Age differences in Machiavellianism across the life span: Evidence from a large‐scale cross‐sectional study

Götz, Friedrich M.; Bleidorn, Wiebke; Rentfrow, Peter J.

doi:10.1111/jopy.12545

Cited by 24 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 105 publications

(223 reference statements)

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“…Following previous geopsychological studies (e.g., Gebauer et al, 2017), we only kept spatial units with at least 100 observations. As is typical for online studies (Gosling, Vazire, Srivastava, & John, 2004), our sample overrepresented female (75.5%) and young (MAge = 31.02, SD =10.29) participants. We therefore followed previous research (Ebert et al, 2019;Steutzer et al, 2018) and applied poststratification to account for this skewed sample composition.…”

Section: Methods and Materials Analytic Strategymentioning

confidence: 69%

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The Psychological and Socio-political Consequences of Infectious Diseases

Zmigrod¹,

Ebert²,

Fm³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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What are the socio-political consequences of infectious diseases? Humans have evolved to avoid disease and infection, resulting in a set of psychological mechanisms that promote disease-avoidance, referred to as the behavioural immune system (BIS). One manifestation of the BIS is the cautious avoidance of unfamiliar, foreign, or potentially contaminating stimuli. Specifically, when disease infection risk is salient or prevalent, authoritarian attitudes can emerge that seek to avoid and reject foreign outgroups while favoring homogenous, familiar ingroups. In the largest study conducted on the topic to date (N>240,000), elevated regional levels of infectious pathogens were related to more authoritarian attitudes on three geographical levels: across US metropolitan regions, US states, and cross-culturally across 47 countries. The link between pathogen prevalence and authoritarian psychological dispositions predicted conservative voting behavior in the 2016 US Presidential Election as well as more authoritarian governance and state laws, in which one group of people imposes asymmetrical laws on others in a hierarchical structure. Furthermore, cross-cultural analysis illustrated that the relationship between infectious diseases and authoritarianism was pronounced for infectious diseases that can be acquired from other humans (nonzoonotic), and does not generalize to other infectious diseases that can only be acquired from non-human species (zoonotic diseases). At a time of heightened awareness of infectious diseases, these findings are important reminders that public health and ecology can have ramifications for socio-political attitudes, and this can shape how citizens vote as well as how they govern and are governed.

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Section: Methods and Materials Analytic Strategymentioning

confidence: 69%

“…The data were collected between June 2017 and October 2018 as part of a collaborative project between the authors and TIME Magazine (see Ebert, Götz, Obschonka, Zmigrod, & Rentfrow, 2019;Götz, Bleidorn, & Rentfrow, 2020), with the approval of the Psychology Research Ethics…”

Section: Data Acquisitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Psychological and Socio-political Consequences of Infectious Diseases

Zmigrod¹,

Ebert²,

Fm³

et al. 2020

Preprint

Self Cite

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“…The rest (N = 51,933) were residents of 46 other nations. The data were collected between June 2017 and October 2018 as part of a collaborative project between the authors and TIME Magazine (see Ebert, Götz, Obschonka, Zmigrod, & Rentfrow, 2019;Götz, Bleidorn, & Rentfrow, 2020), with the approval of the Psychology Research Ethics Committee of the institution (in cluding a waiver of parental consent; application number: PRE.2017.044). The study was carried out as an online survey hosted, launched, and advertised by TIME Magazine (https://time.com/4809884/harry-potter-house-sorting-hat-quiz/) and included two parts, only available in English.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The psychological and socio-political consequences of infectious diseases: Authoritarianism, governance, and nonzoonotic (human-to-human) infection transmission

Zmigrod

Ebert

Götz

et al. 2021

J. Soc. Polit. Psych.

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What are the socio-political consequences of infectious diseases? Humans have evolved to avoid disease and infection, resulting in a set of psychological mechanisms that promote disease-avoidance, referred to as the behavioral immune system (BIS). One manifestation of the BIS is the cautious avoidance of unfamiliar, foreign, or potentially contaminating stimuli. Specifically, when disease infection risk is salient or prevalent, authoritarian attitudes can emerge that seek to avoid and reject foreign outgroups while favoring homogenous, familiar ingroups. In the largest study conducted on the topic to date (N > 240,000), elevated regional levels of infectious pathogens were related to more authoritarian attitudes on three geographical levels: across U.S. metropolitan regions, U.S. states, and cross-culturally across 47 countries. The link between pathogen prevalence and authoritarian psychological dispositions predicted conservative voting behavior in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election and more authoritarian governance and state laws, in which one group of people imposes asymmetrical laws on others in a hierarchical structure. Furthermore, cross-cultural analysis illustrated that the relationship between infectious diseases and authoritarianism was pronounced for infectious diseases that can be acquired from other humans (nonzoonotic), and does not generalize to other infectious diseases that can only be acquired from non-human species (zoonotic diseases). At a time of heightened awareness of infectious diseases, the current findings are important reminders that public health and ecology can have ramifications for socio-political attitudes by shaping how citizens vote and are governed.

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“…Relatedly, our study relied on an online convenience sample. Like other large-scale online convenience samples, the sociodemographic composition of our data was skewed towards females and younger people (Gosling et al, 2004;Götz, Bleidorn, et al, 2020;Rentfrow et al, 2015). As we controlled for the sample composition in our analyses, we can rule out the possibility that these skewed demographics drove our results.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…After applying these selection criteria, the sample included 1,946,752 participants. As is typical for online convenience samples (Gosling et al, 2004;Götz, Bleidorn, & Rentfrow, 2020;Jokela et al, 2015), the demographic composition of this sample was skewed towards females (65.01%) and younger people (MAge = 27.33, SDAge = 11.90).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 90%

Local Housing Market Dynamics Predict Rapid Shifts in Cultural Openness: A Nine-Year Study across 199 Cities

Fm¹,

Ebert²,

Gosling³

et al. 2021

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Accumulating evidence suggests that culture changes in response to shifting socioecological conditions; economic development is a particularly potent driver of such change. Previous re-search has shown that economic development can induce slow but steady cultural changes within large cultural entities (e.g., countries). Here we propose that economically driven culture change can occur rapidly, particularly in smaller cultural entities (e.g., cites). Drawing on work in cultural dynamics, urban economics, and geographical psychology, we hypothesize that changes in local housing prices – reflecting changing availability of local amenities – can induce rapid shifts in local cultures of Openness. We propose two mechanisms that might underlie such cultural shifts: selective migration (i.e., people selectively moving to cities that offer certain amenities) and social acculturation (i.e., people adapting to changing amenities in their city). Based on trait Openness scores of 1,946,752 U.S. residents, we track annual changes in local Openness across 199 cities for nine years (2006-2014). We link these data to annual infor-mation on local housing markets, an established proxy for local amenities. To test interdepend-encies between the time series of local housing markets and Openness, we use Panel Vector Autoregression modelling. In line with our hypothesis, we find robust evidence that rising housing costs predict positive shifts in local Openness but not vice versa. Additional analyses leveraging participants’ duration of residence in their city suggest that both selective migration and social acculturation contribute to shifts in local Openness. Our study thus offers a new window onto the rapid changes of cultures at local levels.

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Age differences in Machiavellianism across the life span: Evidence from a large‐scale cross‐sectional study

Cited by 24 publications

References 105 publications

The Psychological and Socio-political Consequences of Infectious Diseases

The Psychological and Socio-political Consequences of Infectious Diseases

The psychological and socio-political consequences of infectious diseases: Authoritarianism, governance, and nonzoonotic (human-to-human) infection transmission

Local Housing Market Dynamics Predict Rapid Shifts in Cultural Openness: A Nine-Year Study across 199 Cities

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