Social Science posts
- May 11, 2010
- 06:38 PM
- 698 views
Neanderthals'r'us?
by Julien Riel-Salvatore in A Very Remote Period Indeed
By now, unless you live under a rock, you should have heard the news: New genetic studies indicate that Neanderthals and modern humans likely interbred: Among the findings, published in the May 7 issue of Science, is evidence that shortly after early modern humans migrated out of Africa, some of them interbred with Neanderthals, leaving bits of Neanderthal DNA sequences scattered through the genomes of present-day non-Africans. "We can now say that, in all probability, there was gene flow fro........ Read more »
Burbano, H., Hodges, E., Green, R., Briggs, A., Krause, J., Meyer, M., Good, J., Maricic, T., Johnson, P., Xuan, Z.... (2010) Targeted Investigation of the Neandertal Genome by Array-Based Sequence Capture. Science, 328(5979), 723-725. DOI: 10.1126/science.1188046
Eswaran, V. (2002) A Diffusion Wave out of Africa: The Mechanism of the Modern Human Revolution?. Current Anthropology, 43(5), 749-774. DOI: 10.1086/342639
ESWARAN, V., HARPENDING, H., & ROGERS, A. (2005) Genomics refutes an exclusively African origin of humans. Journal of Human Evolution, 49(1), 1-18. DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2005.02.006
Green, R., Krause, J., Briggs, A., Maricic, T., Stenzel, U., Kircher, M., Patterson, N., Li, H., Zhai, W., Fritz, M.... (2010) A Draft Sequence of the Neandertal Genome. Science, 328(5979), 710-722. DOI: 10.1126/science.1188021
- May 11, 2010
- 12:41 PM
- 1,109 views
Morgellons
by Sarah in Biofortified
Terrifying, painful, exhausting. When I have spoken with people who identify as having Morgellons disease, these are the words I hear. Most researchers and medical professionals consider Morgellons Disease (MD) to be synonymous with Delusory Parasitosis (DP), a false, unshakable belief that insects are living in or on your skin or inside your body. Yet, [...]... Read more »
de Barros N, D'Avila MS, de Pace Bauab S, Issa FK, Freitas FJ, Kim SJ, Chala LF, & Cerri GG. (2001) Cutaneous myiasis of the breast: mammographic and us features-report of five cases. Radiology, 218(2), 517-20. PMID: 11161171
Harvey WT, Bransfield RC, Mercer DE, Wright AJ, Ricchi RM, & Leitao MM. (2009) Morgellons disease, illuminating an undefined illness: a case series. Journal of medical case reports, 8243. PMID: 19830222
Hinkle, N. (2000) Delusory Parasitosis. American Entomologist, 46(1), 17-25. info:/
Khansari, D., Murgo, A., & Faith, R. (1990) Effects of stress on the immune system. Immunology Today, 170-175. DOI: 10.1016/0167-5699(90)90069-L
Murase JE, Wu JJ, & Koo J. (2006) Morgellons disease: a rapport-enhancing term for delusions of parasitosis. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, 55(5), 913-4. PMID: 17052509
Robles DT, Romm S, Combs H, Olson J, & Kirby P. (2008) Delusional disorders in dermatology: a brief review. Dermatology online journal, 14(6), 2. PMID: 18713583
Savely G, & Leitao MM. (2005) Skin lesions and crawling sensations: disease or delusion?. Advance for nurse practitioners, 13(5), 16-7. PMID: 15898309
Savely VR, Leitao MM, & Stricker RB. (2006) The mystery of Morgellons disease: infection or delusion?. American journal of clinical dermatology, 7(1), 1-5. PMID: 16489838
Savely, V., & Stricker, R. (2007) Morgellons disease: the mystery unfolds. Expert Review of Dermatology, 2(5), 585-591. DOI: 10.1586/17469872.2.5.585
- May 10, 2010
- 04:49 PM
- 7,266 views
Who's to blame for the financial crisis
Astute observers will have noticed that there's been something of a crisis in the financial world over the past couple of years. The EU's just coughed up €500 billion in the latest an effort to stem the panic... or, alternatively, to fend off the predators.
And that gets to the heart of the matter. Is the crisis just one of those things - part of a natural economic cycle that is beyond anyone's ability to predict or control? Or is it a result of moral or intellectual failures among those who........ Read more »
Leiser, D., Bourgeois-Gironde, S., & Benita, R. (2010) Human foibles or systemic failure—Lay perceptions of the 2008–2009 financial crisis. Journal of Socio-Economics, 39(2), 132-141. DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2010.02.013
- May 10, 2010
- 09:39 AM
- 434 views
Fast Food Logos Make People Hasty
by Daniel Hawes in Ingenious Monkey | 20-two-5
Fast food may make you fat, but mere thoughts of fast food can have wider reaching effects: Haste and impatience... Read more »
Chen-Bo Zhong, & Sanford E. DeVoe. (2010) You Are How You Eat: Fast Food and Impatience. Psycholgoical Science. info:/10.1177/0956797610366090
- May 10, 2010
- 08:30 AM
- 988 views
Monday Pets: How Do Dogs Learn New Words?
by Jason Goldman in The Thoughtful Animal
...and what can word-learning in dogs teach us about the evolution of language in humans?
What is involved in the learning of a single new word? Consider the word "tiger", being learned by a child with already a modest vocabulary, at least for animal words. First the child must make a new entry in the mental lexicon - that "tiger" is a word in the first place. He has to categorize it as a noun. It has to be categorized under "animal" (a supernym) and related to its hyponyms, like "Sumatran tige........ Read more »
Kaminski, J., Call, J., & Fischer, J. (2004) Word Learning in a Domestic Dog: Evidence for "Fast Mapping". Science, 304(5677), 1682-1683. DOI: 10.1126/science.1097859
- May 8, 2010
- 09:23 PM
- 705 views
Making Masculinity Visible to Sexual Violence
by Ultimo167 in Strong Silent Types
Cowburn (2010) suggests that to effectively deal with the problem of male sexual violence, we must pay closer attention to the role of masculinity in shaping harmful behaviours and attitudes.... Read more »
Cowburn, M. (2010) Invisible men: Social reactions to male sexual coercion - bringing men and masculinities into community safety and public policy. Critical Social Policy, 30(2), 225-244. DOI: 10.1177/0261018309358308
- May 8, 2010
- 02:25 AM
- 696 views
The Homosocial Intent of Male Sexual Predation
by Ultimo167 in Strong Silent Types
Prohaska and Gailey (2010) refer to the practice of men who seek 'out women they [those men] perceive as fat or unattractive for sport or sexual gratification’ as 'hogging' (p.13). The big ticket issue, therefore, pivots between men who hate women absolutely and men who love other men for all the wrong reasons. In short, misogyny and homosociality.
... Read more »
Prohaska, A., & Gailey, J. (2010) Achieving masculinity through sexual predation: the case of hogging. Journal of Gender Studies, 19(1), 13-25. DOI: 10.1080/09589230903525411
- May 8, 2010
- 02:12 AM
- 734 views
Where Mormons Thrive
Among the great American exports to the rest of the world, there are a bewildering variety of religious cults and sects. Not all have take root, but the most successful - groups like the Mormons, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the Seventh Day Adventists - now number in the millions.
Their success is mostly down to prosyletisation, in addition to any endogenous growth (due to fertility) that was the topic of the previous post.
So why are they so successful, and perhaps more importantly where ar........ Read more »
Cragun, R., & Lawson, R. (2010) The Secular Transition: The Worldwide Growth of Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Seventh-day Adventists. Sociology of Religion. DOI: 10.1093/socrel/srq022
- May 7, 2010
- 10:03 AM
- 455 views
The Dwarf Dinosaurs of Haţeg Island
by Brian Switek in Dinosaur Tracking
For hundreds of years, people have been finding the remains of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures in Romania’s Haţeg basin. The Cretaceous-age deposits are remnants of prehistoric islands that sported their own unique faunas, but in the days before fossils were recognized as being the remains of once-living animals, many considered them to be the [...]... Read more »
Benton, M., Csiki, Z., Grigorescu, D., Redelstorff, R., Sander, P., Stein, K., & Weishampel, D. (2010) Dinosaurs and the island rule: The dwarfed dinosaurs from Haţeg Island. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. DOI: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2010.01.026
Grigorescu, D. (2010) The Latest Cretaceous fauna with dinosaurs and mammals from the Haţeg Basin — A historical overview. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. DOI: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2010.01.030
- May 6, 2010
- 07:50 PM
- 461 views
Dig-in Or Adapt: The Effect of Political Views on Changing One’s Mind
by Darcy Cowan in Skepticon
Are you the sort of person who will change their position on a subject conditional on further information gained? I personally think this is the behaviour we should all be striving for. If we do not we end up withdrawing further and further from reality, insulating ourselves from rational argument and retreating into our own [...]... Read more »
Nyhan, B., & Reifler, J. (2010) When Corrections Fail: The Persistence of Political Misperceptions. Political Behavior, 32(2), 303-330. DOI: 10.1007/s11109-010-9112-2
- May 6, 2010
- 06:13 PM
- 575 views
Mice That Fight for Their Rights
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
Israeli biologists Feder et al report on Selective breeding for dominant and submissive behavior in Sabra mice.Mice are social animals and like many species, they show dominance hierarchies. When they first meet, they'll often fight each other. The winner gets to be Mr (or Mrs) Big, and they enjoy first pick of the food, mating opportunities, etc - for as long as they can remain dominant.But what determines which mice become top dog... ? Feder et al show that it's partially under genetic control........ Read more »
Feder, Y., Nesher, E., Ogran, A., Kreinin, A., Malatynska, E., Yadid, G., & Pinhasov, A. (2010) Selective breeding for dominant and submissive behavior in Sabra mice. Journal of Affective Disorders. DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2010.03.018
- May 6, 2010
- 09:08 AM
- 788 views
Toiletology
by Ingrid Piller in Language on the Move
Installment #4 in the mini-series on multilingual signage
Toilets as an object of sociolinguistic research?! Not likely?! Think again! Today, I am going to discuss toilet signage as an indicator of how inclusive a society is.
Types of toilets and ways of cleaning yourself after using them are quite diverse internationally – thus, creating the potential for [...]... Read more »
Pavlenko, Aneta. (2005) 'Ask Each Pupil About Her Methods of Cleaning': Ideologies of Language and Gender in Americanisation Instruction (1900-1924). International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 8(4), 275-297. info:/
- May 5, 2010
- 09:26 PM
- 569 views
Ultimate Secret To Men's Marital Happiness: Dating Up!
by Daniel Hawes in Ingenious Monkey | 20-two-5
Besides DYING to write something in ALL CAPS and using ultimate twice in the same sentence, I've also really been waiting to write something like this: Science reveals the ultimate secret to happiness, better sex, longer life and ultimate riches...... Read more »
McNulty JK, Neff LA, & Karney BR. (2008) Beyond initial attraction: physical attractiveness in newlywed marriage. Journal of family psychology : JFP : journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association (Division 43), 22(1), 135-43. PMID: 18266540
- May 5, 2010
- 10:30 AM
- 766 views
The Five Points Then and Now: Ghosts of Tenements Past [FP4]
by Krystal D'Costa in Anthropology in Practice
For such a small area, the Five Points really has a great deal of history connected to it. Walking through present day Chinatown, I was really struck by how various elements of the Five Points have persisted through time, and have managed to impart some of the old character into the neighborhood. The streets bustle with throngs of Asian residents, reminiscent of the earlier immigrant settlers
... Read more »
Bremner, Robert H. (1958) The Big Flat: History of a New York Tenement House. The American Historical Review, 64(1), 54. DOI: 10.2307/1844857
Michael Montgomery. (2003) Keeping the Tenants Down: Height Restrictions and Manhattan's Tenement House System, 1885 - 1930. Cato Journal, 22(3), 495-509. info:/
- May 4, 2010
- 06:02 PM
- 489 views
Declining Standards in Higher Education
by Michael Bishop in Permutations
In a paper entitled, “Leisure College, USA“ Philip Babcock and Mindy Marks have documented dramatic declines in study effort since 1961, from 24 down to 14 hours per week. This decline occurred at all different sorts of colleges and is not a result of students working for pay.
At the same time, colleges are handing out better grades. In other work, Babcock presents strongly suggestive evidence that the two phenomena are related. That is, lower grading standards lead to less st........ Read more »
Phillip Babcock . (2010) The Falling Time Cost of College: Evidence from Half a Century of Time Use Data. NBER Working Paper. info:other/15954_id
- May 4, 2010
- 05:55 PM
- 493 views
Forgive Yourself Today, Procrastinate Less...Tomorrow
by Daniel Hawes in Ingenious Monkey | 20-two-5
Research shows that students who forgive themselves for procrastinating, manage to reduce subsequent procrastination on the same task.... Read more »
Michael J.A. Wohl, Timothy A. Pychyl, & Shannon H. Bennett. (2010) I forgive myself, now I can study: How self-forgiveness for procrastinating can reduce future procrastination. Personality and Individual Differences. info:/doi:10.1016/j.paid.2010.01.029
- May 4, 2010
- 04:17 PM
- 7,255 views
Aterian artifacts at 175,000 BP at Ifri n’Ammar, Morocco
by Julien Riel-Salvatore in A Very Remote Period Indeed
The Moroccan Ministry of Culture has a press release (in French) about the cave site of Ifri n’Ammar, about 50km south (i.e., away from the coast) of Nador, indicating that the Moroccan-German team that has been working there for the past seven years has identified Aterian levels dating to about 175,000 BP. If these dates are correct, they push back the age for the earliest Aterian assemblages by some 65,000 year, since to date, the oldest Aterian levels had been identified at the Moroccan sit........ Read more »
Barton, R., Bouzouggar, A., Collcutt, S., Schwenninger, J., & Clark-Balzan, L. (2009) OSL dating of the Aterian levels at Dar es-Soltan I (Rabat, Morocco) and implications for the dispersal of modern Homo sapiens. Quaternary Science Reviews, 28(19-20), 1914-1931. DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2009.03.010
Shea, J. (2006) The origins of lithic projectile point technology: evidence from Africa, the Levant, and Europe. Journal of Archaeological Science, 33(6), 823-846. DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2005.10.015
- May 4, 2010
- 09:13 AM
- 691 views
Lie-detection and neurolaw: do brain scans have a place in the courtroom?
An analysis of a position paper that argues for the use of brain scans in the courtroom... Read more »
Schauer F. (2010) Neuroscience, lie-detection, and the law: contrary to the prevailing view, the suitability of brain-based lie-detection for courtroom or forensic use should be determined according to legal and not scientific standards. Trends in cognitive sciences, 14(3), 101-3. PMID: 20060772
- May 4, 2010
- 08:31 AM
- 545 views
Sex Addiction as a Masculine Ideal
by Ultimo167 in Strong Silent Types
Only briefly (at p.269) does Levine (2010) get close to why it is we can live in an era when hyper-sexuality in men is at once constructed as a terrible addiction and a masculine ideal. The great relief is that most men are not really sexually 'sick' at all.... Read more »
Levine SB. (2010) What is sexual addiction?. Journal of sex , 36(3), 261-75. PMID: 20432125
- May 3, 2010
- 03:40 PM
- 624 views
Coordinated punishment and cooperation; or the ‘skull T-shirt’ effect
by Beast Ape in Beast Ape and the Bleeding Heart Baboons
Based on my blog title’s silly alliteration, you might think that I enjoy writing that is all flash and no substance. On the contrary, I love articles that are straight to the point. Kudos to the authors that can summarize an entire study’s finding in a key sentence. Double kudos if they can use this [...]... Read more »
Boyd, R., Gintis, H., & Bowles, S. (2010) Coordinated Punishment of Defectors Sustains Cooperation and Can Proliferate When Rare. Science, 328(5978), 617-620. DOI: 10.1126/science.1183665
Axelrod R, & Hamilton WD. (1981) The evolution of cooperation. Science (New York, N.Y.), 211(4489), 1390-6. PMID: 7466396
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