Partisan polarization, historical heritage, and public health: Exploring COVID-19 outcomes.

When the COVID-19 virus first arrived in the United States in early 2020, many epidemiologists and public health officers counseled for shutdowns and advised policymakers to prepare for a major pandemic. In 2020, though, US society was rife with major political and cultural divides. Some elected leaders promoted policies at odds with the experts, and many people refused to heed the public health-based communications about the coming pandemic. Additionally, the capacity to respond to a pandemic was distributed in the country in a highly unequal fashion. This paper analyzes the noteworthy geopolitical patterns of COVID-19 illnesses, subsequent demands on hospitals, and resulting deaths. This description is based on a snapshot of archival data gathered in the midst of the pandemic during late January and early February of 2021. Demographic data, indicators of political party support, indicators of citizen attitudes, and public health compliance behaviors are combined in a multivariate analysis to explain COVID-19 outcomes at the local government (county) level. The analysis suggests strongly that regional political culture and local demographics played a substantial role in determining the severity of the public health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cuando el virus COVID­19 llegó por primera vez a los Estados Unidos a principios de 2020, muchos epidemiólogos y funcionarios de salud pública recomendaron cierres y aconsejaron a los legisladores que se prepararan para una gran pandemia. Sin embargo, en 2020, la sociedad estadounidense estaba plagada de grandes divisiones políticas y culturales. Algunos líderes electos promovieron políticas en desacuerdo con los expertos, y muchas personas se negaron a prestar atención a las comunicaciones basadas en la salud pública sobre la próxima pandemia. Además, la capacidad de respuesta ante una pandemia se distribuyó en el país de manera muy desigual. Este documento analiza los patrones geopolíticos notables de las enfermedades de COVID­19, las demandas posteriores en los hospitales y las muertes resultantes. Esta descripción se basa en una instantánea de los datos de archivo recopilados en medio de la pandemia a fines de enero y principios de febrero de 2021. Los datos demográficos, los indicadores de apoyo a los partidos políticos, los indicadores de las actitudes de los ciudadanos y los comportamientos de cumplimiento de la salud pública se combinan en un modelo multivariado. análisis para explicar los resultados de COVID­19 a nivel del gobierno local (condado). El análisis sugiere fuertemente que la cultura política regional y la demografía local desempeñaron un papel importante en la determinación de la gravedad del impacto de la pandemia de COVID­19 en la salud pública.

Dating aggression, sexual coercion, and aggression-supporting attitudes among college men as a function of participation in aggressive high school sports.

Aggressive male sports have been criticized as bastions of sexism and training grounds for aggression against women, but there have been few empirical demonstrations of these alleged relationships. The authors studied self-reported dating aggression and sexual coercion in 147 college men. Men who had participated in aggressive high school sports, as compared with other men, engaged in more psychological aggression, physical aggression, and sexual coercion toward their dating partners, caused their partners more physical injury, were more accepting of violence, had more sexist attitudes and hostility toward women, were more accepting of rape myths, and were less tolerant of homosexuality. Results indicate that participation in aggressive high school sports is one of the multiple developmental pathways leading to relationship violence.

Perceptions of the social and personal characteristics of hypermuscular women and of the men who love them.

A predominately European American sample of middle class college students rated hypermuscular female bodybuilders and the men who were romantically involved with them on measures of perceived gender traits, personality traits, social behaviors, and heterosexual behaviors. Participants perceived hypermuscular women, as compared to the average woman, as having more masculine and fewer feminine interests, less likely to be good mothers, and less intelligent, socially popular, and attractive. However, participants also perceived them as being less likely to engage in socially deviant behaviors or to be sexually manipulative and more likely to be extraverted, conscientious, and open to new experiences than the average woman. Participants perceived men who are romantically involved with hypermuscular women as having stronger masculine traits, interests, and identities than the average man. The authors found no relationships between the perceiver's gender type and his or her perceptions of hypermuscular women or the men who were romantically involved with them.

College women's experiences of sexual coercion: a review of cultural, perpetrator, victim, and situational variables.

The literature on college women's experiences with sexual coercion is reviewed, with an emphasis on work published since 1990. Sexual coercion is defined as any situation in which one person uses verbal or physical means (including the administration of drugs or alcohol, with or without the other person's consent) to obtain sexual activity against consent. We argue that coercive sexual behavior among college students can best be understood within the context of other sexual behaviors and values on college campuses. Significant definitional and methodological problems are identified and discussed. Important victim, perpetrator, and situational variables are identified and discussed. These include attitudes toward women, beliefs about sexual behavior (including rape-supporting beliefs and values), communication problems, coercion-supporting peer groups (including fraternities and athletics), concepts of masculinity and femininity, sexual promiscuity, and alcohol.

A brief, reliable measure of negative attitudes toward atheists.

The development and factor structure of a brief, 5-item, measure of negative attitudes toward atheists is described with a sample of 176 college men and 231 college women. The single factor was reliable; the internal consistency was .83; and face validity was high. Although other forms of reliability and validity should be pursued, the scale appears to be suitable for research on negative attitudes toward atheists.

Forelimb dimensions and goniometry of the wrist and fingers in tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella): Developmental and comparative aspects.

Adult capuchin monkeys use precision grips during manipulation of small objects, although their thumbs have been classified as pseudo-opposable. We investigated the physical properties of the hands to increase our understanding of manual function in capuchins. Forelimb dimensions and joint mobility (goniometric) measurements were obtained from adult, juvenile, and infant tufted capuchins (Cebus apella). Compared to adult squirrel monkeys, adult capuchins exhibited less flexibility of the wrist and digits. Capuchins of all ages had proportionally longer hands than squirrel monkeys, and capuchins more than 7 weeks old had proportionally longer thumbs than squirrel monkeys. Growth of the arms and hands was asynchronous. The duration of growth of the thumb was particularly prolonged, extending into early adulthood. Age-related changes in flexibility were apparent in most indices, and were greatest at the metacarpophalangeal joints. It is unknown to what extent the characteristics of growth, forelimb dimensions, and goniometry presented by capuchins are shared with other species, or if they contribute to the capuchin's unusual prehensive capacities. However, the marked differences between adult capuchins and squirrel monkeys in these metrics, and between capuchins and rhesus in the growth patterns of the digits, suggest that variation across taxa in these characteristics can be considerable.