University students' sleep during the COVID-19 pandemic in the State of Hawai'i.

Objectives: This study assessed undergraduates' sleep in Hawai'i during the COVID-19 pandemic and whether demographic characteristics, health locus of control, substance use and campus features related to sleep outcomes. Implications are considered for programs to support students' sleep and health during pandemic conditions. Participants: About 1,288 undergraduate students from six universities in Hawai'i. Methods: Surveys assessing sleep, emotional wellbeing, ethnicity, body mass index, locus of health control, and substance use. Results: Students' reported increased sleep time but decreased sleep quality during the pandemic. Sleep disruption related to anxiety, depression, ethnicity, substance use, BMI, health locus of control, class rank, and whether students lived at home. All campuses were associated with disrupted sleep, regardless of size, location, religious affiliation, term structure, or method of instruction. Conclusions: In response to public health crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, all Hawai'i universities should screen students for sleep disruption, emotional adjustment, social isolation and substance misuse. Programs to promote sleep and behavioral health appear particularly warranted for graduating seniors, Pacific Islanders, students with high BMI, and students who commute to college.

Experiences with microaggressions and discrimination in racially diverse and homogeneously white contexts.

OBJECTIVES: The interaction between one's context and identity may be essential in understanding people's racial experiences. In this study, we examined 2 contexts (racially diverse vs. homogenously White) and measured the experiences of discrimination and microaggressions for monoracial people of color (POC), multiracial individuals, and White individuals. Additionally, we measured experience of microaggressions with a new scale that measured instances of multiracial-specific microaggressions, and the offensiveness of these microaggressions. METHOD AND RESULTS: Through a self-reported survey, monoracial POC, multiracial individuals, and White individuals across the United States reported their experiences with discrimination and microaggressions, and offensiveness of multiracial-specific microaggressions. Overall, monoracial POC and multiracial individuals reported experiencing less discrimination and microaggressions in diverse contexts versus homogenous contexts. White individuals reported the lowest amounts of discrimination and microaggressions, which did not differ across contexts. CONCLUSIONS: Living in a racially diverse context may have positive benefits for racial minorities, and White individuals do not necessarily experience greater instances of discrimination or microaggressions in diverse contexts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

An evolutionary perspective on humor: sexual selection or interest indication?

Are people who are funny more attractive? Or does being attractive lead people to be seen as funnier? The answer may depend on the underlying evolutionary function of humor. While humor has been proposed to signal "good genes," the authors propose that humor also functions to indicate interest in social relationships-in initiating new relationships and in monitoring existing ones. Consistent with this interest indicator model, across three studies both sexes were more likely to initiate humor and to respond more positively and consider the other person to be funny when initially attracted to that person. The findings support that humor dynamics--and not just humor displays--influence romantic chemistry for both men and women, suggesting that humor can ultimately function as a strategy to initiate and monitor social relationships.