The problematic nature of existing explanations for differential immigrant mortality: Insights from a comparative cross-national systematic review and meta-analysis.

Empirical studies in multiple disciplines have frequently observed an immigrant mortality advantage. Yet, questions remain regarding the possible mechanisms underlying this phenomenon. We obtained data from 61 studies of relative immigrant mortality from single origin-destination country pairings, providing information on immigrants from 77 origin countries. We systematically review the arguments made in these studies about origin-country factors that might influence immigrant mortality and then use meta-analyses to examine the veracity of these arguments. We find that most existing origin-country explanations for immigrant mortality patterns (e.g., health behaviors, genetic characteristics, environmental conditions, and socioeconomic conditions) are problematic or insufficient when accounting for differential mortality by origin country. We identify non-comparative analyses and geographic aggregation as the two major obstacles to understanding the mechanisms underlying the immigrant mortality advantage. We conclude by advocating for a risk-factor-based, cross-national approach.

Symbolic boundary work: Jewish and Arab femicide in Israeli Hebrew newspapers.

We analyze 391 news reports in Israeli newspapers between 2013 and 2015, covering murders of women and their family members by other family members and intimate partners. We compare articles where the perpetrators and victims are Jewish to those where the perpetrators and victims are Palestinian citizens of Israel (henceforth PCI). We found that articles tend to provide much more details about Jewish culprits than about PCI ones. As for ascribed motives, most murder cases by Jews were framed as an outcome of individual personality or the pathology of the culprit. Conversely, when Palestinian citizens were the killers, culture and tradition were invoked as the main motives. We suggest that the routine work of narration that the Israeli media preform when covering femicide is a case of political use of cultural stereotypes to gain moral ground in the intractable conflict between Jews and Palestinians.

Financial Stress, Unemployment, and Suicide - A Meta-Analysis.

Background: Socioeconomic factors such as financial stress and unemployment are known predictors of suicide. However, no large-scale meta-analyses exist. Aims: Determine the suicide risk following unemployment or financial stress. Method: Literature searched through July 31, 2021. Robust meta-analysis and metaregression of the risk of suicide following financial stress (23 studies) or unemployment (43 studies), from 20 nations. Subgroup meta-analyses by sex, age, year, country, and methodology. Results: The suicide risk following financial stress or unemployment was not significantly elevated among those with diagnosed mental illness. In the general population, we found significantly elevated suicide risks for financial stress (RR: 1.742; 95% CI: 1.339, -2.266) and unemployment (RR: 1.874; CI: 1.501, -2.341). However, neither was significant among studies controlling for physical/mental health (perhaps partially due to lower statistical power). We observed no significant differences by sex, age, or by GDP. We observed a higher suicide risk following unemployment in more recent years. Limitations: Publication bias was evident. We could not examine some individual-level characteristics, most notably the severity/duration of unemployment/financial stress. Heterogeneity was high for some meta-analyses. Studies from non-OECD countries are under-represented. Conclusion: After accounting for physical/mental health, financial stress and unemployment weakly associated with suicide, and the associations may be nonsignificant.

"This is a political movement, friend": Why "incels" support violence.

How do members of extremist groups think about violence conducted by individual members on the group's behalf? We examine the link between extremism-motivated violence and extremist groups through a case study of misogynist incels, a primarily online community of men who lament their lack of sexual success with women. To learn how misogynist incels talk about mass violence committed by members of their group, we conduct a qualitative content analysis of 3,658 comments relating to the 2018 Toronto van attack, in which self-declared incel Alek Minassian drove a van into pedestrians, killing 10 and injuring 16. We find overwhelming support among self-proclaimed incels for the attack and violence more generally. Incels viewed mass violence as instrumental, serving the following four main purposes: garnering increased attention, exacting revenge, reinforcing masculinity, and generating political change. Our findings indicate the need to examine misogynist incels as a potential terrorist group and male supremacism as a basis for terrorism.

"It Will Ruin His Career": Does Violence Against Women Really Damage the Careers of NBA Players?

Arrests for acts of violence against women are a common occurrence for professional athletes, including National Basketball Association (NBA) players. Many sports fans, players, and those involved in professional sport believe that arrests for acts of violence against women, whether they result in a conviction or not, are highly detrimental to an athlete's career. We matched all 30 NBA players arrested for acts of violence against women between 2000 and 2016 with similar players who were not arrested and examined the effects of the arrest on postarrest average annual salary and career longevity. We found no significant difference between arrested players' careers and the careers of nonarrested counterparts. From a social learning perspective, this lack of punishment or loss of reward could be an important factor in continued acts of violence against women among NBA athletes.

The Effects of Ethno-cultural Origin-Destination Interactions on Immigrants' Longevity.

A large body of research has documented an immigrant mortality advantage. However, we still do not know enough about how interactions between the characteristics of origin and destinations countries shape variabilities in immigrants' experiences and health. In this paper, we examine the effects of ethno-cultural similarities and differences between the country of origin and the country of destination on immigrants' longevity. We use meta-regression methods to examine data on 78 origin and 16 destination countries (1092 risk estimates from 69 studies). In contrast to expectations from approaches that focus on immigration/acculturation stress, we found that a shared official linguistic family, moving to a country where one is not likely to be considered a visible minority, and more integrative immigration policies actually reduce or even eliminate the immigrant mortality advantage. We discuss potential explanations for these findings and argue that selection mechanisms provide a better account.

Who Seeks Aggression in Pornography? Findings from Interviews with Viewers.

Despite the recent proliferation of research on aggression in pornography, we still know relatively little about the preferences and perceptions of viewers themselves. In particular, very little research has examined how women who watch pornography feel when encountering aggression toward women. To explore this question, we conducted interviews with 122 regular pornography viewers (61 women, 60 men, and 1 gender-diverse). Quantitative and qualitative analyses of the data show that the majority of both men and women reported that they did not enjoy aggressive content. However, in contrast to common conceptions among most scholars and pundits, it was women, not men, who were more likely to report being aroused by aggression, mainly consensual aggression toward women, which was perceived as pleasurable. Women were also more likely to report actively seeking for aggression and wanting to see more aggression in mainstream pornography. These findings challenge long-held radical feminist views regarding the preferences of both women and men and offer new insights on the relationship between gender and sexual fantasies.

Racial stereotyping of indigenous people in the Canadian media: A comparative analysis of two water pollution incidents.

This article examines the discourse surrounding issues affecting Indigenous peoples within the Canadian mainstream media. We compare the coverage of two cases of water poisonings-one in a primarily-white town and the other in an Indigenous community-in 282 newspaper articles from the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, the National Post, and Windspeaker. We show that the dominant coverage of these two very similar cases diverged significantly. The Indigenous workers in charge of the water supply were regarded as incompetent and incapable to fill their position while the entire community was described as drunk, lazy, helpless, and perpetually dependent on government aide. By contrast, white workers were seen as relatable and in command of their erroneous actions, while the residents of the town were described simply as the victims of an unfortunate tragedy. Such reporting fails to contextualize the events or point out the injustices of Canadian colonialism, thus contributing to the perpetuation of these injustices.

Cet article examine le discours sur les questions touchant les peuples autochtones dans les médias grand public canadiens. Nous comparons la couverture de deux cas d'intoxication par l'eau - l'un dans une ville principalement blanche et l'autre dans une communauté autochtone - dans 282 articles de journaux du Toronto Star, du Globe and Mail, du National Post et de Windspeaker. Nous montrons que la couverture dominante de ces deux cas très similaires a divergé de manière significative. Les travailleurs autochtones chargés de l'approvisionnement en eau étaient considérés comme incompétents et incapables de remplir leur poste, tandis que toute la communauté était décrite comme ivre, paresseuse, impuissante et perpétuellement dépendante de l'aide du gouvernement. En revanche, les travailleurs blancs étaient perçus comme pouvant être racontés et maîtrisant leurs actions erronées, tandis que les habitants de la ville étaient simplement décrits comme les victimes d'une tragédie malheureuse. De tels reportages ne parviennent pas à contextualiser les événements ou à souligner les injustices du colonialisme canadien, contribuant ainsi à la perpétuation de ces injustices.

Aggression and Pleasure in Opposite-Sex and Same-Sex Mainstream Online Pornography: A Comparative Content Analysis of Dyadic Scenes.

Existing research on aggression in online pornography is almost exclusively based on pornography featuring heterosexual sex. Pornography featuring sex between two men or between two women has received comparatively little scholarly attention, despite its growing industry presence and revenue. To our knowledge, no study has focused on comparing the aggressive content of different-sex and same-sex mainstream online pornography. To address this gap, we utilized a sample of 210 popular videos uploaded to Pornhub over the last decade. This sample consisted of three major categories: "gay" (male/male; n = 70), "lesbian" (female/female; n = 70), and "most-watched of all time" (male/female; n = 70). Our findings show that there are both more displays of aggression and more displays of affection and pleasure in same-sex online pornographic videos, relative to different-sex videos. We discuss the relevance and limits of dominant sexual and gender scripts when analyzing across subgenres of mainstream online pornography.

Climate shock: Moving to colder climates and immigrant mortality.

Research shows that immigrants often have lower mortality rates than native-born residents in their countries of destination. However, it is unclear whether this mortality advantage holds for all immigrant groups. Specifically, considering the epidemiological research on the potential negative health effects of cold weather, we examine here whether relative mortality is moderated by differences in climate between origin and destination countries. We conducted a meta-regression analysis on 890 rate ratios from 55 publications, comparing all-cause and cardiovascular mortality of immigrants from 70 different countries and native populations in 12 destination countries. We found that immigrants who move between countries with a relatively similar climate experience a mortality advantage. However, those who move from a warmer to a colder climate do not. In fact, they have higher cardiovascular mortality rates when compared to the native population.

"Harder and Harder"? Is Mainstream Pornography Becoming Increasingly Violent and Do Viewers Prefer Violent Content?

It is a common notion among many scholars and pundits that the pornography industry becomes "harder and harder" with every passing year. Some have suggested that porn viewers, who are mostly men, become desensitized to "soft" pornography, and producers are happy to generate videos that are more hard core, resulting in a growing demand for and supply of violent and degrading acts against women in mainstream pornographic videos. We examined this accepted wisdom by utilizing a sample of 269 popular videos uploaded to PornHub over the past decade. More specifically, we tested two related claims: (1) aggressive content in videos is on the rise and (2) viewers prefer such content, reflected in both the number of views and the rankings for videos containing aggression. Our results offer no support for these contentions. First, we did not find any consistent uptick in aggressive content over the past decade; in fact, the average video today contains shorter segments showing aggression. Second, videos containing aggressive acts are both less likely to receive views and less likely to be ranked favorably by viewers, who prefer videos where women clearly perform pleasure.

Gender, Race, and Aggression in Mainstream Pornography.

The role of aggression in pornographic videos has been at the heart of many theoretical debates and empirical studies over the last four decades, with rates of reported aggression ranging widely. However, the interaction between gender and race in the production of aggressive pornographic contents remains understudied and undertheorized. We conducted a study of 172 popular free Internet pornographic videos, exploring gender and racial interactions and the depictions of men and women from various ethnic and racial groups in online pornography. Contrary to our theoretical expectations and to the findings of previous research, we found that videos featuring Black women were less likely to depict aggression than those featuring White women, while videos featuring Asian and Latina women were more likely to depict aggression. Our findings call for a reconceptualization of the role of race and ethnicity in pornography.

Age, Aggression, and Pleasure in Popular Online Pornographic Videos.

This article analyzes the content of 172 popular videos from the pornographic website PornHub.com . Although I found no difference between the levels of aggression in videos featuring teenage performers and those featuring adult performers, the former were more likely to have a title that suggests aggression and to include anal penetration and facial ejaculation. In addition, although all female performers were more likely to express pleasure following aggression, this association was stronger in videos featuring teenage performers. These videos portray aggression and degradation as both consensual- i.e., men dominating willing women-and sensual- i.e., producing pleasure for both men and women.

Racial and gender differences in missing children's recovery chances.

We inquire whether there are race and gender differences in the recovery of missing children. We argue that race and gender differences may arise due to differential media attention, socio-economic background and police resources. Datasets used in previous research lack the representativeness and longitudinal character necessary for probing victim demographic effects on recovery success. Here we use official New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services records of all children reported missing in the period 2007-2010 containing exact dates of disappearance and recovery. In event-history analysis of these data we find that missing boys and girls have comparable daily recovery chances. Black children, however, on average remain missing longer and are more likely to still be missing by the end of our observation period than non-black children.

Effectiveness of child restraints and booster legislation in Israel.

INTRODUCTION: 96 countries in the world have enacted child restraints and booster legislation (CRBL). Yet, findings regarding the effectiveness of CRBLs are mixed. The current study is the first to examine the association between Israel's CRBL, implemented in November 2004, and the traffic injury and fatality rates among children aged 0-9 years. We extend on previous studies by accounting for risk exposure and by comparing populations of children affected by the legislation to those who were not. METHODS: We used an interrupted time series design of kilometre driven-based traffic injury rates for children aged 0-4 years and children aged 5-9 years using childred aged 10-14 years as a comparison group. We estimated the effects of Israel's CRBL using monthly injury and fatality count data from the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics. The sample includes all child vehicle occupants injured and killed in crashes in Israel between January 2003 and December 2011. RESULTS: Children aged 0-4 years experienced a 5.17% yearly reduction in traffic injury rate (incidence rate ratio (IRR): 0.94(95% CI 0.92 to 0.96); p=0.000), and the injury rate for children aged 5-9 years was associated with a 4.10% yearly reduction (IRR: 0.95(95% CI 0.93 to 0.98); p=0.001). The comprehensive CRBL implemented in Israel was associated with a 6.3% (95% CI -7.2% to5.5%; p=0.001) reduction in traffic injuries and fatalities for children aged 0-9 years. CONCLUSION: This is the first study comparing traffic injury rates per kilometre driven for motor vehicle-occupant children before and after the implementation of the CRBL in Israel.

The "Hispanic mortality paradox" revisited: Meta-analysis and meta-regression of life-course differentials in Latin American and Caribbean immigrants' mortality.

The literature on immigrant health has repeatedly reported the paradoxical finding, where immigrants from Latin American countries to OECD countries appear to enjoy better health and greater longevity, compared with the local population in the host country. However, no previous meta-analysis has examined this effect focusing specifically on immigrants from Latin America (rather than Hispanic ethnicity) and we still do not know enough about the factors that may moderate the relationship between immigration and mortality. We conducted meta-analyses and meta-regressions to examine 123 all-cause mortality risk estimates and 54 cardiovascular mortality risk estimates from 28 publications, providing data on almost 800 million people. The overall results showed that the mean rate ratio (RR) for immigrants vs. controls was 0.92 (95% CI, 0.84-1.01) for all-cause mortality and 0.73 (CI, 0.67-0.80) for cardiovascular mortality. While the overall results suggest no immigrant mortality advantage, studies that used only native born persons as controls did find a significant all-cause mortality advantage (RR, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.76-0.97). Furthermore, we found that the relative risk of mortality largely depends on life course stages. While the mortality advantage is apparent for working-age immigrants, it is not significant for older-age immigrants and the effect is reversed for children and adolescents.

Does counterterrorist legislation hurt human rights practices? A longitudinal cross-national analysis.

In the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, many countries have passed new counterterrorist legislation. One of the common assumptions about such legislation is that it comes with a price: a compromise to practices of human rights. Previous research, looking at a wide range of case studies, suggested that this is indeed the case and that counterterrorist legislation often leads to subsequent repression. However, no large-scale cross-national study has yet assessed this relationship. Relying on a newly assembled database on nation-level counterterrorist legislation for the years 1981-2009, we conduct a cross-national time series analysis of legislation and repression. Our analyses find little evidence for a significant relationships between national counterterrorist legislation and various measures of core human rights in most countries. However, while legislation does not affect repression of physical integrity rights in countries with low and high levels of repression, it is associated with greater state repression in countries with intermediate scores of repression.

"Shades of Foreign Evil": "Honor Killings" and "Family Murders" in the Canadian Press.

This article compares murder cases labeled "honor killings" with cases labeled "family/spousal murders" in the Canadian news media, exploring the construction of boundaries between these two practices. We conducted a systematic qualitative content analysis, examining a sample of 486 articles from three major Canadian newspapers between 2000 and 2012. Our analysis shows that "honor killings" are framed in terms of culture and ethnic background, presenting a dichotomy between South Asian/Muslim and Western values. Conversely, articles presenting cases as "family/spousal murders" tend to focus on the perpetrators' personalities or psychological characteristics, often ignoring factors such as culture, patriarchy, honor, and shame.

The Westermarck Hypothesis and the Israeli Kibbutzim: Reconciling Contrasting Evidence.

The case of the communal education system in the Israeli kibbutzim is often considered to provide conclusive support for Westermarck's (1891) assertion regarding the existence of evolutionary inbreeding avoidance mechanisms in humans. However, recent studies that have gone back to the kibbutzim seem to provide contrasting evidence and reopen the discussion regarding the case of the kibbutzim and inbreeding avoidance more generally (Lieberman & Lobel, 2012; Shor & Simchai, 2009). In this article, I reassess the case of the kibbutzim, reevaluating the findings and conclusions of these recent research endeavors. I argue that the differences between recent research reports largely result from conceptual and methodological differences and that, in fact, these studies provide insights that are more similar than first meets the eye. I also suggest that we must reexamine the common assumption that the kibbutzim serve as an ideal natural experiment for examining the sources of incest avoidance and the incest taboo. Finally, I discuss the implications of these studies to the longstanding debate over the Westermarck hypothesis and call for a synthetic theoretical framework that produces more precise predictions and more rigorous empirical research designs.

Misery loves company? A meta-regression examining aggregate unemployment rates and the unemployment-mortality association.

PURPOSE: Individual-level unemployment has been consistently linked to poor health and higher mortality, but some scholars have suggested that the negative effect of job loss may be lower during times and in places where aggregate unemployment rates are high. We review three logics associated with this moderation hypothesis: health selection, social isolation, and unemployment stigma. We then test whether aggregate unemployment rates moderate the individual-level association between unemployment and all-cause mortality. METHODS: We use six meta-regression models (each using a different measure of the aggregate unemployment rate) based on 62 relative all-cause mortality risk estimates from 36 studies (from 15 nations). RESULTS: We find that the magnitude of the individual-level unemployment-mortality association is approximately the same during periods of high and low aggregate-level unemployment. Model coefficients (exponentiated) were 1.01 for the crude unemployment rate (P = .27), 0.94 for the change in unemployment rate from the previous year (P = .46), 1.01 for the deviation of the unemployment rate from the 5-year running average (P = .87), 1.01 for the deviation of the unemployment rate from the 10-year running average (P = .73), 1.01 for the deviation of the unemployment rate from the overall average (measured as a continuous variable; P = .61), and showed no variation across unemployment levels when the deviation of the unemployment rate from the overall average was measured categorically. Heterogeneity between studies was significant (P < .001), supporting the use of the random effects model. CONCLUSIONS: We found no strong evidence to suggest that unemployment experiences change when macroeconomic conditions change. Efforts to ameliorate the negative social and economic consequences of unemployment should continue to focus on the individual and should be maintained regardless of periodic changes in macroeconomic conditions.