Cognitive Sophistication, Religion, and the Trump Vote

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darren E. Sherkat
Genealogy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 60
Author(s):  
Anna Miglietta ◽  
Barbara Loera

We analyzed the relationship between modern forms of populism and citizen support for exclusive welfare policies and proposals, and we focused on support for left-wing- and right-wing-oriented welfare policies enacted or proposed during the Lega Nord (LN)–Five Star Movement (FSM) government in Italy (2018–2019). In light of the theoretical perspective of political ideology as motivated by social cognition, we examined citizens’ support for the two policies considering adherence to populist attitudes, agreement on the criteria useful to define ingroup membership, and personal values. We also took into account the role of cognitive sophistication in populism avoidance. A total of 785 Italian adults (F = 56.6; mean age = 35.8) completed an online survey in the summer of 2019 based on the following: support for populist policies and proposals, political ideologies and positioning, personal values, and ingroup boundaries. We used correlation and regression analyses. The results highlight the relationships between populism and political conservatism. Populism was related to the vertical and horizontal borders defining the “people”; cognitive sophistication was not a relevant driver. We identified some facilitating factors that could promote adherence to and support for public policies inspired by the values of the right or of the left, without a true ideological connotation.


Author(s):  
Ana Pedrazzini ◽  
Lucía Bugallo ◽  
Constanza Zinkgräf ◽  
Nora Scheuer

AbstractDevelopmental studies on humor have historically approached a limited age range – from birth until early adolescence – and have mostly considered humor interpretation and the production of situational and verbal humor. Focusing on cartooning, a highly demanding cognitive and communication activity, in this paper we aim to provide empirical data drawn from a larger age span than usual – 10 to 18 years old – to better understand what adolescents find humorous and how they create humor. Our corpus comes from nine workshops of cartoon production and interpretation conducted between 2015 and 2018, in which a total of 63 girls and 72 boys participated. Based on a fine-grained cognitive and communication analysis, we distinguished six different profiles of texts depending on: whether and how a fictional situation (i.e. a humorous incongruity) was built, its relation to the referenced situation addressed (topic), and the author’s motivation. Simple Correspondence Analyses enabled us to identify that these texts varied according to the adolescents’ age and the cartoon’s format (single panel or strip). Greater cognitive sophistication was evidenced in single panel cartoons and among middle and late adolescents, who also showed a concern for social issues. Some gender variations were found.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 716-727
Author(s):  
James O. Waterman ◽  
Rachel McNally ◽  
Daniel Harrold ◽  
Matthew Cook ◽  
Gerardo Garcia ◽  
...  

Environmental enrichment has been shown to enhance the behavioural repertoire and reduce the occurrence of abnormal behaviours, particularly in zoo-housed mammals. However, evidence of its effectiveness in reptiles is lacking. Previously, it was believed that reptiles lacked the cognitive sophistication to benefit from enrichment provision, but studies have demonstrated instances of improved longevity, physical condition and problem-solving behaviour as a result of enhancing husbandry routines. In this study, we evaluate the effectiveness of food- and scent-based enrichment for three varanid species (Komodo dragon, emerald tree monitor lizard and crocodile monitor). Scent piles, scent trails and hanging feeders resulted in a significant increase in exploratory behaviour, with engagement diminishing ≤330 min post provision. The provision of food- versus scent-based enrichment did not result in differences in enrichment engagement across the three species, suggesting that scent is just as effective in increasing natural behaviours. Enhancing the environment in which zoo animals reside is important for their health and wellbeing and also provides visitors with the opportunity to observe naturalistic behaviours. For little known and understudied species such as varanids, evidence of successful (and even unsuccessful) husbandry and management practice is vital for advancing best practice in the zoo industry.


2017 ◽  
Vol 284 (1851) ◽  
pp. 20162326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Bear ◽  
Ari Kagan ◽  
David G. Rand

How does cognitive sophistication impact cooperation? We explore this question using a model of the co-evolution of cooperation and cognition. In our model, agents confront social dilemmas and coordination games, and make decisions using intuition or deliberation. Intuition is automatic and effortless, but relatively (although not necessarily completely) insensitive to context. Deliberation, conversely, is costly but relatively (although not necessarily perfectly) sensitive to context. We find that regardless of the sensitivity of intuition and imperfection of deliberation, deliberating undermines cooperation in social dilemmas, whereas deliberating can increase cooperation in coordination games if intuition is sufficiently sensitive. Furthermore, when coordination games are sufficiently likely, selection favours a strategy whose intuitive response ignores the contextual cues available and cooperates across contexts. Thus, we see how simple cognition can arise from active selection for simplicity, rather than just be forced to be simple due to cognitive constraints. Finally, we find that when deliberation is imperfect, the favoured strategy increases cooperation in social dilemmas (as a result of reducing deliberation) as the benefit of cooperation to the recipient increases.


1984 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 473-482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sherwin S. Radin

The parental preference guideline for young children of divorce is generally viewed by the courts with extreme skepticism since it is believed that such children do not possess sufficient cognitive sophistication to know what is in their own best interests. However, the attachment behavior of even young toddlers of one to three years of age has a direct application to custody matters and to visitation issues since it stresses the emotional components of the child's relationship to his caretakers. The affective interchanges between the child and his parents are an accurate indicator of the true empathic nature of the relationship.


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