The Club

Ladies:  You know how you're chatting with some guy at the club, and he's down, and it all seems aight? 

But then his favorite song comes on?

Like this?

Yeah.  Like that.  Stop that.

Membership Has Its Privileges....And Costs

For Members Only: Ingroup Punishment of Fairness Norm Violations in the Ultimatum Game 

Saaid Mendoza, Sean Lane & David Amodio 
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming 

Abstract: Although group membership has many privileges, members are expected to reciprocate those privileges. We tested whether in-group members would be punished more harshly than out-group members for marginal fairness norm violations within ultimatum game bargaining interactions. Participants considered monetary splits (of US$20) from in-group and out-group proposers, which ranged in proportion. Accepting an offer yielded the proposed payout; rejecting it caused each player to earn nothing - a punishment of the proposer at a personal cost. Participants exacted stricter costly punishment on racial in-group than out-group members for marginally unfair offers (Study 1), an effect that was replicated with college group membership and magnified among strong in-group identifiers (Study 2). Importantly, ultimatum game decisions were driven by fairness perceptions rather than proposer evaluations (Study 3), suggesting our effects reflected norm enforcement and not esteem preservation. These findings illuminate a previously unexplored process for maintaining group-based norms that may promote in-group favoritism. 

Nod to Kevin Lewis

The culture that is Germany: Naturist Edition

The quantity theory of nudity may be holding in Germany. It appears that perhaps the same amount of skin is being shown by nude sunbathers; it's just been redistributed. Now there's a lot more skin on each of the much fewer naked bodies.

Or, as Reuters puts it, "Fatter & Fewer German Nudists as Numbers Dwindle"

Kurt Fisher, the head of the German Nudist Association, thinks he knows why the numbers are dwindling. Immigrants! Or more specifically, the wrong kind of immigrants:

""Germany is relying more and more on immigrants to keep the population steady. But many come from countries with strong religious beliefs." Immigrants who arrive from cultures where headscarves are common will not usually be interested in becoming naturists in Germany, he said."

Don't you just hate it when that happens?

Not just our S.O.B.

It turns out that the US government will have to get in line to give love to "reformer" Bashar Assad:

Turns out that Assad "is a humanist, doctor, educated in London, in no way an extremist; he is a man of great human sensitivity,"

--Hugo Chavez

Why do so many hereditary dictators in training like to add "educated in London" to their resumes??