(Mis-)understanding COVID-19 and digit ratio: Methodological and statistical issues in Manning and Fink (2020)

Manning and Fink (2020) report that country level mean 2D:4D is associated with COVID-19 case fatality ratio and percentage of male deaths. We discuss here a range of methodological and statistical issues with Manning and Fink's work that offer a different interpretation of their claims

Rapport‐building in multiple interviews of children

AbstractRapport‐building is key in child investigative interviews, however, recommendations of how to build rapport differ. Additionally, rapport in more complex situations: when a child is interviewed repeatedly or requires separate rapport building have not been studied. This research examined the UK's ‘Achieving Best Evidence’ guidelines for rapport‐building, which recommend conducting a neutral discussion, compared with a control condition and a separate rapport‐building session for first interviews on children's recall and well‐being (measured by state anxiety and rapport questionnaires). For second and third interviews, additional full rapport‐building sessions were compared to shortened or no rapport‐building conditions. No significant differences in children's (N = 107) recall or well‐being were found across rapport‐building conditions for all interviews. We conclude that for children who have experienced non‐traumatic events, the inclusion of a neutral discussion rapport‐building phase may not be any more beneficial for children than conducting a friendly interview

Recognising faces but not traits: Accurate personality judgment from faces is unrelated to superior face memory

It is suggested that accurate personality judgments of faces are driven by a morphological ‘kernel of truth’ from face shape. We hypothesised that this relationship could lead to those with better face identification ability being better at personality judgments. We investigated the relationship between face memory, face matching, Big Five personality traits, and accuracy in recognising Big Five personality traits from 50 photographs of unknown faces. In our sample (n = 792) there was overall good (but varying) face memory and personality judgment accuracy. However, there was convincing evidence that these two skills do not correlate (all r < .06). We also replicate the known relationship between extraversion and face memory ability in the largest sample to date

Is threat in the way they move? Influences of static and gait information on threat judgments of unknown people

Recognising intraspecies threat is essential for survival. However, this needs to be balanced against the undue avoidance of unknown others who may be useful to us. Research has shown that judgments of ‘aggression’ and ‘threat’ posed by an unknown person can accurately reflect that person’s general aggressive tendencies. To date, there has not been a within-sample comparison of the informativeness of static and walking stimuli for threat judgments. In this study, 193 participants rated the threat posed by 23 target people presented as both simplified gait presentations (point-light walkers) and still images. We analysed how threat judgments made by participants were predicted by the target’s self-reported aggression (accuracy), the sex of the targets and the medium of target presentation (point-light vs. still image). Our results showed that participants’ threat judgments accurately predicted targets’ aggression. Male targets received higher threat ratings than female targets and point-light displays were rated as more threatening than still images. There were no effects of target sex and presentation medium on accuracy of threat perception and no sex by medium interactions on judgments themselves. Overall, this study provides further evidence of the accuracy of threat judgments at detecting trait aggression. However, further research is needed to explain what features of the target people are enabling the accurate judgments of aggression

An ecological approach to personality: Psychological traits as drivers and consequences of active perception

From Wiley via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: received 2020-07-13, rev-recd 2021-03-08, accepted 2021-03-12, pub-electronic 2021-04-03, pub-print 2021-05Article version: VoRPublication status: PublishedAbstract: The ecological approach to perception highlights how organisms engage in active perception and that the environment is understood relative to an individual's physical traits. Personality research draws attention to the variability in psychological traits that affect the way individuals differentially explore and anticipate the world. The current paper identifies compatibilities in these fields and suggests that personality both initiates and perpetuates the manner with which individuals engage in active perception. Personality traits both drive and limit perceptual refinement of the world and also lead to the construction of niches to suit personality. Here, we explore the benefits for considering individual differences in perception and active perception in regards to personality theory, comparative psychology, mental health, research methodology, and intervention. We conclude by encouraging both ecological and personality research to consider the benefits of understanding personality traits as mechanisms for initiating or constraining active perception