valentine’s Day and you’ll be better off for it. In fact, indulge in all seven deadly sins and you might just be a little smarter, happier and more successful. 

Source: University of Melbourne [February 13, 2012]

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What does love look like?

What does love look like? A dozen roses delivered on an ordinary weekday? Breakfast in bed? Or just a knowing glance between lovers? 

While outward displays of love are fairly easy to discern, a researcher in the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences is taking a decidedly "inward" approach to documenting this most complex of human emotions. 

Sandra Langeslag, an expert in biological psychology, is using brain-imaging tools such as electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to identify and assess the neurocognition of romantic love. 

"I want to understand how the brain works when humans are attracted to one another," says Langeslag, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Laboratory of Cognition and Emotion. 

By associating specific brain impulses with psychological data related to romantic love, Langeslag is at the forefront of research bridging the gap between emotion -- a state of mind derived from one's circumstances -- and cognition, which is acquiring knowledge through thought and experience. 

"The traditional [scientific] view is that cognition and emotion are two different things," says Luiz Pessoa, a professor of psychology and director of the lab. "But we believe they interact to a great extent -- that there aren't two completely separate sets of brain areas related to each." 

Langeslag's research began a decade ago while still an undergraduate in her native Netherlands. She already had a strong interest in biological psychology, and decided to explore the biological aspect of romantic infatuation and attachment when she herself fell in love. 

"That got me to thinking, 'Wow, what's happening to me? Why do I feel the way I feel?'" she recalls. 

Langeslag wrote her master's thesis on the physiological traits of romantic love, conducting research on fellow students in the Netherlands who had identified themselves as being in love. The testing involved a battery of questionnaires combined with brain imaging data supplied by EEG, which measures electrical impulses, and fMRI, which measures precise areas of blood flow. 

By showing the test participants a series of images, whether of their beloved, a friend or a stranger, Langeslag was able to detect a specific brainwave pattern called P3 that represents "motivated attention." The P3 brainwave was very pronounced when subjects where shown pictures of their own partner, she says, leading her to believe that people pay close attention to their sweethearts, even in the face of distractions like friends dropping in or an attractive stranger entering their field of view. 

Langeslag did similar research while pursuing her doctorate in emotional memory, also in the Netherlands. Now at Maryland, she continues to analyze her data collected from overseas while she and Pessoa examine another aspect of cognition and emotion: how a person's reasoning ability is affected by negative stimuli, such as the threat of receiving an electrical shock. 

Ultimately, Langeslag believes her neurocognitive research on romantic love will help other scientists studying the biological aspects of romantic behavior. 

"Love is not a psychiatric disorder, but people that are in love are kind of crazy," she says. "Although we're not looking to cure anyone from being in love, we should continue to explore every aspect of this that we can." 

Author: Tom Ventsias | Source: University of Maryland [February 10, 2012]

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Men Behaving Nicely: Selfless Acts by Men Increase When Attractive Women Are Nearby

Men put on their best behaviour when attractive ladies are close by. When the scenario is reversed however, the behaviour of women remains the same. These findings were published February 2, 2012, in the British Psychological Society's British Journal of Psychology via the Wiley Online Library. 

The research, which also found that the number of kind and selfless acts by men corresponded to the attractiveness of ladies, was undertaken by Dr Wendy Iredale of Sheffield Hallam University and Mark Van Vugt of the VU University in Amsterdam and the University of Oxford. 

Two experiments were undertaken. For the first, 65 men and 65 women, all of an average age of 21, anonymously played a cooperation game where they could donate money via a computer program to a group fund. Donations were selfless acts, as all other players would benefit from the fund, whilst the donor wouldn't necessarily receive anything in return. 

Players did not know who they were playing with. They were observed by either someone of the same sex or opposite sex -- two physically attractive volunteers, one man and one woman. Men were found to do significantly more good deeds when observed by the opposite sex. Whilst the number of good deeds made by women didn't change, regardless of who observed. 

For the second experiment, groups of males were formed. Males were asked to make a number of public donations. These increased when observed by an attractive female, where they were found to actively compete with one another. When observed by another male, however, donations didn't increase. 

Dr Iredale said: "The research shows that good deeds among men increase when presented with an opportunity to copulate. Theoretically, this suggests that a good deed is the human equivalent of the peacock's tail. Practically, this research shows how societies can encourage selfless acts." 

Source: British Psychological Society (BPS) [February 02, 2012]

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Sexual satisfaction in women increases with age

A new study of sexually active older women has found that sexual satisfaction in women increases with age and those not engaging in sex are satisfied with their sex lives. A majority of study participants report frequent arousal and orgasm that continue into old age, despite low sexual desire. The study appears in the January issue of the American Journal of Medicine. 

Researchers from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System evaluated sexual activity and satisfaction as reported by 806 older women who are part of the Rancho Bernardo Study (RBS) cohort, a group of women who live in a planned community near San Diego and whose health has been tracked for medical research for 40 years. The study measured the prevalence of current sexual activity; the characteristics associated with sexual activity including demographics, health, and hormone use; frequency of arousal, lubrication, orgasm, and pain during sexual intercourse; and sexual desire and satisfaction in older women. 

The median age in the study was 67 years and 63% were postmenopausal. Half the respondents who reported having a partner had been sexually active in the last 4 weeks. The likelihood of sexual activity declined with increasing age. The majority of the sexually active women, 67.1%, achieved orgasm most of the time or always. The youngest and oldest women in the study reported the highest frequency of orgasm satisfaction. 

40% of all women stated that they never or almost never felt sexual desire, and one third of the sexually active women reported low sexual desire. Lead investigator Elizabeth Barrett-Connor, MD, Distinguished Professor and Chief, Division of Epidemiology, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, comments, "Despite a correlation between sexual desire and other sexual function domains, only 1 in 5 sexually active women reported high sexual desire. Approximately half of the women aged 80 years or more reported arousal, lubrication, and orgasm most of the time, but rarely reported sexual desire. In contrast with traditional linear model in which desire precedes sex, these results suggest that women engage in sexual activity for multiple reasons, which may include affirmation or sustenance of a relationship." 

Regardless of partner status or sexual activity, 61% of all women in this cohort were satisfied with their overall sex life. Although older age has been described as a significant predictor of low sexual satisfaction, the percentage of RBS sexually satisfied women actually increased with age, with approximately half of the women over 80 years old reporting sexual satisfaction almost always or always. Not only were the oldest women in this study the most satisfied overall, those who were recently sexually active experienced orgasm satisfaction rates similar to the youngest participants. "In this study, sexual activity was not always necessary for sexual satisfaction. Those who were not sexually active may have achieved sexual satisfaction through touching, caressing, or other intimacies developed over the course of a long relationship," says first author Susan Trompeter, MD, Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine. Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Staff Physician at the VA San Diego Healthcare System. 

"Emotional and physical closeness to the partner may be more important than experiencing orgasm. A more positive approach to female sexual health focusing on sexual satisfaction may be more beneficial to women than a focus limited to female sexual activity or dysfunction," Trompeter concludes.  

Source: Elsevier Health Sciences via EurekAlert! [January 03, 2012]

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All it takes is a smile (for some guys)

Does she or doesn't she . . .? Sexual cues are ambiguous, and confounding. We—especially men—often read them wrong. A new study hypothesizes that the men who get it wrong might be the ones that evolution has favored. "There are tons of studies showing that men think women are interested when they're not," says Williams College psychologist Carin Perilloux, who conducted the research with Judith A. Easton and David M. Buss of University of Texas at Austin. "Ours is the first to systematically examine individual differences." The findings will appear in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science. 

The research involved 96 male 103 female undergraduates, who were put through a "speed-meeting" exercise—talking for three minutes to each of five potential opposite-sex mates. Before the conversations, the participants rated themselves on their own attractiveness and were assessed for the level of their desire for a short-term sexual encounter. After each "meeting," they rated the partner on a number of measures, including physical attractiveness and sexual interest in the participant. The model had the advantage of testing the participants in multiple interactions. 

The results: Men looking for a quick hookup were more likely to overestimate the women's desire for them. Men who thought they were hot also thought the women were hot for them—but men who were actually attractive, by the women's ratings, did not make this mistake. The more attractive the woman was to the man, the more likely he was to overestimate her interest. And women tended to underestimate men's desire. 

A hopeless mess? Evolutionarily speaking, maybe not, say the psychologists. Over millennia, these errors may in fact have enhanced men's reproductive success. 

"There are two ways you can make an error as a man," says Perilloux. "Either you think, 'Oh, wow, that woman's really interested in me'—and it turns out she's not. There's some cost to that," such as embarrassment or a blow to your reputation. The other error: "She's interested, and he totally misses out. He misses out on a mating opportunity. That's a huge cost in terms of reproductive success." The researchers theorize that the kind of guy who went for it, even at the risk of being rebuffed, scored more often—and passed on his overperceiving tendency to his genetic heirs. The casual sex seekers "face slightly different adaptive problems," says Perilloux. "They are limited mainly by the number of consenting sex partners—so overestimation is even more important." Only the actually attractive men probably had no need for misperception. 

The research contains some messages for daters of both sexes, says Perilloux: Women should know the risks and "be as communicative and clear as possible." Men: "Know that the more attracted you are, the more likely you are to be wrong about her interest." Again, that may not be as bad as it sounds, she says—"if warning them will prevent heartache later on." 

Source: Association for Psychological Science [December 13, 2011]

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Study shows Mediterranean diet improves sexual health in men

The Mediterranean diet has been in the headlines recently because a new study published on ‘Journal of Sexual Medicine’ shows that the diet is beneficial to help avoid strokes. 

Recognized for its ability to help improve heart health, the Mediterranean Diet also can help kick-start a flagging libido in men with metabolic syndrome. 

While studies show that the Mediterranean Diet can help overcome erectile dysfunction (ED), or impotence in men with metabolic syndrome, the Mediterranean Diet is a healthful diet for men with and without metabolic syndrome, and with or without sexual dysfunction. 

For men with metabolic syndrome, about 400,000 Greek men, the diet helps to overcome erectile dysfunction (ED), or impotence. 

In fact, studies show that many of these men with ED cure their problem after following a Mediterranean-style diet, combined with exercise. 

Source: Greek Reporter [December 01, 2011]

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Study debunks stereotype that men think about sex all day long

Men may think about sex more often than women do, but a new study suggests that men also think about other biological needs, such as eating and sleep, more frequently than women do, as well. 

And the research discredits the persistent stereotype that men think about sex every seven seconds, which would amount to more than 8,000 thoughts about sex in 16 waking hours. In the study, the median number of young men's thought about sex stood at almost 19 times per day. Young women in the study reported a median of nearly 10 thoughts about sex per day. 

As a group, the men also thought about food almost 18 times per day and sleep almost 11 times per day, compared to women's median number of thoughts about eating and sleep, at nearly 15 times and about 8 1/2 times, respectively. 

The college-student participants carried a golf tally counter to track their thoughts about either eating, sleep or sex every day for a week. Each student was assigned to just one type of thought to record. Before receiving the tally counter, they had completed a number of questionnaires and were asked to estimate how often they had daily thoughts about eating, sleeping and sex. 

Overall, a participant's comfort with sexuality was the best predictor for which person would have the most frequent daily thoughts about sex. 

"If you had to know one thing about a person to best predict how often they would be thinking about sex, you'd be better off knowing their emotional orientation toward sexuality, as opposed to knowing whether they were male or female," said Terri Fisher, professor of psychology at Ohio State University's Mansfield campus and lead author of the study. "Frequency of thinking about sex is related to variables beyond one's biological sex." 

Correcting this stereotype about men's sexual thoughts is important, Fisher noted. 

"It's amazing the way people will spout off these fake statistics that men think about sex nearly constantly and so much more often than women do," she said. "When a man hears a statement like that, he might think there's something wrong with him because he's not spending that much time thinking about sexuality, and when women hear about this, if they spend significant time thinking about sex they might think there's something wrong with them." 

The study appears online and is scheduled for publication in the January issue of the Journal of Sex Research. 

The study involved 163 female and 120 male college students between the ages of 18 and 25 who were enrolled in a psychology research participation program. Of those, 59 were randomly assigned to track thoughts about food, 61 about sleep and 163 about sex. Most students were white and self-identified as heterosexual. The college-student sample made it comparable to previous research and involved an age group at which gender differences in sexuality are likely at their peak. 

Before the thought-tracking began, the participants completed a number of questionnaires. These included a sexual opinion survey to measure a positive or negative emotional orientation toward sexuality (erotophilia vs. erotophobia); a sociosexual orientation inventory measuring attitudes about sex and tracking sexual behavior and levels of desire; a social desirability scale to measure respondents' tendency to try to appear socially acceptable; and an eating habits questionnaire and sleepiness scale. They also were asked to estimate how many times in an average day that they thought about sleeping, eating and sex. 

Researchers then gave each student a tally counter device and told those assigned to the sexual thoughts condition to click the device to maintain a count their of thoughts about sex. They were told to count a thought about any aspect of sex: sexual activity of any kind, fantasies and erotic images, sexual memories and any arousing stimuli. 

Others were instructed to use the device to record thoughts about eating that included food, hunger, cravings, snacking or cooking, and thoughts about sleep that included dreaming, sleeping, napping, going to bed or needing rest. 

The questions about food and sleep were designed to mask the true intent of the study's focus on thoughts about sex, Fisher said. However, the results about these additional thoughts provided important information about differences in thinking among males and females. 

"Since we looked at those other types of need-related thoughts, we found that it appears that there's not just a sex difference with regard to thoughts about sex, but also with regard to thoughts about sleep and food," she said. "That's very significant. This suggests males might be having more of these thoughts than women are or they have an easier time identifying the thoughts. It's difficult to know, but what is clear is it's not uniquely sex that they're spending more time thinking about, but other issues related to their biological needs, as well." 

And when all of those thoughts were taken into account in the statistical analysis, the difference between men and women in their average number of daily thoughts about sex wasn't considered any larger than the gender differences between thoughts about sleep or thoughts about food. 

In raw numbers, male participants recorded between one and 388 daily thoughts about sex, compared to the range of female thoughts about sex of between one and 140 times per day. 

"For women, that's a broader range than many people would have expected. And there were no women who reported zero thoughts per day. So women are also thinking about sexuality," Fisher said. 

The questionnaire data offered some additional clues about the influences on sexual thoughts. When all participants were analyzed together, those measuring the highest in erotophilia – or comfort with their sexuality – were the most likely to think more frequently about sex. 

But when the analysis considered males and females separately, no single variable – erotophilia score, unrestrictive attitudes about sex or a lack of desire to be socially acceptable – could be defined as a predictor of how often men think about sex. 

But for women, the erotophilia score remained a good predictor of more frequent sexual thoughts. On the other hand, women who scored high on the desire to be socially acceptable were more likely to think less frequently about sex. 

"People who always give socially desirable responses to questions are perhaps holding back and trying to manage the impression they make on others," Fisher explained. "In this case, we're seeing that women who are more concerned with the impression they're making tend to report fewer sexual thoughts, and that's because thinking about sexuality is not consistent with typical expectations for women." 

The participants' estimates about how often they thought each day about eating, sleeping and sex were all much lower than the actual number of thoughts they recorded. This suggested to Fisher that previous research in this area – especially on thoughts about sex – was weak because almost all previous studies were based on participants' retrospective estimates about how often they thought about sex. 

"There's really no good reason that our society should have believed that men are thinking so much more about sex than women. Even the research that had been done previously doesn't support the stereotype that men are thinking about sex every seven seconds," she said. 

Fisher conducted the research with undergraduate Ohio State-Mansfield students Zachary Moore and Mary-Jo Pittenger. Both have since graduated. 

Source: Ohio State University [November 28, 2011]

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Adolescent sex linked to adult body, mood troubles... in hampsters

A new study suggests that sex during adolescence can have lasting negative effects on the body and mood well into adulthood, most likely because the activity occurs when the nervous system is still developing. 

While the research used laboratory animals, the findings provide information that may be applicable to understanding human sexual development. 

Researchers paired adult female hamsters with male hamsters when the males were 40 days old, the equivalent of a human's mid-adolescence. They found that these male animals with an early-life sexual experience later showed more signs of depressive-like behaviors as well as lower body mass, smaller reproductive tissues and changes to cells in the brain than did hamsters that were first exposed to sex later in life or to no sex at all. 

Among the cell changes observed in the animals that had sex during adolescence were higher levels of expression of a gene associated with inflammation in their brain tissue and less complex cellular structures in key signaling areas of the brain. 

They also showed signs of a stronger immune response to a sensitivity test, suggesting their immune systems were in a heightened state of readiness even without the presence of infection – a potential sign of an autoimmune problem. 

The combination of physiologic responses in adulthood don't necessarily cause harm, but do suggest that sexual activity during the nervous system's development might be interpreted by the body as a stressor, researchers say. 

"Having a sexual experience during this time point, early in life, is not without consequence," said John Morris, a co-author of the study and a doctoral student in psychology at Ohio State University. "It could be affecting males' susceptibility to symptoms of depression, and could also expose males to some increase in inflammation in adulthood." 

Morris presented the research Tuesday (11/15) at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Washington, D.C. He conducted the study with Zachary Weil, research assistant professor, and Randy Nelson, professor and chair, both from Ohio State's Department of Neuroscience. 

Previous research has most often examined the effects of adolescent sex on young women, and for ethical reasons must be done in humans as retrospective explorations of behavior. The Ohio State scientists used hamsters, which have physiologic similarities to humans, to learn specifically how the body responds to sexual activity early in life. 

"There is a time in nervous system development when things are changing very rapidly, and part of those changes are preparations for adult reproductive behaviors and physiology," Weil said. "There is a possibility that environmental experiences and signals could have amplified effects if they occur before the nervous system has settled down into adulthood." 

The scientists worked with five groups of male hamsters: two groups that had sex at age 40 days and were assessed at 40 days and 80 days after exposure to sex, two groups that had adult sex at age 80 days and were assessed at the same time intervals, and hamsters that had no sexual experience. Male hamsters reach puberty at age 21 days. 

The researchers placed the adolescent and adult males in environments with in-heat female hamsters for six hours and recorded their encounters to ensure that sexual activity occurred. 

The animals were subjected to a variety of tests when they all had reached adulthood. They were placed in mazes with options to explore open areas or hide in isolation; those that chose not to explore were showing signs of anxiety. Animals placed in water showed signs of depressive-like behavior if they stopped swimming vigorously. 

"Both groups of sexually active hamsters showed an increase in anxiety-like behavior compared to the control group, but the increase in a depressive-like response was specific to the adolescent sexually paired group," Morris said. 

A test of immune system sensitivity suggested that the hamsters with adolescent sexual experiences were at risk for excess inflammation as part of an enhanced immune response. In addition, these same hamsters had higher levels of a pro-inflammatory cytokine called interleukin-1, or IL-1, in their brain tissue than did the other hamsters. IL-1 is one of several chemical messengers that cause inflammation, most often to fight infection or repair injury; when it circulates without an infection to fight, the body experiences excess inflammation. 

This elevated gene expression was seen in areas of the brain known not to reach maturity until well into adulthood – including the amygdala, prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and striatum. In some of these same areas of the brain, animals with adolescent sexual experience also showed less complexity in the dendrites, the branching segments from nerve cells that house the synapses, which carry signals to the brain from the rest of the body. 

Without further research, the scientists don't know exactly what these brain differences mean. But because they are seen most prominently in the animals that were exposed to sex in adolescence, the scientists say, there is a clear association with that activity. "Sex is doing something physiological that these cells are interpreting and responding to with shorter dendrites," Weil said. 

Finally, the hamsters that had adolescent sex had a smaller total body mass as well as a decrease in accessory reproductive tissue, including the seminal vesicles, vas deferens and epididymis, as adults. 

"This suggests to us that maybe this process is causing the animals to have a maladaptive response reproductively, as well," Morris said. 

Source: Ohio State University [November 15, 2011]

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Both sexism and racism are similar mental processes

Prejudiced attitudes are based on generalised suppositions about certain social groups and could well be a personality trait. Researchers at the University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU) have confirmed the link between two types of discriminatory behaviour: sexism and racism. They also advise of the need for education in encouraging equality. 

According to researchers at the UPV-EHU, encouraging equality and decreasing prejudices would have a positive effect in preventing violence in general [Credit: LUIS DEMANO/SINC]

Maite Garaigordobil, professor of Psychological Testing at the UPV, is the co-author of this study which explores the link that sexism has with racism and other variables. She explains that "people who are highly sexist, whether they be hostile (seeing women as the inferior sex) or benevolent (believing that women are the weaker sex and need to be protected and cared for), also have racist tendencies". 

The results of the study show that both processes are closely related and that they are likely to be based on more general beliefs about relationships between different social groups. Garaigordobil states that "the results even suggest that such prejudiced attitudes could be a personality trait." 

"Sexism is linked to authoritarianism and a leaning towards social dominance," explains the author. "In other words, sexist people accept hierarchies and social inequality, they believe that different social groups have a status that they deserve and they feel that the social class to which they belong is the best." 

During the study it was also confirmed that sexism is related to low intercultural sensitivity. Sexist people show low levels of involvement when it comes to interacting with immigrants. The also present low levels of respect for differences, confidence towards immigrants and desire to interact with them. 

The need for education policies 

A sample population of 802 participants from the Basque Country between 18 and 65 years of age was used to carry out the study. Its main objective was to determine the relationship between sexism and self-image, racism and intercultural sensitivity. Therefore, Garaigordobil and Jone Aliri, also a researcher at the UPV, proposed different tests, the results of which were later interpreted using correlational methodology. 

The authors highlighted the importance and need for psychoeducation during infancy and adolescence as a way of encouraging equality among both sexes and respect for others. Garaigordobil explains that "one of the variables that foretells sexism is prejudice. This implies that psychological intervention to reduce prejudice in general would help in reducing sexism." 

She goes on to add that "sexism is one of the main beliefs that keeps gender inequality alive and if we bear in mind the close connection between sexism and domestic violence, encouraging equality and reducing prejudice will have a positive affect on preventing violence in general." 

Low self-esteem is not linked to higher levels of sexism 

The study indicates that there is hardly relationship between low self-esteem and sexism, which goes against the authors' initial hypotheses. "Given the important role that self-esteem plays in interpersonal relationships, we were hoping to find a negative correlation, or rather, the lower the self-image, the higher the level of sexism." 

It has been confirmed in previous studies that low self-esteem can bring about negative interpersonal relationships such as domination or aggressiveness. Despite this however, Garaigordobil insists that "this new data points to the fact that there is hardly a relationship between these two variables and that when there is, it is found only in men and is not very strong." 

However, sexism does indeed have an influence on how people see themselves. "Men with higher levels of hostile sexism describe themselves using adjectives associated with masculinity, i.e. physically strong, brave, sure of themselves, determined, admirable, etc" says Garaigordobil. "Women who display hostile sexism described themselves using characteristics that go against femininity such as not very cooperative, not very tolerant, not very compassionate and not very sensitive or sentimental." 

In addition, men who scored highly in benevolent sexism described themselves using adjectives associated with femininity (warm, friendly, good…). This was also the case for women who displayed benevolent sexism. 

With regards to sexism and its link to self-perception, we must bear in mind that it does not affect men and women in the same way. Garaigordobil states that "whilst sexism allows men to continue in a position of superiority, it stops women from developing their full potential." This means that the relationship between these two constructs is different for both sexes.  

Source: FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology [November 08, 2011]

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First-time divorce rate tied to education, race

New research from the National Center for Family and Marriage Research (NCFMR) at Bowling Green State University shows there is  substantial variation in the first-time divorce rate when it is broken down by race and education. But, there is also evidence that a college degree has a protective effect against divorce among all races. 

The data for the family profile, “First Divorce Rate, 2010” were gathered by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2010. At that time, the rate of first divorce in the U.S. was 17.5 per 1,000 women 18 years old and older in a first marriage. According to the research, recent declines in the probability of divorce largely reflect an increase in marital stability among the more educated. 

Among women in a first marriage, the rate of first divorce is highest for those who received some education after high school, but have not earned a bachelor’s degree — 23 per 1,000. The association between education and divorce is also curvilinear. The least (no high school diploma or GED) and the highest (college degree) educated women share the lowest rate of first divorce, with 14.4 and 14.2 per 1,000, respectively. 

Broken down by race and ethnicity, the study found Asian women have the lowest first divorce rate at 10 divorces per 1,000 women in a first marriage. The first divorce rates of white and Hispanic women were similar at 16.3 and 18.1, respectively. African-American women have substantially higher rates of first divorce compared to all other racial and ethnic groups, at 30.4 divorces per 1,000 women in a first marriage. 

Once education was factored in, the NCFMR found, with the exception of Asians, the highest rate of first divorce was among women with some college, regardless of race or ethnicity. 

“Contrary to the notion that women with a college degree face the lowest chances of divorce, those without a high school degree actually have similar low odds of divorce,” explained Dr. Susan Brown, NCFMR co-director. “The relationship between education and divorce is not straightforward.” 

However, according to co-director Dr. Wendy Manning, these patterns are consistent with patterns they are finding in other national data sources.   

The association between education and the first-divorce rate held up even when race was factored in. Among African-Americans, Asians and Hispanics, women with less than a high school degree had a similar divorce rate to women who graduated from college. Among African-American and Hispanic women, the lowest first-divorce rates were found among women with less than a high school diploma.   

“Among white women, there were few differences according to education, but those with a college degree experienced lower divorce rates than any other education group,” Manning said. “These findings showcase that the association between education and divorce differs for racial and ethnic groups, and it is important to consider this variation.” 

This project was supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. For additional details about the study, click here. 

The NCFMR is the only federally supported family and marriage research center in the nation. It is a university-based, multidisciplinary, nonpartisan center whose mission is to conduct policy-relevant research on American families with the goal of improving our understanding of how families affect the health and well-being of children, adults, and communities; train and mentor the next generation of family researchers, and disseminate research findings to broad, national audiences, including policymakers and practitioners. 

Source: Bowling Green State University [November 03, 2011]

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The new old age – today's pensioners are very different to yesterday's

Old people today have more sex, are more likely to be divorced, are cleverer and feel better, reveals a long-term research project comparing what it is like to be old today with 30 years ago. "It's time to start talking about the 'new old age'," says researcher Ingmar Skoog. 

The number of elderly is rising worldwide, and it is estimated that average life expectancy in Europe will reach 100 by the end of the century. 

At the same time, old age and what we expect from it are changing. An extensive research project at the University of Gothenburg's Sahlgrenska Academy has spent a number of years comparing the elderly of the 1970s with those of today. The project, known as the H70 study, reveals that old age has changed drastically in a number of ways. 

For example, the proportion of elderly with schooling beyond secondary level has risen from 14% to almost 40% for both genders. This is reflected in a better performance in intelligence tests by today's 70-year-olds than their counterparts back in the 1970s. 

The proportion of married people has increased, as has the proportion of divorcees. The elderly are also now more sexually active, and the number with sexual problems such as impotence has fallen. 

The results of the long-term study can also be contradictory, not least when it comes to social networking: 

"The H70 study shows that the elderly are more outgoing today than they were in the 1970s – they talk more to their neighbours, for example – yet the percentage of elderly who feel lonely has increased significantly," says professor Ingmar Skoog from the University of Gothenburg's Sahlgrenska Academy, who leads the study. 

Old people's mental health does not seem to have changed, however. Dementia disorders are no more prevalent today than they were 30 years ago, and while more old people consider themselves to be mildly depressed, more severe forms of depression have not become more common. Meanwhile the elderly are coping better with everyday life: the number needing help with cleaning has fallen from 25% to 12%, and only 4% need help taking a bath, down from 14% in the 1970s. 

"Our conclusion is that pensioners are generally healthier and perkier today than they were 30 years ago," says Skoog. "This may be of interest both in the debate about where to set the retirement age and in terms of the baby boomers now hitting retirement age." 

The H70 study in Gothenburg began back in 1971. More than 1,000 70-year-old men and women born in 1901-02 were examined by doctors and interviewed about their lives to obtain a picture of diseases in elderly populations, risk factors and their functional capacity and social networks. The participants were examined again at the age of 75 and then at regular intervals until the final participant died at the age of 105. The year 2000 brought the start of a new study of 70-year-olds born in 1930, who were examined using the same methods, making it possible to follow a specific generation through life and compare different generations.  

Source: University of Gothenburg [October 31, 2011]

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Not your mother's birth control, same troubles

Today's hormonal forms of birth control are vastly different from those used by earlier generations of women, both with lower levels of hormones and with different means of delivery (not just a pill), but many of the same problems related to women's pleasure remain. 

An Indiana University study that examined how newer forms of hormonal contraception affect things such as arousal, lubrication and orgasm, found that they could still hamper important aspects of sexuality despite the family planning benefits and convenience. 

"Contraception in general is a wonderful way for women to plan their families," said lead researcher Nicole Smith, project coordinator at IU's Center for Sexual Health Promotion. "It's something women are often on for as many as 30 years or more; it plays a huge part in their life. If they're experiencing these negative effects, they might stop using contraception correctly or altogether. They need to know that there are options, such as lubricants or other sexual enhancement products that may help to alleviate some of the negative effects they are experiencing. 

"Women should also be counseled on the many highly effective forms of birth control currently available; switching to another method might work better for them," she said. 

Smith is discussing her study at the American Public Health Association’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C. 

The study involved 1,101 sexually active women split almost evenly between those using a hormonal form of contraception such as the pill, patch, ring or shot, and those women using a non-hormonal form, such as a condom, diaphragm, cervical cap or withdrawal. The study, based on data collected by the Kinsey Institute's Women's Well-being study, which used an online questionnaire, found that the women reported similar levels of sexual satisfaction, which included things such as intimacy and romance, but the women using hormonal contraception experienced less arousal, fewer orgasms, difficulties with lubrication, decreased pleasure and less frequent sex. 

"A great effort has been made to make condoms more pleasurable for men," Smith said. "But you don't hear about this same effort going toward reducing the negative impact of contraception on women's sexual functioning. It's just not part of the discussion." 

Researchers have examined the relationship between hormonal forms of contraception and sexual functioning but, Smith said, few studies have been conducted since the 1980s. Previous findings were inconclusive and focused on women in Europe. Her study, conducted with colleagues from CSHP and the Kinsey Institute, provides updated findings and also important information for clinicians to use when helping women with their birth control needs. Having worked for a family planning program, Smith said it is common for women to talk about negative side effects such as these with their health care provider. 

Smith said she is very interested in seeing whether women's contraception choices change when components of the federal Affordable Care Act are implemented next year, making preventive care features such as contraception free for women with insurance. This will make the more expensive, longer-acting forms of contraception available to more women, Smith said. 

Smith, a doctoral student in the Department of Applied Health Science in IU's School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, is presenting her study on Monday, Oct. 31, at 2:30 p.m. during a poster presentation at the Wasington Convention Center. Co-authors are Kristen N. Jozkowski, College of Education and Health Professions at the University of Arkansas; and Stephanie A. Sanders, IU's Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction, and the Department of Gender Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences.  

Source: Indiana University [October 31, 2011]

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