Is the perception of odour pleasantness shared across cultures and ecological conditions? Evidence from Amazonia, East Africa, New Guinea, Malaysia and Poland.

What makes an odour pleasant or unpleasant? The inherent properties of the constituent chemical compounds, or the nose of the beholder, driven by idiosyncratic differences and culture-specific learning? Here, 582 individuals, including Tanzanian Hadza hunter-gatherers, Amazonian Tsimane' horticulturalists, Yali from the Papuan highlands and two industrialized populations (Poles, Malaysians), rated the pleasantness of 15 odour samples. We find considerable similarities in odour assessments across cultures, but our data do not fully support a claim regarding the universality of smell preferences. Despite cross-cultural similarities in olfactory assessments, probably driven by odour properties, we suggest that odour availability in ecological and cultural niches bears an undeniable effect on human odour preferences.

Ownership-attributing intuitions are cross-culturally shared.

This study tested intuitions about ownership in children of Dani people, an indigenous Papuan society (N = 79, Mage = 7, 49.4% females). The results show that similar to studies with children from Western societies, children infer ownership from (1) control of permission, (2) ownership of the territory the object is located in, and (3) manmade versus natural origins of the object. By contrast, they did not (4) infer ownership from the first observed possession of an object. Additionally, Papuan children showed (5) an absolute first possession heuristic, whereby they assigned ownership to a person who achieved a goal, in contrast to a person who was first to pursue this goal but failed to be the first to claim it.

Voice-based judgments of sex, height, weight, attractiveness, health, and psychological traits based on free speech versus scripted speech.

How do we perceive others based on their voices? This question has attracted research and media attention for decades, producing hundreds of studies showing that the voice is socially and biologically relevant, but these studies vary in methodology and ecological validity. Here we test whether vocalizers producing read versus free speech are judged similarly by listeners on ten biological and/or psychosocial traits. In perception experiments using speech from 208 men and women and ratings from 4,088 listeners, we show that listeners' assessments of vocalizer sex and age are highly accurate, regardless of speech type. Assessments of body size, femininity-masculinity and women's health also did not differ between free and read speech. In contrast, read speech elicited higher ratings of attractiveness, dominance and trustworthiness in both sexes and of health in males compared to free speech. Importantly, these differences were small, and we additionally show moderate to strong correlations between ratings of the same vocalizers based on their read and free speech for all ten traits, indicating that voice-based judgments are highly consistent within speakers, whether or not speech is spontaneous. Our results provide evidence that the human voice can communicate various biological and psychosocial traits via both read and free speech, with theoretical and practical implications.

Gender differences in the relationship between neuroticism and odor memory.

Given the indications on the relationship between neuroticism and various olfactory functions as well as the emotionality of odor memory, it is surprising that no research so far has investigated whether neuroticism corresponds with odor memory performance. Thus, the purpose of our study was to address this question in the context of gender differences. Participants (73 men) completed the 60-items NEO Five Factor Inventory and participated in 32-items "Test for odor memory". In the separate analyses conducted for men and women, we demonstrated that women outperformed men regarding the number of correct odor recognitions in the odor memory test and had higher neuroticism level than men. Spearman correlation showed further that neuroticism was positively associated with D-prime (R = 0.3, p = .021) and the number of correct odor recognitions in women (R = 0.32, p = .014). This effect was, respectively, moderately (B10 = 5.2) and strongly confirmed using the Bayesian approach (B10 = 8). However, Bonferroni post-hoc correction for multiple comparisons further revealed that in case of neuroticism and the number of hits, as well as D-prime, alpha level was below significance, indicated by p = .006. The correlation between neuroticism level and odor memory performance was significantly higher in women compared to men (Z = 1.8, p = .038), while in case of neuroticism and D-prime, it was on a trend level (Z = 1.5, p = .074). Overall, the present results indicate that neuroticism might be linked to conscious odors' remembering for women, which can be explained by the warning role of odor memory and its connection to limbic structures, as well as by the higher level of neuroticism and odor memory performance in women compared to men.

Validation of the Short Version (TLS-15) of the Triangular Love Scale (TLS-45) across 37 Languages.

Love is a phenomenon that occurs across the world and affects many aspects of human life, including the choice of, and process of bonding with, a romantic partner. Thus, developing a reliable and valid measure of love experiences is crucial. One of the most popular tools to quantify love is Sternberg's 45-item Triangular Love Scale (TLS-45), which measures three love components: intimacy, passion, and commitment. However, our literature review reveals that most studies (64%) use a broad variety of shortened versions of the TLS-45. Here, aiming to achieve scientific consensus and improve the reliability, comparability, and generalizability of results across studies, we developed a short version of the scale-the TLS-15-comprised of 15 items with 5-point, rather than 9-point, response scales. In Study 1 (N = 7,332), we re-analyzed secondary data from a large-scale multinational study that validated the original TLS-45 to establish whether the scale could be truncated. In Study 2 (N = 307), we provided evidence for the three-factor structure of the TLS-15 and its reliability. Study 3 (N = 413) confirmed convergent validity and test-retest stability of the TLS-15. Study 4 (N = 60,311) presented a large-scale validation across 37 linguistic versions of the TLS-15 on a cross-cultural sample spanning every continent of the globe. The overall results provide support for the reliability, validity, and cross-cultural invariance of the TLS-15, which can be used as a measure of love components-either separately or jointly as a three-factor measure.

Relationship between the 2D:4D and prenatal testosterone, adult level testosterone, and testosterone change: Meta-analysis of 54 studies.

The ratio between the hands' second to the fourth finger (2D:4D) is commonly hypothesized to result from prenatal testosterone. The 2D:4D has also been hypothesized to relate to adult-level testosterone and, more recently, to the testosterone response to a challenging situation. In the present work, we tested these core assumptions. Drawing from, in total, 54 studies and 8077 participants, we investigated whether the 2D:4D is related to adult level testosterone (44 studies), testosterone change (6 studies), and prenatal testosterone (10 studies). We found no evidence of the relationship between the above testosterone types and digit ratios. Furthermore, there was no relationship between testosterone and the right and left 2D:4D, male and female 2D:4D, and the 2D:4D and testosterone measurement (i.e., measured in blood or saliva). However, we found some evidence that prenatal testosterone measured in amniotic fluid (but not cord blood) might be related to the digit ratios-further studies are necessary to validate this observation. In summary, considering the current state of knowledge, any conclusions drawn from the assumption of the digit ratios as the proxy for testosterone (prenatal, adult level, or testosterone change under a challenging situation) warrant great caution.

Exploring Attitudes Toward "Sugar Relationships" Across 87 Countries: A Global Perspective on Exchanges of Resources for Sex and Companionship.

The current study investigates attitudes toward one form of sex for resources: the so-called sugar relationships, which often involve exchanges of resources for sex and/or companionship. The present study examined associations among attitudes toward sugar relationships and relevant variables (e.g., sex, sociosexuality, gender inequality, parasitic exposure) in 69,924 participants across 87 countries. Two self-report measures of Acceptance of Sugar Relationships (ASR) developed for younger companion providers (ASR-YWMS) and older resource providers (ASR-OMWS) were translated into 37 languages. We tested cross-sex and cross-linguistic construct equivalence, cross-cultural invariance in sex differences, and the importance of the hypothetical predictors of ASR. Both measures showed adequate psychometric properties in all languages (except the Persian version of ASR-YWMS). Results partially supported our hypotheses and were consistent with previous theoretical considerations and empirical evidence on human mating. For example, at the individual level, sociosexual orientation, traditional gender roles, and pathogen prevalence were significant predictors of both ASR-YWMS and ASR-OMWS. At the country level, gender inequality and parasite stress positively predicted the ASR-YWMS. However, being a woman negatively predicted the ASR-OMWS, but positively predicted the ASR-YWMS. At country-level, ingroup favoritism and parasite stress positively predicted the ASR-OMWS. Furthermore, significant cross-subregional differences were found in the openness to sugar relationships (both ASR-YWMS and ASR-OMWS scores) across subregions. Finally, significant differences were found between ASR-YWMS and ASR-OMWS when compared in each subregion. The ASR-YWMS was significantly higher than the ASR-OMWS in all subregions, except for Northern Africa and Western Asia.

Comparing accuracy in voice-based assessments of biological speaker traits across speech types.

Nonverbal acoustic parameters of the human voice provide cues to a vocaliser's sex, age, and body size that are relevant in human social and sexual communication, and also increasingly so for computer-based voice recognition and synthesis technologies. While studies have shown some capacity in human listeners to gauge these biological traits from unseen speakers, it remains unknown whether speech complexity improves accuracy. Here, in over 200 vocalisers and 1500 listeners of both sexes, we test whether voice-based assessments of sex, age, height and weight vary from isolated vowels and words, to sequences of vowels and words, to full sentences or paragraphs. We show that while listeners judge sex and especially age more accurately as speech complexity increases, accuracy remains high across speech types, even for a single vowel sound. In contrast, the actual heights and weights of vocalisers explain comparatively less variance in listener's assessments of body size, which do not vary systematically by speech type. Our results thus show that while more complex speech can improve listeners' biological assessments, the gain is ecologically small, as listeners already show an impressive capacity to gauge speaker traits from extremely short bouts of standardised speech, likely owing to within-speaker stability in underlying nonverbal vocal parameters such as voice pitch. We discuss the methodological, technological, and social implications of these results.

Media experiences during the Ukraine war and their relationships with distress, anxiety, and resilience.

This study investigates the relationships between perceiving media as a positive or negative influence (both news media and fictional media) during the war in Ukraine in 2022 and anxiety, distress, and resilience. Corroborating existing research, our study (N = 393, 47.3% male) showed that there was a clear relationship between the perceived negative impact of both news and fictional media during the war and increased symptoms of anxiety (b = .09, SE = 0.04, p = .024; b = 0.16, SE = 0.04, p < .001, respectively) and distress (b = 0.08, SE = 0.04, p = .047; b = 0.17, SE = 0.04, p < .001, respectively) as well as lowered psychological resilience (b = -0.10, SE = 0.05, p = .047; b = -0.15, SE = 0.06, p = .009, respectively). The study is the first to demonstrate this association for fictional media. Contrary to expectations, however, the perception of a positive impact of both news and fiction was not associated with decreased symptoms of anxiety and distress or higher resilience.

Alcohol and morality: one alcoholic drink is enough to make people declare to harm others and behave impurely.

We aimed to understand if alcohol intoxication affects the willingness to violate moral foundations (care, fairness, authority, loyalty, and purity). We conducted a laboratory study (N = 387) with three randomized groups: alcohol intoxication, placebo, and control, measuring the sacralization of moral foundations via the Moral Foundations Sacredness Scale. The study showed intoxicated participants sacralized moral foundations of care and purity more often than participants from control and placebo groups. It means participants declared more willing to physically harm other people and animals and behave impurely, e.g., doing deviant sexual behaviors or selling their souls. No differences related to fairness, authority, and loyalty were found. Our study helps to understand the decision processes underlying immoral behaviors, including crimes. We showed that even one drink makes people change their judgments about what is right and wrong (in the cases of harmful and impure behaviors), and because this kind of judgment precedes immoral behaviors, our results may help explain why some people under the influence of alcohol break the rules by doing things which they would never do when sober.

Odor exposure and recall of a virtual reality crime scene: A preliminary study.

Environmental context reinstatement has a particular value for recall of information in forensic interviews. Since odors are valuable memory cues and can act as memory triggers, in our preliminary study we explored whether odor exposure can help people recall details of a crime scene. The study comprised 58 women and 15 men aged 22-35 who immersed in a carefully controlled environment closely resembling an actual crime setting, i.e., a virtual reality crime. Participants were exposed to an odor at encoding, recall, both or neither of these instances, yielding a total of 4 experimental groups that further completed a memory recall task. The crime scene content recall was tested in a free recall and a forced-response test immediately after seeing the crime scene and one month later. We found no significant effects of odor exposure on the free or the cued recall of the crime scene. The memory scores correlated neither with the self-assessed olfactory/visual sensitivity of the subjects, nor with the perceived odor pleasantness. These preliminary findings suggest that introduction of a vanilla odor while encoding and recalling a crime scene does not aid witness recall accuracy.

Modernization, collectivism, and gender equality predict love experiences in 45 countries.

Recent cross-cultural and neuro-hormonal investigations have suggested that love is a near universal phenomenon that has a biological background. Therefore, the remaining important question is not whether love exists worldwide but which cultural, social, or environmental factors influence experiences and expressions of love. In the present study, we explored whether countries' modernization indexes are related to love experiences measured by three subscales (passion, intimacy, commitment) of the Triangular Love Scale. Analyzing data from 9474 individuals from 45 countries, we tested for relationships with country-level predictors, namely, modernization proxies (i.e., Human Development Index, World Modernization Index, Gender Inequality Index), collectivism, and average annual temperatures. We found that mean levels of love (especially intimacy) were higher in countries with higher modernization proxies, collectivism, and average annual temperatures. In conclusion, our results grant some support to the hypothesis that modernization processes might influence love experiences.

Typical diet and type of economy do not predict food-sharing behaviors in three Tanzanian societies.

Food sharing behavior is a widely observed phenomenon, and it draws attention of scholars interested in finding both proximate and ultimate explanations of such practices. In the current study, we focused on possible socio-economic and environmental food-sharing predictors: type of economy (i.e., immediate-return vs. delayed-return) and typical diet composition (i.e., proportion of proteins and carbohydrates in typical daily caloric intake). We investigated whether members of three societies from Tanzania (N = 177), namely hunter-gatherers (Hadza), pastoralists (Datoga), and agriculturalists (Iraqw) differ with regard to food-sharing patterns in the Dictator Game and reactions to violations of the food-sharing norms in the Ultimatum Game. We found that neither the type of economy nor the typical diet influenced our outcomes. The results indicated, however, that food sharing behavior was positively predicted by certain individual-level characteristics: people of higher strength and lower body fat shared more food, and women were more willing to share food than men.

Esports Players Are Less Extroverted and Conscientious than Athletes.

The worldwide status of esports as a sporting phenomenon has been developed in the past decade. However, as the esports industry has grown, it has remained an understudied scientific field. Esports is often contrasted with traditional sports regarding various aspects, including lack of physical activity and the online nature of social interactions. However, little is known whether individuals competing in esports-esports players-differ from individuals competing in traditional sports-athletes. To address this question, we examined the personality characteristics of both types of performers. We collected cross-sectional data on esports players' (n = 416) and athletes' (n = 452) personalities and performance characteristics. We found that esports players were less extroverted and conscientious than athletes. Furthermore, greater sports and esports experience was positively related to being more extroverted. Our findings contribute to the literature by documenting the preferences for competitive activities based on individuals' personality characteristics. We suggest that esports (rather than sports) might be a more suitable form of competition for less extroverted and conscientious individuals.

The Role of Victim's Resilience and Self-Esteem in Experiencing Internet Hate.

Despite the growing prevalence of research on Internet hate, little is still known about the psychological factors that differentiate those who are negatively affected by being subjected to Internet hate and those who are not affected at all or only to a small degree. In the present studies, we aimed to verify if resilience and self-esteem could be predictors of such responses. A total of 60 public figures (politicians, athletes, and artists; 46.7% women) and 1128 ordinary Internet users (25.1% women) participated in the study. Participants completed The Brief Resilience Scale, The Self-Esteem Scale, and The Internet Hate Concern Scale, which was created for this study, and determined how often they experience hate online. The results showed that the public figures experience Internet hate more often but were less concerned with it than the ordinary Internet users, who received online hate less often, but were more worried about it. In both groups, high self-esteem and high resilience were negative predictors of greater concern with received online hate. Our study is the first step to understanding what makes the difference between people who cope well and are not particularly concerned, and people who are greatly affected by received Internet hate.

Do Voice-Based Judgments of Socially Relevant Speaker Traits Differ Across Speech Types?

PURPOSE: The human voice is a powerful and evolved social tool, with hundreds of studies showing that nonverbal vocal parameters robustly influence listeners' perceptions of socially meaningful speaker traits, ranging from perceived gender and age to attractiveness and trustworthiness. However, these studies have utilized a wide variety of voice stimuli to measure listeners' voice-based judgments of these traits. Here, in the largest scale study known to date, we test whether listeners judge the same unseen speakers differently depending on the complexity of the neutral speech stimulus, from single vowel sounds to a full paragraph. METHOD: In a playback experiment testing 2,618 listeners, we examine whether commonly studied voice-based judgments of attractiveness, trustworthiness, dominance, likability, femininity/masculinity, and health differ if listeners hear isolated vowels, a series of vowels, single words, single sentences (greeting), counting from 1 to 10, or a full paragraph recited aloud (Rainbow Passage), recorded from the same 208 men and women. Data were collected using a custom-designed interface in which vocalizers and traits were randomly assigned to raters. RESULTS: Linear-mixed models show that the type of voice stimulus does indeed consistently affect listeners' judgments. Overall, ratings of attractiveness, trustworthiness, dominance, likability, health, masculinity among men, and femininity among women increase as speech duration increases. At the same time, speaker-level regression analyses show that interindividual differences in perceived speaker traits are largely preserved across voice stimuli, especially among those of a similar duration. CONCLUSIONS: Socially relevant perceptions of speakers are not wholly changed but rather moderated by the length of their speech. Indeed, the same vocalizer is perceived in a similar way regardless of which neutral statements they speak, with the caveat that longer utterances explain the most shared variance in listeners' judgments and elicit the highest ratings on all traits, possibly by providing additional nonverbal information to listeners. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.21158890.

Reply to Semin et al. Can Humans Discriminate Horse 'Fear' Chemosignals from Control Chemosignals? Comment on "Sabiniewicz et al. A Preliminary Investigation of Interspecific Chemosensory Communication of Emotions: Can Humans (Homo sapiens) Recognise Fear- and Non-Fear Body Odour from Horses (Equus ferus caballus). Animals 2021, 11, 3499".

Whereas several recent studies demonstrated that some animal species are able to recognize human emotions based on information from body odor [...].