Niche construction study: shows that a particular cognition/emotion/action gives rise to the creation of a niche
e.g., information overload → creation of formal institutions such as a department of welfare to take care of people in need of help
e.g., hostility/crankiness → self-defense and permissive gun ownership laws
Figure 9.2b shows that lactose tolerance and the frequency of genes that confer lactose tolerance by increasing lactase activity are highest in populations that have a long history of dairying and consumption of fresh milk and lowest in populations that do not use milk or milk products (Durham 1991; Ulijaszek and Strickland 1993; Hollox et al. 2001). It also suggests that the cultural processing of milk products, by breaking down the lactose, reduced the intensity of natural selection for genes that increase lactase activity, illustrating how routes 1 and 2 in fi gure 9.1 can interact.
ambient light 暗或mobility低->給與關懷
Streetlight effect
Real-time lambda structure
Causality words: since used cause force use reason why motiv source
Eliminates social desibility
http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2015/02/25/388698620/recruiting-better-talent-with-brain-games-and-big-data
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/12/theyre-watching-you-at-work/354681/
Conversely, researchers found that people are more likely to help others on sunny, pleasant days than on cold, unpleasant days. Cunningham (1979), for instance, sent his research assistants into the field and recorded how many of 80 survey questions pedestrians said they would be willing to answer in Minneapo- lis from winter to summer. Both in summer and winter, pedes- trians were more willing to help the survey interviewer on sunny days than on cloudy days. Pedestrians were more willing to help on cooler days in summer and on warmer days in win-ter. These studies show, then, that both prosocial and antisocial behaviors are affected by weather.
In addition, recent studies demonstrate the niche construction process such that individuals who have a tendency to pay attention to a central, visual element draw portraits and take photos, even create websites dominated by the central figure, whereas individuals who have a tendency to pay attention to both the figure and ground tend to draw portraits, take photos, and create websites that are not dominated by a central figure (Masuda et al. 2008, Wang et al. 2012).
People living in a densely populated area have developed the propensity to create more private space in and outside of the home via various technologies and methods (e.g., partitions, headphones), thereby attenuating the potentially adverse effect of population density on aggression. A recent study of 33 nations also found that historically dense nations have a much tighter culture than do sparsely populated nations (Gelfand et al. 2011). In a densely populated nation, it would be easier to regulate the potential issues related to density (e.g., aggression, resource allocation) if there were tighter norms.
Self-selection bias: A recent study also confirmed that Americans’ stereotypes about various regions of the United States are quite accurate (Rogers & Wood 2010). For instance, people have a generally accurate image of New York as an open place. Thus, people might move to New York City because they accurately perceive it to be an open city. The communities populated by open people are likely to create museums and various art and music venues and are likely to adopt liberal policies (e.g., same-sex marriage), creating a niche that fits its residents.