The science behind spite

DB Krupp and Peter Taylor offer twist on evolutionary theory which could help explain racism and other forms of prejudice

2015-04-29

(Press-News.org) Psychology, biology, and mathematics have come together to show that the occurrence of altruism and spite - helping or harming others at a cost to oneself - depends on similarity not just between two interacting individuals but also to the rest of their neighbours. According to this new model developed by researchers DB Krupp (Psychology) and Peter Taylor (Mathematics and Statistics, Biology) at Queen's and the One Earth Future Foundation, individuals who appear very different from most others in a group will evolve to be altruistic towards similar partners, and only slightly spiteful to those who are dissimilar to them. However, individuals who appear very similar to the rest of a group will evolve to be only slightly altruistic to similar partners but very spiteful to dissimilar individuals, often going to extreme lengths to hurt them. Taken together, individuals with 'common' and 'rare' appearances may treat each other very differently. This finding is a new twist on established evolutionary theory and could help explain racism and corresponding forms of prejudice in humans and other species. "Similar individuals are more likely to share copies of each other's genes and dissimilar individuals are less likely to. As a consequence, evolutionary theory predicts that organisms will often discriminate, because helping similar partners and harming dissimilar ones increase the fraction of the discriminating party's genes in future generations," says Dr. Krupp. The new theoretical model was developed using inclusive fitness theory - a foundational biological framework that considers how an organism's behaviour affects its own reproductive success as well as that of its neighbours. "We tend to think of individuals as caring only about what another individual looks, smells or sounds like, but our model shows that the appearance of surrounding neighbours matters tremendously, too," says Dr. Krupp. "This work predicts extreme differences in behaviour between what we call 'common' and 'rare' types of individuals - those that are similar or dissimilar to their neighbours."

INFORMATION:

This study has been published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Investment fears: How does the need for closure increase risk?

2015-04-29

Logic would dictate that consumers receiving new market information would jump at the chance to adjust their investments accordingly. In practice, however, many people associate change with loss of control. They crave the idea of permanence or closure to such an extent that they would rather freeze decisions in place even if, ironically, this puts them more at risk, according to a new study in the Journal of Marketing Research. "The need for closure plays a central role in the way people make decisions," write authors David Disatnik and Yael Steinhart of Tel Aviv University. ...

Measuring customer value? Don't overlook product returns

2015-04-29

When trying to identify "good" customers, managers often ignore those who return products, or might even consider those customers non-ideal, decreasing the resources devoted to them. In the long term, however, satisfactory product return experiences can actually create a valuable long-term customer whose contributions far outweigh the associated costs, according to a new study in the Journal of Marketing Research. "Product returns are no small part of the firm-customer exchange process, currently costing firms about $100 billion annually," write authors J. Andrew Petersen ...

Preventive Gynaecology Special Issue honors memory of deceased pioneer

2015-04-29

The latest Special Issue from ecancermedicalscience is dedicated to the memory of our late friend, Dr Mario Sideri. The Special Issue, "Prevention of gynaecological cancers: in memory of Mario Sideri," consists of nine articles centred around Dr Sideri's favoured research topic. Dr Sideri was one of the first doctors in the world to identify the connection between the human papillomavirus (HPV) and cervical cancer. He served as the Director of the Preventive Gynecology Unit at the European Institute of Oncology (IEO) in Milan from 1994 until his tragic death in June ...

Is quality or cost more essential? The international cellphone market

2015-04-29

As businesses move into international markets, they often do so with a "one size fits all" customer satisfaction strategy. But factors as basic as how consumers prioritize pricing and quality can differ sharply across cultures and economic systems, according to a new study in the Journal of International Marketing. Success will depend in part on understanding these perceptions across cultures. "A company's success abroad will depend in part on understanding how people of different cultures sometimes perceive value very differently," write authors Forrest V. Morgeson III ...

Lack of oxygen in the groundwater

2015-04-29

Jena (Germany) Spring has arrived in Europe with mild temperatures and sunshine. Where just a few weeks ago the ground was frozen and partly covered in snow and ice, it is now thawing. This doesn't only have an impact on the flora and fauna. Thawing results in soil and the groundwater at airports being impacted by chemicals, which are contained in melt water. The reason: Airports have to use de-icing agents during the winter, which end up on unpaved areas and infiltrate into the soils during snowmelt. "Admittedly, airport operators in EU-countries are compelled to sustain ...

Even an hour of TV a day ups risk of childhood obesity

2015-04-29

Children who view television as little as an hour a day are significantly more likely to be overweight or obese and gain more unhealthy weight over time, according to a new study from the University of Virginia School of Medicine. Based on the findings, the researchers say physicians should encourage families to restrict young children's TV viewing to prevent unhealthy weight gain. Many previous studies that have examined the link between television and childhood obesity evaluated the effects of watching at least two hours a day; the UVA researchers, on the other hand, ...

Dust from the Sahara Desert cools the Iberian Peninsula

2015-04-29

Spanish and Portuguese researchers have analysed the composition and radiative effect of desert aerosols during two episodes which simultaneously affected Badajoz (Spain) and Évora (Portugal) in August 2012. Results show that the intrusion of dust from the Sahara Desert caused radiative cooling of the Earth's surface. Atmospheric aerosols (solid or liquid particles suspended in the atmosphere) are difficult to examine for various reasons. Firstly, they remain in the atmosphere for a short time and secondly, their cause may be natural or anthropogenic. Yet there ...

Cytokine may play a major role in multiple sclerosis

2015-04-29

(PHILADELPHIA) - Multiple sclerosis (MS) is caused by immune cells that activate a cascade of chemicals in the brain, attacking and degrading the insulation that keeps neuronal signals moving. These chemicals, called cytokines, drive the inflammation in the brain, attracting more immune cells, and causing the debilitating disease marked by loss of neurological function. Researchers have long debated which cytokines drive the disease and which are merely accessory. Now, a study published online April 27th, in the Journal of Immunology, confirms that the cytokine GM-CSF ...

Erosion, landslides and monsoon across the Himalayas

2015-04-29

29.04.2015: In these days, it was again tragically demonstrated that the Himalayas are one of the most active geodynamic regions of the world. Landslides belong to the most important geohazards. Besides earthquakes they are triggered mainly by strong rainfall events. A team of scientists from Nepal, Switzerland and Germany was now able to show how erosion processes caused by the monsoon are mirrored in the sediment load of a river crossing the Himalaya. The geoscientists used data from two stations along the Kali Gandaki, a river that traverses the Himalaya from North ...

Making robots more human

2015-04-29

Most people are naturally adept at reading facial expressions -- from smiling and frowning to brow-furrowing and eye-rolling -- to tell what others are feeling. Now scientists have developed ultra-sensitive, wearable sensors that can do the same thing. Their technology, reported in the journal ACS Nano, could help robot developers make their machines more human. Nae-Eung Lee and colleagues note that one way to make interactions between people and robots more intuitive would be to endow machines with the ability to read their users' emotions and respond with a computer ...

Scientists uncover the first clear evidence of air sacs in the fossilized bones of alvarezsaurian dinosaurs: the "hollow bones" which help modern day birds to fly

Alcohol makes male flies sexy

TB patients globally often incur "catastrophic costs" of up to $11,329 USD, despite many countries offering free treatment, with predominant drivers of cost being hospitalization and loss of income

The science behind spite

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: