bookofjoe

BehindTheMedspeak: Physical Asymmetry Predicts Aggressiveness

It's long been known the people around the world instinctively choose the most symmetrical faces as the most beautiful.

In addition, body symmetry seems to be correlated with overall health and fitness.

Now researchers at Ohio State University have found that asymmetry in physical appearance - different size ears, one eye higher than another, etc. - correlates strongly with how likely a person is to be aggressive.

This dovetails nicely with observations both scientific and casual that prison populations have a much higher than average amount of facial asymmetry.

Here's the story, as released by Ohio State University.
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Aggressive Tendencies Revealed by Asymmetry in Body Parts

Researchers may get some indication of how aggressively an angry person will react by measuring the size relationship between a person’s ears and other body parts, according to a new study.

Research showed that the farther certain paired body parts were from symmetry - if one ear, index finger or foot was bigger than another, for example - the more likely it is was that a person would show signs of aggression when provoked.

The symmetry effects were different in men and women, however.

While the findings may seem strange, there is a plausible explanation, said Zeynep Benderlioglu, co-author of the study and a post-doctoral researcher at Ohio State University.

Deviations from symmetry are thought to reflect stressors during pregnancy - such as poor health, alcohol and tobacco use - that may affect development of the fetus in a variety of ways.

"Paired body parts are presumably controlled by similar genetic instructions, so if everything goes perfectly you would expect paired body parts to be the same size," Benderlioglu said.

"But stressors during pregnancy may lead to asymmetrical body parts. The same stressors will also affect development of the central nervous system, which involves impulse control and aggression," she said. "So while asymmetry doesn’t cause aggression, they both seem to be correlated to similar factors during pregnancy."

Benderlioglu conducted the study with Randy Nelson, a professor of psychology and neuroscience, and Paul Sciulli, professor of anthropology, both at Ohio State.

Their results were published in a recent issue of the American Journal of Human Biology.

While other studies have examined the connection between asymmetry and aggression, they have come up with conflicting results.

This study is different in that it measured aggression in a realistic laboratory setting, and didn’t rely on self-report questionnaires.

Also, this study, unlike others, used a normal population and not violent offenders.

The study involved 100 college students (51 men and 49 women).

Researchers measured differences in size of several paired body parts, including finger length, palm height, wrist diameter, elbow width, ear height and width, foot breadth and ankle circumference.

The sum of all the differences in these pairs gave researchers a score of asymmetry for each participant.

The students, who were all volunteers, were told they were going to participate in a study of persuasive ability.

They were given a list of phone numbers to call and attempt to raise funds for a fictitious charity organization.

But they were actually calling two people involved in the study who were given instructions about how to respond to the study participants.

One of the people the participants called seemed friendly and amenable to giving, but said he didn’t have money to donate.

But the second charity target was confrontational. He directly challenged the caller and the worthiness of the donation.

The researchers had rigged the phones so they could measure how hard the participants slammed the receiver down after the call – this was a measure of reactive aggression.

Results showed that, in general, the more asymmetry the participants showed in their body parts, the more force they used when hanging up the phone.

But there were also interesting gender differences.

In men, asymmetry was related to a more aggressive response when ending the phone call under the low-provocation condition - when the person simply didn’t have money to give.

But there was no such association between asymmetry and aggression in the high-provocation condition - when they talked with the rude charity target.

For women, it was just the opposite – there was no relation between asymmetry and aggression with the low-provocation caller, but women with higher asymmetry scores used more force when hanging up from the rude, high-provocation caller.

Benderlioglu said these results probably have to do with the different ways men and women respond to provocation in general.

"Research has shown that men are quicker to anger than are women," she said.

"But while unprovoked men are generally more aggressive than women, the gender differences either disappear under provocation, or women may actually become more aggressive than men."

Studies have shown men are less comfortable then women with high levels of anxiety and other physical changes that occur during conflict.

“So men may be more motivated to quickly withdraw from conflict situations, such as occurred during the high-provocation phone call,” she said.

The researchers also looked at the role of testosterone in aggression, and found similar results.

Men with high levels of testosterone used more force when slamming down the phone only under the low-provocation condition.

In women, higher levels of testosterone were associated with higher aggressiveness only under the high-provocation condition.

The study contained one other twist.

In another measure of aggression, the participants were asked to select one of three follow-up letters to send to the two people who refused to give money.

One letter was kind and self-effacing in tone, the second was moderate, and the third was aggressive, saying the people who didn’t give money were "performing a disservice to the community."

When they didn’t consider asymmetry and testosterone levels, the researchers found both men and women restrained their aggression when choosing letters for the first caller who said he simply didn’t have money.

In contrast, participants generally selected the harshest letter when responding to the other, more rude charity target.

“Although it is unlikely that anyone would donate any money in response to a letter describing the recipient as a ‘disservice to the community,’ 33 percent of the respondents chose such letters,” she said.

Benderlioglu said the same conditions in pregnancy that lead to asymmetry in body parts probably affects development of parts of the central nervous system that deal with impulse control.

The result is that people with higher levels of asymmetry also have a harder time controlling their aggressive impulses.

Other studies have indicated that testosterone is related to a tendency toward anger. So people who show both high levels of asymmetry and high levels of testosterone may react particularly aggressively when provoked, she said.

Nelson said this study was significant in that it measured levels of testosterone at the same time the person was showing aggressive behavior.

"In most human studies of aggression, researchers have gone to prisons and measured levels of testosterone in violent criminals," Nelson said.

"But the problem with that approach is that the aggressive behavior occurred years ago. In this study, we were able to measure testosterone at the time the subjects were provoked, which gives better results."

The results emphasize once again the importance of healthy habits during pregnancy, Benderlioglu said.

Smoking and heavy alcohol use are among the stressors that may lead to both asymmetry and poor impulse control.

The study was supported in part by grants from the Mershon Center at Ohio State and the National Institutes of Health.

It's nice being green

Ever since I adopted the TypePad default green header for bookofjoe, I've been seeing more and more green all around me.

I mean, long before TypePad, bookofjoe, or even blogs, I was using Baudelaire's Provence Santé Vervain "Big Bar" (it weighs 12 oz., hence the name)

as my soap.

Then came Gillette, a couple months ago, with their new M3 Power vibrating triple-headed razor.

Now there's that to cheer me on those days I take it to my face.

Who knows what other cool things will soon be arriving on the new green scene?

Vegan Supreme Marshmallows

Finally.

Marshmallows certified free of animal ingredients.

Fat-free, cholesterol free, all-natural ingredients.

Eat 'em by the handful, right out of the bag.

Homemade Rice Krispie treats are once again within your purview.

S'mores are back.

How did you manage until now?

$4.95 for 10 oz. here.

Giant Robot T-shirts - finally

Ever since I discovered this waycool magazine a couple months ago, I've been trying to buy a t-shirt from their online store.

Whenever I clicked on the one I wanted to add it to my cart, the website flipped me back to the store's opening page.

Then, last week, when I tried it again, for about the ten-thousandth time - I'm persistent, if nothing else - I got a message that Safari doesn't work with their online store.

Doh.

So, last night I downloaded Netscape 7.2 just so I could try to go to their store and buy a t-shirt.

Voila, the download took about 10 minutes, I went to the store, and it worked.

I bought three t-shirts:

The black one,

the dark brown Giant Robot ape,

and the

brown giant robot Helvetica.

Along with my new Banana Republic white ones (for dress-up), I'm good to go for another decade.

Competence and character - a total disconnect, to my way of thinking

The never-ending drone of the news carries with it a constant barrage of stories purporting to demonstrate character flaws or strengths in Kerry and Bush, and therefore draw conclusions about their fitness to be president.

Why do people accept the big lie that character matters?

It has nothing do with with a person's ability to perform a job.

Nothing.

Personality matters not at all, either.

Who cares if someone did something twenty or thirty years ago?

Vietnam, the National Guard, who doesn't have something in their past they're ashamed of?

Shakespeare wrote, in "Hamlet," "We know what we are, but not what we may be."

So with the past: we know what we were, but that doesn't make us who we are now.

Fate, circumstance, chance, and the caprices of choice do that quite nicely, thank you.

LoJack revisited

A few months ago, I wrote that this company, which tracks stolen cars using a hidden radio transponder, must be hurting badly what with the OnStar-type satellite navigation systems that come with new vehicles now.

I was way wrong, it turns out.

LoJack's doing better than ever, with its sales up 20% over 2002 and 12% from last year.

The stock is up 40% in the past year, and has more than doubled since 2002, closing at around $11 recently.

Though the now 19-year old company is still relatively small, with $140 million in projected 2004 sales, the future looks bright.

The reason the company continues to flourish is that all the highly-touted satellite navigation systems fail if line-of-sight contact with a vehicle is lost, say, in an underground garage or chop shop.

LoJack's relatively primitive radio transmitter works no matter where the car is, hence the 90% recovery rate for stolen vehicles equipped with its $695 system.

'In crust we trust'

Aphorism printed on the takeout boxes at Denino's Pizzeria Tavern in Staten Island, New York.

It's a nominee for the 2004 bookofjoe Best Slogan Award.

Denino's has been run by the original founders and their descendants since 1937, in the Port Richmond section of Staten Island.

People even come all the way from Brooklyn, and sometimes Manhattan.

Citysearch rates it 9.7 out of 10: pretty impressive.

Frank Bruni, the New York Times restaurant critic, took the Staten Island Ferry with some friends to check it out recently, and wrote about the pizza, "Great, with a terrific crust from the brick oven."

Save a place for me.

Air Scarf

The new 2005 Mercedes-Benz SLK350 is a completely redone version of its SLK sports car, first introduced in 1998 with the SLK230 Kompressor.

One of its features - a $2,000 extra - is the new "air scarf," which Mercedes says is a world first.

It carries warm air through the seats and headrests to the necks of the driver and passenger when the car's retractable hardtop is down.

There are three levels of warm air intensity, and each seat's air scarf has its own separate controls.

Full disclosure: I bought one of the three 1998 models allotted to Charlottesville Mercedes-Benz.

In fact, I was first on the list.

It was fire-engine red, with whip-stitched red on black leather upholstery.

I had to put down a non-refundable $2,000 deposit in 1997 to guarantee I'd get the car.

It cost $40,000.

I kept it for about a year, at which time it became apparent that if I wanted to keep driving it along with my other car, I'd have to go back into the OR and give anesthesia real soon.

So I sold it for $38,000 to a guy from Pennsylvania, who sent a flatbed trailer to my house to pick it up and cart it back up there.

Thus, I was able to stay out of the OR for three more years, until finally the money ran out and I went back in early 2002.

FunFact: You can tell the 1998 model SLK from all the subsequent model years by the fact that it lacks an external AM antenna on the rear fender.

AM reception was so poor with the antenna built into the rear bumper that Mercedes put on an external one starting with the 1999 model year.

It totally destroyed the looks of the car, making it cheesy and ruining the unique lines.

I can't believe all those brainy engineers in Germany couldn't figure out something more elegant and less obtrusive.