Does Bem´s Psychological Androgyny map on gender or sex differences in faces?

Sarah Bem introduced the concept of androgyny, which disconnects sex and gender and includes a continuous representation of gender. What has not been investigated so far is whether the particular qualities postulated by Bem are qualities of gender rather than sex-associated traits. In the present study, the reversed correlation task as a data driven approach was used to determine the implicit gender stereotypes across the faces of men and women and to create an ideal protoype of feminine and masculine faces. Then it was measured which impressions these faces evoke. Two studies and a pilot study (N=514) were conducted. The present study showed that gender and not sex is crucial for the attribution of social characteristics. Pictures of stereotypical faces have been found to be highly suitable for measuring masculinity and femininity. The continuous properties of masculinity and femininity, as outlined by Bem (1974), are still appropriate to differentiate between the stereotypical ideas of men and women

Measuring individual differences in generic beliefs in conspiracy theories across cultures: the Conspiracy Mentality Questionnaire (CMQ)

Conspiracy theories are ubiquitous when it comes to explaining political events and societal phenomena. Individuals differ not only in the degree to which they believe in specific conspiracy theories, but also in their general susceptibility to explanations based on such theories, that is, their conspiracy mentality. We present the Conspiracy Mentality Questionnaire (CMQ), an instrument designed to efficiently assess differences in the generic tendency to engage in conspiracist ideation within and across cultures. The CMQ is available in English, German, and Turkish. In four studies, we examined the CMQ’s factorial structure, reliability, measurement equivalence across cultures, and its convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity. Analyses based on a cross-cultural sample (Study 1a; N = 7,766) supported the conceptualization of conspiracy mentality as a one-dimensional construct across the three language versions of the CMQ that is stable across time (Study 1b; N = 141). Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated cross-cultural measurement equivalence of the CMQ items. The instrument could therefore be used to examine differences in conspiracy mentality between European, North American, and Middle Eastern cultures. In Studies 2–4 (total N = 476), we report (re-)analyses of three datasets demonstrating the validity of the CMQ in student and working population samples in the UK and Germany. First, attesting to its convergent validity, the CMQ was highly correlated with another measure of generic conspiracy belief. Second, the CMQ showed patterns of meaningful associations with personality measures (e.g., Big Five dimensions, schizotypy), other generalized political attitudes (e.g., social dominance orientation and right-wing authoritarianism), and further individual differences (e.g., paranormal belief, lack of socio-political control). Finally, the CMQ predicted beliefs in specific conspiracy theories over and above other individual difference measures

Pattern Recognition in Intensive Care Online Monitoring

Clinical information systems can record numerous variables describing the patient’s state at high sampling frequencies. Intelligent alarm systems and suitable bedsidedecision support are needed to cope with this flood of information. A basic task here is the fast and correct detection of important patterns of change such as level shifts and trends in the data. We present approaches for automated pattern detection in online-monitoring data. Several methods based on curve fitting and statistical time series analysis are described. Median filtering can be used as a preliminary step to reduce the noise and to remove clinically irrelevant short term fluctuations. Our special focus is the potential of these methods for online-monitoring in intensive care. The strengths and weaknesses of the methods are discussed in this special context. The best approach may well be a suitable combination of the methods for achieving reliable results. Further investigations are needed to further improve the methods and their performance should be compared extensively in simulation studies and applications to real data

Graphical Models for Multivariate Time Series from Intensive Care Monitoring

In critical care extremely high dimensional time series are generated by clinical information systems. This yields new perspectives of data recording and also causes a new challenge for statistical methodology. Recently graphical correlation models have been developed for analysing the partial associations between the components of multivariate time series. We apply this technique to the hemodynamic system of critically ill patients monitored in intensive care. We appraise the practical value of the procedure by reidentifying known associations between the variables. From separate analyses for different pathophysiological states we conclude that distinct clinical states can be characterised by distinct partial correlation structures

Statistical Methods in Intensive Care Online Monitoring

Intelligent alarm systems are needed for adequate bedside decision support in critical care. Clinical information systems acquire physiological variables online in short time intervals. To identify complications as well as therapeutic effects procedures for rapid classiffication of the current state of the patient have to be developed. Detection of characteristic patterns in the data can be accomplished by statistical time series analysis. In view of the high dimension of the data statistical methods for dimension reduction should be used in advance. We discuss the potential of statistical techniques for online monitoring

On the Usefulness of the Conspiracy Mentality Concept

The current commentary aims at defending the usefulness of the conspiracy mentality construct and emphasize its advantages over other ways to conceptualize and measure conspiracy beliefs. In contrast to specific conspiracy theories, items tapping into conspiracy mentality are typically not ideologically laden and are typically neither true nor false. They thus provide a purer measure of endorsing a conspiracy worldview – independent of ideological leaning or concerns of accuracy. Responding to Nera’s complaint about a Black Box definition of conspiracy mentality, the current commentary argues that the current state of the literature goes beyond that. Far from defining conspiracy mentality only in terms of agreeing with specific conspiracy theories, scholars have postulated its constituents (e.g., anti-elitism) and established some associates (e.g., generalized distrust). Whether a more fine-grained approach to conspiracy mentality as a multi-faceted construct will provide more useful is to be conceptually argued and empirically demonstrated instead of merely claimed

Combined Anchoring: Prosecution and defense claims as sequential anchors in the courtroom

Purpose When making judgements under uncertainty not only lay people but also professional judges often rely on heuristics like a numerical anchor (e.g., a numerical sentencing demand) to generate a numerical response. As the prosecution has the privilege to present its demand first, some scholars have speculated about an anchoring‐based unfair disadvantage for the defence (who has the last albeit less effective word in court). Despite the plausibility of this reasoning, it is based on a hitherto untested assumption that the first of two sequential anchors exerts a greater influence on a later judgement (a primacy effect). We argue that it is also conceivable that the last word in court has a recency advantage (a recency effect) or that order does not matter as both demands even each other out (a combined anchor). Methods We report a pre‐registered experiment with German law students ( N = 475) who were randomly assigned to six experimental conditions in a study on legal decision‐making order to test these three possibilities. Results Results indicate an influence of both the prosecution and the defence recommendation, but no effect of order. Conclusion This provides strong support for combined anchoring even for knowledgeable participants and rich case material. Specifically, the data are best compatible with the notion that both anchors exert an influence but each on different individuals. The implications of this finding for theory and legal decision‐making are discussed

Connecting the dots : Nonlinear patterns in the presence of symbolic and nonsymbolic numerical standards

Much like other social and nonsocial evaluations, estimates of numerical quantities are susceptible to comparative influences. However, numerical representations can take either a nonsymbolic (e.g., a grouping of dots) or a symbolic numerical form (e.g., Hindu–Arabic numerals), which each produce comparative biases in opposite directions. The current work takes a fine-grained curve fitting approach across a wide range of values to the investigation of their potential nonlinear influence in the context of a numerical estimation task. A series of 3 experiments (N = 1,613) showed how nonsymbolic standards produce linear contrastive patterns (Study 1), whereas symbolic numerical anchors show a cubic assimilative effect with a leveling off in strength for more extreme standards (Study 2). Sequential contrast from the previous patterns and assimilation to the previous response were found to be present and additive in the presence of both representations but were larger in absence of the symbolic numerical anchors (Study 3)