Persistent interaction patterns across social media platforms and over time.

Growing concern surrounds the impact of social media platforms on public discourse1-4 and their influence on social dynamics5-9, especially in the context of toxicity10-12. Here, to better understand these phenomena, we use a comparative approach to isolate human behavioural patterns across multiple social media platforms. In particular, we analyse conversations in different online communities, focusing on identifying consistent patterns of toxic content. Drawing from an extensive dataset that spans eight platforms over 34 years-from Usenet to contemporary social media-our findings show consistent conversation patterns and user behaviour, irrespective of the platform, topic or time. Notably, although long conversations consistently exhibit higher toxicity, toxic language does not invariably discourage people from participating in a conversation, and toxicity does not necessarily escalate as discussions evolve. Our analysis suggests that debates and contrasting sentiments among users significantly contribute to more intense and hostile discussions. Moreover, the persistence of these patterns across three decades, despite changes in platforms and societal norms, underscores the pivotal role of human behaviour in shaping online discourse.

When danger strikes: A linguistic tool for tracking America's collective response to threats.

In today's vast digital landscape, people are constantly exposed to threatening language, which attracts attention and activates the human brain's fear circuitry. However, to date, we have lacked the tools needed to identify threatening language and track its impact on human groups. To fill this gap, we developed a threat dictionary, a computationally derived linguistic tool that indexes threat levels from mass communication channels. We demonstrate this measure's convergent validity with objective threats in American history, including violent conflicts, natural disasters, and pathogen outbreaks such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the dictionary offers predictive insights on US society's shifting cultural norms, political attitudes, and macroeconomic activities. Using data from newspapers that span over 100 years, we found change in threats to be associated with tighter social norms and collectivistic values, stronger approval of sitting US presidents, greater ethnocentrism and conservatism, lower stock prices, and less innovation. The data also showed that threatening language is contagious. In all, the language of threats is a powerful tool that can inform researchers and policy makers on the public's daily exposure to threatening language and make visible interesting societal patterns across American history.

Sex and gender norms in marriage: Comparing expert advice in socialist Czechoslovakia and Hungary between the 1950s and 1980s.

First, we argue that sexuality was central to socialist modernization: Sex and gender were reformulated whenever the socialist project was being revised. Expertise was crucial in these reformulations, which harnessed people's support for the changing regimes. Moreover, the role of the expert in society grew over time, leading to ever expanding and diversified fields of expertise. Second, gender and sexuality stood disjointed in these changes. Whereas in the early 1950s sex was a taboo subject in Hungary, in the last three decades of socialism it was gradually acknowledged and emancipated, along with a discursive push to alter gender roles within marriage. Conversely, Czechoslovak experts paid close attention to sexuality and particularly to female pleasure from the outset of the regime, highlighting the benefits of gender equality for conjugal satisfaction; yet, they changed course with Normalization (1969-1989) when they embraced gender hierarchy as the structure for a good marriage and a fulfilling sex life. It follows that gender and sexuality can develop independently: Change in one is not necessarily bound to similar progress in the other. Thus, third, whereas there was a shared initial push for gender equality, there was no unified socialist drive for the liberalization of sexuality. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Corpo feminino e violência de gênero: uma análise do documentário "chega de fiu fiu" / Cuerpo femenino y violencia de género: un análisis del documental "chega de fiu fiu" / Female body and gender violence: an analysis of the documentary "chega de fiu fiu"

Resumo Historicamente nota-se que a domesticação e a normatização do corpo feminino podem ser reconhecidas como uma estratégia consideravelmente durável e flexível de controle social, cumprindo também com uma função ideológica que pode vir a se desdobrar em inúmeras formas de violência. Nesse contexto, o presente artigo teve como objetivo compreender como o corpo feminino e a violência de gênero são abordados no documentário brasileiro de 2018 Chega de Fiu Fiu. A partir de uma análise de conteúdo temática os principais resultados destacam a objetificação e a submissão das mulheres por parte dos homens que, naturalizados, reforçam e reiteram os assédios morais e violências sexuais que vitimam as mulheres na nossa sociedade.

Resumen Históricamente, se ha señalado que la domesticación y normalización del cuerpo femenino pueden ser reconocidas como una estrategia de control social considerablemente duradera y flexible, cumpliendo además una función ideológica que puede desplegarse en innumerables formas de violencia. En este contexto, este artículo tuvo como objetivo comprender cómo se abordan el cuerpo femenino y la violencia de género en el documental brasileño Chega de Fiu Fiu 2018. A partir de un análisis de contenido temático, los principales resultados destacan la cosificación y sometimiento de las mujeres por parte de los hombres que, naturalizados, refuerzan y reiteran los hostigamientos morales y la violencia sexual que victimizan a las mujeres en nuestra sociedad.

Abstract Historically, it has been noted that the domestication and standardization of the female body can be recognized as a considerably long-lasting and flexible strategy of social control, also fulfilling an ideological function that can unfold into several forms of violence. In this context, this article aimed to comprehend how the female body and gender violence are addressed in the 2018 Brazilian documentary Chega de Fiu Fiu. From a thematic content analysis, the main results highlight the objectification and submission of women by men, which, when naturalized, reinforce and reiterate the moral harassment and sexual violence that victimize women in our society.

Societal perceptions and lived experience: Infant feeding practices in premodern Japan.

OBJECTIVES: A change in how children were treated and valued occurred in premodern Japan, as popularized ideas of an inheritance-based family system led to more careful and affectionate child-rearing practices by lower social-status groups. A number of books were written, advising that breastfeeding should last approximately 3 years. The objective of this study is to reconstruct and compare breastfeeding and weaning practices before and after the transition, to illuminate the impact of documented changes in child-rearing practices on subadults' lived experience. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Carbon and nitrogen stable isotopic data were obtained from 40 subadult skeletons excavated from the Sakai Kango Toshi 871 (SKT871) site (late 17th-19th century, Osaka, Japan). Isotopic results from SKT871 were compared with previously reported results from the Hitotsubashi site (AD 1657-1683, Tokyo, Japan). Hitotsubashi and SKT871 represent urban populations of lower status before and after the transition of societal perception of subadults. RESULTS: The most probable age at the end of weaning reconstructed in SKT871 was 1.9 years (1.4-2.7 years with a 95% credible interval) and was lower than that in Hitotsubashi (2.1-4.1 years with a 95% credible interval). DISCUSSION: The age at the end of weaning became younger after the transition of societal perception toward subadults, and this younger weaning age is inconsistent with written recommendations for the duration of weaning in premodern Japan. It is possible that an increased need for inheritors under the inheritance-based family system led to earlier weaning and shorter inter-birth intervals, but authorities recommended an ideal practice of a longer breastfeeding period.

Like a jar of flies? A study of self-control in an organizational social dilemma with large stakes.

We study the practice of self-control in an organizational social dilemma when the stakes are large, using 47 years of vital census data from 18th century Sweden. From 1750 to 1800, eighty percent of Sweden lived in a simple-structure organization called a bytvång or village commons. The amount of resources a village family received was a function of their size. During this period, crop failures left the population facing starvation. Using autoregressive time-series modeling, we test whether the people of Sweden continued to take steps toward increasing the stress on the commons by marrying and birthing children or practiced self-control. We find evidence that the peasantry-with little education, archaic agricultural practices, strong barriers to abortion and infanticide, and pressures by the Church and State to procreate-were less likely to marry and birth children (in or outside of wedlock) when the quality of the previous year's harvest was poor compared to when it was bounteous. Post hoc analyses support the idea that the reason behind declining fertility after a famine was human decision rather than human physiology. Our findings are consistent with the idea that human population growth is not a social dilemma called a collective trap-which has been the assumption for 50 years. Rather, human population growth may be an individual dilemma-suggesting that members of simple-structured organizations can unilaterally exercise self-control and manage resources through self-organizing.

"A kind of agonie in my thoughts": writing puritan and non-conformist women's pain in 17th-century England.

The relationship between pain as a physical and emotional experience and the concept of suffering as an essential aspect of sanctification for faithful believers was a paradoxical and pressing theological and phenomenological issue for puritan and non-conformist communities in 17th-century England. Pain allows the paradox of non-conformists' valorisation and suppression of corporeality to be explored due to its simultaneous impact on the mind and body and its tendency to leak across boundaries separating an individual believer from other members of their family or faith community. The material world and the human body were celebrated as theatres for the display of God's glory through the doctrines of creation and providence despite the fall. Pain as a concept and experience captures this tension as it was represented and communicated in a range of literary genres written by and about puritan and non-conformist women including manuscript letters, spiritual journals, biographies and commonplace books. For such women, targeted by state authorities for transgressing gender norms and the religion established by law, making sense of the pain they experienced was both a personal devotional duty and a political act. Three case studies comprise a microhistory of 17th-century English puritan and non-conformist women's lived experience, interpretation and representation of pain, inscribed in a series of manuscripts designed to nurture the spiritual and political activism of their communities. This microhistory contributes to a better understanding of pain in early modern England through its excavation of the connections that such writers drew between the imperative to be visibly godly, their marginalised subject position as a proscribed religious minority and their interpretation of the pain they experienced as a result.

Colapso: esgotamentos e passagens das lutas do presente / Colapso: agotamiento y pasaje de las luchas del presente / Collapse: breakdowns and passages of the present struggles

Resumo O presente artigo aposta em um diagnóstico acerca da atualidade: atravessamos, no campo político, uma experiência de colapso, um movimento físico o qual se dá quando um certo corpo esgota suas possibilidades repertoriais - exigindo, assim, seu abandono. Após a narrativa de uma trajetória da esquerda - da Revolução Francesa, passando pelas disputas proletárias pelo centro do poder e pelas atualizações operadas pelos jovens hippies e partícipes do Maio de 68 - chegamos à atualidade. Tratamos de operar um pensamento no qual, além e aquém da polêmica e das trincheiras filosófico-militantes, opera a relação paradoxal entre o ressentimento e a singularização - a tentativa de articular as lutas identitárias e a não sujeição do sujeito a uma verdade de si. Explicitamos tal relação paradoxal com o objetivo de fornecer mais ferramentas para uma clínico-política do comum, que possibilite articulações entre diferentes perspectivas onto-epistêmico-políticas.

Resumen Este artículo apuesta por un diagnóstico sobre la actualidad: atravesamos, en el campo político, una experiencia de colapso, un movimiento físico que se da cuando un cierto cuerpo agota sus posibilidades repertoriales - exigiendo su abandono. Después de la narración de una trayectoria de la izquierda - de la Revolución Francesa, pasando por las disputas proletarias por el centro del poder y por las actualizaciones operadas por los jóvenes hippies y partícipes del Mayo del 68 - llegamos a la actualidad. Tratamos de operar un pensamiento en el que, además de la polémica y de las trincheras filosófico-militantes, opera la relación paradójica entre el resentimiento y la singularización - el intento de articular las luchas identitarias y la no sujeción del sujeto a una verdad de sí. Hemos explicitado esta paradoja objetivando proporcionar más herramientas para una clínico-política del común la cual posibilite articulaciones entre diferentes perspectivas onto-epistêmico-políticas.

Abstract This article bets on a diagnosis about the actuality: that we cross, in the political field, a certain experience of collapse, a physical movement which occurs when a certain body exhausts its repertoire possibilities - thus requiring its abandonment. After the narrative of a trajectory of the left - from the French Revolution, through the proletarian disputes by the center of power and by the updates carried out by the young hippies and participants of May of 1968 - we have reached the present. We try to operate a thought in which, beyond and beyond the controversy and the philosophical-militant trenches, the paradoxical relation between resentment and singularization operates - the attempt to articulate the identity struggles and the non-subjection of the subject to a truth of self. We explain this paradoxical relation with the aim of providing more tools for a clinician-policy of the common that allows articulations between different onto-epistemic-political perspectives.

The end of medical confidentiality? Patients, physicians and the state in history.

Medical confidentiality has come under attack in the public sphere. In recent disasters both journalists and politicians have questioned medical confidentiality and claimed that in specific contexts physicians should be compelled to communicate data on their patients' health. The murders of innocent individuals by a suicidal pilot and a Swiss convicted criminal have generated polemical debates on the topic. In this article, historical data on medical confidentiality is used to show that medical practices of secrecy were regularly attacked in the past, and that the nature of medical confidentiality evolved through time depending on physicians' values and judgements. Our demonstration is based on three moments in history. First, at the end of the 16th century, lay authorities put pressure on physicians to disclose the names of patients suffering from syphilis. Second, in the 18th century, physicians faced constant demands for information about patients' health from relatives and friends. Third, employers and insurance companies in the 20th century requested medical data on sick employees. In these three different situations, history reveals that the concept of medical confidentiality was plastic, modelled in the first instance to defend well-to-do patients, in the second instance it was adapted to accommodate the physician's social role and, finally, to defend universal values and public health. Medical secrecy was, and is today, a medical and societal norm that is shaped collectively. Any change in its definition and enforcement was and should be the result of negotiations with all social actors concerned.

Disease dynamics and costly punishment can foster socially imposed monogamy.

Socially imposed monogamy in humans is an evolutionary puzzle because it requires costly punishment by those who impose the norm. Moreover, most societies were--and are--polygynous; yet many larger human societies transitioned from polygyny to socially imposed monogamy beginning with the advent of agriculture and larger residential groups. We use a simulation model to explore how interactions between group size, sexually transmitted infection (STI) dynamics and social norms can explain the timing and emergence of socially imposed monogamy. Polygyny dominates when groups are too small to sustain STIs. However, in larger groups, STIs become endemic (especially in concurrent polygynist networks) and have an impact on fertility, thereby mediating multilevel selection. Punishment of polygynists improves monogamist fitness within groups by reducing their STI exposure, and between groups by enabling punishing monogamist groups to outcompete polygynists. This suggests pathways for the emergence of socially imposed monogamy, and enriches our understanding of costly punishment evolution.

The sociologist and the state. An assessment of Pierre Bourdieu's sociology.

This paper provides an assessment of Pierre Bourdieu's sociology based on a reading of his posthumously published lectures on the state in Sur l'État. It argues that the state was a foundational element in Bourdieu's rendition of the symbolic order of everyday life. As such, the state becomes equally pivotal in Bourdieu's sociology, the applicability of which rests on the existence of the state, which stabilizes the social fields and their symbolic action that constitute the object of sociology. The state, which Bourdieu considers a 'meta'-ordering principle in social life, ensures that sociology has a well-ordered object of study, vis-à-vis which it can posit itself as 'meta-meta'. The state thus functions as an epistemic guarantee in Bourdieu's sociology. A critical analysis of Bourdieu's sociology of the state offers the chance of a more fundamental overall assessment of Bourdieu's conception of sociology that has relevance for any critical sociological perspective that rests on the assumption of a meta-social entity, such as the state in Bourdieu's work, as a final ordering instance.