What is the psychology of living in a densely populated place? If you think of New York or Los Angeles, you might be inclined to imagine the fast life, unrestricted sexuality, street gangs, and hordes of uncaring people rushing toward a dystopian future. But a recent series of studies conducted by Oliver Sng, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Michigan, suggests a different picturepopulation density is associated with a slow lifestyle.

Fast versus slow life histories

As an undergraduate, Sng developed an interest in studying human behavior in evolutionary perspective. Before going to graduate school to study social psychology, in fact, he spent two years observing a group of long-tailed macaques at the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. Biologists studying animal behavior have distinguished between a slow as opposed to a fast life history strategy. A slow life history means reaching sexual maturity at a later age, having fewer offspring, and investing heavily in each of those offspring (elephants, for example, dont begin having calves until well into their teens, and they nurse each one for several years). This compares to a fast life history, which, conversely means producing a large number of offspring as quickly as possible, and investing relatively little in each one (some small mammals in Madagascar, called tenrecs, start having offspring a few months after birth, for example).

Source: Oliver Sng, used with permission

Among animals other than humans, high population density is associated with a slow life history strategy. This makes sense because if there are a lot of ones own species around vying for resources, offspring are especially likely to need their parents to help them out.

What about humans?

When I was a young assistant professor, I taught a class in environmental psychology, which included a section on density and behavior. In those days, psychologists were convinced that nothing good could come of crowding. Environmental psychology textbooks would typically describe research on what ethologist John B. Calhoun called the behavioral sinka dystopic state of social pathology that resulted from crowding. Calhoun placed a large group of rats in a 10 by14 foot four-room enclosure, and provided them sufficient food and water to allow them to reproduce to their hearts content. The prolific little creatures reproduced quite freely, and were soon as crowded as New Yorkers on a subway at rush hour. The animals began exhibiting numerous forms of pathology, ranging from extreme social withdrawal to violence, rape, and cannibalism.

Calhouns research was widely publicized, fueled by the implication that the behavioral sink applied to human beings as well.

But not all the research supported this picture of density doom and gloom. After reviewing the findings in this area, psychologist Jonathan Freedman concluded that research with human beings has not supported earlier belief about the negative consequences of high density, and that, in fact, psychologists had misinterpreted and over-interpreted a few dramatic and non-representative studies of animals (such as Calhouns behavioral sink study).

After Freedmans review, research on the psychology of density became less popular. But Sng, working with Steve Neuberg, Michael Varnum, and I, decided to revisit the phenomenon in light of later developments in life history theory. The results were reported recently published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

The first study in the series was an analysis of archival data from different societies around the world. In Sngs native Singapore, every square kilometer is filled up with 7,987 people. That is 30 times more people than youd bump into if you took a stroll around the United Kingdom (at 261 people per sq. km.)and 249 times the density of the United States (at 32 folks per square kilometer). Despite its extremely dense population, Singaporeans hardly live the hard-paced sexually unrestricted lifestyle, though.They are generally well-behaved and hard-working, and they invest a lot in their small families (20 percent of the national budget goes to education). And Singapore isnt alone in this regard. In general, countries with higher density were found to have lower fertility rates, lower rates of teen pregnancy, longer lifespans, more emphasis on planning for the future, less promiscuous behavior, and more children enrolled in pre-school (indicative of more investment in children). These relationships held even after taking into account a variety of alternative factors, such as economic development, urbanization, and population size. This is consistent with the prediction that density would be associated with a slower life history in human beings, as it is in other species.

A second study compared different states in the United States, and found that states with higher density had lower fertility, less teen pregnancy, later age at first marriage, more children enrolled in preschool, more young people obtaining college degrees, longer lifespans, and more participation in retirement plans. Again, all this is evidence for a slower life history in places with higher density.

The paper also reports two experimental studies in which people were presented with various cues to crowding, such as a news article (purportedly from the New York Times) titled The Crowded Life: Too Many Too Much. The article stated that:

Throughout the United States, people are becoming increasingly familiar with long lines, big crowds, and giant traffic jams. Theres a good reason for all this overcrowding. According to statistics released by the U.S. census this year, population densities are growing at an unprecedented rate. In almost every U.S. state, population densities are increasing rapidly

Participants were then given a series of choices, such as:

Would you prefer 1) to have $100 today, OR 2) $140 ninety days from now?

and:

Would you prefer to: 1) have ONE child and invest all your resources in that one child OR 2) have MULTIPLE children and split your time and resources across all of them.

The results indicated that people who had been primed to think about crowding made more choices associated with a slower strategychoosing fewer children and long-term rather than short-term payoffs, for example.

To summarize, these results suggest that human beings, like other animal species, adopt a slower life history when they are living in high density conditions. Does this mean that everyone living in New York and Los Angeles starts having children later, has small families, and focuses on long term rather than short-term payoffs? Obviously not. But on average, there are relatively more slow strategists in places with high populations as compared to low populations. It remains an interesting question why some people living in big cities still adopt a faster life history strategy.

Douglas T. Kenrick is author of:

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Why Are Crowded City Dwellers Living the Slow Life? - Psychology Today (blog)

Before she was manicurist Jennifer on TNTs new summer series Claws, before she was Lindsey Salazar on Justified or Mackenzie on Saint George, Jenn Lyon was working hard in theatre. A graduate of North Carolinas School of the Arts, Lyon originated the role of Elsie in the world premiere of John Guares Are You There McPhee?. Shes worked with A.R. Gurney and Kenneth Lonergan, appearing in the latters Hold on to Me Darling, which was named one of the New York Times Best Plays of 2016. She made her Broadway debut in Tom Stoppards three-part extravaganza The Coast of Utopia, the most Tony-winning play in history, and returned to the Great White Way for Larry Davids sold-out hit Fish in the Dark in 2015.

Her years in theatre taught her bold choices are the best choices. A strong choice is not arbitrary, she says. Human behavior is so wild and weird and you can incorporate that: choices that kick you out of the norm, like Oh, what a weird thing to do, but also informs the text and reveals the content even more.

Now, she brings that daring to Claws. A show about good women caught in bad places with worse men, her character is struggling to stay afloat. Shes ten years sober, and we, as humans, go back again and again to these vices that sustain us or give us something, says Lyon. I just want [audiences] to know shes fighting against it. It may look like shes drowning, but shes trying really hard to swim.

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What was your first professional acting job? Jenn Lyon: My first professional gig, where I got my equity card, was a Polly Pen musical at the Wilma Theatre in Philadelphia called Embarrassment. I was right out of school. Id done like outdoor drama in North Carolina as a non-Eq, and worth it. I remember that first union job and I remember walking into the apartment and being so excited that I cried.

What was the stage show that you saw, at any age, that has most influenced you as an actor? Remember that Im from a little small town in North Carolina. When I was in second grade they took us to see an opera version of Cinderella and it was the most bizarre thing Id ever seen. When I look back on it, it was kind of a restoration comedyoutfits, white faces, huge up-dos and moles and fans and I just had never seen a world like that before and I was so transported (and upset with my classmates for talking during the performance). Something clicked inside of me where I was like, Man, I want to do something weird like this. When I would go see shows and I would sit in that dark place full of people that were doing this ritual, I just felt so at home.

Is there a stage moment that stays with you? [The Coast of Utopia] thats like 25 of the best actors ever. I can remember being really floored in rehearsal watching a scene between Billy Crudup and David Harbour and I was just so stunned at both of them, and Daves commitment to the work; hes just making these bold choices all the time and his seemingly effortless take on things. They both took up so much space and it really floored me. Also, watching Jennifer Ehle and Martha Plimpton brings up the similar sense of wonderment. And, on the beginning of The Trip to Bountiful at South Coast Rep in California and watching Lynn Milgram be onstage in her walking chair and viewing just incredible poignant themes, I dont know, it touches some chord inside of you that nothing else really does. Willem Dafoe said this thing about theatre being so magical because it evaporatesand it does. The record that exists of it is between you and the audience; thats it. I think that whole nature of it makes it so special.

The Coast of Utopia ran from Nov 27, 2006 - May 12, 2007 at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre, NY. Here are some photos from that production.

What has been the most rewarding onstage experience for you? It might be some of the regional theatre that Ive done. Ive gotten to do Born Yesterday twice, and that Ill never forget; I felt like I was walking in the footsteps of legends. All of New Yorks just been fucking great, but some of the best things Ive seen was in regional theatre.

Is there a particular collaborator, scene partner, director, or someone from theatre that made you better? Warner Shook, he directed The Kentucky Cycle on Broadway, directed me in Crimes of the Heart and I feel like it opened a space inside of me that wasnt open before. I also felt the same way about John Guare because his take on the world, like his eccentricity, is so profound and he is so prolific that getting to work with him and be with him, and shop with him at Trader Joes, it kind of changed my view of the world; seeing his view opened up mine. Hes like a magnet; when he starts to tell me a story, I wouldnt rather be anywhere else.

What are you bringing from your theatre and stage knowledge into this series? Going to the School of the Arts and doing theatre you learn how to break down a script. Fast. You learn how to pursue objectives, how to talk and listen, how to act with your whole body. I always check my own props. Theres a certain sense of self-government and independence that you get in the theatre because its so much scrappier than television. No ones offering you bottles of water, you do your own makeup, you are dependent on you. The sense of self-government and fearlessness comes from theatre.

What is your favorite part of doing TV thats different from theatre? Craft services. [Laughs] I cannot understand how glamorous it is. They have catered lunches; you go to lunch and theres salmon and quinoa. I cannot believe it.

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TNT's Claws Star Jenn Lyon Proves Her Theatre Cred - Playbill.com

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We asked experts ranging from body-language specialists to evolutionary biologistsand the answer might surprise you.

Male-to-male greeting in America takes many forms. Theres the classic handshake. The fist bump. Dap. The head nod. The you-too-huh? shrug from across a baby shower.* But as the world of masculine salutations takes on new layers of complexityreaching its most evolved form in Clevelandthere is one fixed practice that remains something of a universal truth: When hugging, two (usually) heterosexual men will almost always pat each other on the back.

Start paying attention, and youll see it everywhere. We cant help it, as if it were a particularly pernicious tic or social crutch, like constantly checking your phone during dinner or hitting a vape. And though the most commonly accepted explanation is truethat a not insignificant part of it is born out of the admittedly primitive heterosexual norms that deem tenderness among males not masculine (more on that to come)there must be some deeper anthropological basis for slapping another guy on the back. And, according to experts, there is!

But first, we need to set the table: Why do we even hug?

*Honestly, I've only heard that this happens. Ive never been to a baby showerhavent even held a baby, while we're being open with one another. Seems like too much risk (dropping it) for a non-reward (holding a baby).

As forests receded, we were no longer forest-dwelling apes but upright hominids on a plain," says Mark Bowden, human-behavior and body-language expert. "We can now see a distance, and so we need clear signals that somebody is a friend or a predator. So open body language and open palmsimagine hands up, that big surrender gesturesomebody can see two miles away that you're not a threat."

This Look, Im not going to stab you with a spear measure is especially important to establish when the hominids happen to own penises.

Testosterone makes people more risk-tolerant," says Bowden. "So you will get more aggression the more testosterone [there is], not because the testosterone is making somebody more aggressive. What it's doing is lowering the idea of there being a risk in the first place [So] groups of males, on the whole, [have] a lot of behaviors to countermeasure the possibility of aggression.

And what's the best behavior to countermeasure the aggression when those two miles become no miles, and you're now faced with that guy you saw in the hazy distance 20-some minutes ago, across the plain? Sure, a handshake might work. But theres actual value in doing something more intimate to quash any suggestion that you're going to smack him with a cudgel and steal his collection of exotic sabertooth furs, like hugging. Take it from Richard Wrangham, who works in Harvards Department of Human Evolutionary Biology (and who e-mail-answered my strange request for comment after six zoos declined).

There is a general principle involved in animal alliances, such as male-male friendships in primates: If two individuals are to express feelings of mutual solidarity, the reliability of the signal is greater if it is genuinely somewhat stressful. For example, male baboons who like each other but want to be sure about each other's feelings touch each other's genitals: If A can do that to B, and B doesn't snarl back, A can be truly confident that B likes him.

[This theory] suggests that males would basically prefer not to pat or hug, because such close physical proximity is ultimately somewhat stressful (given that it is potentially dangerous to be so close to someone who could be a secret rival). However, the stress is worth tolerating if it leads to confidence in each other's feelings about each other.

All right, so we hug so that we know who the real ones are. And we do it in a very specific way, says Bowdenwith open palms around the shoulder blades. The open palm not only indicates the absence of a weapon, but the flat hand on skin is going to cause levels of oxytocin to go up, which will actually cause more of a connection. (And the upper back is very well-protected, versus the belly or sensitive small of the back, both of which would make you feel far more uncomfortable and intimate.)

I think what it's about is two males being able to show vulnerability, but not in so vulnerable a way that if there was attack or real aggression, they'd be in trouble, says Bowden.

The pat has that little of physical roughness to it, which is also consistent with men, says Adam Galinsky, a social psychologist who has a B.A. from Harvard, a master's and a Ph.D. from Princeton, and teaches at Columbia Business School and Kellogg School of Management. Men wrestle with each other. It has the unique masculine quality of rough play, with the distancing behavioryou're saying, I'm being intimate, but I'm not crossing the line into being too intimate. Over time it starts to feel like a "uniquely special male thing," and the hug then becomes a ritual.

But the pat! The pat can be used for a signal of release, adds Bowden. A lot of primates have this tapping out behaviorduring play-fighting, that's the I'm done. Let's not move this into the realm of actual grappling. Pat pat pat, and now we're out. Let's not prolong this too long. If you prolong it, there's risk of further intimacy or aggression.

Go get your bro and hold him close.

The pat is part physical foolishness and part signal of an embrace's terminationand it's now fully ingrained in male-greeting liturgy.

However, any form of greeting is not just about the two parties involved. Bowden argues that a gentle pat among friends, both visible and audible (the slight sound of hand-on-back), indicates to the surrounding groupwhether that be a bunch of primitive, aggressive cavemen gathered around a carcass on the African plains or a bunch of primitive, aggressive cavemen at a Patriots gamethat the newcomers hands are empty, and he is benign. Of course, sometimes the newcomer doesn't want to be benign. He will try to manipulate the optics of what should be a harmless exchange into some weird dick-swinging contest, an attempt to signal to the herd who the one true Daddy is. This type of toxic insecurity is also, unfortunately, where the homophobia creeps in.

Youre trying to figure out the tribal-social norms, says Bowden. What is the normality for a heterosexual man to be intimate with another heterosexual male? And how can you make sure that you, as the tribe, dont overstep those boundaries? Galinsky refers to these boundaries, too, saying the pat is an integrative solution that allows men to hug each other while not doing anything that would make the tribe uncomfortable. The need to establish heterosexuality ties back to the play-fighting/grappling aspect also: Look at us! Just a couple of dudes, roughhousing, being guys! And when you really overdo it...well, you just might be overcompensating.

You could see some extremes of quite big, aggressive play behavior in groups of males that want it very much to be known to themselves and others, Look, there's nothing homosexual going on here," says Bowden. "Now, we could drill into all kinds of reasons why they might want it to be very, very obvious. There's one school of psychology that says they're very unsure. They want to make it very physically clear, because psychologically they're a little bit on the boundary.

But, guys: It's 2017! Can we really not be tender with one another, without fear of feeling emasculated or castigated? Maybe it's time we update our tribal norms. I love a hearty back pat as much as the next guy, and if it's to signal the end of an embrace or a means of physical buffoonery among friends, that's cool. But if it's because you're afraid of a little physical affection? Leave that type of limited thinking to the monkeys, man. Go get your bro and hold him close.

"Once we become aware of this, it actually helps us understand where we stand with people or how we feel toward them," says Galinsky. "And it gives us a really powerful tool to increase the intimacy. If this is someone that I know that I always hug this one way, and I wanted to be more connected to them, what if I hugged them a little bit differently the next time? Would that actually help our relationship?"

You'll never know until you try. Just...probably don't grab him by the genitals, baboon-style.

MORE STORIES LIKE THIS ONE

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Why Do Guys Always Have to Pat Each Other on the Back When They Hug? - GQ Magazine

Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian

A new state law requires hospitals to have a protocol when releasing mentally ill patients from emergency rooms.

Submitted Photo

Gov. Kate Brown held a ceremonial signing ceremony Friday for new laws to help the mentally ill.

Hospitals in Oregon will no longer be able to release patients who come into the emergency room in mental health crisis without taking steps to prevent suicide and find treatment.

The new state law is another thread in the patchwork of care for the mentally ill, who often fail to get proper treatment even when their behavior escalates into an emergency.

The state requires hospitals that admit patients for mental health treatment to have a protocol at discharge to assess suicide risk, the capacity for self-care, the need for outpatient treatment, a transition plan, and a timetable for follow-up appointments.

Erasing an exemption

But hospitals that do not provide mental health treatment, like Columbia Memorial Hospital in Astoria and Providence Seaside Hospital in Seaside, were exempt in a compromise to get the mandate through the state Legislature in 2015.

Hospital administrators had argued that doctors and nurses were not equipped to counsel the mentally ill on top of the stressful, around-the-clock demands of an emergency room.

Basically, we didnt buy that, said state Rep. Alissa Keny-Guyer, D-Portland, one of the chief sponsors of the new law. Thats not an acceptable answer to say, We cant do it. You dont send somebody home who had a heart attack and say, Sorry, we dont have any help for you.

The new law, signed by Gov. Kate Brown in early June, takes effect this fall.

Hospitals will have to provide copies of emergency room release policies for patients in mental health crisis to the Oregon Health Authority. The Health Authority will compile the information in a report to the Legislature in January on the progress and potential barriers in carrying out the law.

Another new law signed by Brown requires public and private health insurers to cover behavioral health assessments and medically necessary treatment for people in mental health crisis, a mechanism to help finance care.

These bills ensure that when Oregonians reach out for help in a behavioral health crisis, they can access a broad range of mental health professionals, emergency services and critical support systems, Brown said in a statement Friday after a ceremonial signing with advocates for the mentally ill. Now, Oregonians in their most vulnerable moments will have the tools they need to recover, without undue financial burden.

Crisis response

Columbia Memorial and Providence Seaside work with Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare Clatsop Countys mental health contractor on crisis response to the mentally ill. A crisis respite center that opened last summer in Warrenton is also intended as an alternative to emergency rooms or, in more severe circumstances, the county jail. The hospitals are a partner in the crisis respite center.

CMH has been following this practice already and we are glad to have the state make this the standard policy for everyone. Trece Gurrad, the vice president of patient care services at Columbia Memorial, said of the emergency room protocol in an email.

Janiece Zauner, the chief operating officer and chief nursing officer at Providence Seaside, said in an email that we are working on developing innovative, sustainable solutions that actively engage community resources to meet the needs developed in these policies. We are beginning the work in each ministry this summer, and hope to have community-based solutions identified later this fall, before the legislation takes effect.

Caring for patients with behavioral health needs is a priority, and we will be working on how best to implement targeted strategies in support of people in need.

Tragedies

Social workers, police officers and prosecutors who regularly encounter the mentally ill recognize the challenge for emergency room doctors and nurses. But some have observed that hospitals at times seem unprepared to handle people in a behavioral health crisis and unable to link patients to treatment.

Tragedies, like the suicide of Carrie Barnhart, who jumped from the Astoria Bridge in 2015 after several interactions with police, Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare and Columbia Memorial involving her schizophrenia and depression, have drawn attention to treatment gaps. Barnharts family has filed a $950,000 lawsuit against Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare and Columbia Memorial alleging negligence.

Another suicide Susanna Gabays Vicodin overdose in 2010 inspired state action. The 21-year-old University of Oregon student from Mosier, who struggled with depression, had a psychotic breakdown and was placed in a hospital psychiatric unit on suicide watch. She killed herself just before a counseling appointment a month after her discharge.

Her parents, Jerry and Susan Gabay, said the hospital did not disclose their daughter was on suicide watch and told them she may or may not have another psychotic episode, not enough information to alert them of suicide risk.

The 2015 law that set a protocol for hospitals when discharging mentally ill patients also clarified medical privacy to help avoid leaving loved ones in the dark. Patients are encouraged to authorize hospitals to disclose information to caregivers, such as prescribed medications and behavioral warning signs that demand immediate medical help.

Follow-up appointments must be scheduled within seven days after discharge, or hospitals must document why the seven-day goal is not possible.

The law was named the Susanna Blake Gabay Act.

Jerry Gabay, who now serves on the board of the National Alliance on Mental Illness-Oregon, said he and his wife learned that medical providers are reluctant to talk with families about mental health in a way that would be shocking if you came in with a broken hip.

Research

New research released in April found that suicide risk among emergency room patients in mental health crisis is reduced if they receive suicide screening from an emergency room doctor, guidance at discharge and follow-up phone calls. The study, led by Ivan Miller, a professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University in Rhode Island, showed a 30 percent decline in suicide attempts among patients who received interventions over a 52-week follow-up period.

Its very important, particularly with people in a fragile mental state, and super important if they may be suicidal, to want to have done an adequate assessment of their mental health condition, which is not always done. And in my personal experience, with my daughter, it was not done, when I was there anyway, Gabay said.

So you need to have an adequate assessment of what is the problem here. And then dont just release them and say, Hey, good luck. Give them a little bit of a transition. Have some plan about what youre going to do. Make an appointment for them to see somebody.

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New laws help screen mentally ill for suicide - Daily Astorian