Antarctic skuas recognize individual humans

Recent findings report that wild animals can recognize individual humans. To explain how the animals distinguish humans, two hypotheses are proposed. The high cognitive abilities hypothesis implies that pre-existing high intelligence enabled animals to acquire such abilities. The pre-exposure to stimuli hypothesis suggests that frequent encounters with humans promote the acquisition of discriminatory abilities in these species. Here, we examine individual human recognition abilities in a wild Antarctic species, the brown skua (Stercorarius antarcticus), which lives away from typical human settlements and was only recently exposed to humans due to activities at Antarctic stations. We found that, as nest visits were repeated, the skua parents responded at further distances and were more likely to attack the nest intruder. Also, we demonstrated that seven out of seven breeding pairs of skuas selectively responded to a human nest intruder with aggression and ignored a neutral human who had not previously approached the nest. The results indicate that Antarctic skuas, a species that typically inhabited in human-free areas, are able to recognize individual humans who disturbed their nests. Our findings generally support the high cognitive abilities hypothesis, but this ability can be acquired during a relatively short period in the life of an individual as a result of interactions between individual birds and humans.     

Homeschool and Underage Drinking: Is It More Protective than Public and Private Schools?

This article examines differences in alcohol use between homeschool and both public and private school students. Applying regression analyses to two waves of the National Study of Youth and Religion, we found that homeschoolers were less likely to drink alcohol and get drunk than non-homeschoolers, which was explained in part by variables of social bonding, social learning, and, to a greater extent, religiosity. Specifically, parental monitoring helped explain differences between homeschool and private school students, while association with deviant friends partially accounted for differences with public school students. Religiosity, however, explained differences between homeschoolers and both types of non-homeschoolers.     

Increasing toughness by promoting discontinuous precipitation in Cu–Ni–Si alloys

The influence of precipitation morphology, including continuous precipitation (CP) and discontinuous precipitation (DP), on the mechanical behaviour of Cu–Ni–Si alloys was studied. The Cu–6Ni–1.5Si (in wt%) alloy was solution heat treated at 980 °C for 2 h and aged at 500 °C for 0.5 and 3 h to produce CP and DP structures. The DP specimen showed an abnormal increase in tensile ductility with increasing strain rate, unlike the CP counterpart. The impact toughness of the DP specimen was 1.6 times greater than that of CP specimen. The fracture mode in DP specimen was mostly dimpled rupture, while the mixed mode of cleavage fracture and dimpled rupture was noted on the CP specimen.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Xiang Yuan</Emphasis> (Village Worthies): The Appearance-only Hypocrite

This article seeks to interpret Mencius’ criticism of the village worthies (xiang yuan 鄉原) and shed light on the distinctive psychological phenomenon that Mencius has captured but not quite articulated. An attempt at filling out the Mencian view of the village worthies will help us better understand the content of the moral charges made against them and also deepen our analysis of the kind of psychology that early Confucians regard as crucial to moral agency. Following an introduction that overviews Mencius’ criticisms of the village worthies, the main discussion of this article is divided into three sections. Section 2 offers an interpretation of the psychology of the village worthy and articulates the way in which the village worthy can be regarded as a special kind of hypocrite, which I label as “appearance-only” hypocrite. Section 3 draws on the proposed interpretation to make sense of Mencius’ criticisms of the village worthy. I argue that while the village worthy can elude some common charges against hypocrisy, it is still problematic in the sense that it weakens an unstable system of morality from the inside and inflicts harm on the genuinely virtuous person. Section 4 delves deeper into analyzing the ethical implications for the self and for others.     

Religion,Human Rights,and Neo‐liberalism in a Post‐Humanist Era

In a modern and secularized world, churches and religious groups that fight in the public sphere for social justice justify these actions in the name of defending human rights. This has been the path taken to express in non‐religious language what they understand to be a God‐given mission. Based on the distinction between civil rights, political rights, and social rights, which make up the set of human rights, this article analyzes the relationship between the notion of religious mission and the struggle for human rights; how neoliberal ideology, in an anti‐humanist perspective, criticizes the notion of social rights and social justice with the denial of any human right above the laws of the market; and the challenges that this neoliberal ideology poses for the justification of the social and political action of religious groups and institutions in the contemporary globalized world with a growing post/anti‐humanist culture.     

Expressing passion for luxury enhances perceived authenticity

Consumers are often viewed unfavorably when using luxury products. They are seen as seeking status and managing impressions, and therefore judged as inauthentic. How can luxury consumers alleviate these negative social consequences? Our pilot studies suggest that although many consumers are passionate about luxury products and brands, they avoid sharing this passion with others because they fear being judged negatively. However, we propose that publicly expressing one's passion for luxury can mitigate the social costs of luxury consumption. Six experiments (including three supplemental experiments) show that expressing passion for luxury causes others to perceive luxury consumers as more authentic, consequently increasing perceptions of their warmth and trustworthiness, and leading others to demonstrate greater interest in knowing more about them. Expressing passion for luxury enhances perceived authenticity by prompting observers to attribute the luxury consumption more to intrinsic motivation (e.g., consuming luxury for inherent enjoyment and pleasure) rather than extrinsic motivation (e.g., status enhancement). The effects of passion expression are attenuated for non-luxury consumption because non-luxury consumption is generally unlikely to elicit inferences about extrinsic motives.     

Flattery will get you somewhere,sometimes? The effect of flattery and hotel segments on a hotel guests' green behavior

Considering the importance of the hotel guests' behavioral support for the hotels' green corporate social responsibility (CSR), this research examined the persuasive power of flattery in promoting guests' green behaviors. Study 1 revealed that a flattery message significantly increased the hotel guests' towel reuse intentions during their stay and this effect was mediated by their perceptions of the hotel's CSR motives. Study 2 further showed that a feeling of guilt served as another key mediator in the relationship between a flattery message and the guests' responses (i.e., perceived CSR motives, hotel image, attitudes toward a hotel, towel reuse intentions), which was moderated by hotel segment (economy vs. mid-priced vs. luxury). This research provides meaningful insights into the understanding of the consumers' pro-environmental decisions in the service consumption context and explains the underlying cognitive process. Moreover, this research offers an empirical message strategy by hotel segments to effectively promote the hotel guests' green behavior and achieve successful marketing outcomes.     

The contents of perceptual hypotheses: Evidence from rapid resumption of interrupted visual search

Observers can resume a previously interrupted visual search trial significantly more quickly than they can start a new search trial (Lleras, Rensink, & Enns, 2005). This rapid resumption of search is possible because evidence accumulated during the previous exposure, a perceptual hypothesis, can carry over to a subsequent presentation. We present four interrupted visual search experiments in which the content of the perceptual hypotheses used during visual search trials was characterized. These experiments suggest that prior to explicit target identification, observers have accumulated evidence about the locations, but not the identities, of local, task-relevant distractors, as well as preliminary evidence for the identity of the target. Our results characterize the content of perceptual search hypotheses and highlight the utility of interrupted search for studying online search processing prior to target identification.