Shelter is not prison technically speaking. Yet as I wrote in a previous article, the traditional power structure in emergency shelter closely resembles the power structure in prison.

Individuals residing in these institutions are expected to be obedient, docile, and submissive to staff at all times and in all circumstances. Each institution is also similarly defined by the experience of social rejection, sexual frustration, loss of autonomy, material scarcity, chronic stress, disturbed sleep, and emasculation.

Meanwhile, the prevailing social dynamic in male prisons what sociologists call the convict code is nearly identical to the prevailing social dynamic amongst homeless men the code of the streets.Both are behavioral and cultural norms premised on hyper-masculinity, exploitation of weakness, dominance, and violence.

They are two sides of the same coin.

There is also significant overlap between prison and shelter populations with people experiencing homelessness significantly more likely than the general population to have a criminal record, and nearly 20% of city shelter users entering shelter directly after incarceration according to one study.

This overlap means elements of prison culture regularly find their way into emergency shelters. In fact, in my experience, it is not uncommon to hear shelter guests reflexively and matter-of-factly refer to each other as inmates, refer to staff as guards, refer to the shelter itself as the prison, or refer to the curfew as lock up. When enough of our guests have this kind of prison mentality, we reach a tipping point and the shelter culture virtually becomes a prison culture. Yet even if we dont, it remains the case that for many men residing in shelter in Philadelphia, shelter and prison arent all that different.

In that sense, we can say that shelter and prison are experientially alike, but categorically distinct. After all, there is an explicit and meaningful difference between me saying I work for Bethesda Projects Church Shelter Program as opposed to Bethesda Projects Church Prison Program.

This helps explain why, for example, the United Nations has separate international standards for emergency shelters and for prisons namely, because shelter is not prison. Simply experiencing homelessness having no home or housing is not a crime, just as being a refugee, internally displaced person, or stateless person is not a crime. Nor is the act of residing in a homeless shelter a legal form of punishment in the way that being sentenced to prison is.

Because shelter is not prison, we should reasonably expect that a person residing in shelter experiences more liberty, rights, and privileges than a person residing in prison. This is another way of saying we should reasonably expect shelters to meet and exceed the minimum standards for prisons.

So lets take a closer look at whether or not they do.

The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners were first adopted in 1955 and then revised in 2015, at which point they were renamed the Nelson Mandela Rules (in honor of the former President of South Africa). In total, the United Nations lists 122 rules, although the term rules can be misleading. They are meant to describe general principles of practice for prison operation, rather than mandating a specific prison model.

The rules concern matters that range from personal hygiene and exercise to filing systems and instruments of restraint. Together, they affirm that incarceration does not mean anything goes. When a person is incarcerated, their change in social status does not diminish or negate their humanity. In prison as in shelter people retain their human rights.

Unfortunately, when we look closely at the Nelson Mandela Rules, it appears that the experience of residing in shelter in Philadelphia fails to meet at least three of these baseline standards.

First, Rule 5 of the Nelson Mandela Rules states: The prison regime should seek to minimize any differences between prison life and life at liberty that tend to lessen the responsibility of the prisoners or the respect due to their dignity as human beings. When emergency shelters institute arbitrary rules that confine, monitor, and control the lives of shelter guests, their property, their activities, and their movements, we are not respecting the liberty due to them as human beings.

Instead, we are incarcerating them on our terms and incarceration on our terms is still incarceration. Even if our approach to incarceration is less restrictive than prison, we should be asking ourselves whether it is more restrictive than life outside both prison and shelter. If it is, then we are in violation of Rule 5 and depriving people of their liberty when they have not been convicted of a crime.

Relatedly, in a previous article I described how the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Emergency Handbook articulates a standard of self-determination and empowerment for people residing in shelter. This standard reappears in the Nelson Mandela Rules, specifically in Rule 40, which states: No prisoner shall be employed, in the service of the prison, in any disciplinary capacity. This rule shall not, however, impede the proper functioning of systems based on self-government.

This rule serves as an indirect affirmation that self-determination, empowerment, and self-governance are appropriate in prisons. As I see it, if the worlds leading human rights organization has legitimized their use in prisons, then surely we can consider them legitimate in emergency shelters.

The standards articulated in Rules 5 and 40 actually intertwine. For example, the notion of life at liberty means you have freedom of movement and freedom from arbitrary detention, while self-governance means you get to participate in deciding the rules that you have to live by and which may impact your liberty. Taken together, they imply that shelter staff should remove all curfews and restrictions on movement (i.e. Once you enter the shelter, you are not permitted to leave until the next morning) unless the guests themselves decide otherwise.

In that sense, compliance with Rules 5 and 40 in emergency shelters also involves democratizing management procedures. Typically, staff members claim a monopoly over establishing curfews, budgeting, managing cleaning supplies, organizing laundry schedules, resolving disputes, etc. However, these are also things that shelter guests will do when they exit shelter into housing, and things that many of them are capable of doing now. As it turns out, according to the Nelson Mandela Rules, it is reasonable to say that they also have a right to do these things now.

The third area where it can be said emergency shelters fail to meet the United Nations standards for prisons involves disciplinary standards. Rule 39 of the Nelson Mandela Rules states that: Before imposing disciplinary sanctions, prison administrations shall consider whether and how a prisoners mental illness or developmental disability may have contributed to his or her conduct and the commission of the offence or act underlying the disciplinary charge. Prison administrations shall not sanction any conduct of a prisoner that is considered to be the direct result of his or her mental illness or intellectual disability. Although the word sanction can mean both penalize and permit, in the context of disciplinary sanctions (as it is used here) it means penalize.

In my experience, I have encountered no clear or explicit restrictions on my ability as a shelter staff member to sanction or discipline a shelter guest for behavior that is a direct result of his mental illness or intellectual disability. On the contrary, the expectation has always seemed to be that I will sanction or discipline any shelter guest for any behavior that is threatening, violent, or which otherwise seriously disrupts the shelter community regardless of what prompted the behavior.

In Philadelphia, given the high percentage of people experiencing homelessness who also live with serious mental illness or intellectual/developmental disabilities, the suggestion that we not discipline problematic behavior resulting from them almost seems to suggest an anything goes attitude.

But thats not what the United Nations is saying.

Rule 39 specifically prohibits sanctioning and disciplining certain kinds of behavior but it does not prohibit responding to it, resolving it, or transforming it. Nor does it prohibit restoring safety, trust, dignity, and community after harm or wrongdoing has occurred. In that sense, the Nelson Mandela Rules are not prohibiting justice. They are, however, prohibiting punitive responses to incidents where a mental health diagnosis or intellectual disability is a key variable.

What Philadelphia homeless services can learn from Rule 39 is that non-punitive, restorative justice practices in shelter settings arent just innovative theyre actually the standard. With that in mind, I encourage emergency shelters to begin reformulating their disciplinary protocols to align with restorative justice practices, as weve begun to do in Bethesda Projects Church Shelter Program.

This kind of transformation may not be easy, but it is necessary because shelter is not prison, nor should it be. If we take that distinction seriously, and I certainly hope that we do, then emergency shelters have an obligation to meet and exceed the minimum human rights standards for prisons.

See original here:
Emergency shelter is not prison, but there are overlapping human rights concerns - Generocity

I got lots of comments on my column supporting giving to beggars. I wrote the column expecting that I might produce only one or two notes of agreement, but my heart was lifted by the number of softhearted readers who, like me, give to beggars. Of course, there were a few like this one, from W:

In this day and age your answer was absolutely wrong! Enabling begging, alcohol and drug addicts exacerbates the problem!

Many of these people will not accept help from shelters because their addiction is more important to them! By funding their habit, you are making their circumstances worse.

Encourage people to give generously to shelters and organizations that assist the homeless. This is the Christian thing to do!

I respect that point of view, but I disagree with it. In our broken world, it is almost always the case that we cannot change the big things but can have an impact on little things. As Mother Teresa wrote, "God does not call us to do great things. God calls us to do small things with great love." Amen.

The following notes lifted my heart and convinced me that many people are doing small things with great love.

From K: I read your piece on giving to the homeless. So many people have the same questions in our church. So now we have prepared snack bags that have a short blessing attached. When we see homeless people, we hand them a bag and they are always appreciative. My husband and I have always felt that any money we give no matter where is given in God's name and no longer belongs to us and we don't question how it's used.

From J in New York:I have worked in NYC for the past 38 years. I, too, had a dilemma about giving to the less fortunate. I finally realized that I was in a better place than those who asked for a handout. I then made sure that I always had a couple of singles in my pocket and would give to anyone who asked. Or I would put a couple of granola bars in my pocket and distribute them. If there was someone I saw on a regular basis, I would ask if there was anything I could get them. Usually they would ask for personal hygiene items. If I ever saw tube socks for sale, I would also give them out. The bottom line is that God, for whatever I did, has granted me and my family a very comfortable life. Thank you very much for this article;if only more people felt this way and [did] not make assumptions, we would be a better society.

From N:I believe that most homeless people fall into two categories people with mental health problems and those who fell into homelessness because of circumstances. I fell into the latter category and without the help of friends and family, I would have been living on the street. I agree with you saying not to judge others, assuming they are druggies or scammers. Most of these people are down on their luck and, as you said, who in their right mind would want to beg just to survive? It must be humiliating. I thank God every day for being here with me through the good and especially the bad things in life.

M from Gainesville, Florida:I thank you for the reply you wrote regarding giving money to beggars. I would like to add one thing: I sometimes see someone who is asking for handouts accompanied by a dog. Rather than just give money, I prefer picking up a small package of dog food to give them. They always accept it with a smile. One even said that he was sure that his friend would share it with him!

And my favorite response that came from B:I read your column often and often feel lifted up and given water by a greater soul than mine. I have traveled a lot and far these past six-plus decades. I have seen the beggars, the homeless, the needy, the liars, the helpless, the drug addicts, the lost, the hopeless, the lonely, the predators, the starving, the thieves, the spiritually bereft, the seekers, the musicians, the broken. This I avow to you:That every one of those descriptions of human behavior I have been and done! I give to anyone broken. I give that lousy dollar. Not to feel better about me. THEY are me! Greater souls than mine have pointed out that divinity is in the shadows of human action. My last gasp is a quote from you: "Great changes come from small change." I thank you with fondness and am looking forward.

SEND QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS to The God Squad at godsquadquestion@aol.com or Rabbi Marc Gellman, Temple Beth Torah, 35 Bagatelle Rd., Melville, NY 11747.

See more here:
God Squad: Readers respond about giving to the panhandlers - Newsday

Media Advisory

Friday, December 27, 2019

Findings from NIH-funded study could inform treatment strategies.

Identical twins with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often experience large differences in symptom severity even though they share the same DNA, according to an analysis funded by the National Institutes of Health. The findings suggest that identifying the causes of this variability may inform the treatment of ASD-related symptoms. The study was conducted by John Constantino, M.D., of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and colleagues. Funding was provided by NIHs Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). The study appears in Behavior Genetics.

ASD is a developmental disorder that affects how a person behaves, interacts with others and learns. Previous studies have found that when one identical twin has ASD, chances are extremely likely that the other twin has it, too.

The authors analyzed data from three previous studies comprising a total of 366 identical twin pairs with and without ASD. The severity of autism traits and symptoms in the twins was measured by a clinicians assessment or by parents ratings on a standardized questionnaire. Some cases were diagnosed by both methods. The researchers determined a 96% chance that if one twin has ASD, the other has it, too. However, symptom scores varied greatly between twins diagnosed with ASD. The researchers estimated that genetic factors contributed to only 9% of the cause of trait variation among these twins. In contrast, among pairs of identical twins without ASD, the scores for traits were very similar.

The study authors do not know the reasons for differences in symptom severity, but they rule out genetic and most environmental causes because the twins share the same DNA and were raised in the same environment. Additional studies are needed to determine the cause.

Alice Kau, Ph.D., NICHD Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Branch, is available for comment.

Castelbaum, L. On the nature of monozygotic twin concordance for autistic trait severity: A quantitative analysis. Behavior Genetics.2019.

About theEunice Kennedy ShriverNational Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD): NICHD conducts and supports research in the United States andthroughout the world on fetal, infant and child development; maternal, child and family health; reproductive biology and population issues; and medical rehabilitation. For more information, visitNICHDs website.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH):NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.

NIHTurning Discovery Into Health

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Read more:
Severity of autism symptoms varies greatly among identical twins - National Institutes of Health

International Blog Michael Dickens

With another tennis season finished and the decade almost complete, Ive been enjoying a brief, holiday respite from the Centre Courts of the world by reading a book Ive been wanting to re-visit for a long time,Levels of the Gameby John McPhee. Published in 1969, contents of the book originally appeared as an essay in The New Yorker magazine. Levels of the Game hasbeen a part of my personal library for many years and its arguably the best book ever written about tennis.

Yet,Levels of the Gameisnt really as much a book about tennis as it is a battle of wills and ideals between two very different American gentlemen and what each symbolizes in a sport that was just opening itself to a brand new Open era in 1968.

On one side of the net on the outdoor grass courts at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, New York, then the home of the US Open, is Clark Graebner. Hes 25 years-old, rich, white, conservative. On the other side opposite him is Arthur Ashe Jr., also 25, striving middle class, black and open to new ideas. There is a sense of tension between these two talented individuals that goes far beyond the fact that both are college-educated athletes and competitors Graebner, conservative scion and only-son of a dentist who matriculated from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., and Ashe, a liberal who grew up in Richmond, Va., then migrated west and graduated from UCLA in Los Angeles, Calif. Despite being rivals, they are also friends even U.S. Davis Cup teammates.

Over the course of this brilliant 150-page narrative, from first ball to last ball during an epic semifinal-round match at the 1968 US Open, the Princeton and Cambridge-educated McPhee develops a sense of tension between Graebner and Ashe on the court. He goes inside the mind and game of these two great players. Through a stroke-by-stroke description of this singular match, McPhee examines their socio-economic backgrounds and attitudes touching on both race and politics which molds each player, mentally and physically.

Heres how Graebner describes his style of play with Ashes, filled with both racial and political undercurrents that prevailed at the time:

Ive never been a flashy stylist, like Arthur. Im a fundamentalist. Arthur is a bachelor. I am married and conservative. Im interested in business, in the market, in childrens clothes. It affects the way you play the game. Hes not a steady player. Hes a wrists slapped. Sometimes he doesnt even know where the ball is going. Hes carefree, lackadaisical, forgetful. Negroes are getting more confidence. They are asking for more and more, and they are getting more and more. They are looser. Theyre liberal. In a way, liberal is a synonym for loose. And thats exactly the way Arthur plays.

And in contrast, heres how Ashe analyzes Graebner:

There is not much variety in Clarks game. It is steady, accurate, and conservative. He makes few errors. He plays still, compact, Republican tennis. Hes a damned smart player, a good thinker, but not a limber and flexible thinker. His game is predictable, but he has a sounder volley than I have, and a better forehand more touch, more power. His forehand is a hell of a weapon. His moves are mediocre. His backhand is under spin, which means he cant hit it hard. He just cant hit a heavily top-spun backhand. He hasnt much flair or finesse, except in the lob. He has the best lob of any of the Americans. Hes solid and consistent. He tries to let you beat yourself.

One reviewer described McPhees approach as a highly original way of looking at human behavior. After all, as the author notes, When physical assets are about equal, psychology is paramount to any game.

Consider the attention to detail McPhee provides readers from the very beginning of Levels of the Game:

Arthur Ashe, his feet apart, his knees slightly bent, lifts a tennis ball into the air. The toss is high and forward. If the ball were allowed to drop, it would, in Ashes words, make a parabola and drop to the grass three feet in front of the baseline. He has practiced tossing a tennis ball just so thousands of times. But he is going to hit this one. His feet draw together. His body straightens and tilts forward far beyond the point of balance. He is falling. The force of gravity and a muscular momentum from legs to arm compound as he whips his racquet up and over the ball. He weighs a hundred and fifty-five pounds; he is six feet tall, and right-handed. His build is barely full enough not to be describable as frail, but his cordination is so extraordinary that the ball comes off his racquet at furious speed. With a step forward that stops his fall, he moves to follow.

On the other side of the net, the serve hits the grass and, taking off in a fast skid, is intercepted by the backhand of Clark Graebner. Graebner has a plan for this match. He does not intend to hit out much. Even if he sees the moon, he may decide not to shoot it. He will, in his words, play the ball in the court and make Arthur play it, because Arthur blows his percentages by always trying a difficult or acute shot. Arthur sometimes tends to miss easy shots more often than he makes hard shots. The only way to get his confidence down is to get every shot into the court and let him make mistakes. Graebner, standing straight up, pulls his racquet across and then away from the ball as if he had touch something hot, and with this gesture he blocks back Ashes serve.

Later in the book, McPhee delves inside the mind of each player with great insight:

Graebner happens to be as powerful as anyone who plays tennis. He is six feet two inches tall; he weighs a hundred and seventy-five pounds. The firmly structured muscles of his legs stand out in symmetrical perfection. His frame is large, but his reactions are instant and there is nothing sluggish about him. He is right-handed, and his right forearm is more than a foot in circumference. His game is built on power. His backswing is short, his strokes are compact; nonetheless, the result is explosive. There have to be exceptions to any general strategy. Surely this particular shot is a setup, a sitter, hanging there soft and helpless in the air. With a vicious backhand drive, Graebner tries to blow the ball crosscourt, past Ashe. But it does into the net. Fifteen-love.

Graebner is nervous. He looks down at his feet somberly. This is Forest Hills, and this is one of the semifinal matches in the first United States Open Championships. Graebner and Ashe are both Americans. The other semifinalists are a Dutchman and an Australian. It has been thirteen years since an American won the mens singles final at Forest Hills, and this match will determine whether Ashe or Graebner is to have a chance to be the first American since Tony Trabert to win it all. Ashe and Graebner are still amateurs, and it was imagined that in this tournament, playing against professionals ,they wouldnt have much of a chance. But they are here, close to the finish, playing each other. For Graebner to look across the net and see Ashe and the reverse is not in its unusual. They were both born in 1943, they have known each other since they were thirteen, and they have played tournaments and exhibitions and have practiced together in so many countries and seasons that details blur. They are members of the United States Davis Cup Team and, as such, travel together throughout the year, playing for the United States and also entering general tournaments less as individuals than en bloc, with the team.

A persons tennis game begins with his nature and background and comes out through his motor mechanisms into shot patterns and characteristics of play. If he is deliberate, he is a deliberate tennis player; and if he is flamboyant, his game probably is, too. A tight, close match unmarried by error and representative of each players game at its highest level will be primarily a psychological struggle, particularly when the players are so familiar with each other that there can be no technical surprises There is nothing about Ashes game that Graebner does not know, and Ashe says that he knows Graebners game like a favorite tune. Ashe feels that Graebner. Plays the way he does because he is a middle-class white conservative. Graebner feels that Ashe plays the way he does because he is black. Ashe, at this moment, is nervous. He is famous for what journalists have called his majestic cool, his towering, calm, his icy elegance. But he is scared stiff, and other tennis players who know him well can see this, because it is literally true. His legs are stiff. Now, like a mechanical soldier, he walks into position to serve again. He lifts the ball, and hits it down the middle.

Ashes principal problem in tennis has been consistency. He has brilliance to squander, but steadiness has not been characteristic of him. He shows this, woodenly hitting three volleys into the net in this first game, letting Graebner almost break him, then shooting his way out of trouble with two serves hit so hard that Graebner cannot touch them. Ashe wins the first game. Graebner shrugs and tells himself, He really snuck out of that one.

In a 2014 review of Levels of the Game for the London Guardian, William Fiennes suggests that McPhees use of tenses are a subtle source of power. He notes how the author uses past tense for history and backstory, present tense for the match and for the comments and reactions of those watching it.

For instance: When, after an account of (Robert) Johnsons first meeting with Ashe (he wondered if the child had been a victim of rickets, he was so bony and frail), McPhee cuts back to the semifinal at Forest Hills, the reversion to the present tense is an electric quickening. Sometimes these transitions are bold and imaginative, as when McPhee shows us two of Johnsons trophy-winning students watching television, and the match theyre watching is Ashe vs. Graebner at Forest Hills, and suddenly were back in the game, spirited via a wormhole, Graebner serving an ace that splits the court.

Another example: Both Ashe and Graebner have a great deal of finesse in reserve behind their uncomplicated power, but it surfaces once or twice a game rather than once or twice a point. Ashe is a master of drop shots, of drop half volleys, of miscellaneous dinks and chips. He is, in the idiom of tennis, very tough at cat-and-mouse the texture of the game in which both players, near the net, exchange light, floppy shots, acutely angled and designed for inaccessibility. Graebner is a deft volleyer, reacting quickly and dangerously at the net, but in general although the two players technically have the same sort of game Graebner does not have the variety of shots or the versatility that Ashe has. Ashe says that Graebner could use a little more junk in his game.

Throughout this fun-to-read book, it becomes apparent how freely and honestly Ashe and Graebner discuss race and personal politics and the changing landscape of the tennis world. We find out what makes each succeed on and off the court and looking back, the book remains a great historical document. Remember, the Open Era of professional tennis was just starting to take shape and some of the greats of the game that we feel deep admiration for today, like Rod Laver, were still playing. Also, in terms of U.S. history, this match took place in the same year as the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, and the United States was in the height of fighting the Vietnam War. Worth noting is Ashe was a second lieutenant stationed at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., when he won the 1968 US Open.

Of many things Ive come to appreciate from reading Levels of the Game is how much McPhee admires both Ashe and Graebner and throughout, he maintains a sense of impartiality. However, its apparent that McPhee assumes that the reader will side with Ashe more than Graebner and, its Ashe who not only wins the match 4-6, 8-6, 7-5, 6-2 but also goes on to win the 1968 US Open, defeating Tom Okker of the Netherlands, 14-12, 5-7, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, in the championship final. Still an amateur and unable to accept the $14,000 first-prize money awarded to the winner, it was Ashes first career Grand Slam singles title and his only US Open singles championship. He became the first African-American man to win the US Open.

Looking back at this clash of conservative values versus liberal ideals, one of the primary take aways after re-reading McPhees Levels of the Gameis simple: You are the way you play.

Read more from the original source:
'Levels Of The Game': Looking At Human Behavior Through Tennis - Tennis TourTalk

What will the future retail store look like? One of the founders of award-winning experiential design agency YourStudio shares his vision based on emerging trends, describing a retailscape defined by real-life fulfillment, wellbeing for the mind and soul, and human spaces to fuel the imagination.

What are the weak signals you see emerging in retail right now?

Human behavior is driving all of the best new retail experiences. We are seeing retail and digital integration to help remove friction, new fulfillment models to give time back, and experiences that nourish and elevate the human spirit.

Shoppers have been using the store partly as a showroom to order online, so new smart offers create this showcase with no need for direct sales. Samsungs space at Coal Drops Yard is a good example of this: leave without a product, but with a huge baptism into what Samsung means to your life and how it can make it better. Were moving into an era of selling emotions and feelings, not things.

Retail spaces will continue to shift away from focus around stuff, moving towards real-life fulfillment, wellbeing for the mind and soul, and human spaces to fuel the imagination. Generation selfie is declining; people are looking to retail spaces to connect, find a sense of purpose, and enrich their knowledge and point of view.

How do you see innovative retailers delivering on these new demands?

Stores are experimenting with different formats. The legacy department stores are creating smaller capsule spaces. Galleries Lafayette Champs-Elyses is a perfect example. Big brands are slicing up what they do so, instead of large multi-format stores, they are creating more specialized, local branches. To stay competitive and keep up, we need to build architecture thats agile, from our digital to our physical brand moments. Storytelling and keeping up the connections with our audiences is key to survival. All of this depends on great creative minds to understand and empathize with what people need as well as creating material people feel drawn to.

Can you guess what the store experience five years from now will be like?

The film Her creates a vision of the future thats not all space rockets and levitating furniture, but has a soul through its touch of the familiar augmented with some new and clever tech. This is how I see the store in five years' time. We will still appreciate the human qualities of touch and visual language that soothes or stimulates us, but we will see more services and dwell spaces customized to us, our moods and anticipating our every desire.

What do you plan to share at the Future Of Retail 2020 Conference?

Driven by PSFKs insight, I will be presenting three future retail concepts that pioneer thinking around loyalty, brand connection and the next generation of experience design. I will be showing what the future of fresh food might look like at a supermarket scale, how luxury loyalty can be unpacked at home and how whole-life fulfillment might be experienced at a place-making scale for a mall of the future. Cant wait!

YourStudio

To learn more from Howard, come see him take the stage at PSFK's upcoming Future Of Retail conference 2020, tickets available now!

What will the future retail store look like? One of the founders of award-winning experiential design agency YourStudio shares his vision based on emerging trends, describing a retailscape defined by real-life fulfillment, wellbeing for the mind and soul, and human spaces to fuel the imagination.

What are the weak signals you see emerging in retail right now?

Human behavior is driving all of the best new retail experiences. We are seeing retail and digital integration to help remove friction, new fulfillment models to give time back, and experiences that nourish and elevate the human spirit.

More:
PSFK Retail Conference Preview: Tomorrow's Store Will Sell Feelings, Not Things - PSFK

The Cats movie is finally out, after months of anticipation, and believe me when I say it more than lives up to the hype. One thing I must admit, though, is that Cats is...confusing.

Below, find an in-no-way-exhaustive list of the questions that Cats raised for me, in real time.

Did everyone else in the theater also turn to their movie companion and whisper "Those are the cats" when the cats first came onscreen? Because I did.

Why did this British woman put a cat in a pillowcase and throw it in an alley? Are there no no-kill shelters in London? This seems like a less-than-ideal method of cat removal.

Is it normal that I find some of the cats hot? Jason Derulo, a.k.a. Rum Tum Tugger, and his hip thrusts in particular, stand out to me.

If the cats can speak, then why can they also hiss? What does hissing connote to a cat blessed with the faculty of language?

Why in God's name is Rebel Wilson, a.k.a. Jennyanydots, splaying her legs in that borderline-perverse manner? This is not cat behavior, nor is it appropriate human behavior, and it's raising a whole lot more questions for me about cat anatomy that I'd prefer not to think about.

Did Jennyanydots just...eat an anthropomorphized, sentient cockroach?

Why are mice and cockroaches roughly the same size in the Cats universe? Shouldn't the mice be bigger than the cats? I feel like the scale is off.

So Jennifer Hudson, a.k.a. Grizabella, has a tattered shawl on, and James Corden, a.k.a. Bustopher Jones, wears a full suit. How exactly do cats acquire or earn clothes?

Continued here:
26 Questions I Had While Watching the Cats Movie - Vogue

How to Win on Women, Peace and Security

Rosarie Tucci

New strategies employing behavioral science may help push governments to implement National Action Plans.

For almost 15 years, Jacqueline ONeill, now Canadas first ambassador for women, peace and security, pondered a question that dogs policymakers everywhere and bears heavily on her work: How can governments speed up the implementation of major shifts in policy?

For ONeill, the problem was specific. In 2000, the United Nations Security Council approved U.N. Resolution 1325, which calls for every nation to recognize the particular impact of war on women and girls and to ensure that women have a central role in peacemaking efforts. Five years later, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan asked the worlds governments to create National Action Plans to bring the promise of 1325 to fruition. ONeill, who advised dozens of countries on 1325, observed a frustrating phenomenon: Many governments had robust plans, but key components of them remained little more than words on paper. (USIP has worked on the issue for a decade.)

ONeills quest for a more effective way to get NAPs implemented coincided with expanding research by social scientists into why things door do notget done within every type of organization be it a government, business or nonprofit. The emerging answer wasin simplest termsbecause normal human behavior tends toward inertia when translated to an organizational setting. Building off the growing use of behavioral science to inform policy and improve public services, ONeill figured insights from the expanding field, such as the much-discussed Nudge Theory, might help solve her NAP problem.

ONeill recalled what Paul Cairney and Richard Kwiatkowski, leading scholars in public policy and behavioral science, said about policymakers: They need to gather information quickly and effectivelyand often in highly charged political environmentsand that pushes them to rely on mental shortcuts such as ingrained perceptions and emotions. Scholars recognize that while shortcuts, known in behavioral science as heuristics, can be useful, they can also cause policymakers to fall back on the status quo.

We need to better understand and navigate these human tendencies in order to make more rapid progress toward implementation of the NAPs, Neill said.

So, she gathered experts in both behavioral science and inclusive security to explore how behavioral insights might be used to advance National Action Plans. The group turned to a framework for policymakers known by the acronym EASTmaking change Easy, Attractive, Social and Timelythen customized elements of it to the NAP challenge.

As the 20th anniversary of 1325 approaches, heres the advice they came up with for WPS practitioners and policymakers.

Make It Easy

To ease people into new processes, the EAST framework advises harnessing the power of defaults and reducing the hassle factor. That can include simple steps: Maximize the repeated use of templates or employ a box-check to habituate officials to collecting new information. For example, does analysis of protests against government policy include estimates of the gender distribution of demonstrators? A prompt such as a single, required click or tag can yield sex-disaggregated data. Such items can usually be added to existing standard forms.

The importance of simplifying messages cant be overstated; ultimately, the NAP is also a communications document. Jargon and confusing, lengthy language cause readers and viewers to disengage. Consistent and accurate use of terms help create clarity.

NAPs should be customized to reflect, and integrate with, national priorities and policymakers interests. Most of the worlds 84 NAPs, for example, are structured around 1325s four strategic pillars: protection, participation, prevention, and relief and recovery. Yet no government is organized that way. Several countries are now reframing their WPS commitments. For example, a key priority in Jordans NAP relates to violent extremism. In Tonga, the strategic-level focus is on climate change.

Implementation is also more likely when the benefits are spelled out clearly and driven home. An example particularly germane to conflict zones might be stressing that research shows women often raise issues addressing the root of a conflicta key to sustainable peacewhen they are meaningfully involved in peace negotiations.

Make It Attractive

Effective communications help attract attention for NAPs and lend urgency to their implementation. To a significant degree, that means invoking human narratives that illustrate the importance and impact of the plans for women. With such a backdrop, sympathetic policymakers can then reinforce NAP messages in policy documents and speechesincluding those delivered by unconventional messengers such as military officers or economists. A specialized fund devoted to initiatives linked explicitly to NAP creates another avenue to strengthen implementation efforts.

Rewards and sanctions can shift behavior as well. A manager who says NAP is an important policy yet fails to score subordinates work in the area in job evaluations isnt promoting increased attention. Likewise, recognizing progress and achievements on a NAP is a crucial tool for encouraging implementation. USAID, for example, established an annual agency-wide WPS award.

Finally, governments often respond to pressure from oversight bodies. Encouraging hearings or inquiries by lawmakers can create an opportunity to publicly highlight obstacles to action or a lack of commitment. Similarly, engaging civil society organizations to offer praise as well as highlight ongoing shortcomings can be another way to mobilize public officials.

Make It Social

As social beings, humans tend to follow the herd, amplifying behavior for better or worse. Pointing out negative behavior, therefore, should be done sparingly. For instance, WPS practitioners repeatedly cite the paucity of women at negotiating tables (in peace processes, women are 2 percent of mediators, 5 percent of witnesses and signatories, and 8 percent of negotiators globally). Understanding the extent of the problem is important, of course, but over-emphasizing the scale of exclusion might be counterproductive. Practitioners might do better to highlight what those few women have achieved. Offering concrete examples to emulate is one of the most effective ways to move people in a desired direction.

Sharing material online is perhaps the simplest form of social interaction. Through social media, practitioners can discuss successful means for developing and implementing plans, such as how to engage civil society or create a steering committee for a NAP comprised of policymakers from relevant government departments.

Contacts in the analog world can be even more powerful. WPS practitioners should nurture networks of gender specialists, promote gatherings at conferences, encourage engagement in community activities, and establish opportunities for academics, civil society, other gender points of contact within those organizations to exchange experiences and expertise. In 2020, for example, Canada and Uruguay will co-chair the Women, Peace and Security Focal Points Network, and co-host its annual gathering in Ottawa.

Creating opportunities or safe space for people to ask authentic questions or test assumptions might be helpful. At times, policymakers implementing NAPs hesitate to ask challenging questions or express doubts about policy options, fearful of giving offense in a time of fast-changing cultural and social norms.

Finally, commitments made in face-to-face meetings create a sense of shared responsibility and greater urgency for action whether they are expressed through a job description, evaluation or promises by senior-level officials.

Make It Timely

Applying principles like prompting people when they are likely to be most receptive can help accelerate change.

Periods of transitionfrom elections to waroften disrupt hard-to-alter behaviors and end in a period of reform. When such events are predictable, the lead up phase may be an optimal time to create a NAP. Conversely, NAP advocates may foresee regression coming out of a disruptive time. In that case, the best strategy may be designing NAPs that span government administrations (often four to six years), the idea being to force a new government that opposes a plan to cancel it outright rather than making the politically easier choice of simply failing to adopt one.

Furthermore, by emphasizing the linkages between WPS and current events, implementers can more effectively stimulate action. This may work best when preparation is possible, such as getting ready to counter arguments typically used to stymie action on WPS (for example: The situation is too complex to bring more actors to the table now; we can do that once a peace agreement is reached). Other forms of preparation might include scenario-based trainings for practitioners and women in civil society to react in real-time to events like terrorist attacks, peace talks or rising inter-communal tensions.

Finally, stressing short-term advantages that flow from a NAP may expedite action because people are more likely to respond to immediate costs and benefits. A convincing case in point: Naming a woman as lead negotiator of the Philippines government team in 2012 immediately resulted in an increase in Filipinos public trust in the peace process between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

More Research

Existing research explores the impact of behavioral processes on peace, including the influence culture has on the ways in which people negotiate to end conflicts. Further explorations are underway on how to operationalize these insights, one of them being USIPs partnership with ideas42, an organization focused on applied behavioral science.

As we learn more about how best to effectuate change, it is clear that behavioral science complements the various strategies used to drive the larger, transformational accomplishments so far on the Women Peace and Security agenda.

Tinu Luu is a senior program assistant for the Inclusive Peace Process Program at the U.S. Institute of Peace.

This article is cross-posted here with the permission (on agreement) from the United States Institute of Peace.

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How to Win on Women, Peace and Security - smallwarsjournal

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is creating a new frontline in information security. Systems that independently learn, reason and act will increasingly replicate human behavior. Like humans, they will be flawed, but also capable of achieving great things.

AI poses new information risks and makes some existing ones more dangerous. However, it can also be used for good and should become a key part of every organizations defensive arsenal. Business and information security leaders alike must understand both the risks and opportunities before embracing technologies that will soon become a critically important part of everyday business.

Already, AI is finding its way into many mainstream business use cases. Organizations use variations of AI to support processes in areas including customer service, human resources, and bank fraud detection. However, the hype can lead to confusion and skepticism over what AI actually is and what it really means for business and security. It is difficult to separate wishful thinking from reality.

Read More: How AI and Automation Are Joining Forces to Transform ITSM

As AI systems are adopted by organizations, they will become increasingly critical to day-to-day business operations. Some organizations already have, or will have, business models entirely dependent on AI technology. No matter the function for which an organization uses AI, such systems and the information that supports them have inherent vulnerabilities and are at risk from both accidental and adversarial threats. Compromised AI systems make poor decisions and produce unexpected outcomes.

Simultaneously, organizations are beginning to face sophisticated AI-enabled attacks which have the potential to compromise information and cause severe business impact at a greater speed and scale than ever before. Taking steps both to secure internal AI systems and defend against external AI-enabled threats will become vitally important in reducing information risk.

While AI systems adopted by organizations present a tempting target, adversarial attackers are also beginning to use AI for their own purposes. AI is a powerful tool that can be used to enhance attack techniques or even create entirely new ones. Organizations must be ready to adapt their defenses in order to cope with the scale and sophistication of AI-enabled cyberattacks.

Security practitioners are always fighting to keep up with the methods used by attackers, and AI systems can provide at least a short-term boost by significantly enhancing a variety of defensive mechanisms. AI can automate numerous tasks, helping understaffed security departments to bridge the specialist skills gap and improve the efficiency of their human practitioners. Protecting against many existing threats, AI can put defenders a step ahead. However, adversaries are not standing still as AI-enabled threats become more sophisticated, security practitioners will need to use AI-supported defenses simply to keep up.

The benefit of AI in terms of response to threats is that it can act independently, taking responsive measures without the need for human oversight and at a much greater speed than a human could. Given the presence of malware that can compromise whole systems almost instantaneously, this is a highly valuable capability.

The number of ways in which defensive mechanisms can be significantly enhanced by AI provide grounds for optimism, but as with any new type of technology, it is not a miracle cure. Security practitioners should be aware of the practical challenges involved when deploying defensive AI.

Questions and considerations before deploying defensive AI systems have narrow intelligence and are designed to fulfill one type of task. They require sufficient data and inputs in order to complete that task. One single defensive AI system will not be able to enhance all the defensive mechanisms outlined previously an organization is likely to adopt multiple systems. Before purchasing and deploying defensive AI, security leaders should consider whether an AI system is required to solve the problem, or whether more conventional options would do a similar or better job.

Read More: Artificial Intelligence in Restaurant Business

Questions to ask include:

Security leaders also need to consider issues of governance around defensive AI, such as:

AI will not replace the need for skilled security practitioners with technical expertise and an intuitive nose for risk. These security practitioners need to balance the need for human oversight with the confidence to allow AI-supported controls to act autonomously and effectively. Such confidence will take time to develop, especially as stories continue to emerge of AI proving unreliable or making poor or unexpected decisions.

AI systems will make mistakes a beneficial aspect of human oversight is that human practitioners can provide feedback when things go wrong and incorporate it into the AIs decision-making process. Of course, humans make mistakes too organizations that adopt defensive AI need to devote time, training and support to help security practitioners learn to work with intelligent systems.

Given time to develop and learn together, the combination of Human and Artificial Intelligence should become a valuable component of an organizations cyber defenses.

Computer systems that can independently learn, reason and act herald a new technological era, full of both risk and opportunity. The advances already on display are only the tip of the iceberg there is a lot more to come. The speed and scale at which AI systems think will be increased by growing access to big data, greater computing power and continuous refinement of programming techniques. Such power will have the potential to both make and destroy a business.

AI tools and techniques that can be used in defense are also available to malicious actors including criminals, hacktivists and state-sponsored groups. Sooner rather than later these adversaries will find ways to use AI to create completely new threats such as intelligent malware and at that point, defensive AI will not just be a nice to have. It will be a necessity. Security practitioners using traditional controls will not be able to cope with the speed, volume, and sophistication of attacks.

To thrive in the new era, organizations need to reduce the risks posed by AI and make the most of the opportunities it offers. That means securing their own intelligent systems and deploying their own intelligent defenses. AI is no longer a vision of the distant future: the time to start preparing is now.

Read More: How Artificial Intelligence Can Transform Influencer Marketing

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Deciphering Artificial Intelligence in the Future of Information Security - AiThority

The floodgates atFox News broke open in 2016.

Former anchor Gretchen Carlson suedformer Fox News chairman and CEO, the late RogerAiles,forsexual harassment.Other female employees, including anchorMegyn Kelly, also began speaking out abouta toxic culture in their workplace.

In Kelly's2016 memoir, "Settle for More," the anchorsaid Ailes"made sexual comments" and "offers of professional advancement in exchange for sexual favors.

Kelly also Business Insiderthat she reported Ailes' sexual advances to a supervisorbut was toldto simply steer clear of him.

The film "Bombshell," starring Charlize Theron asKelly,Nicole Kidman asCarlson andMargot Robbie as a composite character producer Kayla Pospisil chronicles thewomen's journey to expose the abuse.

Ailes resigned in July 2016, reportedly witha severance package of$40 million, and denied all allegations.

Charlize Theron stars as Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly in "Bombshell."(Photo: Hilary B Gayle)

But a culture of silencebegan to splinter.

A year later, film producer and Miramax co-founder Harvey Weinstein was embroiled in sexual abuse allegations,and #MeTootrended widely on social mediaas other men and women went public about surviving sexual harassment and abuse. Actors Louis C.K. and Kevin Spacey,Boston Symphony Orchestra music director James Levine,PBS and CBS host Charlie Rose, and Democratic Sen. Al Franken weresome of the high-profile starsaccused of sexual misconduct.

While the scandal at Fox News the most-watched news network in America with a reputation for conservative political commentary didn't surprise Theron,the women who spoke out did.

"There was a moment of thinking, Wow, what an unusual group of women to bring forth something like this and get thisresult," said Theron, who will receive the International Star Award, Actress for her performance in "Bombshell" at the 2020 Palm Springs International Film Festival.

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The actress, who has publicly discussed being sexually harassed during her first audition, saidHollywood is better because of the #MeToo movement.

"Weve seen real consequences for a lot of this behavior," Theron said in a recent interview with The Desert Sun."People are definitely trying to re-educate themselves and be more sensitive as to how they are on a set, and human resources is more involved. When people speak up, its taken seriously."

When Theron first received the offer to play the role of Kelly, however, she was uncertainbecauseof the anchor's well-known personality.

"I asked,Is that even feasible?Will I even be able to do this in a way where the movie will still shine and Im not distracted thinking, Does that even look like Megyn Kelly?" Theron said. "Its all those things,and it just took (director) Jay Roach as a filmmaker to get me to cross that line."

Charlize Theron (left) as Megyn Kelly and Liv Hewson (right) as Lily Balin in "Bombshell."

(Photo: Hilary B Gayle)

While it's common foractors to meet the subjects they are playing in biographical moviesespecially if the person is still aliveTheron chose not to meet withKelly.

"It was my choice. It just felt like too much pressure," Theron said."I had access to so much information that it would have been weird for her and too much pressure for me. If I didnt have access to what I had and all the sources I did, it might have been different. But I had a lot to work from."

To take on the role of Kelly, Theron used the same physical actingmethodshe did for the 2003 film, "Monster," in which shewon an Oscar for her performance asconvicted serial killerAileen Wuornos.Critics not only praised Theron's physical transformationfor that film, but also how well she portrayed someone with antisocial and borderline personality disorders.

Just as she focused onWuornos'physicality and body language, she found ituseful to do the same for"Bombshell."

"Theres a lot of the physical things on both Megyn and Aileen, their physicality told a lot of their emotional story," Theron said."It takes months to get to that conclusion, how someone is hearing themselves and how it expresses their emotional journey.

"You just try to get access to as muchinformation as you can," Theron continued."You look at it from an investigative angle and try to get anything you possibly can, and sit with it as long as you can tostart deciphering it and live with it, so what youre reading on a page might start to tell you a different story or you start seeing behaviorforming youto who the person is."

There aredifferences to playing a serial killer and a famed female news anchor, but Therontried to expressthe humanity of both despite their infamous personas.

Charlize Theron and Christina Ricci in a scene from the motion picture "Monster."(Photo: XXX NEWMARKET FILMS)

"I told Aileen'sstory during the last two years of her life with a few flashbacks, but its condensed into those last couple years of her life where circumstances came into play andshe found herself informed byher humanity," Theron said.

"Its the same of Megyn.The year and half we focus on atFox News, her circumstances were rough. She was a rock star thereand she was re-negotiating one of the biggest deals in their history. She put this thing behind her that happened 10 years earlier and didnt want to be defined by it."

(Before Kelly left Fox in 2017, she was re-negotiatingher contract andthe networkwas prepared to pay her more than $20 million a year,according to the New York Times.)

"(Kelly) had a moral dilemma of liking(Ailes) and thought he was someone who elevated her to where she was," Theron said."All those things come into play when you deal with a human being. Those are human conflicts I can wrap my head around. I might not necessarily agree with everything she says and does, but the circumstances are whats interesting to me."

Charlize Theron (left) as Megyn Kelly and John Lithgow (right) as Roger Ailes in the 2019 film "Bombshell."

(Photo: Courtesy of Hilary B Gayle)

'Pushing the envelope' with physicality

Before becomingan actress, Theronpursued a career in ballet but her knees gave out while studying at the Joffrey Ballet School in New York. She moved to Los Angeles in 1994 and was discovered by talent agent John Crosby.

Havingtrained as a ballet dancer,Theron said she finds iteasy to tell a character's story through physicality as she didto embody characters like Wuornos and Kelly.

"Physicality is something I pay more attention to than what theysay," Theron said."I think characters are like human beings. We dont always say whats going on and we tend to say whats not going on. Were deflecting and not talking about the things that are really going on. Its your body, its your postureand those things tell you way more about a person than whats coming out of their mouths."

Charlize Theron is a stressed-out mom whose perspective is changed when she receives a gift: a nanny named "Tully."(Photo: Kimberly French/Focus Features)

Butthisfocus on physicality can have consequences.In 2005, Theron starred in an action film based on the animated series "on Flux"and injured herself while performing a stunt in the movie.

"I did a back-handspring and I landed on my neck and I herniated a disk between fiveand six," Theron said. "You can always get hurt. Youre pushing the envelope with this physical stuff. Its the work you put in before, its the many months youve trained for something and you get it perfect."

"Theres always a chance somethingcan go wrong. You work around it and thats part of what those movies are."

For Theron, physicality is a window into a character's humanity. Throughout her career, she's taken on roles that allow for honest dialogue peopledealingwith real-life situationsthat only seem to get worse, or don't resolve by the end credits.

Prior to "Bombshell," Kellyworked on two films with director Jason Reitmanknown for "Juno" and "Up in the Air" who she says "taps into interesting human behavior." She playedan alcoholic, young adult series writerin the 2011 movie"Young Adult" and a pregnant struggling mother of twoin last year's "Tully."

"I tend to have to push on directors the not-so-human behavior because its much easier to do things that are easier to swallow and wrap your arms around," Theron said."A lot of directors are in the business to tell those stories because its easier. The more the audience likesyou, the better the movie is."

Charlize Theron (left) stars as Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly in the film, "Bombshell."(Photo: HILARY B. GAYLE)

As a mother of two adopted children, and having friends who struggled with postpartum depression, she found her role in "Tully" to be important in educating the public about anotherreal-life subject affecting women.

"That story was very personal to me," Theron said."It was her experience with her third child and I had a friend while I was making that film who was going through severe postpartum. Its something we dont talk about enough. I thought she represented so much of what motherhood is and nobody wants to admit."

Throughout her career, Theron hasn'tshiedawayfrom roles that offer an honest, unflinching look atcontroversial issues including those affecting women that may not be widely talked about, frompostpartum depression to sexual harassment.

"I can see a lot of change," Theron said of the #MeToo movement's effect onHollywood."It doesnt mean we dont have a long way to go, but I think where we are today versus five years ago is night and day."

What: Palm Springs International Film Festival Film Awards Gala

Where: Palm Springs Convention Center,277 N. Avenida Caballeros, Palm Springs

When: Jan. 2, 2020

Catch up on all the action at deserts.co

Charlize Theron in "Bombshell."

(Photo: Hilary B Gayle/SMPSP)

Desert Sun reporter Brian Blueskye covers artsand entertainment. Hecan be reached at brian.blueskye@desertsun.com or (760) 778-4617. Support local news, subscribe to The Desert Sun.

Originally posted here:
'When people speak up, its taken seriously:' Charlize Theron on playing Megyn Kelly in 'Bombshell' - Desert Sun

After being raised in a Mormon family in a devoutly religious Mormon community in Idaho, Jordan Moon went on the traditional Mormon mission. He then attended Brigham Young Universitys Idaho campus, where a strict code of conduct prohibited not only alcohol consumption, but even facial hair.Jordan excelled as a psychology student there, and even published a paper on the psychology of moral judgments.

After graduating from BYU, Jordan (who now sports a long beard, and likes to drink an occasional beer) came to Arizona State to study the psychology of religion with my colleague Adam Cohen.Although he is only midway through graduate school, Jordan has already distinguished himself by publishing several papers in prestigious journals.One of Jordans papers, recently released inCurrent Directions in Psychological Science, has the provocative title Is Nothing Sacred: Religion, sex, and reproductive strategies.

The paper argues that people often think about religion in terms of profound supernatural and spiritual ideas: concepts about eternal afterlife, immortal battles of good versus evil, transcending the flesh and devotion to the divine. Those interested in the psychology of religion have also studied the rituals designed to lift peoples thoughts and behaviors out of the metaphorical gutter of sex and selfishness toward lives full of meaning, contemplation, and community service.

But the papers argument is that maybe those high and holy religious beliefs and practices are often secretly serving base selfish and sexual motivations. Religion may, on this view, be an instrument of peoples preferred reproductive strategies.

Do religions cause monogamy, or do monogamous people choose to be religious?

Social scientists have traditionally presumed that ones religious upbringing is a powerful determinant of ones sexual behavior. Most religions indeed have strong rules prohibiting premarital sex, extramarital sex, and even private erotic thoughts.I was in Catholic school when pubescent hormones rudely disruptedthe innocence of my childhood, and I remember feeling intense guilt about my sinful desires to look inside the provocative covers of the pornographic magazines on sale at the local newsstand. Aregular Saturday ritual was to stand in line outside the confessional boxes at St. Josephs Catholic church, awaiting Father McNamaras absolution for those evil thoughts, contingent on my saying five Our Fathers and ten Hail Marys as penance.

But some analyses by my colleague Jason Weeden suggest that, rather than religion dictatorially determining ones attitudes toward sex, the causal arrow often goes in the opposite direction.For adults, their sexual strategies appear to determine their level of commitment to religion.People who are inclined toward monogamy choose to be religious, because traditional religions provide supportfor a family lifestyle, and discourage promiscuity.Promiscuity poses problems for family life from both the husbands and the wifes perspective. If there is a lot of promiscuity in the local society, then husbands (and their resources) may be easily tempted away from the responsibilities of fathering and family.

Men are, after all, notoriously easy, as attested to by data suggesting they have very low thresholds for a one-night stand, for example (Clark & Hatfield; Li & Kenrick, Kenrick et al., 1990; 1993).But if so, why would men, married or otherwise, want promiscuity discouraged?Weeden links that to paternal uncertainty: a married man is investing heavily in his offspring, and in a totally promiscuous society, the odds would be higher that his female partners children might not be his.

Not everyone wants strong constraints on sexuality, though.Highly educated people often wait many years past puberty to settle down, as they delay starting a family for up to a decade while attending college and graduate school. Those individuals do not want strong prohibitions against premarital sexuality and birth control because it would mean theyd need to remain celibate for many years, and completely suppress their post-pubertal sexual urges until they get their Ph.D., M.D., or law degree, and then wait a little longer until theyfind a partner with whom to settle down.Weeden has suggested that the links between religion and reproductive strategy account for many of the heated moral conflicts between the religious right and the irreligious academically elitists on the left.

Several large data sets now provide results consistent with this view of reproductive religiosity, suggesting that peoples preferred mating strategies strongly influence their attraction toward, or repulsion from, religion. Weeden finds that the normally high correlations between religious beliefs and other moral attitudes shrink if you control for peoples attitudes towards sex.And Mike McCullough, another prominent expert on the psychology of religion, finds that many people tend to become especially religious during the years when they have children, and then to become less devout later in life.

The reproductive religiosity model helps solve another logical puzzle.It has often been presumed that men use religiosity to control womens sexuality. But then why is it that women are much more likely to embrace religious beliefs than are men? This becomes less puzzling when one considers that, because of their intrinsically higher initial investment in offspring, women are less likely to benefit from a sexually unrestricted strategy, and more likely to benefit if mens unrestricted inclinations are kept in check.On this view, women may be actively choosing religion rather than being passively enslaved by it.

Anti-atheist bias may be linked to anti-promiscuity bias

Jordan Moon has contributed to another thought-provoking body of literature, on the prejudice against atheists. People really dont trust atheists.Its not just that religious people trust people who share their beliefs; they trust people of other religions more than they trust atheists.Even atheists themselves trust religious people more than they do other atheists (Gervais, 2013).

Moon and his colleagues have shown, consistently, that people trust religious people more than non-religious people.However, they did a clever study in which they gave judges information not only about someones religious beliefs, but also about their mating strategy. The results suggest that, if you know an atheist also happens to be a committed monogamist, you wouldtrust that person more than youd trust a religious person who is non-monogamous.Those findings suggest that the distrust of atheists is driven in large part by presumptions about their mating strategies (Moon, Krems, & Cohen, 2018).

Standing in the gutter looking up at the stars

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking up at the stars.Oscar Wilde

Thinking about human thought and behavior in evolutionary terms often involves mucking around in the gutter, taking a hard look at the underside of human nature.It might seem unseemly to explore the connections between religion and sex.But evolutionary psychologists delve into these topics with one eye on the stars, trying to integrate what we learn about the good, the bad, and the ugly aspects of human nature with what we know about the good, the bad, and the sometimes shocking behaviors of other animal species, from barking hyenas to resplendent peacocks.

Yes, everything human beings do can ultimately be connected to reproduction.My students and other evolutionary psychologists have done research connecting lowly reproductive motives to charity, artistic creativity, self-actualization, and even the search for meaning in life (Kenrick, 2010; Griskevicius, et al., 2006; 2007; Krems, Neel, & Kenrick, 2017).But understanding how such exalted human pursuits connect with the rest of the natural world does not diminish them, any more than does understanding the displays of peacocks or the beautiful songs of hermit thrushes.Its also important to remember that, for human beings, successful reproduction is about more than just sex (see What drives us more? Sex or Family Values?).

Our ancestors reproductive success depended not only on finding a mate, but also on maintaining a long-term relationship with that mate, caring for their children, developing a network of friends and relatives to protect and assist one another, and winning the respect and trust of those friends and relatives. And religion has intimate connections to every one of these fundamental human goals.

For some additional background on the Reproductive Religiosity Model

More:
Is Nothing Sacred? Religion and Sex - Psychology Today