Charlotte De Backer

Are men universally more dismissing than women? Gender differences in romantic attachment across 62 cultural regions

Gender differences in the dismissing form of adult romantic attachment were investigated as part of the International Sexuality Description Project - a survey study of 17,804 people from 62 cultural regions. Contrary to research findings previously reported in Western cultures, we found that men were not significantly more dismissing than women across all cultural regions. Gender differences in dismissing romantic attachment were evident in most cultures, but were typically only small to moderate in magnitude. Looking across cultures, the degree of gender differentiation in dismissing romantic attachment was predictably associated with sociocultural indicators. Generally, these associations supported evolutionary theories of romantic attachment, with smaller gender differences evident in cultures with high-stress and high-fertility reproductive environments. Social role theories of human sexuality received less support in that more progressive sex-role ideologies and national gender equity indexes were not cross-culturally linked as expected to smaller gender differences in dismissing romantic attachment.

The Influence of Mothers' and Fathers' Parenting Stress and Depressive Symptoms on Own and Partner's Parent-Child Communication

This study examines how parenting stress and depressive symptoms experienced by mothers and fathers influence their own (actor effects) and the partners (partner effects) parent-child communication. Based on the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model, data from 196 families were analyzed, with both parents rating their parenting stress and depressive feelings, and parents as well as children rating the open parent-child communication. Actor effects were found between parenting stress and open parent-child communication, whereas partner effects were prominent between depressive symptoms and open parent-child communication. The results provide no evidence for gender differences in the strength of the pathways to open parent-child communication. Our findings demonstrate the need to include both parents in studies on parent-child communication to enhance our understanding of the mutual influence among family members.

Meat morals: relationship between meat consumption consumer attitudes towards human and animal welfare and moral behavior

The aim of this work is to explore the relation between morality and diet choice by investigating how animal and human welfare attitudes and donation behaviors can predict a meat eating versus flexitarian versus vegetarian diet. The results of a survey study (N=299) show that animal health concerns (measured by the Animal Attitude Scale) can predict diet choice. Vegetarians are most concerned, while full-time meat eaters are least concerned, and the contrast between flexitarians and vegetarians is greater than the contrast between flexitarians and full-time meat eaters. With regards to human welfare (measured by the Moral Foundations Questionnaire), results show that attitudes towards human suffering set flexitarians apart from vegetarians and attitudes towards authority and respect distinguish between flexitarians and meat eaters. To conclude, results show that vegetarians donate more often to animal oriented charities than flexitarians and meat eaters, while no differences between the three diet groups occur for donations to human oriented charities.

Celebrities: from teachers to friends: a test of two hypotheses on the adaptiveness of celebrity gossip

In this paper we present two compatible hypotheses to explain interest in celebrity gossip. The Learning Hypothesis explains interest in celebrity gossip as a by-product of an evolved mechanism useful for acquiring fitness-relevant survival information. The Parasocial Hypothesis sees celebrity gossip as a diversion of this mechanism, which leads individuals to misperceive celebrities as people who are part of their social network. Using two preliminary studies, we tested our predictions. In a survey with 838 respondents and in-depth interviews with 103 individuals, we investigated how interest in celebrity gossip was related to several dimensions of the participants’ social lives. In support of the Learning Hypothesis, age proved to be a strong predictor of interest in celebrities. In partial support of the Parasocial Hypothesis, media exposure, but not social isolation, was a strong predictor of interest in celebrities. The preliminary results support both theories, indicate that across our life span celebrities move from being teachers to being friends, and open up a list of future research opportunities.

From Meatless Mondays to Meatless Sundays: Motivations for Meat Reduction among Vegetarians and Semi-vegetarians Who Mildly or Significantly Reduce Their Meat Intake

This study explores vegetarians’ and semi-vegetarians’ motives for reducing their meat intake. Participants are categorized as vegetarians (remove all meat from their diet); semi-vegetarians (significantly reduce meat intake: at least three days a week); or light semi-vegetarians (mildly reduce meat intake: once or twice a week). Most differences appear between vegetarians and both groups of semi-vegetarians. Animal-rights and ecological concerns, together with taste preferences, predict vegetarianism, while an increase in health motives increases the odds of being semi-vegetarian. Even within each group, subgroups with different motives appear, and it is recommended that future researchers pay more attention to these differences.

The rival wears Prada: luxury consumption as a female competition strategy

Previous studies on luxury consumption demonstrated that men spend large sums of money on luxury brands to signal their mate value to women and, thus, increase their reproductive success. Although women also spend copious amounts of money on luxuries, research focusing on womens motives for luxury consumption is rather scarce. Relying on costly signaling and intrasexual competition theory, the goal of the current study was to test whether female intrasexual competition in a mate attraction context triggers womens spending on luxuries. The results of the first experiment reveal that an intrasexual competition context enhances womens preferences for attractiveness enhancing, but not for non-attractiveness related luxuries such as a smartphone. This finding indicates that women may use luxury consumption as a self-promotion strategy during within-sex competitions, as these luxuries improve their advantages against same-sex rivals for mates. A follow-up study shows that compared to women who do not consume luxuries, women who do so are perceived as more attractive, flirty, young, ambitious, sexy, and less loyal, mature and smart by other women. These results suggest that luxury consumption may provide information about a womens willingness to engage in sex, as well as her views about other women, and consequently, her success in intrasexual competitions.

Blinded by the starlight: An evolutionary framework for studying celebrity culture and fandom.

Seeing is believing. Historically, print media has used visual illustrations to add credibility to their texts. The power of visuals is indeed stronger than the power of words. Even though pictures can be manipulated to not portraying any truth, we more easily believe what we see, compared with what we hear or what we read. Visual representations of reality create the false belief as if we witness the situation; an eye-witness perception translates into an I-witness emotional response. From an evolutionarily point of view, this can be labeled as a mismatch outcome of evolved psychological mechanisms. Adaptations to deal with situations that existed in our evolutionary past are being triggered by modern artifacts that might not be fitness-relevant themselves, but look a lot like fitness-relevant cues from the past. A classic example is, for instance, a fear reaction upon encountering a water hose that looks a lot like a snake. In a similar fashion, pictures, being visual representations of the world, look a lot like personal perceptions of the real world and might trigger mental mechanisms to deal with problems associated with this world. Applying this to understand the worship of stars, the author explains how mainly visual stimuli contribute to the formation of parasocial (one way) bonds between stars and their audience. The author draws on theories from the social sciences (communication studies, politics, and sociology), psychology, economics, and evolutionary biology, first to explain the field of celebrity or star studies, second to address the importance of visuals in the production of stars, and finally to explore why audiences worldwide tend to become emotionally involved with individuals they encounter on screens, with whom any form (or possibility of) physical interaction is highly unlikely.

Virtual gossip

This article explores to what extent the functions of interpersonal offline gossip can be mapped on to the virtual community of Second Life and its subsequent in-world and out-world interactions. A long-term hybrid ethnographic study was conducted that involved recurrent actual and virtual meetings with informants. The main objectives are, first, to look for similarities and to explain dissimilarities and, second, to gain some much-needed insight into how moral life is structured in social virtual communities and how important the role of gossip is. Results show overlaps between online and offline gossip concerning uses and functions. Gossip is important as a means for reputation management; as a cultural learning system; as a sanctioning system; and as entertainment. Just as in traditional offline communities, gossip is a central mechanism to regulate virtual moral life that stretches out to blogs, websites, and face-to-face meetings. Yet, technology amplifies the effects by creating new possibilities such as logging the evidence in order to spot cheaters. This way, in-world gossip becomes an inflated form of traditional gossip. In-depth qualitative study on gossip in 3D social virtual worlds.The study systematically addresses gossip in virtual and face-to-face encounters.In-world functions of interpersonal gossip are similar to offline functions of gossip.Due to technology, in-world gossip becomes an inflated form of traditional gossip.

Celebrity critiquing: hot or not? Teen girls’ attitudes on and responses to the practice of negative celebrity critiquing

ABSTRACT By conducting focus groups with teen girls, this study aimed to explore female adolescents’ responses to and perceptions of increasingly negative, scandal-driven critiquing of celebrities. Four types of celebrity-critiquing cases were selected and discussed. The first research question focused on girls’ reactions towards the presented examples. The results indicated that the girls’ responses differed depending on the type of case involved. Generally, the teens at first were entertained by the comments about celebrities, but disapproved of cases that seemed to be intended to hurt the celebrity. For all types of cases, however, they were quite judgemental in that they quickly blamed the victim. Although they reported that it is unacceptable to humiliate people online, they were convinced that celebrities should be able to deal with comments, even if they were harsh. The second research question was interested in whether the girls perceived celebrity critiquing as a form of cyberbullying. They said this was not the case, because bullying was considered much more extreme. Moreover, some girls mentioned that to be able to label online commenting as cyberbullying, they would need to know the victim in person and see them suffer.

Our food versus "my" food. Investigating the relation between childhood shared food practices and adult prosocial behavior in Belgium.

This study focuses on the connection between prosocial behavior, defined as acting in ways that benefit others, and shared meals, defined as meals that consist of food(s) shared with others. In contrast to individual meals, where consumers eat their own food and perhaps take a sample of someone elses dish as a taste, shared meals are essentially about sharing all the food with all individuals. Consequently, these meals create situations where consumers are confronted with issues of fairness and respect. One should not be greedy and consume most of a dish; instead, rules of polite food sharing need to be obeyed. It is therefore proposed that those who have often engaged in shared meals during childhood will have a more prosocial personality, as compared to those who less often took part in shared meals during childhood. To test this hypothesis, data about frequency of shared meals during childhood and altruistic personality in early adulthood were collected using a cross-sectional survey in Belgium (n = 487). Results confirm that higher levels of shared meal consumption correspond to higher scores on the self-report altruism scale among students.