iPosture: The Size of Electronic Consumer Devices Affects our Behavior

We examined whether incidental body posture, prompted by working on electronic devices of different sizes, affects power-related behaviors. Grounded in research showing that adopting expansive body postures increases psychological power, we hypothesized that working on larger devices, which forces people to physically expand, causes users to behave more assertively. Participants were randomly assigned to interact with one of four electronic devices that varied in size: an iPod Touch, an iPad, a MacBook Pro (laptop computer), or an iMac (desktop computer). As hypothesized, compared to participants working on larger devices (e.g., an iMac), participants who worked on smaller devices (e.g., an iPad) behaved less assertively – waiting longer to interrupt an experimenter who had made them wait, or not interrupting at all

Gendered Races: Implications for Interracial Marriage, Leadership Selection, and Athletic Participation

Six studies explored the overlap between racial and gender stereotypes and the consequences of this overlap for interracial dating, leadership selection, and athletic participation. Two initial studies, utilizing explicit and implicit measures, captured the stereotype content of different racial groups: the Asian stereotype was seen as more feminine whereas the Black stereotype more masculine compared to the White stereotype. Study 3 found that preferences for masculinity versus femininity mediated White participants' attraction to Blacks relative to Asians. Analysis of the 2000 United States Census replicated this pattern with interracial marriages. In Study 5, Blacks were more likely and Asians less likely to be selected for a masculine leadership position compared to Whites. Study 6 analyzed the NCAA Student-Athlete Ethnicity Report and found Blacks were more heavily represented in masculine versus feminine sports relative to Asians. These studies demonstrate that the association between racial and gender stereotypes has important real-world consequences

Aid in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina: Inferences of Secondary Emotions and Intergroup Helping

This research examines inferences about the emotional states of ingroup and outgroup victims after a natural disaster, and whether these inferences predict intergroup helping. Two weeks after Hurricane Katrina struck the southern United States, White and non-White participants were asked to infer the emotional states of an individualized Black or White victim, and were asked to report their intentions to help such victims. Overall, participants believed that an outgroup victim experienced fewer secondary, ‘uniquely human’ emotions (e.g. anguish, mourning, remorse) than an ingroup victim. The extent to which participants did infer secondary emotions about outgroup victims, however, predicted their helping intentions; in other words, those participants who did not dehumanize outgroup victims were the individuals most likely to report intentions to volunteer for hurricane relief efforts. This investigation extends prior research by: (1) demonstrating infraglobalhumanization of individualized outgroup members (as opposed to aggregated outgroups); (2) examining infrahumanization via inferred emotional states (as opposed to attributions of emotions as stereotypic traits); and (3) identifying a relationship between infra-humanization of outgroup members and reduced intergroup helping

The Benefit of Power Posing Before a High-Stakes Social Evaluation

The current experiment tested whether changing one‘s nonverbal behavior prior to a high-stakes social evaluation could improve performance in the evaluated task. Participants adopted expansive, open (high-power) poses, or contractive, closed (low-power) poses, and then prepared and delivered a speech to two evaluators as part of a mock job interview, a prototypical social evaluation. All speeches were videotaped and coded for overall performance and hireability, and the potential mediators of speech quality (e.g., content, structure) and presentation quality (e.g., captivating, confident). As predicted, high power posers performed better and were more likely to be chosen for hire, and this relationship was mediated only by presentation quality, not speech quality. Power pose condition had no effect on body posture during the social evaluation, thus highlighting the relationship between preparatory nonverbal behavior and subsequent performance

Effects on Oxygen Consumption and Metabolic Gene Expression when Determining Experimental Exercise Intensity Based on Exercise Capacity Tests Conducted in Hypoxic and Normoxic Environments

Abstract: Exercise intensity can be set relative to VO2 max measured during hypoxic or control conditions in studies investigating exercise in hypoxic environments. It currently is not clear which is the most appropriate method. Objective: The objective of this brief report is to determine the response to 1 hour of cycling at 60% of peak power when measured in either normoxic or hypoxic conditions. Methods: Eleven recreationally active male participants (24 ± 4 yrs, 173 ± 20 cm, 82 ± 12 kg, 15.2 ± 7.1% fat, 4.0 ± 0.6 L x min-1 VO2 max) completed two 1 hour cycling exercise trials at 60% of peak power followed by 4 hours of recovery in ambient environmental conditions (975 m) and at normobaric hypoxic conditions simulating 3000 m in a randomized counter balanced order. Results: VO2 max was not different between trials in relative (p=0.272) or absolute terms (p=0.105) but peak power at VO2 max was higher in the 975 m trial (288 ± 17 watts) than the 3000 m trial (262 ± 12 watts, p=0.003) corresponding to differences at 60% of VO2 max power. Gene expression of HIF-1α, COX, PGC-1α, HK, and PFK increased with exercise (p\u3c0.05) but did not differ between trials. There was a trend (p=0.072) toward increased muscle glycogen use in 975m. Conclusions: Although there were not statistical differences for muscle markers in the current study, these data should be considered when determining exercise intensity in hypoxia related research

Ireland’s Ocean Economy: December 2010

This report provides a profile of Ireland’s ocean economy (turnover, employment, direct GVA) as well as providing valuable and quantifiable insights into the role of the ocean economy in regional and rural development, providing county by county data on turnover and employment related to the ocean economyThis work was funded through the Beaufort Marine Research Award, which is carried out under the Sea Change Strategy and the Strategy for Science Technology and Innovation (2006-2013), with the support of the Marine Institute, funded under the Marine Research Sub-Programme of the National Development Plan 2007–2013.Funder: Marine Institut

On wealth and the diversity of friendships: high social class people around the world have fewer international friends

Having international social ties carries many potential advantages, including access to novel ideas and greater commercial opportunities. Yet little is known about who forms more international friendships. Here, we propose social class plays a key role in determining people's internationalism. We conducted two studies to test whether social class is related positively to internationalism (the building social class hypothesis) or negatively to internationalism (the restricting social class hypothesis). In Study 1, we found that among individuals in the United States, social class was negatively related to percentage of friends on Facebook that are outside the United States. In Study 2, we extended these findings to the global level by analyzing country-level data on Facebook friends formed in 2011 (nearly 50 billion friendships) across 187 countries. We found that people from higher social class countries (as indexed by GDP per capita) had lower levels of internationalism—that is, they made more friendships domestically than abroad

Multiple connections between Amazonia and Atlantic Forest shaped the T phylogenetic and morphological diversity of Chiasmocleis Mehely, 1904 (Anura: Microhylidae: Gastrophryninae)

Chiasmocleis is the most species-rich genus of Neotropical microhylids. Herein, we provide the first comprehensive multilocus phylogeny for the genus, including all but 3 of the 34 recognized species and multiple individuals per species. We discuss cryptic speciation, species discovery, patterns of morphological evolution, and provide a historical biogeographic analysis to account for the current distribution of the genus. Diversification of Chiasmocleis from other New World microhylids began during the Eocene, app. 40 mya, in forested areas, and current diversity seems to be a product of recurrent connections between the Atlantic Forest and Amazonia. Small-sized species evolved independently three times in Chiasmocleis. Furthermore, the extremely small-bodied (i.e. miniaturized) species with associated loss of digits, phalanges, and pectoral girdle cartilages evolved only once and are restricted to Amazonia. Using the phylogeny, we recognized three subgenera within Chiasmocleis: Chiasmocleis Méhely, 1904, Relictus subg. nov., and Syncope Walker, 1973. The recognition of the subgenus Syncopeinforms future research on patterns of miniaturization in the genus, and the subgenus Relictus highlights isolation of an endemic and species-poor lineage to the Atlantic Forest, early (about 40 mya) in the history of Chiasmocleis