THE NUZZO LETTER IN THE NEWS
Peer reviewers recently returned comments on one of my academic papers. I addressed their comments and submitted a revised version of the paper to the journal last week. The revised version of the paper, which is titled “Sex of researchers and study participants in Research Quarterly, 1930-1979,” is now available as a pre-print at the SportRxiv server. (Pre-prints are not final versions of papers. They are preliminary versions that are likely to be edited in the future. Stay tuned as the paper progresses through the review process.)
LEADING ARTICLE
Personality and Individual Differences
Abstract: Men’s physical formidability is putatively diagnostic of their interest in facilitating social rules that favor competition from which perceivers infer their conservatism. The presence of this heuristic may be viewed opportunistically by some perceivers who view strong men as interested in enacting social rules favoring competition. Nonetheless, some perceivers, namely more left-wing authoritarian (LWA) individuals, may view such men as threatening to their own pursuit over resources. Because LWA refers to antipathy toward political systems favoring traditional hierarchies and related norms, higher LWA may be associated with an aversion to strong men in leadership. Participants evaluated physically strong and weak men as leaders and reported their individual differences in left-wing authoritarianism and conservatism. Left-wing authoritarianism fostered an aversion to leaders with greater upper body strength. Conceptually replicating previous research, conservative perceivers preferred physically strong leaders, especially among conservative men. Findings highlight how ideological differences influence coalitional preferences, integrating evolutionary theory with modern political discourse.
ARTICLES AND ESSAYS
Sex/Gender
Virginia Advisory Commission for Men and Boys announced
Virginia Coalition for Boys and Men
Democrats aim to create nation’s first legislative committee to serve males
The (Female) Elephant in the Room
The Fiamengo File
Will we continue to pretend that female power does not lead to civilizational disaster?
The DOD Rate-Ratio and Hillary Clinton’s Politics on White Males
In His Words
The Sun
The kernel of truth in gender stereotypes: Consider the avocado, not the apple
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
Abstract: Social perception accuracy includes stereotype accuracy, defined as holding correct beliefs about social groups. The present article examines this type of accuracy in relation to gender stereotypes, defined by beliefs about differences between women and men. After locating all studies yielding comparisons between judges’ stereotypes and relevant criterion data, we extracted their results and/or conducted original analyses of the raw data reported in the studies. Comparisons of judges’ estimates to the criteria yielded high accuracy about the female versus male direction of differences, with 85% of 673 estimates of gender differences aligning with criteria. Consensual sensitivity correlations that assessed judges’ collective awareness of the relative size and direction of the criterion differences also favored accuracy with a mean correlation of .77. Analysis of bias in these beliefs revealed both under- and overestimation of the differences, depending on the type of criterion. This review’s finding of good evidence for gender stereotype accuracy is consistent with the extensive exposure men and women have to other men and women in daily life.
Epidemiology
Single Parenthood, Gender, and Mortality
Demography
Abstract: Despite the well-documented health disadvantages of single motherhood, research on single fathers’ health remains limited owing to scarce data on this growing population. The influence of life course factors, such as partnership history and timing, on single parents’ health is also understudied. Using high-quality register data on the total Danish population, this study (1) compares the mortality risk of single and partnered parents and (2) investigates heterogeneity in single parents’ mortality by considering pathways into single parenthood, repartnering, child age, and episode length. Results show that single fathers have the highest all-cause mortality risk of all parent groups. Cause-specific analyses suggest that they are at especially high risk of dying by suicide or substance abuse. Mortality rates are higher for mothers entering single parenthood through being unpartnered than through partnership loss. Repartnering mitigates the negative effects of single parenthood. Mothers experiencing single parenthood when their youngest child was aged 1‒5 have lower mortality risk than peers who became single mothers of teenagers. The length of time spent as a single parent does not influence mortality. These findings highlight considerable diversity in parents’ longevity and underscore the need for further attention to the health disadvantages of single fathers.
Education
A Cancellation and a Firing at Obesity
Sensible Medicine
DEI-Obsessed Med School Dean Who Pushed Resistance To Trump Is Leaving
Daily Wire
DEI and academic hiring in public universities: An index of university discrimination in Canada
Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy
Executive summary [abridged]: This study conducts a preliminary assessment of academic job postings at public universities across Canada to gauge the extent of discriminatory hiring and threats to academic freedom from diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)…To measure the prevalence and severity of DEI in academic hiring, we reviewed approximately 50 active, academic job postings from the largest public university in each Canadian province. The review was based on eight research questions that each gauge a different DEI strategy—from acknowledging DEI ideologies, to compelling intellectual conformity, to reverse racism (e.g., excluding white males from applying). All 10 universities sampled—and 477 of the 489 job advertisements reviewed—employed some form of DEI requirement or strategy in filling academic vacancies. In other words, 98 percent of the academic postings directly or indirectly discriminated against candidates and/or threatened academic freedom…
Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy
Executive summary [abridged]: We completed a survey of 760 students from universities across Canada, asking participants to gauge their comfort or reluctance in speaking up and giving their views on five potentially controversial issues: politics, religion, race, gender, and sexual orientation…In conclusion, the data from our study demonstrate that students who self-identify with the following five characteristics are the most comfortable sharing their views on controversial topics at Canadian universities: liberal, secular, racialized, homosexual, and gender-nonconforming. Students who do not identify with these characteristics express much higher levels of concern in sharing their views on controversial topics in the classroom for fear of being downgraded in their assessments, shamed by instructors as holding inappropriate beliefs, or facing other reprisals.
HISTORICAL ARCHIVES
The Psychology of the “Foodie Call”
Psychology Today (2019)
When do women date men for free meals?
Conditional mate preferences: Factors influencing preferences for height
Personality and Individual Differences (2008)
Abstract: Physical stature plays an important role in human mate choice because it may signal dominance, high status, access to resources, and underlying heritable qualities. Although past research has examined overall preferences for height, we propose these preferences are modified by evolved mechanisms that consider one’s own height and prevailing social norms. We examined this proposal using samples of 2000 personal ads and 382 undergraduates. Both sexes preferred relationships where the woman was shorter when specifying the shortest acceptable, tallest acceptable, and ideal dating partner. In the personal ads sample, this norm was more strongly enforced by women than by men: 23% of men compared to only 4% of women would accept a dating relationship where the woman was taller. Preferences for the male-taller norm were less pronounced in short men and tall women, who shifted towards preferring someone closer to their own height. This limited their potential dating pool but ensured they would select a mate within the typical range of variation for height. Surprisingly, endorsement of traditional gender role norms was only weakly related to height preferences, particularly for women. These findings highlight the utility of examining how evolutionary factors, including endorsement of social norms, may influence mate preferences.
RUBBISH BIN
International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education
Abstract: This paper utilizes collaborative research methods to present engagements with aspects of drag pedagogy within and beyond a hybrid professional development series designed to support the teaching of LGBTQ+ history and identities within K-12 classrooms. The first three authors on this project designed a hybrid professional development series titled Teaching LGBTQ+ Histories and Identities Using Primary Sources in which the second three authors on this project three preservice teachers (PSTs), enrolled as participants. This article features narrative and artistic representations of reflection generated by PD facilitators and PSTs in which we offer lines of thought related to individual and collective engagements with drag pedagogy within the PD, personal-political commitments toward supporting LGBTQ+ students, and pedagogical possibilities and as we each move forward in their careers as educators and teacher-researchers.
The critical methodology of my academic survival: a personal narrative autoethnography
International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education
Abstract: This article profiles my journey to critical methodologies as a multiply minoritized doctoral student in counselor education. I structured this personal narrative autoethnography using critical in-depth phenomenological interviewing’s autobiographical procedures and two-cycle coding and data reduction. One purpose of critical hermeneutics is “to explore hidden power imbalances and challenge the status quo” and name pseudo-transcendental structures that constrain meaning making and interpretation in order to make the world better. I identify implications for more inclusive and identity-conscious doctoral counselor education by examining my own lived experiences with institutionally mediated disjuncture and disillusionment. To make sense of my narrative, I rely on the scholarship of doctoral attrition among multiply minoritized doctoral students, a Black feminist neurodivergent nonbinary epistemology, and critical methodological theory. These helped not only illuminate and examine the structural barriers I faced but also articulate how critical methodologies provided a means to save my institutional life.
(*My brief comment on this article is available on X here.)
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Fascinating as usual! Thanks Jim. The ones on strength and height were very helpful.
What binds all your "Rubbish Bin" articles is the fact that their abstracts could have all been written by an AI meaningless word generator instructed to use "woke" (for want of a better adjective) terms, yet actually say nothing.
Very reminiscent of much of modern art where the "artist's statement" is the point, and the artwork itself, usually execrably bad, is purely an addendum.