Self-Deceived Individuals Are Better at Deceiving Others

Self-deception is widespread in humans even though it can lead to disastrous consequences such as airplane crashes and financial meltdowns. Why is this potentially harmful trait so common? A controversial theory proposes that self-deception evolved to facilitate the deception of others. We test this hypothesis in the real world and find support for it: Overconfident individuals are overrated by observers and underconfident individuals are judged by observers to be worse than they actually are. Our findings suggest that people may not always reward the more accomplished individual but rather the more self-deceived. Moreover, if overconfident individuals are more likely to be risk-prone then by promoting them we may be creating institutions, including banks and armies, which are more vulnerable to risk. Our results reveal practical solutions for assessing individuals that circumvent the influence of self-deception and can be implemented in a range of organizations including educational institutions.     

The 1989 Borden Award Lecture. Some effects of dietary components (amino acids, carbohydrate, folic acid) on brain serotonin synthesis, mood, and behavior

This review covers three areas in which dietary components may influence brain serotonin synthesis, mood, and behavior. In the first, tryptophan-deficient amino acid mixtures have been used to lower brain tryptophan and serotonin in normal human subjects for experimental purposes. Results suggest that low serotonin can cause lowered mood and increased aggression, but that it is probably not involved in any simple way in carbohydrate craving. Low serotonin levels can block the analgesic effect of morphine in humans. The second area concerns deficiencies of folic acid, which can cause low brain serotonin and lowered mood. Folate supplements may be useful in some depressed patients. The third area concerns the effect of carbohydrate meals. Although it is well established that carbohydrate meals raise brain tryptophan and serotonin in the rat, and that protein meals lower them, any effects of carbohydrate or protein meals on human brain serotonin are likely to be negligible under most circumstances. Carbohydrate meals can have definite effects on mood and behavior in humans, and there are a variety of mechanisms, other than alterations in brain serotonin, that might mediate these effects.     

The evolutionary origins of mood and its disorders

The term 'mood' in its scientific usage refers to relatively enduring affective states that arise when negative or positive experience in one context or time period alters the individual's threshold for responding to potentially negative or positive events in subsequent contexts or time periods. The capacity for mood appears to be phylogenetically widespread and the mechanisms underlying it are highly conserved in diverse animals, suggesting it has an important adaptive function. In this review, we discuss how moods can be classified across species, and what the selective advantages of the capacity for mood are. Core moods can be localised within a two-dimensional continuous space, where one axis represents sensitivity to punishment or threat, and the other, sensitivity to reward. Depressed mood and anxious mood represent two different quadrants of this space. The adaptive function of mood is to integrate information about the recent state of the environment and current physical condition of the organism to fine-tune its decisions about the allocation of behavioural effort. Many empirical observations from both humans and non-human animals are consistent with this model. We discuss the implications of this adaptive approach to mood systems for mood disorders in humans.     

Risk-Prone Behaviour Under Rules Which Have Evolved in a Changing Environment

This paper deals with risk sensitivity in amount of food, andis concerned with modelling the risk-sensitive behaviour exhibitedby an animal which is attempting to survive a period such aswinter. I argue that, in maximising survival probability, risk-aversebehaviour is much more important than risk-prone behaviour.I also argue that animals in the laboratory will continue touse rules which are adapted to food sources which change overtime. A model of environmental change is investigated. Thismodel predicts that a consequence of change is that less riskpronebehaviour than that predicted by standard models is to be expectedin laboratory studies. The need to learn about a stochasticfood source in a changing environment is predicted to furtherreduce the incidence of risk-prone behaviour. It is difficultto learn about highly variable food sources. This is shown tolead to risk-aversion even when the optimisation criterion ismaximisation of mean long-term rate of food gain. Implications of the general modelling philosophy are discussed.     

Learning rate and temperament in a high predation risk environment

Living in challenging environments can influence the behavior of animals in a number of ways. For instance, populations of prey fish that experience frequent, nonlethal interactions with predators have a high proportion of individuals that express greater reaction to risk and increased activity and exploration—collectively known as temperament traits. Temperament traits are often correlated, such that individuals that are risk-prone also tend to be active and explore more. Spatial learning, which requires the integration of many sensory cues, has also been shown to vary in fish exposed to different levels of predation threat. Fish from areas of low predation risk learn to solve spatial tasks faster than fish from high predation areas. However, it is not yet known whether simpler forms of learning, such as learning associations between two events, are similarly influenced. Simple forms of associative learning are likely to be affected by temperament because a willingness to approach and explore novel situations could provide animals with a learning advantage. However, it is possible that routine-forming and inflexible traits associated with risk-prone and increased exploratory behavior may act in the opposite way and make risk-prone individuals poorer at learning associations. To investigate this, we measured temperament in Panamanian bishop fish (Brachyrhaphis episcopi) sampled from a site known to contain many predators. The B. episcopi were then tested with an associative learning task. Within this population, fish that explored more were faster at learning a cue that predicted access to food, indicating a link between temperament and basic learning abilities.     

Wanting,liking and welfare: The role of affective states in proximate control of behaviour in vertebrates

Animals choose a course of action countless times each day. To do so, they need to prioritise their behaviour within a set of alternative actions and decide which of these actions to perform at any one time and for how long, that is, determine when the behaviour has reached its desired effect. This process has classically been called the proximate behavioural control mechanism. Several aspects contribute to this process: internal and external stimuli, the emotions that they elicit, motivation (wants), behavioural goals, valuation, decision‐making and its modulation by mood, and the assessment of behavioural outcomes (liking). I will address all these aspects in the form of an integrated conceptual model. In the process of behavioural control, options need to be valued, and I will refer to evidence showing that an affective hedonic process in respect to (future) reward and punishment heavily affects this value. Moreover, I view motivation, the force that finally drives a specific behavioural output, as being primarily influenced by affective states or even corresponding fully to them. Given the feedback in behavioural control by (dis‐)liking outcomes of behaviour, I reason that in respect to welfare it is more important for animals to reach proximate goals than to avoid negative stimuli. All behavioural choices are modulated, and I show how mood, a long‐term affective state, can cause such modulation. Proximate control of behaviour takes place in the brain, and I will briefly discuss how current and future brain research may elucidate how the brain computes these processes. Furthermore, the inclusion of affective states in the conceptual model raises the question of the subjective experience of animals, and I will address some of the important open questions in this area of research. I will conclude that neural studies cannot currently provide a detailed and general theory on the algorithms of proximate behavioural control. In parallel to further developing these approaches, I propose to strengthen a refined ethological approach with a focus on the states of “wanting” and “liking” in ecologically meaningful circumstances and with a strong ontogenetic (within species) and comparative (between species) component. I consider this ethological approach to be a highly promising step in understanding proximate behavioural control.     

Who dares, wins

Heroism is apparently nonadaptive in Darwinian terms, so why does it exist at all? Risk-taking and heroic behavior are predominantly male tendencies, and literature and legend reflect this. This study explores the possibility that heroism persists in many human cultures owing to a female preference for risk-prone rather than risk-averse males as sexual partners, and it suggests that such a preference may be exploited as a male mating strategy. It also attempts to quantify the relative influences of altruism and bravery in the evolution of heroism. Our study found that females do prefer risk-prone brave males to risk-averse non-brave males, and that men are aware of this preference. Bravery in a male was shown to be the stronger factor influencing female choice of short-term partners, long-term partners, and male friends, with altruism playing a lesser part in their choice. Altruism was deemed important in long-term relationships and friendships, but for short-term liaisons, non-altruists were preferred to altruists. Heroism may therefore have evolved owing to a female preference for brave, risk-prone males because risk-taking acts as an honest cue for "good genes." Altruism was judged to be a less influential factor in the evolution of heroism than bravery and a demonstrated willingness to take risks.     

Foundations of the Crazy Bastard Hypothesis: Nonviolent physical risk-taking enhances conceptualized formidability

Wilson and Daly’s Young Male Syndrome thesis seeks to explain why young men are disproportionally involved in both violence and non-violent activities entailing a risk of injury or death. One interpretation of this thesis, which we term the Crazy Bastard Hypothesis, holds that the correlation between violence and other forms of physical risk-taking occurs because the latter behaviors inherently index the general propensity to take risks with one’s life. In violent conflicts, individuals who are indifferent to the prospect of injury or death constitute dangerous adversaries, and valuable allies. Voluntary physical risk-taking may thus serve a signaling function such that risk-prone individuals are perceived as more formidable than risk-averse individuals. Prior work has demonstrated that relative formidability is represented using the dimensions of conceptualized size and strength, providing an avenue for testing the Crazy Bastard Hypothesis. In multiple studies conducted in two disparate societies, we demonstrate that physically risk-prone men are envisioned to be larger, stronger, and more violent than risk-averse men. A separate study reveals that such conceptualizations are unlikely to reflect actual correlations between size/strength and physical risk-proneness, and are instead plausibly interpreted as revealing the contribution of observed physical risk-proneness to assessments of relative formidability.     

The impact of natural odors on affective states in humans

Laboratory studies have shown a significant influence of certain fragrances on affective as well as cognitive states in humans. The aim of the current study was to measure the relationship between complex, natural odors and affective states, that is, calmness, alertness, and mood, in the field. In 4 experiments, the emotional impact, intensity, and hedonics of complex, natural plant odors were assessed in 32 healthy human subjects and compared with control conditions involving a similar outdoor environment without the tested fragrant plants. In all experiments, the selected fragrances were evaluated as more intense than the odors in the control conditions but pleasantness ratings differed only in 2 of the 4 experiments. The fragrances improved subjective ratings of calmness, alertness, and mood depending on the sequence of the conditions but independent of visual features of the environment. In contrast, a fifth experiment which tested the influence of natural and artificial pleasant odors and an artificial unpleasant odor on calmness, alertness, and mood in 22 subjects showed that the unpleasant odor impaired these affective states in humans independent of the order of presentation. On the other hand, no effects of the pleasant odors on mood and calmness were observed in this experiment.     

Comparison of personality between juveniles and adults in clonal gecko species

The developmental perspectives of animal personality enhance our understanding of how personality structure changes in relation to life stage. Clonal animals are ideal models for developmental studies because personality differences can be solely attributed to environmental factors. Here, I investigated the presence of personality within a species of clonal gecko, Lepidodactylus lugubris, at different developmental stages. For juveniles and adult geckos, I measured exploration (reaction to a novel situation) and boldness (risk-prone tendency) and evaluated repeatability and correlation of these behavioural traits. Each gecko exhibited different exploration and boldness with significant repeatability through time but no correlation between these behavioural traits. Small juveniles were composed of only bold and low explorative individuals but large juveniles and adults were composed of various personality type individuals. These results demonstrate that subject geckos have a similar personality structure across life stages and that exploration and boldness are independent personality without forming behavioural syndrome structure. Biased composition of personality type between life stages suggests that appearance of different personality type individuals during an early ontogenetic stage generates personality variation within the clonal population. This study provides developmental insight about personality structure and its composition in clonal animals living in the wild.     

The Great Ape Project and Disability Rights: Ominous Undercurrents of Eugenics in Action

The Great Ape Project is an international animal rights movement with the goal of extending rights to nonhuman primates. While the authors of this essay are sympathetic with scholars who seek to ensure humane treatment for these species, they are concerned with the growing tendency by those in the project to draw analogies between nonhuman primates and humans with disabilities. It is felt that scholars in the Great Ape Project, ignoring findings from anthropologists who have begun to study the significant sociocultural matrix that has defined and often limited individuals with disabilities, rely on assumptions about disability that can be traced back to the eugenics movement.
The authors of this essay argue that if scholars in the Great Ape Project want to make comparisons between humans and apes, it should be with all humans. They feel it is both unfortunate and scientifically inaccurate for those in the Great Ape Project to blur the boundary between apes and people by dehumanizing individuals with disabilities, individuals for whom human rights are often the most precarious, [great apes, Great Ape Project, disability, eugenics, human rights]     

The Concept of Human Dignity in the Ethics of Genetic Research

Despite criticism that dignity is a vague and slippery concept, a number of international guidelines on bioethics have cautioned against research that is contrary to human dignity, with reference specifically to genetic technology. What is the connection between genetic research and human dignity? In this article, I investigate the concept of human dignity in its various historical forms, and examine its status as a moral concept. Unlike Kant's ideal concept of human dignity, the empirical or relational concept takes human dignity as something that is affected by one's circumstances and what others do. I argue that the dignity objection to some forms of genetic research rests on a view of human nature that gives humans a special status in nature – one that is threatened by the potential of genetic research to reduce individuals to their genetic endowment. I distinguish two main philosophical accounts of human nature. One of these, the Aristotelian view, is compatible with the use of genetic technology to help humans realize their inherent potential to a fuller extent.     

EMOST: Report about the application of low-frequency and intensity electromagnetic fields in disaster situation and commando training

Recently, we published our results (Bókkon et al., 2011. Electromagn Biol Med.) regarding the effectiveness of the EMOST (Electro-Magnetic-Own-Signal-Treatment) method for the reduction of phantom limb pain under clinical circumstances. However, EMOST treatments not only significantly reduced phantom pain, but that most of the patients also reported about additional benefits such as improvement of their sleep and mood quality after treatments. Here we report some unusual applications of EMOST method under special situations. That is, we report about our effective EMOST treatments of humans under catastrophic conditions and commando training course. This article points out that it is reasonable to apply biophysical electromagnetic management under unique circumstances. We also report some preliminary experiments on 12 members of our BioLabor regarding the effectiveness of single EMOST treatment on some serum parameters and electrocardiogram.     

Intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS) in rodents to study the neurobiology of motivation

It has become increasingly important to assess mood states in laboratory animals. Tests that reflect reward, reduced ability to experience reward (anhedonia) and aversion (dysphoria) are in high demand because many psychiatric conditions that are currently intractable in humans (e.g., major depression, bipolar disorder, addiction) are characterized by dysregulated motivation. Intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS) can be utilized in rodents (rats, mice) to understand how pharmacological or molecular manipulations affect the function of brain reward systems. Although many different methodologies are possible, we will describe in this protocol the use of medial forebrain bundle (MFB) stimulation together with the 'curve-shift' variant of analysis. This combination is particularly powerful because it produces a highly reliable behavioral output that enables clear distinctions between the treatment effects on motivation and the treatment effects on the capability to perform the task.     

Recruitment limitation: A theoretical perspective

Abstract A theoretical analysis of the concept of recruitment limitation leads to the conclusion that most populations should he regarded as jointly limited by recruitment and interactions between individuals after recruitment. The open nature of local marine systems does not permit avoidance of density-dependent interactions; it simply may make them more difficult to detect. Local populations consisting of settled organisms may not experience density-dependent interactions under some circumstances, but the entire species population consisting of the collection of local populations and their planktonic larvae must have density-dependent dynamics. Any local population of settled individuals can escape density dependence if sufficient density dependence occurs among planktonic larvae or within other local populations. Common conceptions of density dependence are too narrow, leading too often to the conclusion that it is absent from a system. It is equally wrong to expect that density-dependent interactions after settlement determine local population densities independently of recruitment. Special circumstances allowing density dependence to act strongly and quickly are needed before density dependence can neutralize the effects of recruitment. Recruitment limitation and density-dependent interactions therefore should not be regarded as alternatives but as jointly acting to determine the densities of marine benthic populations. Moreover, the interaction between fluctuating recruitment and density dependence is potentially the most interesting feature of recruitment limitation. For example, this interaction may be an important diversity-maintaining mechanism for marine systems.     

Demographic constraints in evolution: Towards unifying the evolutionary theories of senescence and niche conservatism

Summary I suggest that there may be a fundamental conceptual unity between two seemingly disparate phenomena: (1) senescence (the progressive deterioration in physiological function and, thus, individual fitness with age) and (2) niche conservatism (the observation that species often seem rather fixed over evolutionary time in their basic niche properties). I argue that both phenomena arise from demographic asymmetries. The evolutionary theory of ageing rests on the observation that the force of selection declines with age, reflecting the basic demographic facts that in persistent populations there are always fewer individuals in old than in young age classes and these individuals tend to have lower reproductive value. A similar demographic asymmetry arises when populations inhabit environments with source habitats (i.e. where conditions are within the species' niche) and sink habitats (where conditions lie outside the niche): there tend to be more individuals in sources than in sinks and individuals in sources have relatively higher reproductive values. These demographic asymmetries should often imply that the force of selection is greater in sources than in sinks, leading automatically towards niche conservatism. I suggest that niche evolution is most likely in circumstances where these demographic asymmetries in space weaken or reverse.     

Cognitive neuroscience and the law

Advances in cognitive neuroscience now allow us to use physiological techniques to measure and assess mental states under a growing set of circumstances. The implication of this growing ability has not been lost on the western legal community. If biologists can accurately measure mental state, then legal conflicts that turn on the true mental states of individuals might well be resolvable with techniques ranging from electroencephalography to functional magnetic resonance imaging. Therefore, legal practitioners have increasingly sought to employ cognitive neuroscientific methods and data as evidence to influence legal proceedings. This poses a risk, because these scientific methodologies have largely been designed and validated for experimental use only. Their subsequent use in legal proceedings is an application for which they were not intended, and for which those methods are inadequately tested. We propose that neurobiologists, who might inadvertently contribute to this situation, should be aware of how their papers will be read by the legal community and should play a more active role in educating and engaging with that community.     

Politics or metaphysics? On attributing psychological properties to animals

Following recent arguments that there is no logical problem with attributing mental or agential states to animals, I address the epistemological problem of how to go about making accurate attributions. I suggest that there is a two-part general method for determining whether a psychological property can be accurately attributed to a member of another species: folk expert opinion and functionality. This method is based on well-known assessments used to attribute mental states to humans who are unable to self-ascribe due to an early stage of development or impairment, and can be used to describe social and emotional development as well as personality. I describe how instruments such as the Child Behavior Checklist, which relies on intersubjective expert opinion, could be modified to assess other species subjects. The measures are validated via the accuracy of the predictions that are derived, which is an example of the functionality of attribution. I respond to theoretical criticisms against use of this method, and argue that if the method counts as good science for infant cognition research, then it should count as good science for animal cognition research as well. Correspondingly, if the method doesn’t count as good science for animal cognition research, then we must be very skeptical of its use with nonverbal humans.

Effects of daily walking on subjective symptoms, mood and autonomic nervous function

It is well known that moderate exercise is beneficial to health. However, the effects of exercise on subjective symptoms in relation to mood and autonomic nervous function have not yet been fully examined. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of daily walking on subjective symptoms as well as on mood and autonomic nervous function in people who take no medication but have some general physical complaints. We assessed their symptoms by the Cornell Medical Index (CMI), and mood states by a profile of mood states (POMS) and a frontal alpha laterality ratio. Autonomic nervous function was evaluated by a supine rest basal level, reactivity to orthostatic challenge (physiological stimulus) and to a self-programmed videogame (psychophysiological stimulus) of heart rate (HR), heart rate variability (HRV), baroreflex sensitivity and blood pressure (BP). Repeated measures analysis of variance showed no significant group (control and walking group) x time (pre- and post- walking period) interaction of CMI scores. In contrast, the A-H sub-scale (anger and hostility) of POMS and basal HR significantly decreased after a 4-week walking period in a walking group compared to a control group. Negative mood score of POMS reduced, and basal high-frequency component of HRV and reactivity to orthostatic challenge of baroreflex sensitivity increased marginally significantly compared to the control group. Multiple regression analysis revealed a significant contribution of A-H to the physical score of CMI, which showed a marginally significant reduction after the experimental period in the walking group. These results suggest that daily walking can improve mood states and shift autonomic balance to parasympathetic predominance, and may consequently contribute to the reduction of subjective symptoms.