The field of gender studies has faced criticism for poor scholarship and methodology, both from within and outside academia. Here, we compare indicators of scientific quality across three samples of peer-reviewed journal articles with more, less and no gender perspective, on the assumption that gender studies tend to apply a gender perspective. The statements in the articles were content-analysed with respect to subject matter, their level of support in surrounding text, and other indicators of scientific quality. The higher the level of gender perspective, the lower was the scientific quality for seven out of nine indicators. Support was higher for the no gender perspective group, but did not differ across the two higher levels. We suggest that the impact of the field can be increased by implementing established research methods employed in other disciplines, especially in terms of bringing about desired social and societal change.

One of the techniques used to induce trance state in shamanic ceremonies is monotonous drumming. According to previous EEG research, certain patterns of drumming cause an increase in power of alpha and theta frequencies of the listener. Present study aimed to determine, if suggestion to experience trance state could increase the relative alpha and theta amplitude and the intensity of experienced state. A group of twenty-four subjects participated in the study. Suggestion to experience trance state decreased alpha frequency power during the drumming condition. No other significant effects of suggestion or drumming were found.

Frost and Harpending, Evolutionary Psychology, 13 (2015), have argued that the increasing use of capital punishment across the Middle Ages in Europe altered the genotype, helping to create a less violent and generally more law-abiding population. Developing this insight, we hypothesise that the same system of violent punishments would also have helped to genotypically create a more religious society by indirectly selecting for religiousness, through the execution of men who had not yet sired any offspring. We estimate the selection differential for religiousness based on genetic correlation data for conceivably related traits, and compare that to the actual increase in religiosity across the Middle Ages. We further explore other mechanisms by which religiousness was being selected for in Medieval England, and conclude that executions most likely contributed substantially to the increase in religiosity, but that other selection pressures also played a role.

Music is a human universal, which suggests a biological adaptation. Several evolutionary explanations have been proposed, covering the entire spectrum of natural, sexual, and group selection. Here we consider the hypothesis that musical behaviour constitutes a reliable or even costly signal of fitness, and thus may have evolved as a human trait through sexual selection. We experimentally tested how musical performance quality (MPQ), in improvisations on the drums, saxophone, and violin, affects mate values and mate preferences perceived by a prospective partner. Swedish student participants (27 of each sex) saw a face of a person of the opposite sex and heard a piece of improvised music being played. The music occurred in three levels of MPQ and the faces in three levels of facial attractiveness (FA). For each parametric combination of MPG and FA, the participants rated four mate value scales (intelligence, health, social status, and parenting skill) and four mate preference scales (date, intercourse, and short- and long term relationship). Consistent with sexual selection theory, mate value ratings were generally increased by MPQ for raters of both sexes. Consistent with more specific hypotheses that follow from combining sexual selection and parental investment theory, women’s but not men’s preference for a long-term, but not short-term, relationship was significantly increased by MPQ, MPQ generally affected women’s ratings more than men’s, FA generally affected men’s ratings more than women’s, and women’s ratings of intelligence were even more influenced by MPQ than by FA.

Background: Low adherence to recommended treatments is a multifactorial problem for patients in rehabilitation after myocardial infarction (MI). In a nationwide trial of internet-delivered cognitive behavior therapy (iCBT) for the high-risk subgroup of patients with MI also reporting symptoms of anxiety, depression, or both (MI-ANXDEP), adherence was low. Since low adherence to psychotherapy leads to a waste of therapeutic resources and risky treatment abortion in MI-ANXDEP patients, identifying early predictors for adherence is potentially valuable for effective targeted care. Objectives: The goal of the research was to use supervised machine learning to investigate both established and novel predictors for iCBT adherence in MI-ANXDEP patients. Methods: Data were from 90 MI-ANXDEP patients recruited from 25 hospitals in Sweden and randomized to treatment in the iCBT trial Uppsala University Psychosocial Care Programme (U-CARE) Heart study. Time point of prediction was at completion of the first homework assignment. Adherence was defined as having completed more than 2 homework assignments within the 14-week treatment period. A supervised machine learning procedure was applied to identify the most potent predictors for adherence available at the first treatment session from a range of demographic, clinical, psychometric, and linguistic predictors. The internal binary classifier was a random forest model within a 3x10-fold cross-validated recursive feature elimination (RFE) resampling which selected the final predictor subset that best differentiated adherers versus nonadherers. Results: Patient mean age was 58.4 years (SD 9.4), 62% (56/90) were men, and 48% (43/90) were adherent. Out of the 34 potential predictors for adherence, RFE selected an optimal subset of 56% (19/34; Accuracy 0.64, 95% CI 0.61-0.68, P<.001). The strongest predictors for adherence were, in order of importance, (1) self-assessed cardiac-related fear, (2) sex, and (3) the number of words the patient used to answer the first homework assignment. Conclusions: For developing and testing effective iCBT interventions, investigating factors that predict adherence is important. Adherence to iCBT for MI-ANXDEP patients in the U-CARE Heart trial was best predicted by cardiac-related fear and sex, consistent with previous research, but also by novel linguistic predictors from written patient behavior which conceivably indicate verbal ability or therapeutic alliance. Future research should investigate potential causal mechanisms and seek to determine what underlying constructs the linguistic predictors tap into. Whether these findings replicate for other interventions outside of Sweden, in larger samples, and for patients with other conditions who are offered iCBT should also be investigated.

Sex differences in intelligence are of great importance with regard to understanding intelligence's underlying evolutionary forces. Previous research in this area has had a strong focus on Western countries and data across developmental stages are fragmented. Here, we present new data on Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices from three samples in Saudi Arabia, and combine these with nine previously published studies from other Arab countries, which also provide data for each year of age. We specifically consider Lynn's developmental theory of sex differences in intelligence, whereby a female advantage becomes pronounced due to earlier average puberty and then decreases as males enter puberty. The estimates for each age do not differ significantly from zero, and very few from each other, apparently due to large heterogeneity across studies. Nevertheless, the age trend is largely consistent with Lynn's model. Moreover, its specific predictions are seemingly borne out in many individual countries. Plausible explanations for incongruities in Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Saudi Arabia are also examined.

Previous research indicates that the typical increase in IQ during childhood is greater in European countries than in Arab countries. A systematic literature review of age-dependent IQ in Arab countries is conducted, yielding relevant studies for 12 countries that fulfil the inclusion criteria. In almost all of these studies, Arab children exhibit an age-dependent IQ decline relative to Caucasian children, from 5 to about 12 years of age in particular. We term this phenomenon the Simber Effect. We propose two non-exclusive explanations. (1) The Flynn Effect is less intense in Arab countries because of localised differences, including poorer education quality and greater religiosity. (2) Those from Arab countries follow a faster Life History Strategy than Europeans, for environmental and possibly genetic reasons. Either way, the Simber Effect may amount to a Wilson Effect, meaning that the impact of genetic IQ increases with age.

Patterns of adoption behaviour are starkly asymmetric across populations. To better understand this phenomenon we conducted a systematic review of transracial adoption and adoption in general. We found six quantitative studies from the USA (with representative samples comprising a total of 117,000 participants) which had examined sex, race, and SES in relation to differences in behaviours and attitudes regarding both transracial adoption and adoption in general. A secondary analysis of these data found that transracial adopting is predicted by being female, white (as opposed to black), and of higher SES. These data are consistent with group differences in Life History Strategy – the Differential K model – regarding males and females, SES differences, and white and black people, but not with the fact that both transracial adoption and adoption rates in general seem to be lower in Northeast Asian countries. The influence of cultural factors upon these patterns may be addressed by future studies.

Background: General cognitive ability (CA) is positively associated with later physical and mental health, health literacy, and longevity. We investigated whether CA estimated approximately 30 years earlier in young adulthood predicted lifestyle-related risk factors and two-year survival in first myocardial infarction (MI) male patients.

Methods: Young adulthood CA estimated through psychometric testing at age 18–20 years was obtained from the mandatory military conscript registry (INSARK) and linked to national quality registry SWEDEHEART/RIKS-HIA data on smoking, diabetes, hypertension, obesity (BMI > 30 kg/m²) in 60 years or younger Swedish males with first MI. Patients were followed up in the Cause of Death registry. The 5659 complete cases (deceased = 106, still alive = 5553) were descriptively compared. Crude and adjusted associations were modelled with logistic regression.

Results: After multivariable adjustment, one SD increase in CA was associated with a decreased odds ratio of being a current smoker (0.63 [0.59, 0.67], P < 0.001), previous smoker (0.79 [0.73, 0.84], P < 0.001), having diabetes (0.82 [0.74, 0.90], P < 0.001), being obese (0.90 [0.84, 0.95], P < 0.001) at hospital admission, and an increased odds ratio of two-year survival (1.26 [1.02, 1.54], P < 0.001). CA was not associated with hypertension at hospital admission (1.03 [0.97, 1.10], P = 0.283).

Conclusions: This study found substantial inverse associations between young adulthood CA, and middle-age lifestyle risk factors smoking, diabetes, and obesity, and two-year survival in first MI male patients. CA assessment might benefit risk stratification and possibly aid further tailoring of secondary preventive strategy.