State Resident Handedness, Ideology, and Political Party Preference: U.S. Presidential Election Outcomes Over the Past 60 Years.

Pearson correlation, partial correlation, and multiple regression strategies determined the degree to which estimates of the level of left-handedness in each of the 48 contiguous American states related to citizen political ideology and to Democratic-Republican presidential popular vote over the past 60 years. Higher state levels of left-handedness were associated significantly with liberal ideology in each of the presidential election years from 1964 to 2016. Comparable ideology data were not available for 2020. Higher state levels of left-handedness also were associated with a greater degree of Democratic candidate popular vote support in each of the presidential election years from 1964 to 2020 except for 1976. The mean size of these 28 significant Pearson correlations involving the two political criteria was .62 (SD = .12) with a range of .38-.80, indicating handedness alone could account for a mean of 40.1% (SD = 14.9) of the variance in the two political preference variables. Corresponding multiple regressions showed that when state-level Big Five personality, White population percent, urbanization, and income variables were given the opportunity to enter the equations, handedness still emerged with a significant regression coefficient in 26 of the 28 equations. The two exceptions occurred for 1968 with either political preference criterion. It is speculated that such relations are grounded in hypothesized but poorly understood genetic links between handedness, personality, and political beliefs and attitudes, and, that a foundational genetic predisposition to left-handedness in a population may have much greater impact on correlates than overt levels of left-handedness.

Does diversity foster individualism? The relation of racial-ethnic diversity to individualism-collectivism across the 50 American States.

Recent longitudinal research by others analyzing the relation between racial-ethnic diversity and individualism-collectivism in the 50 American states over the period 2000-2018 suggests that racial-ethnic diversity promotes individualism. The present study used a cross-sectional approach based on 2013 data to determine whether a relation mirroring the longitudinal pattern exists between racial-ethnic diversity and individualism-collectivism across the 50 states. Two measures of state racial-ethnic diversity were related to four measures of state individualism-collectivism using Pearson correlation and partial correlation controlling for state socioeconomic status. All correlations between diversity and individualism were negative and all those between diversity and collectivism were positive. The absolute magnitudes ranged from .43 to .68 for the Pearson correlations and from .43 to .67 for the partial correlations. Contrary to the earlier longitudinal findings, the current results show that states with higher racial-ethnic diversity are less individualistic and more collectivistic.

State resident volunteering and health are unrelated when neuroticism is controlled: Nomothetic evidence using the 50 states of the USA as analytical units.

This research challenges the claim that engaging in formal volunteering improves health. Using data for the 50 American states pertaining to 2015-2016, multiple regression equations with differing control and entry order demonstrated the capacity of state resident neuroticism to eliminate relations between state volunteering rates and state health outcomes. In Study 1, with state SES, White population percent, urban population percent, and health environment considered and controlled, volunteering accounted for 11.5% of state health variance. However, with neuroticism entered between the demographic controls and volunteering, neuroticism accounted for 18.0% but additional variance accounted for by volunteering was reduced to 0.7%. Similarly, in Study 2, with data for those 65 and older, the results were replicated. It is speculated that higher neuroticism produces social anxiety that discourages volunteering and fosters poorer health at both the individual and the state level for the general population and for those 65 and over.

The relation of neuroticism and social anxiety to willingness to volunteer.

Relations between neuroticism, social anxiety, and generic and specific willingness to volunteer were examined among psychology undergraduates (N = 196). Based on previous research and speculation, with each of the willingness to volunteer criteria, and either without or with statistical control for age, sex, and international student status, the following hypotheses were tested: (1) Neuroticism negatively correlates with willingness to volunteer; (2) Social anxiety negatively correlates with willingness to volunteer; (3) Controlling for social anxiety substantially reduces or eliminates the relation between neuroticism and willingness to volunteer; and (4) Controlling for neuroticism does not substantially reduce or eliminate the relation between social anxiety and willingness to volunteer. For generic willingness to volunteer, Hypotheses 1 and 2 were supported with but not without the three demographic controls. For specific willingness to volunteer, both hypotheses were confirmed with or without demographic controls. Hypotheses 3 and 4 also were supported with each criterion.

Handedness predicts Conservative-Republican preference and eliminates relations of Big Five personality to political orientation using the 48 contiguous American states as analytical units.

The two present nomothetic studies focused on the period from 1996 to 2012 to determine relations between handedness and political orientation using the 48 contiguous American states as analytical units. The estimated percentage of left-handers in each state operationally defined handedness. A composite measure of Conservative-Republican preference was created from CBS/New York Times/Gallup polls of state resident conservatism and the percent in each state voting Republican in each presidential election from 1996 to 2012. Study 1 showed that state levels of left-handedness correlated to an extremely high degree with Conservative-Republican preference (r = -.80). As well, with common demographic differences between states reflected in socioeconomic status, White population percent, and urban population percent controlled through multiple regression, handedness still accounted for an additional 37.2% of the variance in Conservative-Republican preference. Study 2 found that each of the Big Five personality variables correlated significantly with handedness and with Conservative-Republican preference, but in the opposite direction. Furthermore, Study 2 demonstrated quite surprisingly that all Big Five personality relations to Conservative-Republican preference were eliminated when handedness was controlled in multiple regression equations. For all regression equations, the global Moran's I test specifically developed for detecting residual spatial autocorrelation indicated no significant spatial autocorrelation.

State Resident Neuroticism Accounts for Life Satisfaction Differences Between Conservative and Liberal States of the USA.

Past research indicates associations between higher conservatism and higher life satisfaction, lower neuroticism and higher life satisfaction, and higher conservatism and lower neuroticism. Qualified deduction led to the following hypothesis: Neuroticism can account for the association between higher conservatism and higher life satisfaction. The 50 American states served as the units of analysis. Responses of 619,397 residents to the 44-item Big Five Inventory in an internet survey conducted from 1999 to 2005 provided mean neuroticism scores for each state. Conservative-liberal leaning of over 84,000 respondents to CBS News/New York Times polls from 1999 to 2003 and the percent voting Republican in each state in the 2000 to 2008 presidential elections combined to form a conservatism score for each state. The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index provided life satisfaction scores for over 1,000,000 respondents, transforming to a 2008 to 2010 composite score for each state. In a sequential multiple regression equation with life satisfaction as the criterion, state socioeconomic status and white population percent entered first as a block, conservatism entered second, and neuroticism entered third, the demographic controls accounted for 45.7% of the variance, conservatism accounted for another 10.4%, and neuroticism accounted for an additional 10.6%. However, with the entry order of conservatism and neuroticism reversed, neuroticism accounted for another 19.6% but conservatism accounted for only an additional nonsignificant 1.4%. Therefore, the hypothesis was supported. Three alternative explanations suggested by other researchers were not supported in the state-level analysis.

Higher USA State Resident Neuroticism Is Associated With Lower State Volunteering Rates.

Highly neurotic persons have dispositional characteristics that tend to precipitate social anxiety that discourages formal volunteering. With the 50 American states as analytical units, Study 1 found that state resident neuroticism correlated highly ( r = -.55) with state volunteering rates and accounted for another 26.8% of the volunteering rate variance with selected state demographics controlled. Study 2 replicated Study 1 during another period and extended the association to college student, senior, secular, and religious volunteering rates. Study 3 showed state resident percentages engaged in other social behaviors involving more familiarity and fewer demands than formal volunteering related to state volunteering rates but not to neuroticism. In Study 4, state resident neuroticism largely accounted statistically for relations between state volunteering rates and state population density, collectivism, social capital, Republican preference, and well-being. This research is the first to show that state resident neuroticism is a potent predictor of state volunteering rates.

Comparing American State Resident Neuroticism and State Tightness-Looseness as Predictors of Annual State Residential Mobility.

State resident neuroticism and the Harrington and Gelfand state tightness-looseness dimension were compared as predictors of state levels of residential mobility from 2004 to 2005 in the 50 American states. Hierarchical multiple regression controlled for state SES, white population percent, urban population percent, home ownership percent, and percent of home owners or renters paying 30 percent or more of household income for housing. Not moving was associated with higher neuroticism but not with tightness-looseness. Same-county moving, different-county moving, and within-state moving was associated with lower neuroticism but tightness-looseness was unrelated to any of these three criteria. However, lower tightness was associated with different-state moving and higher tightness was associated with greater tendency to move within a state rather than to a different state. Neuroticism showed no relation to the ratio of different-state to same-state moving. Results suggest distance moved may determine when neuroticism or tightness-looseness is a residential mobility predictor.

Life Expectancy Can Explain the Precocity-Longevity Hypothesis Association of Early Career Success and Early Death.

The precocity-longevity hypothesis that those who reach career milestones earlier in life have shorter life spans was tested with the 430 men elected to serve in the House of Representatives for the 71st U.S. Congress in 1929-1930 who were alive throughout 1930. There was no tendency for those first serving at an earlier age to die sooner or those serving first at a later age to die later than expected based on individual life expectancy in 1930. Although age at first serving was correlated with death age, the correlation was not significant when expected death age was controlled. The results cast serious doubt on the contention of the precocity-longevity hypothesis that the developmental aspects of the prerequisites, concomitants, and consequences of early career achievement peaks actively enhance the conditions for an earlier death.

Big five personality and residential mobility: a state-level analysis of the USA.

Relations of the state-aggregated Big Five personality scores of 619,397 residents to four 2005 state-level residential mobility criteria were examined with the 50 states as cases. Multiple regression controlling for five state demographic variables showed (a) higher state neuroticism was strongly associated with lower mobility, lower same-county mobility, and lower between-county mobility; (b) higher state extraversion was associated with lower mobility and lower same-county mobility, but only with neuroticism and/or conscientiousness controlled; and (c) conscientiousness was related to same-residence, same-county, and different-county mobility, but only without demographic variables controlled. Discussion is grounded in the dangers of cross-level speculation and the potential of a basic assumption of geographical psychology that an area's aggregate position on a dispositional variable is associated there with behavioral and psychological tendencies related to that variable.

Happy Twitter tweets are more likely in American states with lower levels of resident neuroticism.

Relations between Big Five personality scores aggregated at the American state level and the happiness of Twitter tweet content emanating from each of the 50 American states were explored with the 50 states as the units of analysis. Tweet happiness correlated negatively with Neuroticism, and the relation remained when partial correlation and multiple regression adjusted and controlled for state socioeconomic status, white population percent, and urban population percent. In contrast, state levels of Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, and Agreeableness showed no relation to state levels of the happiness of tweet content.

Radiation dose to workers due to the inhalation of dust during granite fabrication.

There has been very little research conducted to determine internal radiation doses resulting from worker exposure to ionising radiation in granite fabrication shops. To address this issue, we estimated the effective radiation dose of granite workers in US fabrication shops who were exposed to the maximum respirable dust and silica concentrations allowed under current US regulations, and also to concentrations reported in the literature. Radiation doses were calculated using standard methods developed by the International Commission on Radiological Protection. The calculated internal doses were very low, and below both US occupational standards (50 mSv yr(-1)) and limits applicable to the general public (1 mSv yr(-1)). Workers exposed to respirable granite dust concentrations at the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) respirable dust permissible exposure limit (PEL) of 5 mg m(-3) over a full year had an estimated radiation dose of 0.062 mSv yr(-1). Workers exposed to respirable granite dust concentrations at the OSHA silica PEL and at the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists Threshold Limit Value for a full year had expected radiation doses of 0.007 mSv yr(-1) and 0.002 mSv yr(-1), respectively. Using data from studies of respirable granite dust and silica concentrations measured in granite fabrication shops, we calculated median expected radiation doses that ranged from <0.001 to 0.101 mSv yr(-1).

Predicted indoor radon concentrations from a Monte Carlo simulation of 1,000,000 granite countertop purchases.

Previous research examining radon exposure from granite countertops relied on using a limited number of exposure scenarios. We expanded upon this analysis and determined the probability that installing a granite countertop in a residential home would lead to a meaningful radon exposure by performing a Monte Carlo simulation to obtain a distribution of potential indoor radon concentrations attributable to granite. The Monte Carlo analysis included estimates of the probability that a particular type of granite would be purchased, the radon flux associated with that type, the size of the countertop purchased, the volume of the home where it would be installed and the air exchange rate of that home. One million countertop purchases were simulated and 99.99% of the resulting radon concentrations were lower than the average outdoor radon concentrations in the US (14.8 Bq m(-3); 0.4  pCi l(-1)). The median predicted indoor concentration from granite countertops was 0.06 Bq m(-3) (1.59 × 10(-3) pCi l(-1)), which is over 2000 times lower than the US Environmental Protection Agency's action level for indoor radon (148 Bq m(-3); 4 pCi l(-1)). The results show that there is a low probability of a granite countertop causing elevated levels of radon in a home.

Cytoreductive surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy for colorectal cancer.

Peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC) arising from colorectal cancer (CRC) is generally considered a terminal condition with few treatment options. However, over the past few decades, new chemotherapeutic and biologic agents have improved the median overall survival of patients with unresectable metastatic disease up to 20 months. There has also been emergence of combining cytoreductive surgery (CS) with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) for patients with PC. The literature supporting such an approach is significant, though not extensive, mainly consisting of small single-institution series, one international multicenter retrospective review, and one single-institution prospective randomized trial. Yet, there is remarkable homogeneity among the reported clinical outcomes, demonstrating 5-year OS rates of approximately 25-40% for patients undergoing a complete cytoreduction. These studies have fueled increasing interest in the use of CS and HIPEC for metastatic colorectal cancer over the past decade. However, despite the publication of a consensus statement on the role of CS and HIPEC for PC from CRC, there is still controversy regarding its appropriateness, effectiveness, safety, and application in this subset of patients. In this review we analyze the currently available scientific evidence supporting the clinical application of CS and HIPEC in the treatment of PC of colorectal origin.

Personality and American state differences in obesity prevalence.

The study was conducted to determine whether state obesity-prevalence rates can be predicted by state differences in residents' levels on the Big Five personality variables (O. P. John & S. Srivastava, 1999). State obesity prevalence was the mean percentage of the state population from 2000 to 2005 with a body mass index > or = 30.0 as assessed by the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010), which currently interviews more than 350,000 adults annually. State neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness z scores, based on the responses of 619,397 residents to an Internet survey from 1999 to 2005, were taken from P. J. Rentfrow, S. D. Gosling, and J. Potter (2008). Alaska, Hawaii, and North Dakota had scores outside -3 and +3 standard deviations on at least 1 variable and were excluded as outliers. For the 47 remaining states, state obesity prevalence was significantly correlated with neuroticism (.35), agreeableness (.38), openness (-.44), socioeconomic status (-.74), white percentage (-.34), and urbanization (-.43). Multiple regression analysis showed that socioeconomic status could account for 54.0% of the criterion variance and that agreeableness, neuroticism, and openness together could account for another 17.1%.

Vesicular stomatitis virus as a treatment for colorectal cancer.

M protein mutant vesicular stomatitis virus is an attractive candidate oncolytic virus for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer due to its ability to kill cancer cells that are defective in their antiviral responses. The oncolytic activity of recombinant wild-type and M protein mutant vesicular stomatitis viruses was determined in RKO, Hct116 and LoVo colorectal cancer cells, as well as in human fibroblast and hepatocyte primary cultures. RKO and Hct116 cells were sensitive to both viruses, whereas LoVo cells were resistant. [(35)S]methionine labeling experiments and viral plaque assays showed that sensitive and resistant colorectal cancer cells supported viral protein and progeny production after infection with either virus. Colorectal cancer cells were pretreated with ß-interferon and infected with vesicular stomatitis virus to evaluate the extent to which interferon signaling is downregulated in colorectal cancer cells. Although colorectal cancer cells retained some degree of interferon signaling, this signaling did not negatively impact the oncolytic effects of either virus in sensitive cells. Murine xenografts of RKO cells were effectively treated by intratumoral injections with M protein mutant virus, whereas LoVo xenografts were resistant to treatment with this virus. These results suggest that M protein mutant vesicular stomatitis virus is a good candidate oncolytic virus for the treatment of selected metastatic colorectal cancers.

Do state laws concerning homosexuals reflect the preeminence of conservative-liberal individual differences?

The present study was conducted to determine whether individual-level correlates of sexual prejudice (i.e., conservatism-liberalism, religious fundamentalism, educational levels, urbanism, income, and living in the South) are predictive at the state level of laws restricting homosexual behaviors and desires. Criterion 1 was a multifaceted index of state laws concerning gay men and lesbians; Criterion 2 was an index of state laws regarding same-sex partnerships. Multiple regression strategies showed that state conservatism-liberalism, as determined from the responses of 141,798 individuals aggregated at the state level (Erikson, Wright, & McIver, 1993), was the prime state-level predictor of both criteria. For Criterion 1, only Southern state status accounted for additional variance (4.2%) above the 54.8% already accounted for by conservatism-liberalism. For Criterion 2, no other variables accounted for variance beyond the 44.6% accounted for by state conservatism-liberalism.

Florida creativity index scores, conservatism, and openness in 268 U.S. regions.

This study assessed whether Florida's Creativity Index (2002) scores for 268 U.S. regions were related to levels of conservatism and openness in the states in which the regions were situated. State conservatism was measured as the percentage voting for Bush in 2000. State openness z scores were taken from a survey of 619,397 residents (Rentfrow, Gosling, & Potter, 2008). Creativity scores correlated negatively with conservatism (r = -.22) and positively with openness (r = .23). Regression showed that the two predictors accounted jointly (7%) and separately for significant variance in the Creativity Index. The findings contribute evidence for the construct validity of Florida's composite Creativity Index and some, albeit moderate to weak, support of the Rentfrow, et al. conclusion that state-aggregated openness reflects the unconventionality, tolerance, and creativity of a state.

Suicide, big five personality factors, and depression at the American state level.

The research determined the relation of the 2004-2005 American state suicide rates to state means on neuroticism, agreeableness, extraversion, openness, and conscientiousness as assessed by Rentfrow, Gosling, and Potter (2008). Multiple regression strategies were used to analyze relations between state suicide rates and state personality means with state socioeconomic status, White population percent, urban population percent, and depression rates controlled. Multiple regression analysis showed that neuroticism accounted for 32.0% and agreeableness another 16.3% of the variance in suicide rates when demographics and depression were controlled. Lower neuroticism and lower agreeableness were associated with higher suicide rates. Lower neuroticism and lower agreeableness may be important risk factors for completed suicide but not suicidal ideation or attempted suicide.