Ingroup Relationships Research Articles

Forging Productive Human-Robot Partnerships Through Task Training

Productive human-robot partnerships are vital to successful integration of assistive robots into everyday life. Although prior research has explored techniques to facilitate collaboration during human-robot interaction, the work described here aims to forge productive partnerships prior to human-robot interaction, drawing upon team-building activities’ aid in establishing effective human teams. Through a 2 (group membership: ingroup and outgroup) ×3 (robot error: main task errors, side task errors, and no errors) online study ( N=62 ), we demonstrate that (1) a non-social pre-task exercise can help form ingroup relationships; (2) an ingroup robot is perceived as a better, more committed teammate than an outgroup robot (despite the two behaving identically); and (3) participants are more tolerant of negative outcomes when working with an ingroup robot. We discuss how pre-task exercises may serve as an active task failure mitigation strategy.

Rhabdodontid (Dinosauria, Ornithopoda) diversity suggested by the first documented occurrence of associated cranial and postcranial material at Vălioara (uppermost Cretaceous Densuș-Ciula Formation, Hațeg Basin, Romania)

Associated and partly articulated cranial and postcranial elements of rhabdodontid ornithopod dinosaurs recovered from the recently rediscovered Maastrichtian (Upper Cretaceous) vertebrate site K2 near Vălioara in the westernmost part of the Hațeg Basin (Transylvania, Romania) are described in detail. These elements come from a multitaxic bonebed discovered in the continental deposits of the Densuș-Ciula Formation, and originate from at least two individuals, although available evidence suggests that these individuals belong to a single taxon. This taxon shares most similarities with specimens referred to Zalmoxes shqiperorum in earlier publications; however, certain skeletal elements also bear characteristics that are reminiscent of Z. robustus, the other Zalmoxes species. Furthermore, the new K2 material also exhibits features that differ from both known Zalmoxes species, as well as from the recently described third Transylvanian rhabdodontid, Transylvanosaurus. Accordingly, given that it appears to be distinct from other previously known Transylvanian rhabdodontids, the taxon represented by this material is here only referred to as Rhabdodontidae indet. A comprehensive phylogenetic analysis recovered the ‘K2 rhabdodontid’ within Rhabdodontidae, although the in-group relationships of this clade remain poorly resolved. The new observations presented here indicate that this European endemic basal iguanodontian group was more diverse (at intra- and/or interspecific level) in the Transylvanian area than previously thought, while also emphasize the necessity of the revision and proper re-diagnosis of the currently known Transylvanian rhabdodontid material that was previously assigned to Zalmoxes.

The Rhabdodontidae (Dinosauria, Ornithischia), an enigmatic dinosaur group endemic to the Late Cretaceous European Archipelago

The Rhabdodontidae was one of the most important dinosaur groups inhabiting the Late Cretaceous European Archipelago. Currently, the clade comprises nine species within six genera, which have been found in southern France, northern Spain, eastern Austria, western Hungary and western Romania, ranging from the Santonian to the late Maastrichtian. Phylogenetic analyses consistently place the Rhabdodontidae at the very base of the iguanodontian radiation, whereas the in-group relationships of rhabdodontids are relatively poorly understood; nevertheless, the clade seems to have had a rather complicated biogeographical history. Generally, rhabdodontids were small- to medium-sized, probably habitually bipedal herbivores, characterised by a rather stocky build and a comparatively large, triangular skull. Several lines of evidence suggest that they were presumably gregarious animals, as well as selective browsers that fed on fibrous plants and occupied different ecological niches than sympatric herbivorous dinosaur clades. Moreover, the sympatry of at least two rhabdodontid taxa was rather common and can be explained, at least in some instances, by niche partitioning. While rhabdodontids disappeared prior to the K/Pg extinction event in Western Europe, they survived close to the end of the Cretaceous in Eastern Europe, where they were amongst the last non-avian dinosaurs still present before the end of the Cretaceous. In this paper, we provide an overview of the rhabdodontid taxonomic history, diversity, phylogenetic relationships and palaeobiogeographic history, as well as palaeoecology and extinction. In addition, we also highlight still open questions on each of these topics and suggest potential future research directions.

Occurrence of Styxosaurus (Sauropterygia: Plesiosauria) in the Cenomanian: implications for relationships of elasmosaurids of the Western Interior Seaway

The systematics of the elasmosaurid plesiosaurs from the Late Cretaceous of the Western Interior Seaway have been contentious, with studies supporting an endemic Elasmosaurinae clade. In this study four elasmosaurids from the Western Interior Seaway are examined in detail, and others discussed, to clarify the validity and ingroup relationships of the clade Elasmosaurinae. Two of the taxa examined here are Campanian in age: the holotype of Styxosaurus snowii, and an indeterminate species of Styxosaurus (‘Alzadasaurus pembertoni’). The other two specimens are Cenomanian: the holotype of Thalassomedon haningtoni, and an elasmosaurid specimen from Nebraska previously referred to Thalassomedon haningtoni. We find that the Nebraska specimen is referable to Styxosaurus. We therefore refer the Nebraska material to the new species Styxosaurus rezaci, distinguished by an extremely large caniniform tooth in the second maxillary tooth position, circular external nares, and the frontal forming the entire posterior margin of the external naris. We examined a matrix of 134 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) and 283 morphological characters with a parsimony analysis in TNT. We scored each of these elasmosaurs listed above as an individual OTU; also listed as OTUs were Styxosaurus browni and AMNH 1495 (Elasmosauridae indet.). We find that Thalassomedon and the species of Styxosaurus do form an endemic clade. However, the long-necked taxa Terminonatator and Albertonectes are not recovered as members of this clade, due to missing data for both taxa. We recovered Styxosaurus as a monophyletic clade diagnosed by features of the squamosal, the exclusion of the frontal from the orbit margin, and 60–63 cervical vertebrae. We refer the headless skeleton, AMNH 1495, to Elasmosauridae (indet.). We conclude that the genus Styxosaurus was a long-lived clade that inhabited the Western Interior Seaway for at least 12 million years. http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:7E81A26D-9E19-42FE-9CAD-D58908EDCF7A

Orogen: Advanced relationship predictions for genetic genealogy

Orogen advances the science of relationship prediction by using Ped-sim, which improves upon previous models by incorporating crossover interference and sex-specific genetic maps. The Orogen tool provides accurate relationship predictions for a wide range of relationship types. It properly differentiates between close relatives at 23andMe, which is a newly available functionality for standalone tools. It provides new granularity of close relationships by showing the differences between paternal and maternal sides and in-group relationship types.

Craniodental Morphology and Phylogeny of Marsupials

The current literature on marsupial phylogenetics includes numerous studies based on analyses of morphological data with limited sampling of Recent and fossil taxa, and many studies based on analyses of molecular data with dense sampling of Recent taxa, but few studies have combined both data types. Another dichotomy in the marsupial phylogenetic literature is between studies focused on New World taxa and those focused on Sahulian taxa. To date, there has been no attempt to assess the phylogenetic relationships of the global marsupial fauna based on combined analyses of morphology and molecular sequences for a dense sampling of Recent and fossil taxa. For this report, we compiled morphological and molecular data from an unprecedented number of Recent and fossil marsupials. Our morphological data consist of 180 craniodental characters that we scored for 97 terminals representing every currently recognized Recent genus, 42 additional ingroup (crown-clade marsupial) terminals represented by well-preserved fossils, and 5 outgroups (nonmarsupial metatherians). Our molecular data comprise 24.5 kb of DNA sequences from whole-mitochondrial genomes and six nuclear loci (APOB, BRCA1, GHR, RAG1, RBP3 and VWF) for 97 marsupial terminals (the same Recent taxa scored for craniodental morphology) and several placental and monotreme outgroups. The results of separate and combined analyses of these data using a wide range of phylogenetic methods support many currently accepted hypotheses of ingroup (marsupial) relationships, but they also underscore the difficulty of placing fossils with key missing data (e.g., †Evolestes), and the unique difficulty of placing others that exhibit mosaics of plesiomorphic and autapomorphic traits (e.g., †Yalkaparidon). Unique contributions of our study are (1) critical discussions and illustrations of marsupial craniodental morphology including features never previously coded for phylogenetic analysis; (2) critical assessments of relative support for many suprageneric clades; (3) estimates of divergence times derived from tip-and-node dating based on uniquely taxon-dense analyses; and (4) a revised, higher-order classification of marsupials accompanied by lists of supporting craniodental synapomorphies. Far from the last word on these topics, this report lays the foundation for future research that may be enabled by the discovery of new fossil taxa, better-preserved material of previously described taxa, novel morphological characters (e.g., from the postcranium), and improved methods of phylogenetic analysis.

A microCT-based atlas of the central nervous system and midgut in sea spiders (Pycnogonida) sheds first light on evolutionary trends at the family level

BackgroundPycnogonida (sea spiders) is the sister group of all other extant chelicerates (spiders, scorpions and relatives) and thus represents an important taxon to inform early chelicerate evolution. Notably, phylogenetic analyses have challenged traditional hypotheses on the relationships of the major pycnogonid lineages (families), indicating external morphological traits previously used to deduce inter-familial affinities to be highly homoplastic. This erodes some of the support for phylogenetic information content in external morphology and calls for the study of additional data classes to test and underpin in-group relationships advocated in molecular analyses. In this regard, pycnogonid internal anatomy remains largely unexplored and taxon coverage in the studies available is limited.ResultsBased on micro-computed X-ray tomography and 3D reconstruction, we created a comprehensive atlas of in-situ representations of the central nervous system and midgut layout in all pycnogonid families. Beyond that, immunolabeling for tubulin and synapsin was used to reveal selected details of ganglionic architecture. The ventral nerve cord consistently features an array of separate ganglia, but some lineages exhibit extended composite ganglia, due to neuromere fusion. Further, inter-ganglionic distances and ganglion positions relative to segment borders vary, with an anterior shift in several families. Intersegmental nerves target longitudinal muscles and are lacking if the latter are reduced. Across families, the midgut displays linear leg diverticula. In Pycnogonidae, however, complex multi-branching diverticula occur, which may be evolutionarily correlated with a reduction of the heart.ConclusionsSeveral gross neuroanatomical features are linked to external morphology, including intersegmental nerve reduction in concert with trunk segment fusion, or antero-posterior ganglion shifts in partial correlation to trunk elongation/compaction. Mapping on a recent phylogenomic phylogeny shows disjunct distributions of these traits. Other characters show no such dependency and help to underpin closer affinities in sub-branches of the pycnogonid tree, as exemplified by the tripartite subesophageal ganglion of Pycnogonidae and Rhynchothoracidae. Building on this gross anatomical atlas, future studies should now aim to leverage the full potential of neuroanatomy for phylogenetic interrogation by deciphering pycnogonid nervous system architecture in more detail, given that pioneering work on neuron subsets revealed complex character sets with unequivocal homologies across some families.

An Exploration of the Concept of Face in Saudi Arabic Folk Expressions

In recent years, there has been much debate about the concept of face. Some researchers call to consider face as an area of research on its own ‎[1], ‎[2]‎, [3], ‎[4]. The study investigates how the concept of face can be related to the Arab world through the exploration of the emic meanings of face as encoded in Saudi Arabic folk terms. The corpus includes 89 expressions collected using my knowledge of Arabic as a native speaker of the language through observation of authentic conversations, TV series and programs, Twitter, and Google. The analysis shows that although the concept of face in Saudi culture can be individual and situational, it is seen as an individual's or group's property that emerges overtime as the accumulative effect of previous interactions with the same individuals or other members of the groups they belong to. Face appears to be a valuable possession more oriented to in-group relationships rather than individual autonomy, and it is mainly enhanced by retaining group and cultural values such as collectivism, honour, and religion. The study aims to stimulate further investigation of the etic and emic conceptualization of face as well as contribute to the related continuing debate in pragmatics by exploring a novel culture in the field.

Revised classification of the New World Cylapini (Heteroptera: Miridae: Cylapinae): taxonomic review of the genera Cylapinus, Cylapoides and Peltidocylapus and a morphology-based phylogenetic analysis of tribe Cylapini.

Cylapini, as currently circumscribed, is a relatively small group of plant bugs currently comprising 17 genera and 65 species. Most representatives of the tribe are distributed in the New World (10 genera and 47 species) with other members occurring in the Afrotropical, Oriental, and Australian regions. They have primarily tropical and subtropical distributions with only a few members inhabiting temperate regions. This paper provides a taxonomic review of three of the New World Cylapini genera: Cylapinus Carvalho, 1986, Cylapoides Carvalho, 1952, and Peltidocylapus Poppius, 1909. Most species are diagnosed and redescribed. Eight new species are described as new: Cylapinus yasunagai sp. nov., Peltidocylapus calyciformis sp. nov., P. caudatus sp. nov., P. ecuadorensis sp. nov., P. pallidus sp. nov., P. parallelus sp. nov., P. simplex sp. nov., and P. spinosus sp. nov. Cylapus festinabundus Bergroth, 1922 is transferred to Peltidocylapus (comb. nov.). Illustrations of male genitalia, scanning electron micrographs of selected structures of certain species, and an identification key of the genera Cylapinus, Cylapoides and Peltidocylapus are provided. Female genitalia are described and illustrated for the first time for most genera of Cylapini. A cladistic analysis of the tribe based on 81 morphological characters is presented as a contribution to the understanding of the ingroup relationships of Cylapini and its relationships with other groups of Cylapinae. The analysis comprises 30 ingroup species and 15 outgroup species. Both equal- and implied weighting parsimony analyses were used in the phylogenetic reconstruction. This analysis was based solely on morphological characters because an insufficient number of specimens suitable for molecular studies were available for most taxa. The study confirmed a close affinity of the taxa currently included in Cylapini, but the tribe was rendered paraphyletic by inclusion of the tribe Vanniini. The grouping comprising both Cylapini + Vanniini and most of its subordinated clades received low nodal support. Both analyses recovered a decisively supported clade comprising the New World genera Amapacylapus, Cylapus, Peltidocylapus, and Valdasus which accommodate most of the Cylapini species, justifying the recognition of the Cylapus complex suggested by previous authors. The results presented here are discussed and compared with previous phylogenetic hypotheses based on different datasets.

Osteology and relationships of Revueltosaurus callenderi (Archosauria: Suchia) from the Upper Triassic (Norian) Chinle Formation of Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona, United States.

Once known solely from dental material and thought to represent an early ornithischian dinosaur, the early‐diverging pseudosuchian Revueltosaurus callenderi is described from a minimum of 12 skeletons from a monodominant bonebed in the upper part of the Chinle Formation of Arizona. This material includes nearly the entire skeleton and possesses a combination of plesiomorphic and derived character states that help clarify ingroup relationships within Pseudosuchia. A phylogenetic analysis recovers R. callenderi in a clade with Aetosauria and Acaenasuchus geoffreyi that is named Aetosauriformes. Key autapomorphies of R. callenderi include a skull that is longer than the femur, a complete carapace of dermal armor including paramedian and lateral rows, as well as ventral osteoderms, and a tail end sheathed in bone. Histology of the femur and associated osteoderms demonstrate that R. callenderi was slow growing and that the individuals from the bonebed were not young juveniles but had not ceased growing. A review of other material assigned to Revueltosaurus concludes that the genus cannot be adequately diagnosed based on the type materials of the three assigned species and that only R. callenderi can be confidently referred to Revueltosaurus.

Who do you hang out with?

Abstract Social interactions that take place during study abroad in linguistically rich settings are important for oral proficiency development; however, few studies have explicitly examined the underlying network structure of students’ social experiences in study abroad contexts and its role in oral proficiency development. This mixed-methods research examined the relationship between self-reported social network structures and self-perceived English oral proficiency gains among 88 Chinese international students at a UK university. While the majority of participants’ networks consisted of Chinese-speaking peers, most of them managed to develop strong and frequent relations with English-speaking peers. Students reported gains in oral proficiency, especially in areas related to language use that require higher levels of proficiency. Diverse networks with significant and high-frequency English-speaking relationships were more likely to be associated with L2 oral proficiency gains, while dense networks with only frequent and strong in-group relationships could potentially limit L2 development.

A phylogeny of the subfamilyThiotrichinae(Lepidoptera:Gelechiidae) with a revision of the generic classification based on molecular and morphological analyses

AbstractThiotrichinae are a subfamily of Gelechiidae with approximately 180 described species in five genera:CalliproraMeyrick,MacrenchesMeyrick,PalumbinaRondani,PolyhymnoChambers andThiotrichaMeyrick. The subfamily was established based on two species in a recent molecular phylogenetic study of Gelechiidae, but the monophyly of each genus and the phylogenetic relationships among the genera have not been tested. To address these questions, we performed the first phylogenetic analyses based on seven molecular markers (COI, EF‐1α, GAPDH, RpS5, CAD, Wg and MDH) and 95 morphological characters for 47 ingroup and 3 outgroup taxa. Each dataset was analysed separately and together using maximum likelihood, Bayesian inference and maximum parsimony methods. The maximum likelihood and Bayesian analyses produced nearly identical tree topologies for ingroup relationships, but the parsimony analysis yielded different results for some lineages. In all our analyses, Thiotrichinae formed a strongly supported monophyletic group with two other gelechiid genera,CnaphostolaMeyrick (Gelechiinae) andSemnostomaMeyrick (Apatetrinae). The genusMacrencheswas recognized as the sister‐group to all other species in this clade.Polyhymno + Calliprorawere found to be sister to all remaining ingroup taxa. The species‐rich groupThiotrichawas non‐monophyletic, and it clustered withPalumbina,CnaphostolaandSemnostoma. The type species ofThiotrichawas included in a monophyletic clade with a majority of congeneric species in the parsimony analyses, but the clade was divided into two groups in the model‐based results. The generic placement of two speciesThiotricha dissobolaMeyrick andT. pyrphoraMeyrick was not confirmed in this study and they were placed asincertae sedis. The monophyly ofPalumbinawas strongly supported by both molecular data and morphological evidence. Based on genetic and morphological affinities and examination of the type specimens, four genera are synonymized withThiotricha:BlastovalvaJansesyn.n.,Cnaphostolasyn.n.,HierangelaMeyricksyn.n.andSemnostomasyn.n.We propose two new genera for newly recognized two sub‐clades:Pulchralagen.n.andTenupalpagen.n., and 15 new combinations are made:Thiotricha adamantina(Meyrick)comb.n.,T. exalbida(Omelko & Omelko)comb.n.,Tenupalpa angustella(Omelko)comb.n.,T. biformis(Omelko)comb.n.,T. flavitermina(Kyaw, Yagi & Hirowatari)comb.n.,T. glenias(Meyrick)comb.n.,T. nephodesma(Meyrick)comb.n.,T. venustalis(Omelko)comb.n.,Pulchrala clidias(Meyrick)comb.n.,P. chujaensis(Park)comb.n.,P. elaeocarpiella(Kyaw, Yagi & Hirowatari)comb.n.,P. epiclista(Meyrick)comb.n.,P. melanacma(Bradley)comb.n.,P. panglycera(Turner)comb.n., andP. saulotis(Meyrick)comb.n.Revised generic concepts are provided in the study.This published work has been registered on ZooBank,http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:0E3C0EB5‐503C‐4ADC‐BE87‐A203230DE6CB.

Testing pterosaur ingroup relationships through broader sampling of avemetatarsalian taxa and characters and a range of phylogenetic analysis techniques.

The pterosaurs first appear in the fossil record in the middle of the Late Triassic. Their earliest representatives are known from Northern Hemisphere localities but, by the end of the Jurassic Period, this clade of flying reptiles achieved a global distribution, as well as high levels of diversity and disparity. Our understanding of early pterosaur evolution and the fundamental interrelationships within Pterosauria has improved dramatically in recent decades. However, there is still debate about how the various pterosaur subgroups relate to one another and about which taxa comprise these. Many recent phylogenetic analyses, while sampling well from among the known Triassic and Early Jurassic pterosaurs, have not included many non-pterosaurian ornithodirans or other avemetatarsalians. Given the close relationship between these groups of archosaurs, the omission of other ornithodirans and avemetatarsalians has the potential to adversely affect the results of phylogenetic analyses, in terms of character optimisation and ingroup relationships recovered. This study has addressed this issue and tests the relationships between the early diverging pterosaur taxa following the addition of avemetatarsalian taxa and anatomical characters to an existing early pterosaur dataset. This study has, for the first time, included taxa that represent the aphanosaurs, lagerpetids, silesaurids and dinosaurs, in addition to early pterosaurs. Anatomical characters used in other recent studies of archosaurs and early dinosaurs have also been incorporated. By expanding the outgroup taxa and anatomical character coverage in this pterosaur dataset, better resolution between the taxa within certain early pterosaur subclades has been achieved and stronger support for some existing clades has been found; other purported clades of early pterosaurs have not been found in this analysis—for example there is no support for a monophyletic Eopterosauria or Eudimorphodontidae. Further support has been found for a sister-taxon relationship between Peteinosaurus zambelli and Macronychoptera, a clade here named Zambellisauria (clade nov.), as well as for a monophyletic and early diverging Preondactylia. Some analyses also support the existence of a clade that falls as sister-taxon to the zambellisaurs, here named Caviramidae (clade nov.). Furthermore, some support has been found for a monophyletic Austriadraconidae at the base of Pterosauria. Somewhat surprisingly, Lagerpetidae is recovered outside of Ornithodira sensu stricto, meaning that, based upon current definitions at least, pterosaurs fall within Dinosauromorpha in this analysis. However, fundamental ornithodiran interrelationships were not the focus of this study and this particular result should be treated with caution for now. However, these results do further highlight the need for broader taxon and character sampling in phylogenetic analyses, and the effects of outgroup choice on determining ingroup relationships.

How Does Collectivism Affect Social Interactions? A Test of Two Competing Accounts.

How does the cultural construct of collectivism impact social interactions? Two accounts of collectivism offer diverging predictions. The collectivism-as-values account proposes that people in collectivistic cultures prioritize their ingroup relationships; accordingly, this account predicts that collectivistic cultures will have more harmonious ingroup interactions than individualistic cultures. The socioecological account holds that individualistic cultures have high relational mobility, which requires people to invest in their ingroup relationships, whereas collectivistic cultures feature more fixed relationships that do not require positive engagement. To test these competing hypotheses about ingroup relationships across cultures, we sampled the daily interactions of college students in China and the United States. Results revealed that the individualistic culture (United States) had more positive ingroup interactions, more gratitude, and more emotional support than the collectivistic culture (China). The current findings are consistent with the socioecological account of collectivism and the effects of relational mobility on social relationships.

Conflict Management Strategies Utilized by Nurse Managers and its Relationship to Vertical Dyad Linkage with Nurses

Background: Conflict management skill is an essential skill for an effective nurse leader. As inappropriate use of conflict resolution skills leads to degeneration of communication and poor working relationships particularly between nurse leader and their staff nurses. Aim:the current study aimed todetermine the relationship between conflict management strategies used by head nurses, and the quality of vertical dyad linkage at Port Said hospitals. Subjects and Methods: A descriptive correlational design was applied in this study on 31 head nurses and 203 staff nurses working in Port Said General Hospital and Port Said Health Insurance Hospitals, using two tools; the first was Thomas-Kilmann conflict mode instrument to assess head nurses' preferred conflict resolution strategies, and the second was vertical dyad linkage scale from staff nurses point of view. Results: The results of the present study showed more than two-thirds of head nurses (67.7%) used accommodating strategy as a primary method to resolve conflict, followed by compromising strategy used by 51.6% by them to resolve conflict and less than two third (64%) of staff nurses had a neutral relation with their head nurses. Conclusion: Based on the results of the present study, it can be concluded that, there was no statistically significance relation between conflict management strategies used by head nurses, and the quality of vertical dyad linkage in Port-Said hospitals. It was recommended that head nurses should use conflict management styles depending on the situation. In addition to, develop an in-group relationship with as many staff nurses as possible.

Survival in the badlands: an exploration of disaffected students’ uses of space in a UK secondary school

This article considers the understandings of space and place amongst a group of disaffected students within an institution that had been in a state of flux over a number of years. The article explores ways in which students are positioned by institutions into specific spaces, ways in which they use those spaces to challenge authority and ways in which they appropriate both space and place to assert new, and often playful, identities. The authors consider the meanings of the spatial behaviour of students through notions of space and place as developed by Doreen Massey, with reference to a Foucauldian understanding of power. In some ways, the students might be perceived as being marginalised, victims of a hierarchical environment in which their status is low. Yet they also emerge as active agents, forging new interpretations of their surroundings and robust group identities, and reinforcing in-group relationships through spatial behaviour.

Ingroup vigilance in collectivistic cultures

Collectivistic cultures have been characterized as having harmonious, cooperative ingroup relationships. However, we find evidence that people in collectivistic cultures are more vigilant toward ingroup members, mindful of their possible unethical intentions. Study 1 found that Chinese participants were more vigilant than Americans in within-group competitions, anticipating more unethical behaviors from their peers. Study 2 replicated this finding by comparing areas within China, finding that people from China's collectivistic rice-farming regions exhibit greater ingroup vigilance than people from the less collectivistic wheat-farming regions. The rice/wheat difference was mediated by greater perceived within-group competition. Study 3 found that Chinese participants were more likely than Americans to interpret a peer's friendly behavior as sabotage in disguise. We also manipulated within-group competition and found that it increased ingroup vigilance in both cultures. Finally, study 3 identified two boundary conditions where cultural differences in ingroup vigilance decrease: an unambiguously competitive win-lose situation where Americans also exhibit vigilance, and an unambiguously cooperative win-win situation where Chinese participants relax their vigilance. This research contributes to a more balanced view of collectivism, revealing its interpersonal tensions in the forms of within-group competition and ingroup vigilance.

What would you know about it? Managing ingroup vs. outgroup perceived support of same-sex vs. mixed-sex romantic relationships

Social support for relationships is an important predictor of relationship well-being, duration, and mental and physical health. But does the source of the support matter? This article examines whether there is potential moderation by the ingroup versus outgroup status of the person offering the support. Specifically, in a sample of 407 individuals in mixed-sex versus same-sex relationships, we assessed how much social support individuals perceived for their relationship from members of their social network who were queer versus straight. Those in same-sex relationships had significantly more queer members within their social networks than those in mixed-sex relationships (38.6% vs. 8.1%). We found that although those in both types of relationships perceived more support for their relationships from ingroup network members, only those in mixed-sex relationships demonstrated a stronger association between ingroup (straight) support and relationship well-being. Those in same-sex relationships showed relatively weak associations between network members’ support for the relationship and their relationship well-being, regardless of source. Results are interpreted in light of the social identity perspective, and we also discuss the potential for attributional ambiguity and discounting of others’ opinions about their relationships within the context of same-sex relationships.

The putative lissamphibian stem-group: phylogeny and evolution of the dissorophoid temnospondyls

AbstractDissorophoid temnospondyls are widely considered to have given rise to some or all modern amphibians (Lissamphibia), but their ingroup relationships still bear major unresolved questions. An inclusive phylogenetic analysis of dissorophoids gives new insights into the large-scale topology of relationships. Based on a TNT 1.5 analysis (33 taxa, 108 characters), the enigmatic taxonPerryellais found to nest just outside Dissorophoidea (phylogenetic defintion), but shares a range of synapomorphies with this clade. The dissorophoids proper are found to encompass a first dichotomy between the largely paedomorphic Micromelerpetidae and all other taxa (Xerodromes). Within the latter, there is a basal dichotomy between the large, heavily ossified Olsoniformes (Dissorophidae + Trematopidae) and the small salamander-like Amphibamiformes (new taxon), which include four clades: (1) Micropholidae (Tersomius,Pasawioops,Micropholis); (2) Amphibamidae sensu stricto (Doleserpeton,Amphibamus); (3) Branchiosauridae (Branchiosaurus,Apateon,Leptorophus,Schoenfelderpeton); and (4) Lissamphibia. The generaPlatyrhinopsandEoscopusare here found to nest at the base of Amphibamiformes. Represented by their basal-most stem-taxa (Triadobatrachus,Karaurus,Eocaecilia), lissamphibians nest withGerobatrachusrather than Amphibamidae, as repeatedly found by former analyses.UUID:http://zoobank.org/dadf36db-e003-4af7-bfa7-44d79bc04450

Intergroup Bias Influences Third-Party Punishment and Compensation: In-group Relationships Attenuate Altruistic Punishment

Intergroup relationships can impact on a third party's willingness to punish a violator, but few researchers have explored how intergroup relationships affect third-party compensation tendencies. We recruited 163 participants to observe a dictator game, and then choose either to punish the dictator or compensate the recipient, each of whom could be from the participant's in-group or out-group. Third parties often chose not to punish in-group dictators and to compensate both in-group victims and out-group victims. When out-group members transgressed against the in-group, participants punished these out-group members just as often as they compensated the in-group recipients, although they punished out-group dictators more harshly than others overall. However, when both proposer and recipient came from the out-group, participants often did not intervene. We also found that third-party punishment and compensation were related to individual differences in participants' trait empathy and Machiavellianism. Our findings shed light on the modulating effect of intergroup relationships on third-party altruistic decisions.