721 research outputs found
Why did doctrinal religions first appear in the Northern Subtropical Zone?
Doctrinal religions that involve recognised gods, more formal theologies, moral codes, dedicated religious spaces and professional priesthoods emerged in two phases during the Neolithic. Almost all of these appeared in a narrow latitudinal band (the northern Subtropical Zone). I suggest that these developments were the result of a need to facilitate community bonding in response to scalar stresses that developed as community sizes increased dramatically beyond those typical of hunter-gatherer societies. Conditions for population growth (as indexed by rainfall patterns and the difference between pathogen load and the length of the growing season) were uniquely optimised in this zone, creating an environment of ecological release in which populations could grow unusually rapidly. The relationship between latitude, religion and language in contemporary societies suggests that the peculiar characteristics of the northern (but not the southern) Subtropical Zone were especially favourable for the evolution of large scale religions as a way of enforcing community cohesion
The ice-breaker effect: Singing mediates fast social bonding
It has been proposed that singing evolved to facilitate social cohesion. However, it remains unclear whether bonding arises out of properties intrinsic to singing or whether any social engagement can have a similar effect. Furthermore, previous research has used one-off singing sessions without exploring the emergence of social bonding over time. In this semi-naturalistic study, we followed newly formed singing and non-singing (crafts or creative writing) adult education classes over seven months. Participants rated their closeness to their group and their affect, and were given a proxy measure of endorphin release, before and after their class, at three timepoints (months 1, 3 and 7). We show that although singers and non-singers felt equally connected by timepoint 3, singers experienced much faster bonding: singers demonstrated a significantly greater increase in closeness at timepoint 1, but the more gradual increase shown by non-singers caught up over time. This represents the first evidence for an ‘ice-breaker effect’ of singing in promoting fast cohesion between unfamiliar individuals, which bypasses the need for personal knowledge of group members gained through prolonged interaction. We argue that singing may have evolved to quickly bond large human groups of relative strangers, potentially through encouraging willingness to coordinate by enhancing positive affect
Playing with strangers: Which shared traits attract us most to new people?
Homophily, the tendency for individuals to associate with those who are most similar to them, has been well documented. However, the influence of different kinds of similarity (e.g. relating to age, music taste, ethical views) in initial preferences for a stranger have not been compared. In the current study, we test for a relationship between sharing a variety of traits (i.e. having different kinds of similarity) with a stranger and the perceived likeability of that stranger. In two online experiments, participants were introduced to a series of virtual partners with whom they shared traits, and subsequently carried out activities designed to measure positivity directed towards those partners. Greater numbers of shared traits led to linearly increasing ratings of partner likeability and ratings on the Inclusion of Other in Self scale. We identified several consistent predictors of these two measures: shared taste in music, religion and ethical views. These kinds of trait are likely to be judged as correlates of personality or social group, and may therefore be used as proxies of more in-depth information about a person who might be socially more relevant
Lifehistory trade-offs influence women’s reproductive strategies
Objective:Â In a UK national census sample, women from the upper and lower socioeconomic (SES) classes achieve parity in completed family size, despite marked differences in both birth rates and offspring survival rates. We test the hypothesis that women adopt reproductive strategies that manipulate age at first reproduction to achieve this.
Methods:Â We use a Monte-Carlo modeling approach parameterized with current UK lifehistory data to simulate the reproductive lifehistories of 64,000 individuals from different SES classes, with parameter values at each successive time step drawn from a statistical distribution defined by the census data.
Results:Â We show that, if they are to achieve parity with women in the higher socioeconomic classes, women in lower socioeconomic classes must begin reproducing 5.65 years earlier on average than women in the higher SES classes in order to offset the higher class-specific mortality and infertility rates that they experience. The model predicts very closely the observed differences in age at first reproduction in the census data.
Conclusions:Â Opting to delay reproduction in order to purse an education-based professional career may be a high risk strategy that many lower SES women are unwilling and unable to pursue. As a result, reproducing as early as possible may be the best strategy available to them
Music and social bonding: 'Self-other' merging and neurohormonal mechanisms
It has been suggested that a key function of music during its development and spread amongst human populations was its capacity to create and strengthen social bonds amongst interacting group members. However, the mechanisms by which this occurs have not been fully discussed. In this paper we review evidence supporting two thus far independently investigated mechanisms for this social bonding effect: self-other merging as a consequence of inter-personal synchrony, and the release of endorphins during exertive rhythmic activities including musical interaction. In general, self-other merging has been experimentally investigated using dyads, which provide limited insight into large-scale musical activities. Given that music can provide an external rhythmic framework that facilitates synchrony, explanations of social bonding during group musical activities should include reference to endorphins, which are released during synchronised exertive movements. Endorphins (and the Endogenous Opioid System (EOS) in general) are involved in social bonding across primate species, and are associated with a number of human social behaviours (e.g. laughter, synchronised sports), as well as musical activities (e.g. singing and dancing). Furthermore, passively listening to music engages the EOS, so here we suggest that both self-other merging and the EOS are important in the social bonding effects of music. In order to investigate possible interactions between these two mechanisms, future experiments should recreate ecologically valid examples of musical activities
Activity in social media and intimacy in social relationships
We investigated associations between online and offline socialising and groups of social ties as postulated by the Social Brain Hypothesis (SBH). An online survey of social media use, social satisfaction and loneliness generated 249 complete responses from a sample of staff and students at the University of Manchester. Regression-based analyses showed that offline social activities and social time were positively associated with size of a core support group and social satisfaction. In contrast, social media time was positively associated with social satisfaction and the size of the total network, while the number of online contacts was positively related to social satisfaction, size of a wider sympathy group and total network size. No effect for loneliness was found. The number of ties reported for each SBH group was similar to that in previous studies. The more intimate support group (∼5) appears to be more closely connected with offline social activities, whereas social media use and contacts influence the less intimate sympathy group (∼15) and total network (∼150). These findings provide further support for functional differences between different layers of closeness in personal networks, and they help us in further defining the boundaries of relationship enhancement via communication technology
Sex Differences in Intimacy Levels in Best Friendships and Romantic Partnerships
Objectives: Close romantic and friendship relationships are crucial for successful survival and reproduction. Both provide emotional support that can have significant effects on an individual’s health and wellbeing, and through this their longer term survival and fitness. Nonetheless, the factors that create and maintain intimacy in close relationships remain unclear. Nor is it entirely clear what differentiates romantic relationships from friendships in these terms. In this paper, we explore which factors most strongly predict intimacy in these two kinds of relationship, and how these differ between the two sexes. Results: Aside from best friendships being highly gendered in both sexes, the dynamics of these two types of relationships differ between the sexes. The intimacy of female relationships was influenced by similarity (homophily) in many more factors (notably dependability, kindness, mutual support, sense of humour) than was the case for men. Some factors had opposite effects in the two sexes: gift-giving had a negative effect on women’s friendships and a positive effect on men’s, whereas shared histories had the opposite effect. Conclusion: These results confirm and extend previous findings that the dynamics of male and female relationships are very different in ways that may reflect differences in their functions
Laughter influences social bonding but not prosocial generosity to friends and strangers
Humans deploy a number of specific behaviours for forming social bonds, one of which is laughter. However, two questions have not yet been investigated with respect to laughter: (1) Does laughter increase the sense of bonding to those with whom we laugh? and (2) Does laughter facilitate prosocial generosity? Using changes in pain threshold as a proxy for endorphin upregulation in the brain and a standard economic game (the Dictator Game) as an assay of prosociality, we show that laughter does trigger the endorphin system and, through that, seems to enhance social bonding, but it does not reliably influence donations to others. This suggests that social bonding and prosociality may operate via different mechanisms, or on different time scales, and relate to different functional objectives
Time as a limited resource: Communication Strategy in Mobile Phone Networks
We used a large database of 9 billion calls from 20 million mobile users to
examine the relationships between aggregated time spent on the phone, personal
network size, tie strength and the way in which users distributed their limited
time across their network (disparity). Compared to those with smaller networks,
those with large networks did not devote proportionally more time to
communication and had on average weaker ties (as measured by time spent
communicating). Further, there were not substantially different levels of
disparity between individuals, in that mobile users tend to distribute their
time very unevenly across their network, with a large proportion of calls going
to a small number of individuals. Together, these results suggest that there
are time constraints which limit tie strength in large personal networks, and
that even high levels of mobile communication do not fundamentally alter the
disparity of time allocation across networks.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in Social Network
Laporan Tugas Akhir Asuhan Kebidanan Berkelanjutan Pada Ny K.D.N Di Puskesmas Paga Kabupaten Sikka Periode 15 April s/d 19 Juni 2019
Latar Belakang: Angka kematian di wilayah NTT terutama Kabupaten Sikka terbilang cukup tinggi. Berdasarkan data yang dilaporkan oleh Bidang Kesehatan Keluarga tercatat tahun 2017 AKI di Kabupaten Sikka sebesar 93,27/100.000 KH. AKB di Kab. Sikka tahun 2016 sebesar 251,9/100.000 KH. Dengan dilakukan asuhan kebidanan secara berkelanjutan pada ibu hamil Trimester III sampai dengan perawatan masa nifas diharapkan dapat memberikan kontribusi dalam upaya menurunkan AKI dan AKB di Indonesia serta tercapai kesehatan ibu dan anak yang optimal. Tujuan Penelitian: Mengetahui dan menerapkan asuhan kebidanan secara berkelanjut pada ibu hamil Trimester III sampai perawatan masa nifas dan KB dengan menggunakan metode 7 langkah Varney. Metode Penelitian:Studi kasus menggunakan metode penelaahan kasus, lokasi studi kasus di Puskesmas Paga, subjek studi kasus adalah NY.K.D.N dilaksanakan tanggal 15 April sampai 19 Juni 2019 dengan menggunakan format asuhan kebidanan pada ibu hamil dengan metode Varney dan pendokumentasian SOAP, teknik pengumpulan data menggunakan data primer dan data sekunder. Hasil penelitian:Berdasarkan asuhan yang telah diberikan diperoleh keadaan ibu dan bayi baik, bayi masih aktif menyusui, ibumenggunakan KB suntik. Kesimpulan:Asuhan kebidanan berkelanjutan yang diberikan kepada Ny. K.D.N sebagian besar telah dilakukan dengan baik dan sistematis, serta ibu dan bayi sehat hingga masa nifas
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