Multicultural attitudes in Europe: A multilevel analysis of perceived compatibility between individual and collective justice

Contemporary political philosophers debate the degree to which multiculturalism, with its emphasis on collective justice principles, is compatible with Western liberal societies’ core ideologies based on individual justice principles. Taking on a social psychological perspective, the present study offers a cross-national, multilevel examination of the asymmetric compatibility hypothesis, according to which majority and ethnic minority groups differ in the association between support for individualized immigration policies (based on individual justice principles) and support for multiculturalism (based on collective justice principles). Using data from Round 7 of the European Social Survey (N = 36,732), we compared minority and majority attitudes across 1) countries with stronger versus weaker equality policies at the national level (a Migrant Integration Policy Index [MIPEX] sub-dimension indicator), and 2) Western and post-communist European countries. In line with the asymmetric compatibility hypothesis, ethnic minorities perceived significantly less incompatibility between individual and collective justice than majorities. This majority-minority asymmetric compatibility was stronger in Western countries compared to post-communist European countries. Moreover, in Western countries and in countries with stronger equality policies, ethnic minorities generally supported multiculturalism to a greater extent than majorities. Overall, these findings suggest that deep-seated ideological orientations of national contexts shape minority and majority justice conceptions and hence, also, multicultural attitudes. Implications and future research directions are discussed.

Female choice for related males in wild red-backed toadlets (Pseudophryne coriacea)

Mate choice for genetic benefits is assumed to be widespread in nature, yet very few studies have comprehensively examined relationships between female mate choice and male genetic quality in wild populations. Here, we use exhaustive sampling and single nucleotide polymorphisms to provide a partial test of the “good genes as heterozygosity” hypothesis and the “genetic compatibility” hypothesis in an entire population of terrestrial breeding red-backed toadlets, Pseudophryne coriacea. We found that successful males did not display higher heterozygosity, despite a positive relationship between male heterozygosity and offspring heterozygosity. Rather, in the larger of 2 breeding events, we found that successful males were more genetically similar to their mate than expected under random mating, indicating that females can use pre- or post-copulatory mate choice mechanisms to bias paternity toward more related males. These findings provide no support for the good genes as heterozygosity hypothesis but lend support to the genetic compatibility hypothesis. A complete test of this hypothesis will now require evaluating how parental genetic similarity impacts offspring fitness. Terrestrial toadlets show a high degree of site fidelity, high levels of genetic structuring between populations, and frequently hybridize with sister species. As such, female mate choice for related males may be an adaptive strategy to reduce outbreeding depression. Our findings provide the first population-wide evidence for non-random preferential inbreeding in a wild amphibian. We argue that such reproductive patterns may be common in amphibians because extreme genetic differentiation within meta-populations creates an inherently high risk of outbreeding depression.

The mitonuclear compatibility hypothesis of sexual selection

Why females assess ornaments when choosing mates remains a central question in evolutionary biology. We hypothesize that the imperative for a choosing female to find a mate with nuclear oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) genes that are compatible with her mitochondrial OXPHOS genes drives the evolution of ornaments. Indicator traits are proposed to signal the efficiency of OXPHOS function thus enabling females to select mates with nuclear genes that are compatible with maternal mitochondrial genes in the formation of OXPHOS complexes. Species-typical pattern of ornamentation is proposed to serve as a marker of mitochondrial type ensuring that females assess prospective mates with a shared mitochondrial background. The mitonuclear compatibility hypothesis predicts that the production of ornaments will be closely linked to OXPHOS pathways, and that sexual selection for compatible mates will be strongest when genes for nuclear components of OXPHOS complexes are Z-linked. The implications of this hypothesis are that sexual selection may serve as a driver for the evolution of more efficient cellular respiration.

THE BOUND QUIVER OF A SPLIT EXTENSION

In this paper, we give a sufficient (which is also necessary under a compatibility hypothesis) condition on a set of arrows in the quiver of an algebra A so that A is a split extension of A/M, where M is the ideal of A generated by the classes of these arrows. We also compare the notion of split extension with that of semiconvex extension of algebras.

A test of the genetic compatibility hypothesis with tree swallows, Tachycineta bicolor

The genetic compatibility hypothesis proposes that females should mate with genetically dissimilar males whose alleles best complement their own, resulting in greater offspring heterozygosity. It predicts that genetic similarity between social pairs will be positively related to the proportion of extra-pair young within broods and negatively related to hatching success. We tested these two predictions in tree swallow (Tachycineta bicolor (Vieillot, 1808)) pairs (n = 72). Tree swallows have one of the highest rates of extra-pair paternity among socially monogamous passerines. Contrary to expectation, genetic similarity of a social pair, as measured by the band-sharing coefficient (estimated from multilocus DNA fingerprints), tended to be negatively related to the proportion of extra-pair young within broods, but failed to predict hatching success. When including only the subset of nests for which we had complete genotyping data (n = 37), we again found a significant negative relationship between genetic similarity and the proportion of extra-pair young within broods. Genetic similarity did not differ significantly between nests with and without extra-pair young, nor did it differ between nests with total versus partial hatching success. Overall, our data do not support the genetic compatibility hypothesis in tree swallows, and in fact show some evidence against it.

Simon's Experiments and Stimulus-Response Compatibility: Hypothesis of Two Automatic Responses

In Simon, Hinrich, and Craft's (1970) experiments, two factors, Stimulus-Response Compatibility and Position of Hands, are manipulated. The effects of these factors are not additive. Effects of Stimulus-Response Compatibility are usually explained by the similarity between the sets of stimuli and responses. This similarity leads us to suggest that, in these particular experimental designs, two automatic responses will be triggered by the presentation of the stimulus and consequently will be associated with two Stimulus-automatic Response mappings. These two mappings are shown to be positively (both Compatible or both Incompatible) or negatively (one is Compatible whereas the other is Incompatible) correlated, depending on the treatment combination of the two factors, Stimulus-Response Compatibility and Position of Hands. Consequently, the effects of Stimulus-Response Compatibility and Position of Hands are suggested not to be additive. The predictions inferred from this model are consistent with experimental data and Simon's conclusion.

Does Immediate Arousal Enhance Response Force in Simple Reaction Time?

Three experiments assessed the hypothesis that immediate arousal enhances response force in speeded reaction-time tasks. Immediate arousal was manipulated via the physical characteristics of a warning signal that closely preceded the imperative response signal. The first experiment revealed that responses were more forceful and faster for a loud than for a soft warning signal. The second experiment manipulated the duration of an auditory warning signal; more forceful but slower responses were obtained for longer durations of the warning signal. The third experiment employed a visual warning signal, and its intensity was either rather weak or moderately bright; more forceful responses and slightly faster responses were observed for the brighter warning signal. Although the results of Experiment 1 and 2 may agree with an arousal account, the findings of Experiment 3 argue against such an account. A stimulus-response compatibility hypothesis is suggested as one possible alternative account.

Visual Imagery as a Prose-Learning Process

The viability of visual imagery as a prose-learning process was evaluated in two experiments with elementary school children. In the first experiment, it was found that when a passage was presented at a normal rate, the effect of imagery instructions on substance recall was relatively greater under listening than under reading conditions. This finding was replicated in the second experiment, in which it was also found that reported imagery generation was more frequent in listening than in reading conditions when a faster presentation rate was employed. Possible interpretations of the results with respect to a “compatibility” hypothesis are offered.