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Issue 76
August 2008

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ARTICLES

1. UNDERSTANDING ANTI-FAT ATTITUDES AMONGST PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

Prejudices surrounding overweight individuals surface early, with evidence of young preschool children holding negative attitudes toward their heftier peers. Much is known about these aggregate attitudes, but new research in Elsevier’s Body Image takes a closer look at individual attitudes.

Sixty-nine children were individually interviewed by a female researcher of normal weight and were additionally weighed and measured in their preschools. The children were asked about their anti-fat attitudes using multiple methods and their body size perceptions using a figure-rating scale, which included asking them to rate their own body size.

Results revealed that anti-fat attitudes and their related discriminatory behaviours are pervasive. In terms of their self-perception, many children (30 percent) represented their current body size as the thinnest figure, while 10 percent chose the second thinnest figure. In examining perceptions of the overweight figure, the children who perceived themselves as heavier rated the overweight figure more positively. Children who perceived themselves as thinner demonstrated more anti-fat attitudes than the children who perceived themselves as larger.

These findings suggest that perceived body size may be a better indicator than actual body size, of children’s attitudes toward overweight individuals. The researchers suggest more work should be done in this area with a more diverse sample. Getting greater clarity around why some children have stronger anti-fat attitudes than others may aid in the creation of more successful intervention programs.
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2. EVIDENCE REVEALS THE TORTOISE WAS ONCE ON THE MENU IN THE LATER MIDDLE PLEISTOCENE

The acquisition and consumption of small prey in the pre-Upper Palaeolithic period is a highly debated topic, but new evidence presented in Elsevier’s Journal of Archaeological Science reveals that tortoise consumption by humans appears to have been common practice at Level IV of Bolomor Cave, located on the southern slope of the Valldigna valley, approximately two kilometres south-east of the town of Tavernes (Valencia, Spain).

Human fossils have been recovered from Bolomor Cave, seven bone and dental fragments, compatible with that of the European human fossils of the Middle Pleistocene. Additionally, 526 tortoise remains were recovered. Based on the cut marks of the limbs and bones and ventral surface of the carapace and plastron, as well as evidence of burning on the tortoise skeleton, elements of anthropogenic breakage and human tooth marks on limb bones, it is clear that human groups consumed the tortoises in the Later Middle Pleistocene.

The exact technique used by the humans to obtain these reptiles is uncertain based on the data available, but it does appear they used systematic patterns to process them, including cooking them, fracturing the shell and defleshing them for consumption. Together, these characteristics suggest the human groups of Bolomor Cave Level IV made intensive use of these small prey. In other levels of the stratigraphic sequence of the same cave, the exploitation of other small animals has also been documented.
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3. DON’T WANT YOUR PARTNER TO STRAY – THEN ROMANCE IS A MUST

There are a number of benefits to maintaining your commitment to a long-term, romantic partner, but let’s face it, staying together takes work especially when faced with sexy, attractive alternatives. So how do you keep your eyes from wandering?

A new study featured in Elsevier’s Evolution and Human Behavior says keeping the romance alive is key. Not only will it keep the sparks flying, but feelings of romantic love are associated with the release of oxytocin – a hormone designed to facilitate social bonding in humans. To put love to the test a research team led by Florida State University’s Jon Maner recruited 113 individuals (all currently in committed relationships) and asked them to view a total of 60 colour facial photographs some average-looking and some highly attractive. But before the pictures were viewed, half of the group had to write an essay about a time in which they experienced strong feelings of love for their current partner. The control group wrote an essay about a time they felt extremely happy. After the essay, the participants viewed the images and their attention was measured using a reaction time procedure.

Findings revealed that when the individuals were experimentally primed with thoughts and feelings of love for their partner, participants reduced their attention to attractive alternatives at an automatic stage of visual processing – their attention was repelled, rather than captured, by attractive alternatives to their current partner. Romantic love for a current partner, therefore, may inhibit the basic perceptual processing of attractive relationship alternatives. In this sense, love truly does appear to be blind.
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4. EXERCISE MIGHT BE THE ANSWER TO HALTING DRUG ABUSE

You just can’t go wrong with exercise. Studies show it benefits weight loss, increases measures of self-esteem, and decreases your chances for depression. New data now reveals another positive reason to hit the gym - long-term, voluntary exercise can decrease the rewarding effects of cocaine.

In Elsevier’s Drug and Alcohol Dependence, researchers detail their findings in an experiment they conducted with sedentary and exercising rats. During the six-week period, 17 rats completed all phases of the study, including sessions in which they were exposed to cocaine. The researchers recorded the number of times the sedentary and exercising rats would press a lever that delivered an infusion of cocaine to measure its rewarding effects. The researchers found that the sedentary rats would respond over three times as much for cocaine as the exercising rats.

The principal finding of this study revealed that long-term voluntary exercise decreases sensitivity to the rewarding effects of cocaine in female rats. Furthermore, greater levels of physical activity resulted in greater degrees of protection from cocaine’s rewarding effects.
Today, exercise is generally not a standard component of most drug abuse programmes, but this research suggests exercise should be considered as effective intervention and treatment for substance abuse issues.
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Link to Scirus: http://www.scirus.com/toolbar. If your browser does not support HTML, you may need to copy the links below and paste them into your browser to access the articles:

1. doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2008.03.003
2. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2008.05.013
3. doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2008.04.003
4. doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2008.05.006