Nonverbal Reactions to an Attractive Stranger: The Role of Mimicry in Communicating Preferred Social Distance

The present study was conducted to determine the extent to which different nonverbal behaviors were associated with romantic interest in a highly attractive confederate and whether these behaviors differed as a function of relationship status and self-reported love for one’s partner. Mimicry was positively associated with romantic interest in the confederate, and consistent with the devaluation hypothesis, mimicry was negatively associated with self-reported love for one’s partner, suggesting that mimicry functions to signal preferred social distance. In addition, smiling and vocal pleasantness emerged as important affiliative nonverbal behaviors. The present results suggest that mimicry acts as a relationship-maintenance mechanism, one that is expressed automatically, unintentionally, and nonconsciously. Implications for the role of nonconscious mimicry in romantic attraction and relationship-maintenance processes are discussed.     

MINIMUM AUSTRALIAN CHILD CARE STANDARDS: A COMPARISON WITH INTERNATIONAL BENCHMARKS

In 1994 the State, Territory and Federal governments agreed upon a set of minimum regulatory standards for long day centre-based child care. This article compares those standards with two international benchmarks for minimum standards in child care. The Australian standards are barely adequate at best when assessed against those benchmarks. It is an open question how much improvement the new child care accreditation system can achieve without improvements in the underlying regulatory requirements.     

Recycling in multi-family dwellings: Increasing participation and decreasing contamination

This study explored the promotion of recycling in multi-family dwellings. An experimental design investigated four behavior change techniques: biweekly postcards giving specific feedback to each dwelling unit as to quantity and contamination of the recyclables, newsletters giving general information on recycling and the amount recycled by the city as a whole, written pledges committing households to recycle for a specified period, and volunteer coordinators who distributed information and answered questions from residents. The effectiveness of these techniques was compared against that of a control group. The findings suggest that volunteer coordinators are not an effective intervention technique in multi-family dwellings, and that feedback and commitment techniques are useful mainly for managing contamination in medium sized complexes. The data also suggest that the size of a multi-family dwelling complex significantly affects the amount of recyclables collected and the level of contamination. Smaller complexes with less than ten units recycled up to three times the amount on a per unit basis as complexes with more units. Smaller units also had fewer problems with contamination in their recyclables. Several explanations are offered for the poor participation and performance in larger complexes.     

A suggested framework for analysis of urban-rural fertility differentials with an illustration of the Tanzanian case

This paper offers a framework for analyzing how individual characteristics and urban or rural "place" factors interact to influence fertility decisions. The framework builds on the Davis-Blake model and additionally shows how place or community variables influence exposure to intercourse, conception, and birth, either with or without a conscious decisionmaking process. The framework emphasizes the way person and place related factors combine to determine a woman's perception of her life options before bearing any children, as well as how changes in these factors may affect subsequent child decisions. The framework is briefly illustrated by the Tanzanian case. The analysis highlights urban-based considerations, such as education-wage differentials, which may influence the rural couple's decisions. A comparison of two rural cohorts shows that specific community variables such as cultural attitudes, accessibility, general educational levels, and child mortality mediate the influence of these urban-based phenomena.Research for this project was completed while the author was affiliated with GETEMPO, Washington, D.C., under contract to the Office of Urban Development, U.S. Agency for International Development. The author gratefully acknowledges the comments and assistance of Ann C. Orr, James E. Kocher, Paula E. Hollerbach, and two anonymous referees. Requests for reprints should be directed to Sally Evans Findley, Minnesota State Planning Agency, Room 101 Capitol Square Building, 550 Cedar Street, St. Paul, Minnesota 55101.     

Argumentum ad misericordiam: the cultural politics of victim media

This article discusses the widespread use of victim tropes in contemporary Anglo-American culture by using cultural theory to analyse key social media memes circulating on Facebook in 2015. Since the growth of social media, victim stories have been proliferating; victim narratives are rhetorical, they are designed to elicit pity and shame the perpetrator. They are deployed to stimulate political debate and activism, often to appeal to an all-purpose humanitarianism. Victimology has its origins in Law and Criminology, but this paper opens up the field more broadly to think about the cultural politics of victimhood, to consider how the victim-figure can be appropriated by/for different purposes, particularly racial and gender politics, including in the case of Rachel Dolezal. In formulating an ethical response to the lived experience of victims, we need to consider the different kinds of critical intimacies elicited by such media.