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Full-Text Articles in Psychology
Desire For Social Status Affects Marital And Reproductive Attitudes: A Life History Mismatch Perspective, Amy J. Lim, Norman P. Li, Zoi Manesi, Steven L. Neuberg, Mark Van Vugt, Andrea L. Meltzer, Kenneth Tan
Desire For Social Status Affects Marital And Reproductive Attitudes: A Life History Mismatch Perspective, Amy J. Lim, Norman P. Li, Zoi Manesi, Steven L. Neuberg, Mark Van Vugt, Andrea L. Meltzer, Kenneth Tan
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Modern low fertility is an unresolved paradox. Despite the tremendous financial growth and stability in modern societies, birth rates are steadily dropping. Almost half of the world's population lives in countries with below-replacement fertility and is projected for a continued decline. Drawing on life history theory and an evolutionary mismatch perspective, we propose that desire for social status (which is increasingly experienced by individuals in industrialized, modern societies) is a key factor affecting critical reproductive preferences. Across two experimental studies (total N = 719), we show that activating a desire for status can lead people to prefer reproductive tradeoffs that …
Sunshine On My Shoulders Makes Me Happy... Especially If I’M Less Intelligent: How Sunlight And Intelligence Affect Happiness In Modern Society, Satoshi Kanazawa, Norman P. Li, Jose C. Yong
Sunshine On My Shoulders Makes Me Happy... Especially If I’M Less Intelligent: How Sunlight And Intelligence Affect Happiness In Modern Society, Satoshi Kanazawa, Norman P. Li, Jose C. Yong
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
The savanna theory of happiness proposes that, due to evolutionary constraints on the human brain, situations and circumstances that would have increased our ancestors’ happiness may still increase our happiness today, and those that would have decreased their happiness then may still decrease ours today. It further proposes that, because general intelligence evolved to solve evolutionarily novel problems, this tendency may be stronger among less intelligent individuals. Because humans are a diurnal species that cannot see in the dark, darkness always represented danger to our ancestors and may still decrease our happiness today. Consistent with this prediction, the analysis of …
Factors That Promote Or Predict Infidelity, Bryan Kwok Cheng Choy, Norman P. Li
Factors That Promote Or Predict Infidelity, Bryan Kwok Cheng Choy, Norman P. Li
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Depending on the theoretical perspective taken (e.g., biological, evolutionary, relationships science, individual differences), different factors can promote or predict infidelity. While each factor may independently contribute to infidelity, it is likely that the occurrence of infidelity is contingent on a multitude of factors.
Noncompliance With Safety Guidelines As A Free-Riding Strategy: An Evolutionary Game-Theoretic Approach To Cooperation During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Jose C. Yong, Bryan K. C. Choy
Noncompliance With Safety Guidelines As A Free-Riding Strategy: An Evolutionary Game-Theoretic Approach To Cooperation During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Jose C. Yong, Bryan K. C. Choy
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Evolutionary game theory and public goods games offer an important framework to understand cooperation during pandemics. From this perspective, the COVID-19 situation can be conceptualized as a dilemma where people who neglect safety precautions act as free riders, because they get to enjoy the benefits of decreased health risk from others' compliance with policies despite not contributing to or even undermining public safety themselves. At the same time, humans appear to carry a suite of evolved psychological mechanisms aimed at curbing free riding in order to ensure the continued provision of public goods, which can be leveraged to develop more …
Evolutionary Psychology’S Next Challenge: Solving Modern Problems Using A Mismatch Perspective, Norman P. Li, Jose C. Yong, Mark Van Vugt
Evolutionary Psychology’S Next Challenge: Solving Modern Problems Using A Mismatch Perspective, Norman P. Li, Jose C. Yong, Mark Van Vugt
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
As acceptance of evolutionary perspectives in mainstream psychology grows, it becomes increasingly pertinent to ask what evolutionary psychology can do to solve real-world problems and better our lives. Answers to this important question will more than likely require an understanding and application of the evolutionary mismatch framework. This powerful framework suggests that many of our contemporary problems—ranging from diabetes and depression to low fertility and sustainability—stem from a mismatch between our evolved psychological mechanisms, which are designed to be adaptive in ancestral contexts, and modern environments, which present novel stimuli that these mechanisms are not well suited to handle. By …
Confidence Is Sexy And It Can Be Trained: Examining Male Social Confidence In Initial, Opposite-Sex Interactions, Norman P. Li, Jose C. Yong, Ming-Hong Tsai, Mark H. C. Lai, Amy J. Y. Lim, Joshua M. Ackerman
Confidence Is Sexy And It Can Be Trained: Examining Male Social Confidence In Initial, Opposite-Sex Interactions, Norman P. Li, Jose C. Yong, Ming-Hong Tsai, Mark H. C. Lai, Amy J. Y. Lim, Joshua M. Ackerman
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Objective: We investigated whether men's social confidence in an initial, opposite-sex chatting context can be improved through a video tutorial and the extent to which being perceived as socially confident results in being seen as more romantically desirable and worthy of future contact. Method: Women chatted with men who had received or not received a tutorial on how to handle speed-dating chats (Study 1: N = 129; Study 2: N = 60) or with male targets selected for having high versus moderate confidence in handling initial, opposite-sex encounters (Study 3: N = 46). Results: Tutorial-trained men felt more confident going …
Country Roads, Take Me Home ... To My Friends: How Intelligence, Population Density, And Friendship Affect Modern Happiness, Norman P. Li, Satoshi Kanazawa
Country Roads, Take Me Home ... To My Friends: How Intelligence, Population Density, And Friendship Affect Modern Happiness, Norman P. Li, Satoshi Kanazawa
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
We propose the savanna theory of happiness, which suggests that it is not only the current consequences of a given situation but also its ancestral consequences that affect individuals’ life satisfaction and explains why such influences of ancestral consequences might interact with intelligence. We choose two varied factors that characterize basic differences between ancestral and modern life – population density and frequency of socialization with friends – as empirical test cases. As predicted by the theory, population density is negatively, and frequency of socialization with friends is positively, associated with life satisfaction. More importantly, the main associations of life satisfaction …
Parasite Stress And Pathogen Avoidance Relate To Distinct Dimensions Of Political Ideology Across 30 Nations, J.M. Tybur, Y. Inbar, L. Aaroe, P. Barclay, F.K. Barlow, M. De Barra, D.V. Becker, L. Borovoi, I. Choi, J.A. Choi, N.S. Consedine, A. Conway, J.R. Conway, Li, Norman P., Jose C. Yong, D.E. Demirci, A.M. Fernandez, D.C.S. Ferreira, K. Ishii, I. Jaksic
Parasite Stress And Pathogen Avoidance Relate To Distinct Dimensions Of Political Ideology Across 30 Nations, J.M. Tybur, Y. Inbar, L. Aaroe, P. Barclay, F.K. Barlow, M. De Barra, D.V. Becker, L. Borovoi, I. Choi, J.A. Choi, N.S. Consedine, A. Conway, J.R. Conway, Li, Norman P., Jose C. Yong, D.E. Demirci, A.M. Fernandez, D.C.S. Ferreira, K. Ishii, I. Jaksic
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
People who are more avoidant of pathogens are more politically conservative, as are nations with greater parasite stress. In the current research, we test two prominent hypotheses that have been proposed as explanations for these relationships. The first, which is an intragroup account, holds that these relationships between pathogens and politics are based on motivations to adhere to local norms, which are sometimes shaped by cultural evolution to have pathogenneutralizing properties. The second, which is an intergroup account, holds that these same relationships are based on motivations to avoid contact with outgroups, who might pose greater infectious disease threats than …