Migration, belonging, and the sustainability of atoll islands through a changing climate.

Climate change might catalyze and exacerbate the trend of outmigration from low-lying atoll islands. There is speculation that migration away from atolls may not stop until such islands are abandoned. Yet migration creates both opportunities and risks for the sustainability of atoll communities. There is a trade-off between reduced demographic pressure on increasingly fragile atoll island environments and the financial and human resources necessary to adapt to climate change that can result from migration. Here we propose and analyze belonging as the centripetal force that makes migration a process that enhances the sustainability of atoll populations. We examine the relationship between migration, belonging, and the sustainability of populations on atoll islands based on data collected in three atoll islands in the Pacific: the island state of Niue; Namdrik Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands; and Budibudi atoll (Laughlan Islands) in Papua New Guinea. In each case, belonging binds the people who live in and migrate from these places into a collective commitment to their continuity, yet it does so to different degrees according to the economic opportunities available to migrants and the infrastructure that enables extended communities to remain connected.

Climate change affects multiple dimensions of well-being through impacts, information and policy responses.

The consequences of climate change and responses to climate change interact with multiple dimensions of human well-being in ways that are emerging or invisible to decision makers. We examine how elements of well-being-health, safety, place, self and belonging-are at risk from climate change. We propose that the material impacts of a changing climate, discourses and information on future and present climate risks, and policy responses to climate change affect all these elements of well-being. We review evidence on the scale and scope of these climate change consequences for well-being and propose policy and research priorities that are oriented towards supporting well-being though a changing climate.

Nature-based solutions for atoll habitability.

Atoll societies have adapted their environments and social systems for thousands of years, but the rapid pace of climate change may bring conditions that exceed their adaptive capacities. There is growing interest in the use of 'nature-based solutions' to facilitate the continuation of dignified and meaningful lives on atolls through a changing climate. However, there remains insufficient evidence to conclude that these can make a significant contribution to adaptation on atolls, let alone to develop standards and guidelines for their implementation. A sustained programme of research to clarify the potential of nature-based solutions to support the habitability of atolls is therefore vital. In this paper, we provide a prospectus to guide this research programme: we explain the challenge climate change poses to atoll societies, discuss past and potential future applications of nature-based solutions and outline an agenda for transdisciplinary research to advance knowledge of the efficacy and feasibility of nature-based solutions to sustain the habitability of atolls. This article is part of the theme issue 'Nurturing resilient marine ecosystems'.

Recognizing spontaneous facial expressions of emotion in a small-scale society of Papua New Guinea.

We report 2 studies on how residents of Papua New Guinea interpret facial expressions produced spontaneously by other residents of Papua New Guinea. Members of a small-scale indigenous society, Trobrianders (Milne Bay Province; N = 32, 14 to 17 years) were shown 5 facial expressions spontaneously produced by members of another small-scale indigenous society, Fore (Eastern Highlands Province) that Ekman had photographed, labeled, and published in The Face of Man (1980), each as an expression of a basic emotion: happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, and disgust. Trobrianders were asked to use any word they wanted to describe how each person shown felt and to provide valence and arousal ratings. Other Trobrianders (N = 24, 12 to 14 years) were shown the same photographs but asked to choose their response from a short list. In both studies, agreement with Ekman's predicted labels was low: 0% to 16% and 13% to 38% of observers, respectively. (PsycINFO Database Record

The fear gasping face as a threat display in a Melanesian society.

Theory and research show that humans attribute both emotions and intentions to others on the basis of facial behavior: A gasping face can be seen as showing "fear" and intent to submit. The assumption that such interpretations are pancultural derives largely from Western societies. Here, we report two studies conducted in an indigenous, small-scale Melanesian society with considerable cultural and visual isolation from the West: the Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea. Our multidisciplinary research team spoke the vernacular and had extensive prior fieldwork experience. In study 1, Trobriand adolescents were asked to attribute emotions, social motives, or both to a set of facial displays. Trobrianders showed a mixed and variable attribution pattern, although with much lower agreement than studies of Western samples. Remarkably, the gasping face (traditionally considered a display of fear and submission in the West) was consistently matched to two unpredicted categories: anger and threat. In study 2, adolescents were asked to select the face that was threatening; Trobrianders chose the "fear" gasping face whereas Spaniards chose an "angry" scowling face. Our findings, consistent with functional approaches to animal communication and observations made on threat displays in small-scale societies, challenge the Western assumption that "fear" gasping faces uniformly express fear or signal submission across cultures.

A Multidisciplinary Approach to Research in Small-Scale Societies: Studying Emotions and Facial Expressions in the Field.

Although cognitive science was multidisciplinary from the start, an under-emphasis on anthropology has left the field with limited research in small scale, indigenous societies. Neglecting the anthropological perspective is risky, given that once-canonical cognitive science findings have often been shown to be artifacts of enculturation rather than cognitive universals. This imbalance has become more problematic as the increased use of Western theory-driven approaches, many of which assume human uniformity ("universality"), confronts the absence of a robust descriptive base that might provide clarifying or even contrary evidence. We highlight the need for remedies to such shortcomings by suggesting a two-fold methodological shift. First, studies conducted in indigenous societies can benefit by relying on multidisciplinary research groups to diminish ethnocentrism and enhance the quality of the data. Second, studies devised for Western societies can readily be adapted to the changing settings encountered in the field. Here, we provide examples, drawn from the areas of emotion and facial expressions, to illustrate potential solutions to recurrent problems in enhancing the quality of data collection, hypothesis testing, and the interpretation of results.

Reading emotions from faces in two indigenous societies.

That all humans recognize certain specific emotions from their facial expression-the Universality Thesis-is a pillar of research, theory, and application in the psychology of emotion. Its most rigorous test occurs in indigenous societies with limited contact with external cultural influences, but such tests are scarce. Here we report 2 such tests. Study 1 was of children and adolescents (N = 68; aged 6-16 years) of the Trobriand Islands (Papua New Guinea, South Pacific) with a Western control group from Spain (N = 113, of similar ages). Study 2 was of children and adolescents (N = 36; same age range) of Matemo Island (Mozambique, Africa). In both studies, participants were shown an array of prototypical facial expressions and asked to point to the person feeling a specific emotion: happiness, fear, anger, disgust, or sadness. The Spanish control group matched faces to emotions as predicted by the Universality Thesis: matching was seen on 83% to 100% of trials. For the indigenous societies, in both studies, the Universality Thesis was moderately supported for happiness: smiles were matched to happiness on 58% and 56% of trials, respectively. For other emotions, however, results were even more modest: 7% to 46% in the Trobriand Islands and 22% to 53% in Matemo Island. These results were robust across age, gender, static versus dynamic display of the facial expressions, and between- versus within-subjects design. (PsycINFO Database Record