Behavioral scientists routinely publish broad claims about human psychology and behavior in the world's top journals based on samples drawn entirely from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) societies. Researchers - often implicitly - assume that either there is little variation across human populations, or that these "standard subjects" are as representative of the species as any other population. Are these assumptions justified? Here, our review of the comparative database from across the behavioral sciences suggests both that there is substantial variability in experimental results across populations and that WEIRD subjects are particularly unusual compared with the rest of the species - frequent outliers. The domains reviewed include visual perception, fairness, cooperation, spatial reasoning, categorization and inferential induction, moral reasoning, reasoning styles, self-concepts and related motivations, and the heritability of IQ. The findings suggest that members of WEIRD societies, including young children, are among the least representative populations one could find for generalizing about humans. Many of these findings involve domains that are associated with fundamental aspects of psychology, motivation, and behavior - hence, there are no obvious a priori grounds for claiming that a particular behavioral phenomenon is universal based on sampling from a single subpopulation. Overall, these empirical patterns suggests that we need to be less cavalier in addressing questions of human nature on the basis of data drawn from this particularly thin, and rather unusual, slice of humanity. We close by proposing ways to structurally re-organize the behavioral sciences to best tackle these challenges.

/pdf/the-weirdest-people-in-the-world-480wr4m3kb.pdf

The WEIRDest People in the World

/pdf/weird-languages-have-misled-us-too-comment-on-henrich-et-al-57dmcdjt24.pdf

WEIRD languages have misled us, too [Comment on Henrich et al.]

国際生活機能分類(International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health: ICF)にみた福祉・保健・医療の専門職協働における連携に関する貢献と課題

Meta-analytic procedures were used to test the effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal, empathy/desensitization, and prosocial behavior. Unique features of this meta-analytic review include (a) more restrictive methodological quality inclusion criteria than in past meta-analyses; (b) cross-cultural comparisons; (c) longitudinal studies for all outcomes except physiological arousal; (d) conservative statistical controls; (e) multiple moderator analyses; and (f) sensitivity analyses. Social-cognitive models and cultural differences between Japan and Western countries were used to generate theory-based predictions. Meta-analyses yielded significant effects for all 6 outcome variables. The pattern of results for different outcomes and research designs (experimental, cross-sectional, longitudinal) fit theoretical predictions well. The evidence strongly suggests that exposure to violent video games is a causal risk factor for increased aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, and aggressive affect and for decreased empathy and prosocial behavior. Moderator analyses revealed significant research design effects, weak evidence of cultural differences in susceptibility and type of measurement effects, and no evidence of sex differences in susceptibility. Results of various sensitivity analyses revealed these effects to be robust, with little evidence of selection (publication) bias.

/pdf/violent-video-game-effects-on-aggression-empathy-and-5ejp95ybou.pdf

Violent Video Game Effects on Aggression, Empathy, and Prosocial Behavior in Eastern and Western Countries: A Meta-Analytic Review.

Current research on prosocial behavior covers a broad and diverse range of phenomena. We argue that this large research literature can be best organized and understood from a multilevel perspective. We identify three levels of analysis of prosocial behavior: (a) the “meso” level—the study of helper-recipient dyads in the context of a specific situation; (b) the micro level—the study of the origins of prosocial tendencies and the sources of variation in these tendencies; and (c) the macro level—the study of prosocial actions that occur within the context of groups and large organizations. We present research at each level and discuss similarities and differences across levels. Finally, we consider ways in which theory and research at these three levels of analysis might be combined in future intra- and interdisciplinary research on prosocial behavior.

https://www2.psych.ubc.ca/~schaller/Psyc591Readings/PennerDovidioPiliavinSchroeder2005.pdf

Prosocial Behavior: Multilevel Perspectives

Neue Technologien in der Sprachtherapie

Purpose: The study aimed at the examination of a link between stuttering and verbal skills (speech comprehension, articulation, grammar, vocabulary, and phonological short-term memory) in three- to five-year-old children. Method: Two samples with a total of 7,217 unselected German children were tested with the validated speech and language test Marburger Sprachscreening – revised version ( MSSrev ) .  Linguistic domains were compared for pre-school children who stuttered (CWS; n =110) and those who did not (CWNS; n =7,107) by means of Mann-Whitney U tests, general linear models, Spearman correlations, and cross-tables. Results: In both samples, CWS scored lower in grammar, articulation, and overall performance on the MSSrev . Statistically significant associations between stuttering and (a) sex of the child, and (b) language disorders in the family were identified. Conclusions: Taking into account the effect sizes, there appears to be a weak, but statistically significant link between stuttering and verbal skills.

http://www.bjll.org/index.php/bjll/article/download/1171/1296

Pre-schoolers who stutter score lower in verbal skills than their non-stuttering peers

Human gender differences tend to be largest in behaviors of high reproductive relevance, that is, sexual and parenting behavior. Such differences show up best in biologically meaningful configurations of specific behaviors rather than in coarse categories. Paternal involvement is thus expressed in aspects and optima which differ from those of maternal involvement. A case in point is sensitivity in its effect on secure attachment, with paternal behavior to be measured by a yardstick different from maternal behavior. Secure father-child attachment may be fostered by optimal levels of paternal activation/stimulation which are different from maternal optima. Paternal action preferences lead to preferences for rough play, which may be especially relevant to the socialization of male offspring. Moreover, fathers-unlike mothers-may perceive their paternal effort as mating effort. The study of father-child attachment-and especially its differences from mother-child attachment-can benefit from considering evolved sex differences in parental behavior.

Harald A. Euler

Papers

Neue Technologien in der Sprachtherapie

Pre-schoolers who stutter score lower in verbal skills than their non-stuttering peers

Gender differences in attachment from an evolutionary perspective: what is Good for the goose may not be good for the gander

Chapter 4. Olfactory comfort in close relationships: You aren’t the only one who does it

A randomized control trial to investigate the impact of the Lidcombe