PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Extraversion may be less common than we think

2015-04-06
(Press-News.org) Social scientists have long known that, statistically speaking, our friends are probably more popular than we are. It's a simple matter of math: Because extraverted people tend to have more friends, they are disproportionately represented in social networks--which means everyone's network is more extraverted than the population as a whole.

New research by researchers Daniel C. Feiler and Adam M. Kleinbaum of Tuck Business School at Dartmouth College extends this so-called "friendship paradox" beyond a purely mathematical claim, documenting the phenomenon within the emerging social networks of a new class of MBA students. Not only did the researchers show that extraversion bias exists in real-world networks, they found the effect is more pronounced in the networks of socially outgoing people. In other words, popular people are not immune from the friendship paradox--they experience it more intensely than others.

The findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

"If you're more extraverted, you might really have a skewed view of how extraverted other people are in general," Feiler says. "If you're very introverted you might actually have a pretty accurate idea."

Feiler and Kleinbaum reached this conclusion by studying the interaction of two key factors in the formation of social networks: extraversion, which correlates with popularity, and homophily, the notion that people with similar levels of extraversion are more likely to become friends.

The driving factor is homophily. Because outgoing people connect more often with fellow extraverts, their networks are more heavily weighted with extraverts. Introverts, on the other hand, are more likely to form friendships with other introverts. Their networks still display the friendship paradox, but to a lesser degree.

The findings suggest there is a societal bias toward believing others are more extraverted than they actually are, and that introverts are better socially calibrated than extraverts.

"There's a fundamental assumption in psychology that inferences about social norms are based on the people we interact with. And if that's the case, then we need to consider that our social network is a biased sample," Feiler says.

Kleinbaum specializes in the study of social networks, and Feiler is a behavioral scientist interested in the ways that biased samples can affect decision-making. "We saw this opportunity to ask an interesting question, and use network science tools to speak to psychology," Feiler says.

Feiler and Kleinbaum based their research on the emerging social networks of 284 new MBA students in the fall of 2012. Each student was surveyed twice, once at five weeks after orientation, and again at 11 weeks. Students were given a class roster and asked to indicate the people with whom they socialize. Following the second survey, the students took the Big Five Inventory, a well-established test designed to evaluate personality traits, including extraversion.

For the most part, the data showed what Feiler and Kleinbaum expected--that network extraversion bias exists, and it is more pronounced in the networks of extraverts. The degree of bias came as something of a surprise. "The skew gets really extreme the more extraverted you are," Feiler says.

According to Feiler and Kleinbaum's research, only the most introverted people--just one percent of the population--are likely to have networks that are representative of the population as a whole.

The rest of us view our social world through a distorted lens--a kind of carnival mirror that makes us feel less loved than our friends, and creates the impression that others are more social than they truly are. This could have profound effects on our job performance, relationships and self-esteem.

"There's a tendency to wonder, 'am I normal?'" Feiler says. "And our research suggests that you're probably more normal than you think."

INFORMATION:

For more information about this study, please contact: Daniel Feiler at Daniel.C.Feiler@tuck.dartmouth.edu.

The article abstract is available online at: http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/04/01/0956797615569580.abstract

The APS journal Psychological Science is the highest ranked empirical journal in psychology. For a copy of the article "Popularity, Similarity, and the Network Extraversion Bias" and access to other Psychological Science research findings, please contact Anna Mikulak.



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Women & men have different exclusion criteria for rtPA

2015-04-06
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - After analyzing stroke treatment records, researchers at Rhode Island Hospital in collaboration with researchers from the University of Cincinnati learned that women and men have different reasons for being excluded from receiving the common clot-dissolving drug, recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA). Importantly, more women had very high blood pressures, which reduced their eligibility to be treated with the highly effective drug. The study was recently published in the American Heart Association's (AHA) journal, Stroke. "Although men and ...

Erythropoietin combined with radiation therapy does not improve local-regional control in anemic patients with head and neck cancer

2015-04-06
Fairfax, Va., April 6, 2015--Long-term analysis of Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) 9903 demonstrates that the addition of erythropoietin (EPO) did not improve local-regional control for anemic patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCCa) who receive radiation therapy or chemoradiation, according to a study published in the April 1, 2015 issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology * Biology * Physics (Red Journal), the official scientific journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO). This study is a long-term analysis ...

Can you make your own Game of Thrones sword using chemistry?

Can you make your own Game of Thrones sword using chemistry?
2015-04-06
WASHINGTON, April 6, 2015 -- The fantasy epic Game of Thrones is back this Sunday night, and it is sure to be chock full of intrigue, indiscretions and, of course, swords. The most sought-after blades in Westeros are made from Valyrian steel, forged using ancient magic. But could you make your own Valyrian steel sword using real-life chemistry? Reactions collaborated with cosplaying chemistry fanatic and material scientist Ryan Consell to see if we could blend metallurgy with Westerosi magic. Check out the video here: https://youtu.be/cHRcGoje4j4. INFORMATION: Subscribe ...

Northern coastal marshes more vulnerable to nutrient pollution

Northern coastal marshes more vulnerable to nutrient pollution
2015-04-06
DURHAM, N.C. - Salt marshes at higher latitudes, such as those in densely populated coastal regions of New England and northern Europe, are more vulnerable to the effects of nutrient pollution, a new Duke University study finds. "The heavy flow of nitrogen and phosphorus into these marshes from upstream cities and farms can trigger a chain reaction that can lead to intense overgrazing by marsh herbivores," said Brian R. Silliman, Rachel Carson Associate Professor of Marine Conservation Biology at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment. "Left unchecked, this overgrazing ...

UCLA research links HIV to age-accelerating cellular changes

2015-04-06
People undergoing treatment for HIV-1 have an increased risk for earlier onset of age-related illnesses such as some cancers, renal and kidney disease, frailty, osteoporosis and neurocognitive disease. But is it because of the virus that causes AIDS or the treatment? To answer that question, researchers at the UCLA AIDS Institute and Center for AIDS Research and the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study investigated whether the virus induces age-associated epigenetic changes -- that is, changes to the DNA that in turn lead to changes in expression of gene levels without changing ...

New blood signature analysis may help diagnose Parkinson's disease earlier

2015-04-06
A new blood test may more accurately identify blood signatures, or biomarkers, for Parkinson's disease (PD), according to a new study published in the journal Movement Disorders. The study, conducted by researchers at Mount Sinai and funded by the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, applies a new approach to looking for blood biomarkers for both patients with and without a known genetic risk factor for PD. This paper is the fourth in a series that report new computational techniques to improve the identification of reliable blood biomarkers. While biomarkers--such ...

Saving lives by making malaria drugs more affordable

2015-04-06
Forty percent of all malaria-caused deaths in sub-Saharan Africa occur in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria, according to the World Health Organization. The private sector "supply chain" manages 74% of the drug volume in Congo and 98% in Nigeria where malaria-stricken patients rely on "drug shops" and other for-profit retail outlets to get life-saving medicine. New research forthcoming in Management Science determines that the "shelf life" of malaria-fighting drugs plays a significant role in how donors should subsidize the medicine in order to ensure better ...

Study finds cow milk is added to breast milk and sold to parents online

2015-04-06
A study published today on the safety of human breast milk bought over the Internet found that 10 percent of samples contained added cow's milk. The discovery that purchased samples of human milk may be purposely "topped off" with cow's milk or infant formula confirms a danger for the large number of babies receiving the purchased milk due to medical conditions. These babies are also vulnerable to the risk of infectious disease from bacterial and viral contamination of such milk, which was identified in a prior study by the same research team led by Nationwide Children's ...

Young guns: Study finds high firearm violence rate in high-risk youth after assault injury

2015-04-06
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Two young men in their late teens sit in adjacent rooms of an inner-city emergency room. One is getting care for injuries he suffered in a fight, the other, for a sore throat. When the nurse tells each one he can go, both head back out to an environment rampant with violence, poverty and traumatic life experiences. But, a new University of Michigan study finds, the one who had been in a fight will have a nearly 60 percent chance of becoming involved in a violent incident involving a firearm within the next two years. If he does, it'll probably happen ...

CRISPR-Cas editing of C. albicans holds promise for overcoming deadly fungal infections

2015-04-03
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (April 3, 2015) - By modifying the CRISPR-Cas genome editing system, Whitehead Institute researchers are now able to manipulate Candida albicans' genome systematically--an approach that could help identify novel targets for therapies against this serious pathogen for which there are a limited number of anti-fungal agents. "The ability to engineer Candida albicans with CRISPR technology has changed the playing field," says Whitehead Founding Member Gerald Fink, who is also a professor of biology at MIT. "We used to attack this human pathogen with our hands ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

UMass Amherst Nursing Professor Emerita honored as ‘Living Legend’

New guidelines aim to improve cystic fibrosis screening

Picky eaters by day, buffet by night: Butterfly, moth diets sync to plant aromas

Pennington Biomedical’s Dr. Leanne Redman honored with the E. V. McCollum Award from the American Society for Nutrition

CCNY physicists uncover electronic interactions mediated via spin waves

Researchers’ 3D-printing formula may transform future of foam

Nurture more important than nature for robotic hand

Drug-delivering aptamers target leukemia stem cells for one-two knockout punch

New study finds that over 95% of sponsored influencer posts on Twitter were not disclosed

New sea grant report helps great lakes fish farmers navigate aquaculture regulations

Strain “trick” improves perovskite solar cells’ efficiency

How GPS helps older drivers stay on the roads

Estrogen and progesterone stimulate the body to make opioids

Dancing with the cells – how acoustically levitating a diamond led to a breakthrough in biotech automation

Machine learning helps construct an evolutionary timeline of bacteria

Cellular regulator of mRNA vaccine revealed... offering new therapeutic options

Animal behavioral diversity at risk in the face of declining biodiversity

Finding their way: GPS ignites independence in older adult drivers

Antibiotic resistance among key bacterial species plateaus over time

‘Some insects are declining but what’s happening to the other 99%?’

Powerful new software platform could reshape biomedical research by making data analysis more accessible

Revealing capillaries and cells in living organs with ultrasound

American College of Physicians awards $260,000 in grants to address equity challenges in obesity care

Researchers from MARE ULisboa discover that the European catfish, an invasive species in Portugal, has a prolonged breeding season, enhancing its invasive potential

Rakesh K. Jain, PhD, FAACR, honored with the 2025 AACR Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cancer Research

Solar cells made of moon dust could power future space exploration

Deporting immigrants may further shrink the health care workforce

Border region emergency medical services in migrant emergency care

Resident physician intentions regarding unionization

Healthy nutrition and physical lifestyle choices lower cancer mortality risk for survivors, new ACS study finds

[Press-News.org] Extraversion may be less common than we think