Passion and Compassion: Psychology of Kin Relations within and Beyond the Family

Family is special. People avoid sexual contact with close relatives, but at the same time are highly beneficent toward them. Such discriminatory behavior is guided by a set of psychological mechanisms, heuristics that facilitate evolutionarily adaptive behavior most of the time but may lead to overperception of kinship under specific circumstances. In this chapter, we describe psychological mechanisms of kin recognition in sexual and altruistic contexts, and we discuss the extent to which these mechanisms may influence close relationships between unrelated individuals, resulting in an experience of “psychological kinship.” We suggest that friendship may provide a context within which overinclusive kin recognition is especially likely to occur, especially among women. We also identify questions for future research, including when men might be especially prone to overperceiving kinship

The asymmetric behavioral homeostasis hypothesis: Unidirectional flexibility of fundamental motivational processes

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Superfluid transitions in bosonic atom-molecule mixtures near Feshbach resonance

We study bosonic atoms near a Feshbach resonance, and predict that in addition to a standard normal and atomic superfluid phases, this system generically exhibits a distinct phase of matter: a molecular superfluid, where molecules are superfluid while atoms are not. We explore zero- and finite-temperature properties of the molecular superfluid (a bosonic, strong-coupling analog of a BCS superconductor), and study quantum and classical phase transitions between the normal, molecular superfluid and atomic superfluid states.Comment: 4 revtex pages, 3 eps figures; submitted to PR

Female intrasexual competition is affected by the sexual orientation of the target and the ovulatory cycle

Research suggests that women use indirect aggression strategies to compete with same-sex peers and improve their mating prospects. One such tactic involves strategically transmitting reputation-damaging information as opposed to reputation-enhancing information, to lessen the appeal of sexual rivals. The present study further examined whether this strategic information transmission constitutes an intrasexual competition strategy, by comparing denigration of same-sex peers who constitute sexual competitors or noncompetitors as determined by their sexual orientation. This study also explored the impact of the ovulatory cycle on this strategy, following research suggesting that hormone fluctuation drives subtle behavioral changes near ovulation, amplifying other forms of intrasexual competition between women. Results indicated that among women identifying as straight, exposure to a same-sex peer who constituted a sexual rival (straight/bisexual target) led to greater transmission of reputation-damaging information relative to reputation-enhancing information, compared with exposure to a noncompetitor (lesbian target). The ovulatory cycle was foundto be associated with denigration, but this did not depend on the sexuality of the target. Participants in the estimated high-estrogen phase showed greater denigration overall than participants in the low-estrogen phase, regardless of the target's sexuality

Persistent misunderstandings of inclusive fitness and kin selection:Their ubiquitous appearance in social psychology textbooks

Inclusive fitness theory and kin selection theory are among the most recognizable theories associated with evolutionary biology and psychology—they are also among the most widely misunderstood. The problem begins early, in undergraduate psychology textbooks. Here, ten social psychology textbooks were reviewed, and they were all found to contain at least one form of misunderstanding. Because these misunderstandings appear to result partly from people's intuitions about kinship and adaptive behavior (which are not necessarily in line with the scientific theories), writers must be especially vigilant in order to combat the misunderstandings

Distinguishing byproducts from non-adaptive effects of algorithmic adaptations

I evaluate the use of the byproduct concept in psychology, particularly the adaptation-byproduct distinction that is commonly invoked in discussions of psychological phenomena. This distinction can be problematic when investigating algorithmic mechanisms and their effects, because although all byproducts may be functionless concomitants of adaptations, not all incidental effects of algorithmic adaptations are byproducts (although they have sometimes been labeled as such). I call attention to Sperber's (1994) distinction between proper domains and actual domains of algorithmic mechanisms. Extending Sperber's distinction, I propose the terms adaptive effects and non-adaptive effects, which more accurately capture the phenomena of interest to psychologists and prevent fruitless adaptation-versus-byproduct debates

Is obesity stigma based on perceptions of appearance or character? Theory, evidence, and directions for further study

Theoretical approaches to stigmatization have highlighted distinct psychological mechanisms underlying distinct instances of stigmatization. Some stigmas are based on inferences of substandard psychological character (e.g., individuals deemed untrustworthy), whereas others are based on perceptions of substandard physical appearance (e.g., individuals with physical deformities). These inferences and perceptions are associated with specific cognitive and motivational processes, which have implications for understanding specific instances of stigmatization. Recent theoretical approaches and empirical findings suggest that obesity stigma involves both inferences of substandard psychological character and perceptions of substandard physical appearance. We provide a review of the relevant evidence and discuss directions for future research