Nicolas Sommet

Malnutrition is a major global challenge with both short‐ and long‐term health impacts. Studies of historical famines have provided evidence of an association between famine exposure and risk of non‐communicable diseases (NCDs) in later life. However, whether famine exposure has heterogeneous effects on different later‐life NCDs remains unclear. In this study, we investigated whether the effects of exposure to the Chinese Famine of 1959–1961 on later‐life NCDs were disease‐specific, age‐specific, and sex‐specific. We conducted a secondary analysis of data from a large‐scale, nationally representative panel study, i.e., the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS, 2011–2020, N = 11,047 adults aged 45 years and older). We measured famine exposure using self‐reported famine experience, life stage using age at famine exposure, and NCDs using 14 chronic conditions. Three main findings emerged. First, the effects of famine exposure for developing NCDs in later life were disease‐specific, with 20%–29% higher odds of digestive disease, memory‐related disease, arthritis, kidney disease and dyslipidemia, versus 10% higher odds of heart disease and diabetes. Second, the effects of famine exposure were age‐specific, with exposure in utero or at ages 0–2 years having the largest impacts on 8 of the 14 later‐life conditions (diabetes, stroke, lung disease, liver disease, digestive disease, cancer, kidney disease, and arthritis), whereas exposure at ages 3–5 years having the largest impact on psychiatric disease and memory‐related disease in later life. Conversely, famine exposure during adulthood was associated with lower odds of various NCDs. This divergence reflects a balance of competing forces: for individuals exposed prior to adulthood, severe developmental damage overshadows the healthy survivor effect, increasing later‐life NCD risk; for individuals exposed during adulthood, completed physiological development minimized programming damage, allowing the healthy survivor effect to dominate. Third, the famine effects were sex‐specific for later‐life cardiometabolic diseases (dyslipidemia, heart disease and stroke), with famine exposure having larger impacts on women than men, pointing to the survivor advantage among men. Future studies should investigate underlying biological mechanisms, intergenerational pathways of transmission, and long‐term growth and body composition in survivors.

Cognitive dissonance, traditionally conceptualized as a fundamental psychological process involving discomfort from inconsistent cognitions, may vary across cultures. These variations could be attributed to self-construal, or how individuals define themselves in relation to others. Although previous cross-cultural research has predominantly used the free-choice paradigm, significant concerns have been raised regarding its procedural validity and the robustness of its findings. To address this issue, this registered report presents secondary analyses of a large-scale international dataset. We investigated the moderating role of cultural variables on dissonance effects within the induced-compliance paradigm across 18 countries (N = 3,804). We hypothesized that dissonance effects would be stronger for participants with higher individual-level self-construal scores (H1), in more individualistic countries (H2), and in countries with higher country-level self-construal scores (H3). Our results did not support these hypotheses, suggesting that cultural moderation may not generalize to the induced-compliance paradigm. We discuss the necessity of reassessing the procedure’s reliability and clarifying the theoretical role of choice.

Cognitive dissonance, traditionally conceptualized as a fundamental psychological process involving discomfort from inconsistent cognitions, may vary across cultures. These variations could be attributed to self-construal, or how individuals define themselves in relation to others. Although previous cross-cultural research has predominantly used the free-choice paradigm, significant concerns have been raised regarding its procedural validity and the robustness of its findings. To address this issue, this registered report presents secondary analyses of a large-scale international dataset. We investigated the moderating role of cultural variables on dissonance effects within the induced-compliance paradigm across 18 countries (N = 3,804). We hypothesized that dissonance effects would be stronger for participants with higher individual-level self-construal scores (H1), in more individualistic countries (H2), and in countries with higher country-level self-construal scores (H3). Our results did not support these hypotheses, suggesting that cultural moderation may not generalize to the induced-compliance paradigm. We discuss the necessity of reassessing the procedure’s reliability and clarifying the theoretical role of choice.

The presence of Confederate monuments and their removal has been a frequent topic of societal discussion in the United States. Taking a situational perspective (i.e. the Bias of Crowds model), the present paper investigated whether the presence of Confederate monuments and their removal from an area causally affect the racial biases of people in that area. Across multiple large-scale data analyses ( N ₁ = 1,753,557), online experiments ( N _2a = 1,164, N _2b = 416, N ₃ = 537), and a field study ( N ₄ = 176), we found no evidence that the presence or removal of Confederate monuments reliably affects the implicit (or explicit) racial biases of people. We discuss implications for situational models of bias and best research practices for conducting geographical difference studies.

We attempted replications of 274 claims of positive results from 164 quantitative papers published from 2009 to 2018 in 54 journals in the social and behavioral sciences. Replications were high-powered on average to detect the original effect size (Median = 99.6%), used original materials when relevant and available, and were peer-reviewed in advance through a standardized internal protocol. Replications showed statistically significant results in the original pattern for 151 of 274 claims (55.1% [95% CI 49.2 - 60.9%]) and for 80.8 of 164 papers (49.3% [95% CI 43.8 - 54.7%]) weighed for replicating multiple claims per paper. We observed modest variation in replication rates across disciplines (42.5% to 63.1%) though some estimates had high uncertainty. For claims with Pearson’s r effect sizes, the median was 0.25 [95% CI 0.21 - 0.27] for original studies and 0.10 [95% CI 0.09 - 0.13] for replication studies, a 82.4% [95% CI 67.8 - 88.2%] reduction in shared variance. Thirteen methods for evaluating replication success provided estimates ranging from 28.6% to 74.8% (median = 49.3%). Some decline in effect size and significance is expected based on power to detect original effects and regression to the mean due to replicating only positive results. The conditions that promote or inhibit replicability are worthy of additional investigation.

Pursuing replicability — independent evidence for previous claims — is important for creating generalizable knowledge^1,2. Here we attempted replications of 274 claims of positive results from 164 quantitative papers published from 2009 to 2018 in 54 journals in the social and behavioural sciences. Replications were high powered on average to detect the original effect size (median of 99.6%), used original materials when relevant and available, and were peer reviewed in advance through a standardized internal protocol. Replications showed statistically significant results in the original pattern for 151 of 274 claims (55.1% (95% confidence interval (CI) 49.2–60.9%)) and for 80.8 of 164 papers (49.3% (95% CI 43.8–54.7%)), weighed for replicating multiple claims per paper. We observed modest variation in replication rates across disciplines (42.5–63.1%), although some estimates had high uncertainty. The median Pearson’s r effect size was 0.25 (95% CI 0.21–0.27) for original studies and 0.10 (95% CI 0.09–0.13) for replication studies, an 82.4% (95% CI 67.8–88.2%) reduction in shared variance. Thirteen methods for evaluating replication success provided estimates ranging from 28.6% to 74.8% (median of 49.3%). Some decline in effect size and significance is expected based on power to detect original effects and regression to the mean because we replicated only positive results. We observe that challenges for replicability extend across social–behavioural sciences, illustrating the importance of identifying conditions that promote or inhibit replicability^3,4.

It is widely assumed, yet largely untested, that (1) income inequality fuels social comparison and that (2) comparison is emotionally harmful. We conducted two U.S. studies (N > 7,000) using local income inequality to test these two assumptions and downstream consequences. Confirming the first assumption, residents of more unequal areas reported stronger and more frequent upward and downward economic comparisons. These associations were mediated by perceived competitiveness. Challenging the second assumption, income inequality was associated with a mix of emotional responses to comparison: Inequality consistently predicted resentment when comparing with better-off others and compassion when comparing with worse-off others. Inequality also predicted shame, hope, relief, contempt, and anxiety in one study but not the other. Finally, inequality predicted support for redistribution, an association mediated by resentment and compassion. Together, the findings confirm that income inequality fuels social comparison but reveal that its emotional and attitudinal consequences are more nuanced than commonly assumed.

Existing research on the relationship between team performance goals and team performance has yielded mixed findings. We argue that these inconsistencies arise in part from the use of two different operationalizations of team performance goals: a collective-based operationalization (averaging team members’ perceptions that their team aims to outperform other teams) and a composition-based one (aggregating team members’ personal aims to outperform other individuals). In this research, we adopted a multiconceptualization approach to examine whether collective and composition performance goals interact in predicting team performance. In Study 1 (98 observations from 73 players across 31 teams), video game teams with higher collective performance goals performed better in a major European tournament when their composition performance goals were lower. In Study 2 (535 observations from 201 players across 22 teams), volleyball teams with higher collective performance goals performed better in the Swiss volleyball championship when their composition in-group performance goals were lower (i.e., fewer members striving to outperform teammates). Because of concerns about statistical power and causality in Studies 1 and 2, we conducted a larger, preregistered experiment. In Study 3 (751 participants from 292 teams), experimentally assembled teams assigned to a collective performance goal condition exhibited less behavioral sabotage during a collaborative task compared to teams instructed to endorse composition performance goals or both goal types simultaneously. This manipulation did not directly affect team performance but indirectly improved it via lower sabotage. Together, our findings suggest that high collective performance goals and low composition performance goals may provide a recipe for fostering team cooperation and performance.