On the food favoritism of twins

In the present study, there is a continuation of the authors' earlier investigations concerning food preference/refusal patterns in a group of Hungarian adult MZ and DZ twin pairs. A "Food Like/Dislike Chart" (FLDC), adapted to local nutritional habits, was applied. In order to characterize the degree of intra-pair concordance referring to the food favoritism, the concept of the "Taste Concordance Point" (TCP) was introduced. On the basis of the comparison of the TCP values obtained for the MZ and DZ pairs the conclusion can be drawn that gustatory habits are presumably influenced also by genetic factors. The results allow the possibility of applying TCP to testing zygosity.     

Intergroup bias in third-party punishment stems from both ingroup favoritism and outgroup discrimination

Social norms pervade almost every aspect of social interaction. If they are violated, not only legal institutions, but other members of society as well, punish, i.e., inflict costs on the wrongdoer. Sanctioning occurs even when the punishers themselves were not harmed directly and even when it is costly for them. There is evidence for intergroup bias in this third-party punishment: third-parties, who share group membership with victims, punish outgroup perpetrators more harshly than ingroup perpetrators. However, it is unknown whether a discriminatory treatment of outgroup perpetrators (outgroup discrimination) or a preferential treatment of ingroup perpetrators (ingroup favoritism) drives this bias. To answer this question, the punishment of outgroup and ingroup perpetrators must be compared to a baseline, i.e., unaffiliated perpetrators. By applying a costly punishment game, we found stronger punishment of outgroup versus unaffiliated perpetrators and weaker punishment of ingroup versus unaffiliated perpetrators. This demonstrates that both ingroup favoritism and outgroup discrimination drive intergroup bias in third-party punishment of perpetrators that belong to distinct social groups.     

Against Fairness

The book, Against Fairness, by philosopher Stephen T. Asma is reviewed. Concepts of favoritism and justice are explored.     

Emotional disturbance in unplanned versus planned children.

In 2 studies, 2 samples of planned and unplanned children (mean ages, 13.45 and 13.27), matched for education and divided into middle and lower class, were compared for emotional disturbances. Also, in the 2nd study, mothers were compared for neuroticism and attitudes to the child, and family size was determined. The comparisons were made on the basis of personality inventories completed by the children, questionnaires completed by their teachers, and personality and attitude surveys taken by their mothers. Hypotheses were: 1) unplanned children would be significantly more emotionally disturbed than planned ones (confirmed), 2) mothers of unplanned children would be significantly more neurotic and rejecting than mothers of planned ones (not confirmed), 3) unplanned children would belong to significantly larger families (confirmed). Unplanned children scored higher for emotional disturbance, particularly the lower class children; it is suggested that the greater the adversity of circumstance of the family, the more negative the effects of unplanned status will be on emotional adjustment.     

关于非人灵长类的公正行为的研究

人类关注公正, 非人灵长类也表现出公正行为。本文先以现有研究资料为基础, 以理毛为例分析后认为, 非人灵长类关注投入—收益的对称性, 说明它们可能具备不公正规避这一心理特质; 关于非人灵长类公正行为的实验也表明, 它们不仅比较自身的投入—收益对称性, 而且能在社会比较过程中与其它个体相比。有实验得出期望假设和挫折效应能更好地解释被试的行为, 本文认为, 这些实验结论不一致的主要原因, 是研究者未充分考虑"投入"对被试行为的影响。文章在最后进行了总结并提出了三点研究展望。     

HIV-infected children in Croatia--medical care versus ethical and social issues

The era of pediatric HIV-infection in Croatia began in 1987 when the first child from an HIV-infected mother was born. The authors present some medical data of children diagnosed as HIV-infected or observed because of maternal HIV-infection in Croatia until the end of 2005. Although the number of HN-infected children in Croatia is still relatively small, in the last two decades the Croatian society was confronted with many ethical and social issues regarding HIV-infection and discrimination. There were many obstacles in providing proper care and integrating HIV-infected children in the Croatian society. Stigmatisation, fear and lack of knowledge were major contributors. For the first time, the integration of an HIV-infected child with revealed HIV-status into school was described. Changes in attitudes towards HIV-infected people can only be achieved through planned permanent educational programs.     

Fairness modulates non-conscious facial mimicry in women

In societies with high cooperation demands, implicit consensus on social norms enables successful human coexistence. Mimicking other people's actions and emotions has been proposed as a means to synchronize behaviour, thereby enhancing affiliation. Mimicry has long been thought to be reflexive, but it has recently been suggested that mimicry might also be motivationally driven. Here, we show during an economic bargaining game that automatic happy mimicry of those making unfair offers disappears. After the bargaining game, when the proposers have acquired either a fair or unfair reputation, we observe increased angry mimicry of proposers with an unfair reputation and decreased angry mimicry of fair proposers. These findings provide direct empirical evidence that non-conscious mimicry is modulated by fairness. We interpret the present results as reflecting that facial mimicry in women functions conditionally, dependent on situational demands.     

Comparison of human versus porcine insulin in treatment of diabetes in children.

The blood glucose control obtained when using semi-synthetic monocomponent human insulin (insulin A) was compared with that using standard monocomponent porcine insulin (insulin B) in 14 children in a double blind crossover study. At the start of the study age, duration of diabetes, insulin dose, and daily carbohydrate intake were the same in both groups. After a one month run in period of standard treatment with porcine insulin the children were randomly divided into group 1 (three months of insulin A followed by three months of insulin B) and group 2 (three months of insulin B followed by three months of insulin A). During each treatment period blood glucose control was assessed by clinical symptoms, glycosylated haemoglobin, and home blood glucose monitoring. Although a significant difference in the period after lunch during 24 hour blood glucose profiles suggested a shorter onset time and faster peak action time of human insulin, no significant difference in the overall diabetic control was seen between the two types of insulin. There was a trend towards improved blood glucose control (irrespective of insulin) as the trial progressed. No clinical reactions to human insulin occurred, and there was no significant difference in the daily insulin dose between porcine and human insulin.     

Suit therapy versus whole-body vibration on bone mineral density in children with spastic diplegia

Objectives:Osteoporosis because of physical inactivity is one of the major complications associated with neuromuscular disorders. The study aimed to compare using Suit therapy and whole-body vibration in addition to selected physical therapy program to improve Bone Mineral Density in children with cerebral palsy of spastic diplegia.Methods:Forty-six patients were classified randomly into two equal groups. Patients in the group (A) engaged in a selected physical therapy program, also besides, suit therapy training program while those in the group (B) received the same selected physical therapy program received by group (A) in addition to the whole-body vibration training program. The treatment programs were conducted three times per week for twelve successive weeks. Measurements obtained included bone mineral density at the lumbar spine as well as at the femoral neck. These measures were recorded pre- and post-treatment.Results:There was a significant improvement in favor of the whole-body Vibration group. Bone mineral density improved significantly at both the lumbar spine (P=.038) and the femoral neck (P=.005) in the WBV group as compared to the Suit therapy group.Conclusions:Whole-body vibration is effective in improving Bone Mineral Density rather than Suit therapy in children with cerebral palsy of spastic diplegia.     

Ideal versus actual: the contradiction in number of children born to Nigerian women

Although desired family size is often different from actual family size, the dynamics of this difference are not well understood. This paper examines the patterns and determinants of the difference between desired and actual number of children (unmet fertility desires) among women aged 15-49 years using pooled data from the 1990, 1999 and 2003 Nigeria Demographic and Health Surveys (NDHSs). The results show that more than two-thirds of the sample have unmet fertility desires (18.1% have more while 52.4% have fewer than desired). It was found that early and late childbearing increased the odds of unmet fertility desires. Also, women with low levels of education, from poor households, rural residents as well as those who had experienced child death were at a higher risk of unmet fertility desires in the multivariate context. The study highlights the policy and programme implications of the findings.     

Fairness expectations and altruistic sharing in 15-month-old human infants

Human cooperation is a key driving force behind the evolutionary success of our hominin lineage. At the proximate level, biologists and social scientists have identified other-regarding preferences--such as fairness based on egalitarian motives, and altruism--as likely candidates for fostering large-scale cooperation. A critical question concerns the ontogenetic origins of these constituents of cooperative behavior, as well as whether they emerge independently or in an interrelated fashion. The answer to this question will shed light on the interdisciplinary debate regarding the significance of such preferences for explaining how humans become such cooperative beings. We investigated 15-month-old infants' sensitivity to fairness, and their altruistic behavior, assessed via infants' reactions to a third-party resource distribution task, and via a sharing task. Our results challenge current models of the development of fairness and altruism in two ways. First, in contrast to past work suggesting that fairness and altruism may not emerge until early to mid-childhood, 15-month-old infants are sensitive to fairness and can engage in altruistic sharing. Second, infants' degree of sensitivity to fairness as a third-party observer was related to whether they shared toys altruistically or selfishly, indicating that moral evaluations and prosocial behavior are heavily interconnected from early in development. Our results present the first evidence that the roots of a basic sense of fairness and altruism can be found in infancy, and that these other-regarding preferences develop in a parallel and interwoven fashion. These findings support arguments for an evolutionary basis--most likely in dialectical manner including both biological and cultural mechanisms--of human egalitarianism given the rapidly developing nature of other-regarding preferences and their role in the evolution of human-specific forms of cooperation. Future work of this kind will help determine to what extent uniquely human sociality and morality depend on other-regarding preferences emerging early in life.     

Sex,Attractiveness, and Third-Party Punishment in Fairness Consideration

Social evaluation of others is often influenced by the physical attractiveness of the person being judged, leading to either a beauty premium or penalty depending on the circumstances. Here we asked Chinese participants to act as an interest-free third party in a dictator game and to evaluate the fairness level of monetary allocation by attractive and less attractive proposers of the same or opposite sex. We also instructed participants to express their willingness to punish the proposers by using a visual analogue scale. Results confirmed that the reasonableness evaluation was mainly affected by the reasonableness of offers. However, participants'' intention to punish the proposers was affected by the level of reasonableness in the asset distribution and by both the sex and attractiveness of the proposers. Overall, male proposers were punished more severely than female proposers. Moreover, the same-sex proposers were punished more severely than opposite-sex proposers when they were physically attractive; this pattern was reversed when the proposers were less physically attractive. These results demonstrate social responses following an individual''s unfair asset distribution can be affected by both social norms and the personal characteristics of the individual.     

Maintenance versus growth: investigating the costs of immune activation among children in lowland Bolivia

Immune function is a central component of maintenance effort, and it provides critical protection against the potentially life threatening effects of pathogens. However, immune defenses are energetically expensive, and the resources they consume are not available to support other activities related to growth and/or reproduction. In our study we use a life history theory framework to investigate tradeoffs between maintenance effort and growth among children in a remote area of Amazonian Bolivia. Baseline concentrations of C-reactive protein (CRP) were measured in 309 2- to 10-year olds as an indicator of immune activation, and height was measured at baseline and three months later. Elevated CRP at baseline predicts smaller gains in height over the subsequent three months, with the costs to growth particularly high for 2- to 4-year olds and for those with low energy reserves (in the form of body fat) at the time of immunostimulation. These results provide evidence for a significant tradeoff between investment in immunity and growth in humans, and highlight an important physiological mechanism through which maintenance effort may have lasting effects on child growth and development.     

The Co-Evolution of Fairness Preferences and Costly Punishment

We study the co-evolutionary emergence of fairness preferences in the form of other-regarding behavior and its effect on the origination of costly punishment behavior in public good games. Our approach closely combines empirical results from three experiments with an evolutionary simulation model. In this way, we try to fill a gap between the evolutionary theoretical literature on cooperation and punishment on the one hand and the empirical findings from experimental economics on the other hand. As a principal result, we show that the evolution among interacting agents inevitably favors a sense for fairness in the form of “disadvantageous inequity aversion”. The evolutionary dominance and stability of disadvantageous inequity aversion is demonstrated by enabling agents to co-evolve with different self- and other-regarding preferences in a competitive environment with limited resources. Disadvantageous inequity aversion leads to the emergence of costly (“altruistic”) punishment behavior and quantitatively explains the level of punishment observed in contemporary lab experiments performed on subjects with a western culture. Our findings corroborate, complement, and interlink the experimental and theoretical literature that has shown the importance of other-regarding behavior in various decision settings.