Pornography and Marriage

We used data on 20,000 ever-married adults in the General Social Survey to examine the relationship between watching pornographic films and various measures of marital well-being. We found that adults who had watched an X-rated movie in the past year were more likely to be divorced, more likely to have had an extramarital affair, and less likely to report being happy with their marriage or happy overall. We also found that, for men, pornography use reduced the positive relationship between frequency of sex and happiness. Finally, we found that the negative relationship between pornography use and marital well-being has, if anything, grown stronger over time, during a period in which pornography has become both more explicit and more easily available.     

FIRM SURVIVAL,UNCERTAINTY, AND FINANCIAL FRICTIONS: IS THERE A FINANCIAL UNCERTAINTY ACCELERATOR?

Using a large panel of unquoted UK firms over the period 2000–2009, we examine the impact of firm‐specific uncertainty on corporate failures. In this context we also distinguish between firms which are likely to be more or less dependent on bank finance as well as public and nonpublic companies. Our results document a significant effect of uncertainty on firm survival. This link is found to be more potent during the recent financial crisis compared with tranquil periods. We also uncover significant firm‐level heterogeneity because the survival chances of bank‐dependent and nonpublic firms are most affected by changes in uncertainty, especially during the recent global financial crisis. (JEL E44, F32, F34, G32)     

Women's erotic rape fantasies: an evaluation of theory and research.

This article is the first systematic review of the research literature on women's rape fantasies. Current research indicates that between 31% and 57% of women have fantasies in which they are forced into sex against their will, and for 9% to 17% of women these are a frequent or favorite fantasy experience. Erotic rape fantasies are paradoxical: they do not appear to make sense. Why would a person have an erotic and pleasurable fantasy about an event that, in real life, would be abhorrent and traumatic? In this article, the major theories of women's rape fantasies are evaluated both rationally and empirically. These theories explain rape fantasies in terms of masochism, sexual blame avoidance, openness to sexuality, sexual desirability, male rape culture, biological predisposition to surrender, sympathetic physiological activation, and adversary transformation. This article evaluates theory and research, makes provisional judgments as to which theories appear to be most viable, and begins the task of theoretical integration to arrive at a more complete and internally consistent explanation for why many women engage in erotic rape fantasies. Methodological critiques and programs for future research are presented throughout.     

How Real is that Smile? Mood Effects on Accepting or Rejecting the Veracity of Emotional Facial Expressions

Does mood influence people’s tendency to accept observed facial expressions as genuine? Based on recent theories of affect and cognition, two experiments predicted and found that negative mood increased and positive mood decreased people’s skepticism about the genuineness of facial expressions. After a mood induction, participants viewed images of faces displaying (a) positive, neutral, and negative expressions (Exp. 1), or (b) displays of six specific emotions (Exp. 2). Judgments of genuineness, valence, and confidence ratings were collected. As predicted, positive affect increased, and negative affect decreased the perceived genuineness of facial expressions, and there was some evidence for affect-congruence in judgments. The relevance of these findings for everyday nonverbal communication and strategic interpersonal behavior are considered, and their implications for recent affect-cognition theories are discussed.     

Ranking the Risks from Multiple Hazards in a Small Community

Natural hazards, human-induced accidents, and malicious acts have caused great losses and disruptions to society. After September 11, 2001, critical infrastructure protection has become a national focus in the United States and is likely to remain one for the foreseeable future. Damage to the infrastructures and assets could be mitigated through predisaster planning and actions. A systematic methodology was developed to assess and rank the risks from these multiple hazards in a community of 20,000 people. It is an interdisciplinary study that includes probabilistic risk assessment (PRA), decision analysis, and expert judgment. Scenarios are constructed to show how the initiating events evolve into undesirable consequences. A value tree, based on multi-attribute utility theory (MAUT), is used to capture the decisionmaker's preferences about the impacts on the infrastructures and other assets. The risks from random failures are ranked according to their expected performance index (PI), which is the product of frequency, probabilities, and consequences of a scenario. Risks from malicious acts are ranked according to their PI as the frequency of attack is not available. A deliberative process is used to capture the factors that could not be addressed in the analysis and to scrutinize the results. This methodology provides a framework for the development of a risk-informed decision strategy. Although this study uses the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus as a case study of a real project, it is a general methodology that could be used by other similar communities and municipalities.     

An Ethnography of Emerging Latino Music Scenes

We report on an ethnographic study of three emerging scenes in which Latino music is produced, performed, experienced, and celebrated in Houston, Texas: rock en Espanol, gay Latino dance music, and professional soccer supporters' music. Music is an important feature of Latino culture, since it informs migration, citizenship, spirituality, and other aspects of the contemporary Latino experience. Three interactionist concepts inform this study. The concept of scene directs our attention to the comprehensive social worlds driven by Latino music. The concept of idioculture directs our attention to the ways audience members experience Latino music within everyday life small groups. The concept of place directs our attention to how Latino music creates new locations to anchor the self in reference to country of origin, present music communities, or possible symbolic locations such as America or La Raza. We conclude with suggestions for a revised interactionist concept of music scene.