The attractive female body weight and female body dissatisfaction in 26 countries across 10 world regions: results of the international body project I.

This study reports results from the first International Body Project (IBP-I), which surveyed 7,434 individuals in 10 major world regions about body weight ideals and body dissatisfaction. Participants completed the female Contour Drawing Figure Rating Scale (CDFRS) and self-reported their exposure to Western and local media. Results indicated there were significant cross-regional differences in the ideal female figure and body dissatisfaction, but effect sizes were small across high-socioeconomic-status (SES) sites. Within cultures, heavier bodies were preferred in low-SES sites compared to high-SES sites in Malaysia and South Africa (ds = 1.94-2.49) but not in Austria. Participant age, body mass index (BMI), and Western media exposure predicted body weight ideals. BMI and Western media exposure predicted body dissatisfaction among women. Our results show that body dissatisfaction and desire for thinness is commonplace in high-SES settings across world regions, highlighting the need for international attention to this problem.

The truth is out there: the structure of beliefs about extraterrestrial life among Austrian and British respondents.

Previous investigators of extraterrestrial beliefs have relied on single-item scales, which limit the researchers' understanding of such beliefs. The present authors report responses to a 37-item scale about extraterrestrial beliefs from 320 participants in Austria and 257 participants in Britain. A factor analysis revealed 3 primary factors that were stable across sites: (a) belief that extraterrestrial life has visited Earth and that governmental agencies have knowledge of this fact, (b) scientific search for extraterrestrial life, and (c) general beliefs about the existence of extraterrestrial life. Participants rated only Factor 3 positively, suggesting that there is a distinction between paranormal-related beliefs and science-related beliefs. The authors found only political orientation and religiosity to be significantly correlated with factor scores. They discuss their results in relation to previous reports of extraterrestrial beliefs.

A fair day's wage? Perceptions of public sector pay.

There is a scarcity of evidence pertaining to the general public's perception of public sector pay. Hence, in the present study, 161 women and 149 men were asked to estimate the wages 35 public sector professions should receive annually in the fictitious nation of Maldoria, based on a comparison value of an annual income of T10,000 for general practitioners. Analysis showed that only pilots were given a higher annual income than general practitioners; miners and local government workers were also provided with relatively high annual incomes. By contrast, newscasters were provided with the lowest annual income. Participants' sex did not affect these evaluations, and other demographic variables and public sector-related information of the participants were poor predictors of their evaluations. The implications of this research on public attitudes toward wage determination are discussed, and avenues for further research highlighted.

Twin-singleton differences in intelligence: a meta-analysis.

Since the emergence of twin studies in the 1920s, time and again the question of possible twin-singleton differences in intelligence has been posed. This study addressed the issue through a meta-analysis of published studies on this theme. Twins on the average seem to have lower IQs than singletons. The best estimate for this group difference is 4.2 IQ points (less than one-third of a standard deviation), with a great divide between study outcomes of less vs more recent birth cohorts (5.1 vs 0.5 IQ points, respectively). The evidence is based on studies from six countries (including population-based ones of entire birth cohorts), a massive database (comparisons of more than 30,000 twins with nearly 1.6 million singletons), a variety of intelligence tests, and birth cohorts spanning most of the 20th century, but, for the most part, on an age range limited to children and adolescents. The effect shows considerable between-study heterogeneity but appears robust (fail-safe N calculations), not due to influential individual studies (sensitivity analysis) or publication bias, was present since the very first published studies (cumulative meta-analysis), and appears generalizable across sex, zygosity, and other intelligence domains beyond the verbal. There are insufficient data as to whether the effect persists over the lifespan, exists as well within families, or has ceased in recent birth cohorts of highly developed countries (Denmark and The Netherlands). Likely causes of the effect appear to be prenatal and perinatal factors (reduced fetal growth and shorter gestation for twins).

German translation and psychometric evaluation of the Body Appreciation Scale.

This paper examined the psychometric properties of the German version of the Body Appreciation Scale (BAS), a novel scale for the assessment of positive body image. Based on a community sample of 156 women and 144 men in Austria, results showed good internal reliability and construct validity for the BAS scores, as well as a unidimensional factor structure for both women and men. Specifically, Cronbach's alpha was high for both women (alpha=.90) and men (alpha=.85), and the BAS was correlated with the body esteem scale and self-esteem. In addition, women with lower BMIs reported greater body appreciation, but no such association was found for men. Finally, there were small sex differences in BAS scores, with men scoring more positively than women (Cohen's d=0.26). The German BAS, a useful indicator of positive body image among Austrian adults, should prove valuable for the assessment of body image in German-speaking countries.

Recent decline in nonpaternity rates: a cross-temporal meta-analysis.

Nonpaternity (i.e., discrepant biological versus social fatherhood) affects many issues of interests to psychologists, including familial dynamics, interpersonal relationships, sexuality, and fertility, and therefore represents an important topic for psychological research. The advent of modern contraceptive methods, particularly the market launch of the birth-control pill in the early 1960s and its increased use ever since, should have affected rates of nonpaternity (i.e., discrepant genetic and social fatherhood). This cross-temporal meta-analysis investigated whether there has been a recent decline in nonpaternity rates in the western industrialized nations. The eligible database comprised 32 published samples unbiased towards nonpaternity for which nonoverlapping data from more than 24,000 subjects from nine (mostly Anglo-Saxon heritage) countries with primarily Caucasian populations are reported. Publication years ranged from 1932 to 1999, and estimated years of the reported nonpaternity events (i.e., the temporal occurrence of nonpaternity) ranged from 1895 to 1993. In support of the hypothesis, weighted meta-regression models showed a significant decrease (r = -.41) of log-transformed nonpaternity rates with publication years and also a decrease, albeit not significant (r = -.17), with estimated years of nonpaternity events. These results transform into an estimated absolute decline in untransformed nonpaternity rates of 0.83% and 0.91% per decade, respectively. Across studies, the mean (and median) nonpaternity rate was 3.1% (2.1%). This estimate is consistent with estimates of 2 to 3% from recent reviews on the topic that were based on fewer primary studies. This estimate also rebuts the beliefs and hearsay data widespread among both the public and researchers which contend nonpaternity rates in modern populations might be as high as about 10%.