Body Composition of Young Laborers: The Results of a Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis

The aim of this study was to determine the changes caused by physical stress on the body composition of young males. In order to show these changes, the study was performed with 104 young male laborers who worked through their adolescence and who were currently working in workshops in the industrial sector (Group 1, mean age 18.48±0.61 years). For the control group, two groups of the same age but having a difference in terms of socioeconomic status were chosen. The first one of these was comprised of individuals who had the same socioeconomic status as the laborers (Group 2, n=102, mean age 18.39±0.58 years) but were not laborers. The second control group was composed of individuals from the higher socioeconomic levels of society (Group 3, n=103, mean age 18.43±0.67). Measurements of the height of the individuals were taken with a standard portable anthropometer, and their body weight and BIA measurements were taken with Tanita TBF-305 leg-to-leg body composition analysis equipment. The results of the analysis show that the weight, height, BMI and fat mass values of the laborers were significantly lower (P < 0.05–0.001) than those of Group 3, but were not statistically different from those of Group 2. These findings reveal that the effects of socioeconomic conditions on body composition outweigh those of working conditions

Conservatism Negatively Predicts Creativity: A Study Across 28 Countries

Previous studies have found a negative relationship between creativity and conservatism. However, as these studies were mostly conducted on samples of homogeneous nationality, the generalizability of the effect across different cultures is unknown. We addressed this gap by conducting a study in 28 countries. Based on the notion that attitudes can be shaped by both environmental and ecological factors, we hypothesized that parasite stress can also affect creativity and thus, its potential effects should be controlled for. The results of multilevel analyses showed that, as expected, conservatism was a significant predictor of lower creativity, adjusting for economic status, age, sex, education level, subjective susceptibility to disease, and country-level parasite stress. In addition, most of the variability in creativity was due to individual rather than country-level variance. Our study provides evidence for a weak but significant negative link between conservatism and creativity at the individual level (β = −0.08, p < .001) and no such effect when country-level conservatism was considered. We present our hypotheses considering previous findings on the behavioral immune system in humans

Exploring Attitudes Toward “Sugar Relationships” Across 87 Countries: A Global Perspective on Exchanges of Resources for Sex and Companionship

The current study investigates attitudes toward one form of sex for resources: the so-called sugar relationships, which often involve exchanges of resources for sex and/or companionship. The present study examined associations among attitudes toward sugar relationships and relevant variables (e.g., sex, sociosexuality, gender inequality, parasitic exposure) in 69,924 participants across 87 countries. Two self-report measures of Acceptance of Sugar Relationships (ASR) developed for younger companion providers (ASR-YWMS) and older resource providers (ASR-OMWS) were translated into 37 languages. We tested cross-sex and cross-linguistic construct equivalence, cross-cultural invariance in sex differences, and the importance of the hypothetical predictors of ASR. Both measures showed adequate psychometric properties in all languages (except the Persian version of ASR-YWMS). Results partially supported our hypotheses and were consistent with previous theoretical considerations and empirical evidence on human mating. For example, at the individual level, sociosexual orientation, traditional gender roles, and pathogen prevalence were significant predictors of both ASR-YWMS and ASR-OMWS. At the country level, gender inequality and parasite stress positively predicted the ASR-YWMS. However, being a woman negatively predicted the ASR-OMWS, but positively predicted the ASR-YWMS. At country-level, ingroup favoritism and parasite stress positively predicted the ASR-OMWS. Furthermore, significant cross-subregional differences were found in the openness to sugar relationships (both ASR-YWMS and ASR-OMWS scores) across subregions. Finally, significant differences were found between ASR-YWMS and ASR-OMWS when compared in each subregion. The ASR-YWMS was significantly higher than the ASR-OMWS in all subregions, except for Northern Africa and Western Asia

Predictors of Enhancing Human Physical Attractiveness: Data from 93 Countries

People across the world and throughout history have gone to great lengths to enhance their physical appearance. Evolutionary psychologists and ethologists have largely attempted to explain this phenomenon via mating preferences and strategies. Here, we test one of the most popular evolutionary hypotheses for beauty-enhancing behaviors, drawn from mating market and parasite stress perspectives, in a large cross-cultural sample. We also test hypotheses drawn from other influential and non-mutually exclusive theoretical frameworks, from biosocial role theory to a cultural media perspective. Survey data from 93,158 human participants across 93 countries provide evidence that behaviors such as applying makeup or using other cosmetics, hair grooming, clothing style, caring for body hygiene, and exercising or following a specific diet for the specific purpose of improving ones physical attractiveness, are universal. Indeed, 99% of participants reported spending \u3e10 min a day performing beauty-enhancing behaviors. The results largely support evolutionary hypotheses: more time was spent enhancing beauty by women (almost 4 h a day, on average) than by men (3.6 h a day), by the youngest participants (and contrary to predictions, also the oldest), by those with a relatively more severe history of infectious diseases, and by participants currently dating compared to those in established relationships. The strongest predictor of attractiveness-enhancing behaviors was social media usage. Other predictors, in order of effect size, included adhering to traditional gender roles, residing in countries with less gender equality, considering oneself as highly attractive or, conversely, highly unattractive, TV watching time, higher socioeconomic status, right-wing political beliefs, a lower level of education, and personal individualistic attitudes. This study provides novel insight into universal beauty-enhancing behaviors by unifying evolutionary theory with several other complementary perspectives

Reasons for facebook usage: Data from 46 countries

Seventy-nine percent of internet users use Facebook, and on average they access Facebook eight times a day (Greenwood et al., 2016). To put these numbers into perspective, according to Clement (2019), around 30% of the world\u2019s population uses this Online Social Network (OSN) site. Despite the constantly growing body of academic research on Facebook (Chou et al., 2009; Back et al., 2010; Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010; McAndrew and Jeong, 2012; Wilson et al., 2012; Krasnova et al., 2017), there remains limited research regarding the motivation behind Facebook use across different cultures. Our main goal was to collect data from a large cross-cultural sample of Facebook users to examine the roles of sex, age, and, most importantly, cultural differences underlying Facebook use

Affective interpersonal touch in close relationships: a cross-cultural perspective

Interpersonal touch behavior differs across cultures, yet no study to date has systematically tested for cultural variation in affective touch, nor examined the factors that might account for this variability. Here, over 14,000 individuals from 45 countries were asked whether they embraced, stroked, kissed, or hugged their partner, friends, and youngest child during the week preceding the study. We then examined a range of hypothesized individual-level factors (sex, age, parasitic history, conservatism, religiosity, and preferred interpersonal distance) and cultural-level factors (regional temperature, parasite stress, regional conservatism, collectivism, and religiosity) in predicting these affective-touching behaviors. Our results indicate that affective touch was most prevalent in relationships with partners and children, and its diversity was relatively higher in warmer, less conservative, and religious countries, and among younger, female, and liberal people. This research allows for a broad and integrated view of the bases of cross-cultural variability in affective touch

Sex differences in mate preferences across 45 countries: A large-scale replication

Considerable research has examined human mate preferences across cultures, finding universal sex differences in preferences for attractiveness and resources as well as sources of systematic cultural variation. Two competing perspectives—an evolutionary psychological perspective and a biosocial role perspective—offer alternative explanations for these findings. However, the original data on which each perspective relies are decades old, and the literature is fraught with conflicting methods, analyses, results, and conclusions. Using a new 45-country sample (N = 14,399), we attempted to replicate classic studies and test both the evolutionary and biosocial role perspectives. Support for universal sex differences in preferences remains robust: Men, more than women, prefer attractive, young mates, and women, more than men, prefer older mates with financial prospects. Cross-culturally, both sexes have mates closer to their own ages as gender equality increases. Beyond age of partner, neither pathogen prevalence nor gender equality robustly predicted sex differences or preferences across countries

Resuloğlu Erken Tunç Çağı topluluğunda ağız ve diş sağlığı

&Ccedil;ene ve dişlerin incelenmesi, ge&ccedil;miş toplumların beslenme, besin hazırlama teknikleri, yaşam bi&ccedil;imi ve k&uuml;lt&uuml;rel pratikleri hakkında bilgiler i&ccedil;ermesi nedeniyle &ouml;nemlidir. Bu noktadan hareketle &ccedil;alışmada &ouml;ncelikle Resuloğlu Erken Tun&ccedil; &Ccedil;ağı (ET&Ccedil; III) topluluğunun ağız ve diş sağlığının genel &ouml;zelliklerinin ortaya konulması ama&ccedil;lanmıştır. Buna ek olarak, Resuloğlu topluluğuna ilişkin ağız ve diş sağlığı bulguları Anadolu&rsquo;da yaşamış diğer iskelet serileriyle karşılaştırılarak, incelenen topluluğun beslenme pratikleri ve sağlık yapıları, d&ouml;nemin koşulları da dikkate alınarak, aydınlatılmaya &ccedil;alışılmıştır. Araştırmanın materyalini, &Ccedil;orum ilinin Uğurludağ il&ccedil;esinde yer alan Resuloğlu mezarlık kazısında 2003&ndash;2007 yılları arasında g&uuml;n ışığına &ccedil;ıkartılan iskeletlerin daimi dişleri, &ccedil;eneleri ya da &ccedil;ene par&ccedil;aları oluşturmaktadır. &Ccedil;alışma kapsamında 1229 daimi diş odontolojik ve stomatolojik a&ccedil;ıdan incelenmiştir. Bu dişlerin 1144 tanesi gen&ccedil; erişkin, erişkin ya da ileri yaşlardaki 80 bireye aittir. Geriye kalan 85 diş ise izole grubunda yer almaktadır. Dişler hem tek tek diş tipleri (I1, I2, C, P1, P2, M1, M2, M3) a&ccedil;ısından, hem diş grupları (kesiciler, kaninler, k&uuml;&ccedil;&uuml;k ve b&uuml;y&uuml;k azılar) baz alınarak, hem de &uuml;st ve alt &ccedil;enelerin karşılaştırılması şeklinde incelenmiştir. Analizler diş &ccedil;&uuml;r&uuml;ğ&uuml;, diş taşı (dental calculus), aşınma, apse, &ouml;l&uuml;m &ouml;ncesi (ante-mortem) diş kaybı (AMTL), mine hipoplazisi (enamel hypoplasia) ve alveol kemik kaybı dikkate alınarak yapılmıştır. Resuloğlu iskelet topluluğunda ağız ve diş sağlığının g&ouml;stergeleri olarak kabul edilen mine hipoplazisi y&uuml;zde 57,23, diş taşı y&uuml;zde 79,77, &ccedil;&uuml;r&uuml;k (d&uuml;zeltilmemiş) y&uuml;zde 3,74, apse y&uuml;zde 2,34, &ouml;l&uuml;m &ouml;ncesi diş kaybı (AMTL) y&uuml;zde 2,87, alveol kemik kaybı ise y&uuml;zde 97,31 oranında tespit edilmiştir. Diğer eski Anadolu topluluklarıyla karşılaştırıldığında Resuloğlu iskelet topluluğunun diş &ccedil;&uuml;r&uuml;ğ&uuml;, apse ve &ouml;l&uuml;m &ouml;ncesi diş kaybı değerleri a&ccedil;ısından diğer iskelet serilerine benzediğini, buna karşılık diş taşı ve alveol kemik kaybı a&ccedil;ısından onlardan daha y&uuml;ksek değerlere sahip olduğu g&ouml;zlenmiştir. Sonu&ccedil; olarak, Resuloğlu sakinlerinin ağız ve diş sağlığı a&ccedil;ısından hem yoğun tarım hem de erken tarım toplumu &ouml;zelliklerini birarada taşıdıkları s&ouml;ylenebilir