What Coy Smiles Say About Positive Shyness in Early Infancy

Positive shyness is a universal emotion with the specific social function of regulating our interactions by improving trust and liking, and showing politeness. The present study examined early infant production of coy smiles during social interactions as a measure of positive shy behavior. Eighty 4‐month‐olds were experimentally observed during three types of interactions in front of a mirror in which (1) the infant only sees him or herself, (2) the infant only sees the other person (mother, father, or stranger), and (3) the infant sees both him or herself and the other person. Infants produced more coy smiles during the interaction with a stranger than during the interactions with their mother or their father, or when they could see only themselves in front of a mirror. Infants also produced more coy smiles when they could see their self‐reflection during the interaction than when they could not. Our results support the assumption that coy smiles indicate an early emerging emotional reaction with an important adaptive function during social situations involving novel persons and when special attention is given to the child.     

Partner Choice in Sweden Following a Failed Intermarriage

This paper is based on the assumption that divorced and separated individuals bring with them the experience of a failed union which may shape their future choices on the marriage market. It aims to contribute to our knowledge of intermarriage, and social interaction in Sweden in general, by comparing the repartnering choices of immigrants and natives in Sweden who had made what is still considered an atypical choice of entering a native-immigrant union with the partner choices of natives and immigrants whose previous union was endogamous. The empirical analysis in this paper is based on the Swedish register data from the STAR data collection (Sweden over Time: Activities and Relations) and covers the period 1990–2007. All the analyses in the paper include individuals aged 20–55 at the time of union dissolution. The multivariate analysis is based on discrete-time multinomial logistic regression. The results show that for all four groups defined by sex and nativity (native men, native women, immigrant men, and immigrant women), there is a positive association between the previous experience of intermarriage and the likelihood of initiating another intermarriage after union dissolution. Another important finding is that the magnitude of this positive association increases with the degree of social distance between the groups involved in the union. Gender differences are modest among natives and somewhat more pronounced among immigrants.     

Strategic sustainability and financial performance: exploring abnormal returns

The ongoing empirical debate about whether SRI is associated, if anything, with subpar or surpassing financial performance is characterized by a somewhat indistinct focus and the infeasibility of tapping the full potential of existing models. By indistinct focus, we mean an analysis based on an aggregation of a myriad of SRI factors that potentially affect a firm’s financial performance. The inability of taking full advantage of existing models is reflected by the fact that studies with European data have not been able to comprehensively account for systematic risk tilts. This paper presents a portfolio analysis that overcomes these issues by analyzing a distinct selection of small and innovative firms. We argue that both their strategic implementation of Corporate Social Responsibility and the general growth in socially responsible investments (SRI) lend themselves to an explanation for positive abnormal returns of this portfolio. We account for the idiosyncratic investment style of SRI by introducing a comprehensive pan-European risk-adjusted portfolio analysis based on the Carhart four-factor model. A novel propensity score matching method in conjunction with the estimation of structural models completes the conventional robustness checks in the literature.     

New Generalizations of Cauchy Distribution

The generalized skew-normal distribution introduced by Balakrishnan (2002 Balakrishnan , N. ( 2002 ). Discussion on ‘Skew multivariate models related to hidden truncation and/or selective reporting’ by B. C. Arnold and R. J. Beaver . Test 11 : 37 – 39 .[Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) is used to obtain new generalizations of univariate Cauchy distribution with two parameters, denoted by GC _{m, n} (a, b) with m and n non-negative integer numbers and a, b ∈ R. For cases (m, n) = (1, 2), (m, n) = (2, 1), (m, n) = (0, 3) and (m, n) = (3, 0) explicit forms of the density functions are derived and compared to previous generalizations of Cauchy and skew-Cauchy distributions.     

Gambling among Croatian young people: an exploratory study of the relationship between psychopathic traits,risk-taking tendencies and gambling-related problems

The present study investigated the relationship between psychopathic traits, risk-taking tendencies and gambling problem severity and if these associations varied by gender in a community sample of Croatian adolescents (N = 282; 148 males). Results of the regression analyses showed that the Impulsive-Irresponsible behavioural style (YPI-II) and the Grandiose-Manipulative interpersonal style (YPI-GM) were the strongest postdictors of gambling-related problems. Surprisingly, independently of the YPI-II dimension, the Callous-Unemotional traits were negatively associated to gambling-related problems. By, contrast, independently of the psychopathic traits, risk-tendencies were not significant postdictors of gambling problem severity. With respect to gender differences, higher levels of the YPI-II and YPI-GM dimensions were related to more severe gambling-related problems only in males, not in females. Furthermore, while the CU traits exhibited protective features against gambling-related problems in both genders, the effect was stronger for males than for females.     

Physical activity and psychological distress in older men: findings from the New South Wales 45 and up study

Physical activity is an important factor in healthy aging and has been shown to reduce depressive symptoms. This association, however, is relatively understudied in older men. This study was a cross-sectional analysis of the association between physical activity (Active Australia Survey) and psychological distress (Kessler-10). Participants were a sample of 17,689 men age ≥ 65 yr drawn from a large-scale Australian cohort study of people age 45 years and over (The 45 and Up Study). The likelihood of reporting high or very high levels of psychological distress decreased with increasing weekly sessions of physical activity. Compared with participants reporting no sessions of physical activity, the fully adjusted odds ratio for high or very high psychological distress was .66 (95% CI .51-.85) for men who undertook 1-6 sessions of physical activity per week and decreased to .57 (95% CI, .43-.79) for men who reported 16 or more weekly sessions. The cross-sectional findings show that older men who are more active are less likely to report psychological distress, regardless of their level of functional limitation. Further research, informed by these findings, is required to investigate causal pathways and the temporal sequence of events.