Lower Waist-to-Hip, Waist-to-Stature, and Waist-to-Bust Ratios Predict Higher Rankings of Plus-size Models in a Naturalistic Condition

Previous research suggests that waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), waist-to-stature ratio (WSR), and waist-to-bust ratio (WBR) serve as cues of health and fertility in women, influencing the viewers’ perception of attractiveness. However, it is unclear to what extent these findings can be applied to the perception of female attractiveness in a naturalistic condition or in women with a higher body mass index. In this study, we tested whether lower WHR, WSR, and WBR increased the perceived attractiveness of plus-size models in a naturalistic condition. The WHR, WSR, and WBR were computed via biometric data (height, bust, waist, and hip measurements) of 49 U.S. plus-size models who have been listed on ranker.com. The photographs of these models have been viewed 2.60 million times and voted 146,000 times. The perception of attractiveness was operationalized as rankings, generated from the relative number of upvotes and downvotes from site visitors. Spearman correlations showed that lower WHR, WSR, and WBR were all positively correlated with higher rankings. In a subsequent ordinal logistic regression, only WSR and WBR remained as significant predictors of rankings. The principal component regression also revealed that the latent body component of WHR, WSR, and WBR predicted rankings of the models.These findings cannot be accounted by the models’ general popularity or their anthropometric measures being similar to other types of models’ (e.g., fashion, glamor, playboy, and adult film models). Our findings suggest that smaller WHR, WSR, and WBR influence the perception of female attractiveness in a naturalistic condition, even among plus-size models.

Semantics, informational

Information-theoretic semantics (ITS) attempts to provide a naturalistic account of the conditions under which a psychological state such as a belief or desire has a particular mental content: what it is by virtue of which, say, a psychological state is a belief ‘that it is raining’ or a desire ‘that it stop raining’. Because of the complexities of an entirely general account, ITS typically attempts to provide merely a sufficient naturalistic condition for a belief content of the sort normally acquired by perception (for example, that it is raining). It is expected that other sorts of mental contents may require that ITS be supplemented in various ways. ITS was inspired by Claude Shannon’s theory of ‘information’ (1948), which provided a mathematical measure of the amount of information carried by a signal. Employing a notion of ‘natural meaning’ discussed by Peirce (1931) and Grice (1957), Dretske (1981) supplemented Shannon’s work with an account of what information a signal carries. The intuitive idea is that a signal carries the information ‘that p’ if and only if it naturally means (that is, indicates) that p, as when smoke ‘means’ there is fire. Natural indication is a key ingredient in ITS accounts of mental content. In their accounts, Stampe (1977) and Stalnaker (1984) appeal to the notion of what a state indicates under ‘optimal’ conditions. Fodor (1987) appeals to ‘asymmetric dependencies’ between the meaning-forming and the non-meaning-forming indication conditions in the causation of psychological states. Dretske (1988) appeals to the idea that, via operant conditioning, a state can acquire a functional role vis-à-vis behaviour because it naturally indicates ‘that p’ and thereby can acquire the natural function of indicating ‘that p‘.

Bipolar Disorder and Suicide: 10 Years Follow-up/retrospective Survey/

Introduction:Bipolar disorder (BD) is chronic psychiatric disorder by mood swings, symptoms of BD are serious and life-threating. Suicide risk in patients with BD is 25-50%, more frequent during depressive episode (Compton,2000) but with adequate treatment suicide risk can be presented in nearby 50% of patients only (Goodwin, Jamison,2006). Despite these facts data about the changes of treatment habits over the longer period of time under naturalistic condition are lacking.The aim of study:To assess presence of suicidal thoughts and attempts in inpatients with BD and follow-up changes of treatment with lithium over the period of time.Patients and methods:It was retrospective survey of in-patient's files hospitalized at the 1st Dept. of Psychiatry, UPJS, Kosice (1997-2007) with typical limitations for retrospective case survey. All patients had diagnosis of BD (DSM-IV), n=125 (67% of women and 33% of men). We discovered changes in suicidal behaviour with/without treatment of lithium.Results:The first episode was depressive in 62% of patients, average number of episodes: 8,2. There was trend of decrease in use of lithium over the time (68% vs 84% in men, 29% vs 60% in women). The suicidal thoughts were more frequent during depressive episode (in 50% of women and 18% of men). Suicidal thoughts and attempts were 3 times more frequent in women vs men with BD. Suicidal attempts were 4 times more frequent in women with treatment with lithium vs without lithium.

Bipolar Disorder and Suicide: 10 Years Follow-up /Retrospective Survey/

Introduction:Bipolar disorder (BD) is chronic psychiatric disorder by mood swings, symptoms of BD are serious and life-threating. Suicide risk in patients with BD is 25-50%, more frequent during depressive episode (Compton,2000) but with adequate treatment suicide risk can be presented in nearby 50% of patients only (Goodwin, Jamison,2006). Despite these facts data about the changes of treatment habits over the longer period of time under naturalistic condition are lacking.The aim of study:To assess presence of suicidal thoughts and attempts in inpatients with BD and follow-up changes of treatment with lithium over the period of time.Patients and methods:It was retrospective survey of in-patient's files hospitalized at the 1st Dept. of Psychiatry, UPJS, Kosice (1997-2007) with typical limitations for retrospective case survey. All patients had diagnosis of BD (DSM-IV), n=125 (67% of women and 33% of men). We discovered changes in suicidal behaviour with/without treatment of lithium.Results:The first episode was depressive in 62% of patients, average number of episodes: 8,2. There was trend of decrease in use of lithium over the time (68% vs 84% in men, 29% vs 60% in women). The suicidal thoughts were more frequent during depressive episode (in 50% of women and 18% of men). Suicidal thoughts and attempts were 3 times more frequent in women vs men with BD. Suicidal attempts were 4 times more frequent in women with treatment with lithium vs without lithium.

Illusion of Control: Detecting Response-Outcome Independence in Analytic but Not in Naturalistic Conditions

Experiments in which subjects are asked to analytically assess response-outcome relationships have frequently yielded accurate judgments of response-outcome independence, but more naturalistically set experiments in which subjects are instructed to obtain the outcome have frequently yielded illusions of control The present research tested the hypothesis that a differential probability of responding p(R), between these two traditions could be at the basis of these different results Subjects received response-independent outcomes and were instructed either to obtain the outcome (naturalistic condition) or to behave scientifically in order to find out how much control over the outcome was possible (analytic condition) Subjects in the naturalistic condition tended to respond at almost every opportunity and developed a strong illusion of control Subjects in the analytic condition maintained their p(R) at a point close to 5 and made accurate judgments of control The illusion of control observed in the naturalistic condition appears to be a collateral effect of a high tendency to respond in subjects who are trying to obtain an outcome, this tendency to respond prevents them from learning that the outcome would have occurred with the same probability if they had not responded