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

Self-Critiques of Audiotaped Therapy Sessions: A Motivational Procedure for Facilitating Feedback During Supervision.

Although supervision is an important mechanism for developing clinical competencies, trainees sometimes find it difficult to accept critical feedback. The procedure of using written self-critiques of audiotaped therapy sessions, based on motivational interviewing (MI) principles, was used to facilitate acceptance of feedback for doctoral clinical psychology students. MI techniques have been shown to decrease resistance and enhance motivation to change. The self-critiques were evaluated very positively by trainees as helping them accept critical feedback and allowing them to provide suggestions for their own clinical skill development. The use of self-critiques based on MI techniques is a promising adjunctive supervisory procedure that warrants additional evaluation

Comparison of the Quick Drinking Screen and the Alcohol Timeline Followback with Outpatient Alcohol Abusers

Objective: A recent study comparing the Quick Drinking Screen (QDS) with the Timeline Followback (TLFB) found that in a nonclinical population of problem drinkers both measures produced reliable summary measures of drinking. The current study was designed to replicate these findings with a clinical population of alcohol abusers. The data were collected over three years (2004-2006). Method: Participants were 124 alcohol abusers who voluntarily enrolled for outpatient treatment. Over half (52.4%) were female with an average age of almost 40 years. About a third were married, had completed university, and a quarter were unemployed and nonwhite. Participants reported having a drinking problem for an average of 8.3 years, and reported drinking on about 5 days per week, averaging six drinks per drinking day. On two different occasions, they responded to two different sets of questions about their alcohol use. The instruments were: (a) the Quick Drinking Screen (QDS), a summary drinking measure, administered by telephone prior to the assessment; and (2) the TLFB self-administered by computer at the assessment. Results: As in a previous study, this study found that the QDS and the TLFB, two very different drinking measures, collected similar aggregate drinking data for four drinking variables in a clinical sample of alcohol abusers. Conclusions: When it is not necessary or not possible to gather detailed drinking data, the QDS produces reliable brief summary measures of drinking for problem drinkers. Generalization to nonclinical samples awaits further research

Mutations in Grxcr1 Are The Basis for Inner Ear Dysfunction in the Pirouette Mouse

Recessive mutations at the mouse pirouette (pi) locus result in hearing loss and vestibular dysfunction due to neuroepithelial defects in the inner ear. Using a positional cloning strategy, we have identified mutations in the gene Grxcr1 (glutaredoxin cysteine-rich 1) in five independent allelic strains of pirouette mice. We also provide sequence data of GRXCR1 from humans with profound hearing loss suggesting that pirouette is a model for studying the mechanism of nonsyndromic deafness DFNB25. Grxcr1 encodes a 290 amino acid protein that contains a region of similarity to glutaredoxin proteins and a cysteine-rich region at its C terminus. Grxcr1 is expressed in sensory epithelia of the inner ear, and its encoded protein is localized along the length of stereocilia, the actin-filament-rich mechanosensory structures at the apical surface of auditory and vestibular hair cells. The precise architecture of hair cell stereocilia is essential for normal hearing. Loss of function of Grxcr1 in homozygous pirouette mice results in abnormally thin and slightly shortened stereocilia. When overexpressed in transfected cells, GRXCR1 localizes along the length of actin-filament-rich structures at the dorsal-apical surface and induces structures with greater actin filament content and/or increased lengths in a subset of cells. Our results suggest that deafness in pirouette mutants is associated with loss of GRXCR1 function in modulating actin cytoskeletal architecture in the developing stereocilia of sensory hair cells

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 >10 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