Personality Lecture #20

Study Notes
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Discussion thread for Personality and Its Transformations - Lecture #20

study group discussion

Discussion as part of our Study Group.

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my notes

  • 0:00 - recap of meaning perception

  • 3:00 - conscientiousness - best predictor of job performance

  • 3:00 - agreeableness - compassionate, get along well in teams, but don’t negotiate well and get taken advantage of

  • 3:00 - disagreeableness - competitive, anti-social to prison

  • 4:00 - what is the bad part of conscientiousness?

    • Sacrifice present for the future

      • If future is not stable - not a good strategy - why?

        • When unstable - you are best to get what you can get now - and you become a target for others

          • << seems reference to income inequality with male homicides >>

        • 5:00 - recap of germany after WW1

          • After mass inflation, the conscientiousness felt resentment that the system had betrayed them

  • 7:00 - slide

    • Plasticity

      • Extraversion

        • Assertiveness

        • r=.47

        • Enthusiasm

      • Openness

        • Openness

        • r=.35

        • Intelligence

    • Stability

      • Conscientiousness

        • Industriousness

        • r=.39

        • Orderliness

      • Emotional Stability

        • Volatility

        • r=.59

        • Withdrawal

      • Agreeableness

        • Politeness

        • r=.44

        • Compassion

    • Average correlation between Big Five r=.22

    • Correlation Between Big Two r=.24

  • 7:00 - slide

    • Orderliness

      • Leaves belongings around

      • Likes order

      • Keeps things tidy

      • Follows a schedule

      • Is not bothered by messy people

      • Wants everything to be “just right”

      • Is not bothered by disorder

      • Dislikes routine

      • Sees that rules are observed

      • Wants every detail taken care of

    • Industriousness

      • Carries out his/her plans

      • Wastes time

      • Finds it difficult to get down to work

      • Messes things up

      • Finishes what he/she starts

      • Doesn’t put his/her mind on the task at hand

      • Gets things done quickly

      • Always knows what he/she is doing

      • Postpones decisions

      • Is easily distracted

  • 10:00 - motivations

    • Conscientiousness - does well in military ranks

      • << perhaps drafted wars serve to eliminate the lower conscientious people, as they would be the ones on the frontlines, whereas conscientious people would be higher ranked - could make sense in germany and USA leaving high conscientious people with high agreeable people >>

    • Neuroticism - wants to minimise pain

    • Openness - interest in the task

    • Extraversion - enthusiasm for the task

    • Agreeableness - wants to foster relationships

    • Disagreeableness - wants to compete

  • 12:00 - slide - Conscientiousness: The Mystery

    • No theoretical model

    • No neuropsychological model

    • No psychological model

    • No pharmacological model

      • With the possible exception of amphetamines (focus drugs)

        • << what about modafinil??? >>

  • 14:00 - slide - Affect/Emotion

    • Strongly related to life satisfaction and “happiness”

    • Conscientiousness related to depression, negatively related to guilt experience but positively related to guilt proneness

      • Guilt is the emotion you feel when you don’t do your duty

    • The more conscientious you are, the less likely you are to suffer from anxiety and emotional pain

      • Possibly explained by - being conscientious you stabilize your environment - the more predictable, more routine, more schedule then the more successful

        • Funny, as you hear from sociologists that conservatives are more threat sensitive than liberals - weird because conservatives are lower in neuroticism than liberals - seems not related to anxiety, but something else

      • Although if you get let go from your career, you will be more likely to become depressed

        • As you will first blame yourself believing it is your fault

  • 20:00 - slide - Orderliness

    • Conservatism

      • Along with low openness

    • Disgust Sensitivity

      • Preference for order and tradition

      • Not egalitarianism

    • Harsh judgements of moral transgression

    • Behavioral Immune System

      • 22:40 - Slide - The Behavioral Immune System & The Parasite Stress Hypothesis

        • According to the parasite stress hypothesis (e.g. Fincher & Thornhill, 2012; Schaller & Duncan, 2007; Thornhill & Fincher, 2014), levels of parasitic infection within a region may drive variability at both individual and societal levels

        • The avoidance of death or disability through avoidance of infection is a major evolutionary driving force

        • For example, until times that are relatively recent in evolutionary terms, almost 50% of children failed to survive to reproductive age (Volk & Atkinson, 2013), with the majority of deaths being due to infectious diseases

        • Local parasite types and hosts defense systems will typically be involved in a coevolutionary arms race, and so at any given time a host’s immunological defenses will be specialized to be most effective against local parasite species (Thompson, 2005)

        • To the extent that a host defense system is specialized locally, contact with out-groups will be associated with an increased risk of exposure to infectious diseases against which there is no a priori immunity (Fincher & Thornhill, 2008)

        • The relevant infection-avoiding behaviors such as avoidance of strangers and high conscientiousness in, for example, food preparation, are assumed to arise from the operation of a “behavioral immune system” (e.g., Schaller, 2011)

        • The behavioral immune system comprises adaptive psychological response mechanisms that are sensitive to cues that might predict presence of infectious pathogens and which respond with appropriate cognitive processing and affective reactions

        • Such a system is likely to be oversensitive—the cost of a false positive (avoiding non-existent infection) is small relative to the possible cost (catching avoidable infection; Kurzban & Leary, 2001)

        • In social terms, an important component of the parasite stress hypothesis is that high levels of infection may lead to ethnocentrism, xenophobia, distrust of different others, and conformity (e.g., Murray, Trudeau, & Schaller, 2011; Neuberg, Kenrick, & Schaller, 2011; Thornhill, Fincher, & Aran, 2009)—because such behaviors will reduce the likelihood of exposure to unfamiliar infections to which immunity has not been developed

          • Brown, G.D.A., Fincher, C.L. & Walasek, L. (2016). Personality, parasites, political attitudes, and cooperation. Topics in Cognitive SCience, 09-117

      • 29:00 - slide - Conservatism as Social Immune System

        • Disgust is considered to be one of the basic human emotions, defined by a strong revulsion and desire to withdraw from an eliciting stimulus or event (Darwin, 1872; Rozin, Haidt, & McCauley, 2000)

        • Physically, disgust is accompanied by distinct facial expression involving constriction of the oral and nasal cavities (Ekman & Friesen, 2003; Vrana, 1993)

        • Evolutionary models of disgust propose that this emotion evolved to help us avoid contaminated or harmful foods (Rozin & Fallon, 1987), or other potential sources of disease such as sexual contact (Oaten, Stevenson, & Case, 2009)

        • In addition to its role in directly helping to expel harmful foods from the body, disgust also forms an important component of the behavioral immune system, the suite of psychological mechanisms that aid in the detection and avoidance of potential contaminants before they can make contact with the body (Schaller & Duncan, 2007; Schaller & Park, 2011)

        • Although disgust may have its origins in the protection against physical contamination, a number of studies have implicated disgust responses in moral decision-making

        • Inducing disgust responses, whether via a foul odor, a disgusting work environment, or recalling a disgusting experience, led individuals to assign harsher punishments to others who had committed moral transgressions (Schnall, Haidt, Clore, & Jordan, 2008; Wheatley & Haidt, 2005)

          • << honour killings??? Does the conscientiousness of the jury/judge affect their punishments? Is that a bias that the progressives want to change? >>

        • Harsher moral judgements can even be induced following the consumption of a bitter drink (Eskine, Kacinik, & Prinz, 2011)

        • In addition, the same disgust-related facial expressions are observed in response to unpleasant tastes, disgusting photographs, and receiving unfair treatment in an economic game (Chapman, Kim, Susskind, & Anderson, 2009)

        • Concerns about cleanliness and feelings of disgust heave likewise been related to political attitudes

        • Situational reminders of the importance of physical cleanliness, such as asking participants to wipe their hands with antiseptic wipes, tend to increase self-reported political conservatism (Helzer & Pizarro, 2011)

        • Such a finding is consistent with the notion that purity tends to be valued more highly by conservatives than by liberals (Graham, Haidt, & Nosek, 2009)

        • Concerns about cleanliness and feelings of disgust have likewise been related to political attitudes

        • Situational reminders of the importance of physical cleanliness, such as asking participants to wipe their hands with antiseptic wipes, tend to increase self-reported political conservatism (Helzer & Pizarro, 2011)

        • Such a finding is consistent with the notion that purity tends to be valued more highly by conservatives than by liberals (Graham, Haidt, & Nosek, 2009)

        • Individuals who report being disgusted more easily also tend to hold more conservative political views on topics including abortion, gay marriage, tax cuts, and affirmative action (Inbar, Pizarro, Iyer, & Haidt, in press; Inbar, Pizarro, & Bloom, 2009)

        • In addition to the effects that have emerged when using self-reported disgust sensitivity, more conservative political views have also been associated with stronger physiological reactivity to disgusting images (Smith, Oxley, Hibbing, Alford, & Hibbing, 2011)

          • << are low orderliness more likely to enjoy horror movies compared to high orderliness?? >>

          • << what is the orderliness of morticians?? >>

        • In particular, a large literature has converged on the notion that there are two core dimensions of conservative political ideology: resistance to change and tolerance of inequality (Jost, 2006: Jost, Federico, & Napier, 2009; Jost, Glaser, Kruglanski, & Sulloway, 2003; Jost, Nosek, & Gosling, 2008)

        • Resistance to change reflects the extent to which people wish to maintain the status quo, while tolerance of inequality reflects the acceptance of an unequal distribution of resources and opportunities within society

        • These two dimensions appear roughly aligned with social and economic conservatism, as expressed in the constructs of Right-Wing Authoritarianism and Social Dominance Orientation, respectively (Duckitt, Wagner, Du Plessis, & Birum, 2002)

        • These core facets of conservatism are also closely related to the two higher-order value dimensions described in moral foundations theory, which reflect preferences for order and tradition on the one hand, and preferences for egalitarianism on the other (Graham et al., 2009; Graham et al. 2011)

        • Importantly, the motivational bases of these two dimensions appear to vary independently from one another, with an individual’s overall political attitudes on a left-right spectrum emerging from their relative balance

        • These motives are also strongly rooted in basic personality characteristics, such that preferences for order and tradition are associated with higher levels of Orderliness (an aspect of Conscientiousness) and Politeness (an aspect of Agreeableness), as well lower levels of Openness/Intellect; in contrast, preferences for egalitarianism are uniquely associated with Compassion, an aspect of Agreeableness (Caprara, Schwartz, Capanna, Vecchione, & Barbaranelli, 2006; Carney, Jost, Gosling, & Potter, 2008; Hirsh, DeYoung, Xu, & Peterson, 2010; Jost, 2006)

        • Political conservatism can be thought of as a “social immune system”, reflecting the extension of pathogen avoidance mechanisms to the integrity of the social system (Rozin et al., 2000)

        • Just as the behavioral immune system has been conceptualized as helping to maintain the purity and integrity of an individual body (SChaller & Park, 2011), so too many the same pathogen avoidance system help to maintain the abstract integrity of the social order

        • In particular, the social immune system would help to maintain order by suppressing any actions or individuals that deviate from a group’s accepted social traditions

        • It has been reported, for instance, that regions with higher levels of disease prevalence tend to be associated with higher levels of social conformity (Murray, Trudeau, & Schaller, 2011) and autocratic rule (Thornhill, Fincher, & Aran, 2009)

        • Individuals who feel more vulnerable to disease likewise report higher levels of ethnocentrism and xenophobia (Navarrete & Fessler, 2006)

        • Such basic concerns about pathogen avoidance may thus contribute to the desire for order and tradition among conservatives, along with the harsh moral judgements associated with violations of the social order

        • In particular, severe moral judgements may be a key mechanism by which the social immune system (instantiated in conservative practices and policies) aims to eliminate exposure to deviant social elements that may increase the risk of pathogen exposure

          • Hirsh, J.B., Xu, X., Robinson, R., Chapman, H.A., Anderson, A.K. & Peterson, J.B. (in preparation). Conservatism as social immune system

      • << biological behaviour or cultural behaviour? - if the latter, then everyone in a culture (same experiences/education) should be the same >>

      • << how do the anti-vaxxers score on Orderliness??? >>

      • 23:00 - hospitals seem to kill more people than they save - and they breed new diseases

      • 24:00 - rant on corn and cows and antibiotics

      • 32:00 - OCD as a disorder of disgust - the way you treat them is exposure therapy to things that are disgusting and contaminating

      • 40:00 - reward vs disgust systems

      • 40:30 - orderly people are judgemental and perfectionist - if you are judgemental then high in orderliness and neuroticism

      • 42:30 - peterson protesters disgust sensitive - rolling eyes at partners means divorce - lifting you up with my eyes and throwing you in the garbage - contempt and disgust

      • 43:40 - more authoritarian political correct types are high in orderliness and high in agreeableness - predator system is invoked to those not agreeable, as perceived as predators against infants

      • 45:00 - should we remove disgust from political conversations - all underlying systems guide you, and their balance is complex, and your unique particular balance exists for evolutionary reasons

      • 47:00 - political ideology contaminates scientific inquiry

      • 49:00 - self evident but difficult to measure

      • 51:00 - open borders or closed borders is a balance of probabilities - no way of determining a priori which is correct

      • 52:30 - purity with fire, poison, and eradication

      • 53:12 53:50 55:15 55:35 - slide - Parasite Stress Hypothesis

        • According to a “parasite stress” hypothesis, authoritarian governments are more likely to merge in regions characterized by a high prevalence of disease-causing pathogens

        • Recent cross-national evidence is consistent with this hypothesis, but there are inferential limitations associated with that evidence. We report two studies that address some of these limitations, and provide further tests of the hypothesis

        • Study 1 revealed that parasite prevalence strongly predicted cross-national differences on measures assessing individuals’ authoritarian personalities, and this effect statistically mediated the relationship between parasite prevalence and authoritarian governance

        • The mediation result is inconsistent with an alternative explanation for previous findings

        • To address further limitations associated with cross-national comparisons, Study 2 tested the parasite stress hypothesis on a sample of traditional small-scale societies (the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample)

        • Results revealed that parasite prevalence predicted measures of authoritarian governance, and did so even when statistically controlling for other threats to human welfare

        • (One additional threat—famine—also uniquely predicted authoritarianism)

          • << how did the collective agriculture of Stalin/Lenin that caused famines end up being reversed, as should it not, given this, become stronger and stronger? >>

        • Together, these results further substantiate the parasite stress hypothesis of authoritarianism, and suggest that societal differences in authoritarian governance result, in part, from cultural differences in individuals’ authoritarian personalities

        • 55:50 - slide of the results

      • 54:00 - parasites -> individual personality -> authoritarian states

      • 57:00 - slide

        • Pre-Columbian population of the Americas

          • 10-100 million - with an emerging consensus of 50 million

        • Diseases

          • Influenza, bubonic plague, smallpox, measles

          • 1492-1650: death toll of 90%

        • 25-30 million people in Mexico before the arrival of Cortes

          • Fifty years later: 3 million

        • Aboriginal population in Canada

          • 500,000 in 1450

          • 80% decrease after contact

      • 57:30 - cities and interaction with animals promote diseases - aboriginal america did not have either much

      • 59:15 - slide of Population Collapse in Mexico

      • 1:00:00 - Hitler extremely high in openness and orderliness and conscientiousness (inferred)

      • 1:04:00 - slide of nazi order - 1:04:15 - 1:05:50 - Der Jude als Weltparasit - 1:06:30 - 1:08:00 - Hitler’s Ideology - 1:10:20 - 1:11:55

        • << nationalism mixed with marxism/socialism - very similar to white male privilege patriarchy propaganda of today >>

        • 1:12:30 - embodied politics

        • 1:18:00 - order vs chaos - is purity vs disgust

          • << SJWs are inadvertently and accidentally evoking disgust >>

      • 1:08:00 - your fantasies are for your deficiencies