Study findings linking ovulation, racial bias questioned
Earlier results could not be replicated, according to Chicago Booth research
2015-05-20
(Press-News.org) Is ovulation related to higher racial bias? Though recent research, from Michigan State University, suggested that there was a link, new research from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business was unable to replicate those findings.
In four studies, documented in their paper "In Search of an Association Between Conception Risk and Prejudice," Carlee Beth Hawkins, a doctoral student, and her co-authors were unable to find any evidence that there is an increase in racial bias related to conception risk.
Hawkins, along with Cailey Fitzgerald of the University of Virginia and Brian Nosek of the University of Virginia and the Center for Open Science, closely followed the study procedures in "Race Bias Tracks Conception Risk Across the Menstrual Cycle," published in the journal Psychological Science, but were unable to come to the same conclusions. They also sought to expand beyond racial bias toward other social groups.
"The theoretical explanation for the findings was that women with higher conception risk and therefore at higher risk of unwanted pregnancy resulting from sexual coercion, are more negative toward racial outgroups because outgroup men are more threatening and therefore more likely to be sexually coercive," Hawkins says. "This logic shouldn't hold for outgroups that aren't likely to be sexually coercive, so we shouldn't see this pattern -- or it should be reduced -- when examining attitudes toward elderly men, physically disabled men, and gay men, for example."
Being unable to replicate the original findings, though halted further studies.
"Perhaps the effect is smaller than originally proposed, so small that we couldn't find it again," Hawkins says. "Or, perhaps the effect doesn't replicate in samples or contexts outside the ones originally tested. Either way, this is useful information for this area of research."
The hope is that researchers build off of both sets of research to better understand how physiological processes may shape psychological responses or processes, and improve the way they study this subject, either through larger samples, or more diverse samples.
INFORMATION:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2015-05-20
Some major trucking companies are turning to natural gas to fuel their fleets -- and to earn "green" credit among customers. But celebrating lower emissions could be premature, according to an analysis in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology. Researchers have found that converting heavy-duty trucks to run on natural gas could lead to negative climate impacts if steps are not taken to improve engine efficiency and reduce methane emissions from the fuel's supply chain.
Burning natural gas emits less carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere than other fossil ...
2015-05-20
May 20, 2015 -- Available research does not support the contention that athletes are uniquely at risk of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) or other neurodegenerative disorders, according to a review in the June issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.
Widely reported and publicized cases of CTE in retired athletes overlap with other neurodegenerative disorders, while the observed symptoms could result from a wide range of other factors, suggests the review by Dr. Gavin A. Davis of ...
2015-05-20
Americans' energy use continued to grow slowly in 2014, fueled by increases in the use of natural gas, wind and solar, according to the most recent energy flow charts released by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Each year, the Laboratory releases charts that illustrate the nation's consumption and use of energy. Overall, Americans used 0.9 quadrillion (quads) British thermal units (BTUs) more in 2014 than the previous year, an increase of about 1 percent.
The Laboratory also released a companion chart illustrating the nation's energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. ...
2015-05-20
New evidence has linked Arctic warming with severe weather in countries including the UK and US.
Professor Edward Hanna and PhD student Richard Hall, from the University of Sheffield's Department of Geography, are part of a select group of international climate scientists investigating links between Arctic climate change and extreme weather in the northern mid-latitudes.
They have found that while it is too soon to know for certain whether the Arctic played a role in persistent cold events during the extreme wet UK winter of 2013/14 and recent USA East Coast winters, ...
2015-05-20
New Haven, Conn. -- Yale researchers found a close association between acute hospitalizations and the development and progression of disability among older adults at the end of life. Their findings may have profound implications for medical decision-making for older people and those who care for them.
The research was published May 20 in The BMJ (British Medical Journal).
In an earlier study, Thomas M. Gill, M.D., professor of medicine, and his co-authors at Yale School of Medicine had shown that the course of disability for older adults at the end of life was varied ...
2015-05-20
TAMPA, Fla. - Melanoma is predicted to result in approximately 10,000 deaths in 2015. The majority of these deaths are due to advanced stage disease that has spread or metastasized to other sites. The prognosis for patients with metastatic melanoma remains poor, with 5-year survival rates of 63 percent in patients who have metastatic disease in regional lymph nodes, and only 17 percent in patients who have metastatic disease in distant sites. Moffitt Cancer Center researchers participated in an international phase 3 study that demonstrated that a drug called ipilimumab ...
2015-05-20
A team led by environmental engineers from Drexel University are the first independent researchers to take a closer look at the air quality effects of natural gas extraction in the Marcellus Shale region of Pennsylvania. The group used a mobile air quality monitoring vehicle to survey regional air quality and pollutant emissions at 13 sites including wells, drilling rigs, compressor stations and processing areas. Their work establishes baseline measurements for this relatively new area of extraction.
While there have been a number of studies focusing on water quality ...
2015-05-20
The number of new Ebola cases is tapering off, but the search for new treatments continues. Now, one research team has found potential drug candidates that successfully treated up to 90 percent of mice exposed to the Ebola virus. They report their findings in the journal ACS Infectious Diseases.
Bogdan A. Solaja, Rekha G. Panchal and colleagues note that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has yet to approve any therapeutic drugs or vaccines against the Ebola virus that, since December 2013, has infected more than 25,000 people and taken the lives of more than 10,000. ...
2015-05-20
Despite efforts over decades to diversify the ranks of university faculty, only 4 percent of chemistry professorships at 50 leading U.S. colleges and universities are held by underrepresented minorities. That key finding and others related to diversity in academia came from a new survey conducted by a program called Open Chemistry Collaborative in Diversity Equity (OXIDE) in partnership with Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society.
Senior Editor Linda Wang and Assistant Managing Editor Sophie Rovner at C&EN report that ...
2015-05-20
HOUSTON - (May 20, 2015) - Whether people locate their sense of self in the brain or the heart can have a major influence on people's decision-making, according to a new study by management and business experts at Rice University and Columbia University.
Overall, the study found people tend to locate the self in the brain.
The paper, "Who You Are Is Where You Are: Antecedents and Consequences of Locating the Self in the Brain or the Heart," will be published in the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.
"We view our research as a first step ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Study findings linking ovulation, racial bias questioned
Earlier results could not be replicated, according to Chicago Booth research
