Snoop Dogg donates thousands of dollars to help elderly woman save Civil War-era home

2023/07/28

Snoop Dogg visits SiriusXM's Rock the Bells Radio at the SiriusXM Studios in New York.

- Noam Galai/Getty Images North America/TNS

Snoop Dogg is using his celebrity for the greater good, donating $10,000 to help a 93-year-old at risk of being evicted from her family’s Civil War-era home in South Carolina — a plight highlighted by Tyler Perry earlier this summer.

The “Drop It Like It’s Hot” rapper, 51, donated $10,000 to Josephine Wright’s GoFundMe intended to help her maintain ownership of her Hilton Head Island property, a representative confirmed to CNN.

“I did it from the heart,” he told the outlet in a statement, noting that Wright “reminds me of my mother and grandmother.”

A self-described “fighter all my life,” the grandmother of 40 countersued a developer who offered to buy the portions of Wright’s property they claim encroach on theirs.

Wright in her suit alleged that she was facing a “constant barrage of tactics of intimidation, harassment, trespass, to include this litigation in an effort to force her to sell her property,” according to CNN.

As Wright recently told local outlet WSAV, she believes the developer “figured I would become so unnerved with the harassment that I would take [the offer],” which she declined.

The 16-time Grammy nominee’s generous donation to Wright’s GoFundMe is one of more than 5,000 donations to the fundraiser — which has so far raised nearly $283,000 of its $350,000 goal. According to the page, Dallas Mavericks point guard Kyrie Irving has donated $40,000.

Meanwhile, multi-hyphenate Perry took to Instagram late last month to raise awareness of Wright’s cause, responding in particular to her identity as a fighter.

“Well, that makes two of us. Ms. Wright, please tell where to show up and what you need to help you fight,” he wrote.

Meek Mill and Fantasia Barrino are also among the famous names who vowed to support Wright.

© New York Daily News

Adidas plans another sale of 'Yeezy' products by rapper Kanye West

2023/07/28

The logo of the sporting goods manufacturer Adidas on a blue jacket. 

Daniel Karmann/dpa

Adidas plans another sale of its stock of the "Yeezy" range of products launched together with scandal-hit US rapper Kanye West, the German sporting goods group said on Friday.

Shoes and clothes from the "Yeezy" range will be available via digital platforms and will be gradually launched from August 2, Adidas said at its headquarters in Herzogenaurach in the southern German state of Bavaria.

A "significant" sum is to be donated to organizations working to combat hate, discrimination, racism and anti-Semitism.

West launched expensive lifestyle products together with Adidas - a highly lucrative business for both sides. "Yeezy" meant billions in sales for Adidas, especially in the United States, with very high profit margins.

Adidas had to stop the cooperation and also the sale of the products in autumn last year following anti-Semitic statements by West and considerable external pressure.

But the sporting goods giant announced in May that it would sell parts of its stock of products in the "Yeezy" range even after parting ways with West. It staged a first sale in May, also linked to a donation.

Earlier this week, Adidas said it expects a negative operating result of €450 million ($498 million) for this year, down from an initial estimate of €700 million.

Write-downs on the remaining "Yeezy" inventory are estimated to be €400 million, €100 million less than previously thought. In addition, costs for a strategic review remain unchanged at up to €200 million.

© Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH

New young voter data spells good news for progressives — and bad news for Trump and the GOP

Julia Conley, Common Dreams
July 27, 2023

A pollster at Harvard University pointed to a persistent sense of precarity in the lives of young voters as a key reason behind new data that shows Americans aged 18-29 have significantly more progressive views than young people did even five years ago.

Data analyzed by the Harvard Youth Poll, which releases survey results focused on young voters every spring, found that a clear majority take a progressive outlook on what John Della Volpe, director of the poll, called the "big four" political issues that respondents are asked about: LGBTQ+ rights, economic inequality, climate action, and gun violence.

Sixty-two percent of voters between 18-29 (those born between 1994 and 2005) believe the federal government should provide residents with basic necessities. Just 52% believed the same in 2018, and only 44% did a decade ago.

Fifty-four percent say they reject the idea that same-sex relationships and marriage equality are morally wrong, and 63% support stronger restrictions on access to guns—having come of age in an era that saw gun violence overtake vehicle accidents as the leading killer of children in the U.S. and witnessed carnage in Newtown, Connecticut; Uvalde, Texas; Las Vegas; Parkland, Florida; and dozens of other places in recent years.

Half of respondents said they want the government to do more to address the climate crisis; while not a majority, that number represents a 21-point increase since 2013. Washington Post columnist Greg Sargent, who commissioned the data analysis by the Harvard Youth Poll, noted that 57% of young voters told the poll-takers in 2020 that the government should take stronger climate action "even at the expense of economic growth," and said the dip in recent years could "reflect preoccupation with economic doldrums unleashed by Covid-19."

"This generation has never felt secure—personally, physically, financially," Della Volpe told Sargent, who wrote that the "big four" issues "all speak to the sense of precarity that young voters feel about their physical safety, their economic future, their basic rights, and even the ecological stability of the planet."

With Republican leaders attacking LGBTQ+ rights across the country; continuing to deny that humans' extraction of fossil fuels is driving the climate crisis which scientists say has caused the extreme heat experienced by more than a third of Americans this summer, pushing to further cut taxes for the wealthy while blocking legislation to help working families, and refusing to support gun control legislation backed by clear majorities of Americans, Sargent wrote that young voters present "a serious long-term problem for the GOP."
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The data from 2016 to the present "suggests that [former Republican President Donald] Trump's rise to the presidency might have accelerated their progressive evolution," wrote Sargent, as young voters' support for climate action and government provision of basic necessities rose sharply after Trump took office. "The former president continues looming over our politics and will likely be the GOP nominee."

"They're growing up in a 21st century America that's far more diverse, inclusive, and globally connected than the 1950s and 1960s America of the GOP base," demographer William Frey told the Post of the poll's respondents. "They're going to shun the Republican Party as they get older."

Some progressives, however, have raised alarm about Democratic President Joe Biden's approval rating among voters under age 35—which stands at just 51%, with only 9% of those voters saying they "strongly approve" of the president and more than a quarter saying they "strongly disapprove."



"We cannot just run on what we're against. We have to run on what we're for," Tennessee state Rep. Justin Jones (D-52), who was reinstated to his seat after being expelled by Republican leaders earlier this year for participating in a gun control protest, toldNBC News earlier this month. "I've been hopeful to see the Biden campaign doing this. Running for an economy where young people are not saddled with hundreds of thousands in debt; running for a livable planet... Protect kids, not guns."

For Democrats to retain the support of the young people who helped vote Biden into office in 2020, Jones told NBC, "We must do things out of the ordinary."

Hollywood crew members voice frustration over studio greed, other unions’ silence amid SAG-WGA strike
2023/07/28
Michael Tran/AFP/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

LOS ANGELES — While A-list actors, including Oscar winners Jessica Chastain, Brendan Frasier, Jamie Lee Curtis and Jane Fonda joined WGA and SAG-AFTRA picket lines earlier this week, below-the-line workers are more concerned about their own union reps’ lack of presence than Ben Affleck’s.

Below-the-line crew members include hair and makeup artists, costumers, grips, script supervisors and craft services — the workers that are usually the first in and last out during a day of filming. Though they’re not technically striking, the WGA/SAG -AFTRA strike has left thousands of BTL workers with little to no income — with their emotions teetering from terrified to livid.

”As much as I support the writers’ and actors’ cause, I also want people to know that crew rates are a lot less and to survive in L.A. in the current economic climate is very hard,” key costumerMadeline Maciag (“NCIS: Los Angeles,” “Big Sky”) told the Daily News.

Maciag, a member ofIATSE Local 705, stressed that she would “like the world to know that this is going to be a devastating situation for below-the-line crew.”

The Writers Guild of America walked off the job over two months ago and was recently joined by the Screen Actors Guild. The last time both unions struck simultaneously was in 1960.

”We don’t get residuals nor has our pay increased in proportion with the economy,” something she blames on her union’s failure to negotiate when their contracts were up some two years ago.

Makeup artist Jennifer Daranyi (“Masked Singer,” “Schooled”) who launched her career after touring with Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Tori Amos, agrees with Maciag.

”Two years ago we were given a 3% [pay] increase when inflation was at 6%,” Daranyi told the News. She said that her union leaders encouraged them to not put up a fight as did Maciag’s.

“Sadly, we missed our chance,” she said. “Now I am getting really worried about my health insurance, which ends in January and I can’t afford to live in Los Angeles with no income.”

Script supervisor Ari Halpern had worked on the ABC series “The Goldbergs” for 10 years before the show wrapped in February.

”Financially, I am going to be okay, but it is my insurance that will be an issue,” said Halperin, who explained that BTL workers must work at least 400 hours in a six-month period to be eligible for health care.

”Anything over that just goes to waste, which is insane,” he said. “If this strike goes longer than six months, I will be uninsured.”

The same is true for Dayani and Maciag, along with thousands of other Californians and union members, who are also frustrated by streaming services’ refusal to share residuals.

”You’re never going to see those numbers,” a Hollywood insider told the Daily News, who doesn’t expect to see the likes of Tom Cruise or George Clooney on the picket line.

The only thing I can think of about the big stars is that they don’t want to piss anybody off,” she continued. “Everybody knows that this is a relationship-based business and there’s nothing that the actors can do to force the hand of the studios other than go on strike.

I’m sure the agents are having their say, but behind the scenes. Nobody wants to play this out in public or point fingers. Because they all have to do business together once everything gets back on track.”

Daranyi recalls how, based on astronomically high Nielsen ratings, that the cast of “Friends” was able to successfully negotiate million-dollar paychecks — per episode. The ratings gave not only the actors, but also the writers and arguably anyone who worked on the hit show, quantifiable proof that their contributions were generating revenue.

”Netflix has been around [as a streaming service] for 10-12 years now,” said Daranyi, “But they keep saying that they are new service.”

Multiple sources told the News that it was a Netflix executive that reportedly told Deadline the “endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses.”

”What I would like to know is do the studios care?” said Maciag. “Do they care that crew members work 12, 14, sometimes 16-hour days just to scrape by in L.A.?”

As it seems, the studio executives couldn’t care less, sending many more in the industry into a state of existential ennui. California Gov. Gavin Newsom agreed Thursday to mediate negotiations between the unions, providing little more than cold comfort to his constituents.

”You watch the [Jeffrey] Epstein documentary and you understand that these people all live in a different realm,” said Dayani. “It’s kind of like, the actors and the writers are going up against Big Pharma, and the AMPTP said, ‘Let them bleed out.’”

“How disgusting that [they] let that be put into print. They do not care.”

Earlier this year, Gov. Newsom signed a law to prolong tax credits for movie and television productions, that can be refunded. At the end of filming, if a studio has credits worth more than what it owes in taxes, the state will pay the studio the difference in cash – tax breaks the little guy will never see.

”It is not going to trickle down to us,” Dayani said.

“We are like the little, tiny ants that are collecting all of the carcasses and moving them over to the dirt where all the other insects and all the other bugs can help it decompose and eat and feed off of it.”

© New York Daily News

Jenice Armstrong: Carlee Russell’s kidnapping hoax shouldn’t distract us from the real issue of missing women and girls

2023/07/27

Carlee Russell has admitted to lying about seeing a toddler along a highway in Alabama and being abducted earlier this month.

- Courtesy Hoover Police Department/TNS/TNS

Count me among those who feel duped by Carlee Russell.

The Alabama woman — who claimed she tried to help a toddler on a highway before disappearing, only to resurface two days later saying she had been kidnapped — got me good.

The nightmarish account of Russell screaming on the phone with her brother’s girlfriend before disappearing, and police rushing to the scene earlier this month and finding only her cellphone and wig had me shook — that is, before Alabama authorities and armchair investigators alike began poking holes in it.

Russell claimed she was abducted by a man with orange hair who emerged from the trees. She told authorities that a strange woman fed her cheese crackers before Russell managed to free herself and make her way to her parents’ house.

Eventually, it came out that before her disappearance, the 25-year-old nursing student had researched Amber Alerts as well as a movie about a woman who as abducted.

Then, on Monday, she admitted: She made the whole thing up. There was no kidnapping, no toddler on the highway.

It’s shades of Jussie Smollett all over again.

It’s bad enough that she wasted all of that police and media manpower with her manipulative charade. But she also took resources and attention away from women who are really missing and could have benefitted from it most.

My friends and I have been talking about this story over the past few days. The fact that an African American woman garnered so much media attention for allegedly being missing was pretty much unprecedented. Now that we know it was a hoax, I’m concerned: Will the next report of a missing Black woman be taken less seriously because of Russell’s charade?

Roughly 40% of those who go missing are people of color, according to the Black & Missing Foundation. They don’t get nearly the type of media attention as their white counterparts. There’s even a name for it — “missing white woman syndrome” — which was coined by the late TV journalist Gwen Ifill.

Russell was a rare exception. And now it turns out she was lying.

“I ask your readers to name a person of color who has garnered the same attention as Natalee Holloway and Chandra Levy outside of Carlee Russell and you can’t, because it doesn’t happen,” Natalie Wilson, co-founder of the Black & Missing Foundation, told me. What’s more, she said, analysis by her organization has found that cases of missing people of color remain open four times longer than others, in part, “because they are not getting that media coverage.”

The Philadelphia Police Department sends out regular emails about missing people. I scan them when I can.

I occasionally try to cover some of the cases I see, but there are so many. According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons Database, roughly 600,000 people go missing each year across the country. Thankfully, some cases are solved before a story about them can even make it into print. Just last month, I reached out to the mother of a local recent high school graduate who had gone missing only to get the good news just a few days later that she had been found alive.

Also, when it comes to people of color, racial bias can affect the response, as some may assume that many of the missing are up to no good, or somehow brought their disappearances on themselves. Studies show that Black children frequently are perceived as being older than their actual years which can make it harder for some people to view them as victims.

I hope that Russell’s fabrications won’t stop us from raising alarm bells when people of color turn up missing. And I hope that her case, if anything, is a lesson on the power of attention in resolving what happened to a missing person.

“Think about the influencers, the media coverage that the Carlee Russell case got,” Wilson pointed out. “Can you imagine if we put the same energy into finding other missing people? We can bring many more people home.”

She rattled off a host of names of women of color who are missing: Arianna Fitts, Keeshae Jacobs, Tiffany Foster, Alexis Ware, Joniah Walker, Jennifer Blackmon, Relisha Rudd, and Nakyla Williams.

There are hundreds of thousands more whose names we’ll never know. We can’t disengage just because Russell duped us. Don’t let one fake kidnapping distract us from a very real problem.

© The Philadelphia Inquirer

Social media use falls if algorithm-based feeds removed, study finds

2023/07/28

Removing algorithm-based feeds reduces the amount of time users spend on social media platforms but does not change people's political attitudes, a new study as found. 

Rolf Vennenbernd/dpa

Social media platforms have long been criticized for using opaque algorithms that dictate what users see on their feeds.

But according to research published by the journal Science and backed by Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, removing algorithm-based feeds only causes users to reduce the amount of time they spend on the platforms.

"The notion that such algorithms create political 'filter bubbles,' foster polarization, exacerbate existing social inequalities, and enable the spread of disinformation has become rooted in the public consciousness," according to the researchers, who were led by Andrew M. Guess of Princeton University.

Keeping user and algorithm apart, however, "did not change" peoples' political attitudes, knowledge and offline behaviours, they found, suggesting that when account holders encountered views at odds with their own, they were inclined to just stop scrolling and do something else.

The study sought to "examine the effect of algorithmic feed-ranking systems on individuals' political attitudes and behaviors as related to the U.S. presidential election in 2020."

The vote was widely described as reflecting an increasingly-polarized US, with supporters of incumbent Donald Trump and challenger Joe Biden finding little common ground.

However, in a separate paper published by Science, a team of researchers led by the University of Pennsylvania's Sandra González-Bailón found that such "siloing" was in part driven by algorithm-driven Facebook feeds and the sharing of posts, with Trump supporters seen as more likely to be "ideologically segregated" than Biden backers.

"Our analyses highlight that Facebook ... is substantially segregated ideologically - far more than previous research on internet news consumption based on browsing behavior has found," the researchers said.

© Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH

Facebook's algorithm doesn't alter people's beliefs: research

Agence France-Presse
July 27, 2023

Meta hit with record €1.2 billion fine for violating EU data rules

Do social media echo chambers deepen political polarization, or simply reflect existing social divisions?

A landmark research project that investigated Facebook around the 2020 US presidential election published its first results Thursday, finding that, contrary to assumption, the platform's often criticized content-ranking algorithm doesn't shape users' beliefs.

The work is the product of a collaboration between Meta -- the parent company of Facebook and Instagram -- and a group of academics from US universities who were given broad access to internal company data, and signed up tens of thousands of users for experiments.

The academic team wrote four papers examining the role of the social media giant in American democracy, which were published in the scientific journals Science and Nature.

Overall, the algorithm was found to be "extremely influential in people's on-platform experiences," said project leaders Talia Stroud of the University of Texas at Austin and Joshua Tucker, of New York University.

In other words, it heavily impacted what the users saw, and how much they used the platforms.

"But we also know that changing the algorithm for even a few months isn't likely to change people's political attitudes," they said, as measured by users' answers on surveys after they took part in three-month-long experiments that altered how they received content.

The authors acknowledged this conclusion might be because the changes weren't in place for long enough to make an impact, given that the United States has been growing more polarized for decades.

Nevertheless, "these findings challenge popular narratives blaming social media echo chambers for the problems of contemporary American democracy," wrote the authors of one of the papers, published in Nature.

- 'No silver bullet' -

Facebook's algorithm, which uses machine-learning to decide which posts rise to the top of users' feeds based on their interests, has been accused of giving rise to "filter bubbles" and enabling the spread of misinformation.

Researchers recruited around 40,000 volunteers via invitations placed on their Facebook and Instagram feeds, and designed an experiment where one group was exposed to the normal algorithm, while the other saw posts listed from newest to oldest.

Facebook originally used a reverse chronological system and some observers have suggested that switching back to it will reduce social media's harmful effects.


The team found that users in the chronological feed group spent around half the amount of time on Facebook and Instagram compared to the algorithm group.

On Facebook, those in the chronological group saw more content from moderate friends, as well as more sources with ideologically mixed audiences.

But the chronological feed also increased the amount of political and untrustworthy content seen by users.

Despite the differences, the changes did not cause detectable changes in measured political attitudes.

"The findings suggest that chronological feed is no silver bullet for issues such as political polarization," said coauthor Jennifer Pan of Stanford.

- Meta welcomes findings -


In a second paper in Science, the same team researched the impact of reshared content, which constitutes more than a quarter of content that Facebook users see.

Suppressing reshares has been suggested as a means to control harmful viral content.

The team ran a controlled experiment in which a group of Facebook users saw no changes to their feeds, while another group had reshared content removed.

Removing reshares reduced the proportion of political content seen, resulting in reduced political knowledge -- but again did not impact downstream political attitudes or behaviors.

A third paper, in Nature, probed the impact of content from "like-minded" users, pages, and groups in their feeds, which the researchers found constituted a majority of what the entire population of active adult Facebook users see in the US.

But in an experiment involving over 23,000 Facebook users, suppressing like-minded content once more had no impact on ideological extremity or belief in false claims.

A fourth paper, in Science, did however confirm extreme "ideological segregation" on Facebook, with politically conservative users more siloed in their news sources than liberals.

What's more, 97 percent of political news URLs on Facebook rated as false by Meta's third-party fact checking program -- which AFP is part of -- were seen by more conservatives than liberals.

Meta welcomed the overall findings.

They "add to a growing body of research showing there is little evidence that social media causes harmful... polarization or has any meaningful impact on key political attitudes, beliefs or behaviors," said Nick Clegg, the company's president of global affairs.

ia/tjj

African and Caribbean stakeholders call for slavery reparations at Barbados meeting

Agence France-Presse
July 28, 2023

© Joe Raedle, Getty Images via AFP

Representatives from various African and Caribbean entities joined forces at a historic event this week in the capital of Barbados, Bridgetown, to demand reparations for slavery and its legacy in today's society.

The University of the West Indies (UWI), the Economic, Social and Cultural Council of the African Union (AU), Barbados' government, grant-making network Open Society Foundations and the Caribbean Pan African Network teamed up to "call for reparations for historical crimes".

The meeting in Bridgetown, from Monday to Thursday, included strategy sessions and plenaries and marked the beginning of an "intercontinental campaign", the UWI said in a statement, describing it as "ground-breaking".

Attendees included ambassadors and representatives from AU member states and the Caribbean Community political and economic union (CARICOM).

"This is a historic moment... humanity cannot go forward with all the toxic interferences of colonisation," Hilary Beckles, head of the CARICOM reparations commission, told a news conference on Thursday. "We have to clean up this mess to allow humanity to function."

Outcomes of the meeting include a proposal for a roadmap for cooperation between the AU and CARICOM, the UWI statement said.

"It is crucial to recognize how slavery, colonialism and racism intersect and impact the lives of Black people around the world," said AU official Youssouf Mandoha.

(Reuters)

Scientists engineer fruit flies capable of 'virgin birth'

Agence France-Presse
July 28, 2023

Fruit fly © ANDRES LARROVERE / AFP/File


Scientists said on Friday they have genetically engineered female fruit flies that can have offspring without needing a male, marking the first time "virgin birth" has been induced in an animal.

The offspring of the flies were also able to give birth without mating, showing that the trait could be passed down generations, in another first revealed in a study in the journal Current Biology.

Virgin birth, also called parthenogenesis, is rare but not unheard of in the animal kingdom.

The females of some egg-laying animals -- such as lizards and birds -- are capable of giving birth without mating, usually later in life when no males are available.

"For the first time, scientists have managed to induce virgin birth in an animal that usually reproduces sexually: the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster," Cambridge University said.

Scientists revealed last month that a female crocodile in a Costa Rican zoo who had never been near a male laid an egg containing a fully formed foetus, the first recorded virgin birth for the reptile.

Sexual reproduction usually involves a female's egg being fertilized by sperm from a male. But for parthenogenesis, the female develops the egg into an embryo all on her own.

Alexis Sperling, a researcher at the UK's Cambridge University and lead author of the new study, told AFP that she had wanted to study virgin births ever since her pet praying mantis had one.

Seeking to find a genetic cause for the phenomenon, Sperling and several US-based researchers decided to experiment on the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster.

The fly, which sexually reproduces normally, is one of the most studied animals for genetic research, meaning they could take advantage of more than a century's worth of knowledge.


- 'Exciting' -

First the team sequenced the genomes of two strains of another fruit fly, Drosophila mercatorum. One strain reproduces solely via virgin birth, while the other needs a male.

The researchers then compared the results, aiming to pinpoint the genes behind virgin births.

They then manipulated the genes of the Drosophila melanogaster to match what they saw in its close relative.

The result was "fully parthenogenetic flies, which was much to my delight", Sperling said.

The research, which took six years, involved more than 220,000 fruit flies.


If the genetically engineered flies had access to males, they would reproduce as normal.

But among those kept in isolation, one to two percent seemingly gave up on ever seeing a male around halfway through their life -- around 40 days -- and had a virgin birth.

Their offspring -- which were all female, as is the case with all virgin births -- had young of their own at around the same rate.

Sperling said that the feat would have been almost impossible to achieve in any other animal because of the wealth of data about fruit flies -- and because of how difficult parthenogenesis is to study.

Mammals -- including humans -- are not capable of having virgin births anyway because their reproduction requires certain genes from sperm.

But Sperling said that more animals are probably capable of virgin births than is currently known, pointing to the recent crocodile discovery.


And while virgin births are thought to be "a last-ditch effort" to keep a species going, that theory has not been proven, she said.

Herman Wijnen, a researcher at the UK's University of Southampton not involved in the study, said it was "exciting because it demonstrates how parthenogenesis can evolve in a sexually reproducing species as a back-up strategy for females that are unable to find a partner."

"The genes that were manipulated in the fruit fly are ones that are shared with humans, but there are substantial differences between early development in flies and humans."

Gender influences the link between narcissism and emotion regulation, researchers find

In a new study published in Current Psychology, researchers found that men with higher narcissism levels reported using more strategies to improve their own and others’ emotions compared to female narcissists. The findings shed light on how gender influences the relationship between pathological narcissism and emotion regulation strategies.

Emotion regulation is a process in which one aims to initiate, maintain, modulate, or change the course of feelings. Individuals who regulate their affective states use tactics such as intrinsic and extrinsic affect-worsening and affect-improving strategies. Intrinsic strategies involve attempting to control one’s own affective state whereas extrinsic strategies involve striving to alter others’ affective states.

Researchers Michael Barnett, Kessie Mollenlxopf, and Ashley Haygood conducted this study to better understand how gender influences the relationship between pathological narcissism and emotion regulation strategies. Previous research had shown that narcissism, which involves an inflated sense of self and a lack of intimacy with others, is associated with certain emotion regulation strategies. It was unclear how gender might moderate these relationships.

To conduct the study, the researchers collected data from 1,344 college students (66% female) aged 18 to 29 who were enrolled in a psychology course at a large public university in the southern United States. All participants filled out the Pathological Narcissism Inventory and the Emotion Regulation of Others and Self questionnaire.

The Emotion Regulation of Self and Others measured four different ways that individuals manage and change their emotional states, either for themselves or for others.

Intrinsic Affect-Improving: This strategy involves individuals intentionally trying to improve their own emotions. When someone is feeling down or sad, they engage in activities or thoughts that aim to lift their spirits and make themselves feel better. For example, they might listen to uplifting music, practice positive self-talk, or engage in activities that bring joy and happiness.

Intrinsic Affect-Worsening: In this strategy, individuals deliberately focus on negative aspects of their emotions or situation to make themselves feel worse. It’s a self-destructive approach to emotion regulation, where a person might ruminate on their shortcomings or past failures, leading to a deepening of negative emotions.

Extrinsic Affect-Improving: Extrinsic emotion regulation involves individuals attempting to improve the emotions of others. When someone around them is feeling down or upset, they take actions to cheer them up or provide comfort and support. For instance, they might offer kind words, spend time with the person, or engage in activities to make them feel better.

Extrinsic Affect-Worsening: This strategy involves individuals intentionally trying to make others feel worse emotionally. They might act annoyed, criticize, or intentionally provoke negative emotions in others. It’s a harmful and manipulative approach to emotion regulation that can lead to interpersonal conflicts and damaged relationships.

The researchers found that pathological narcissism was associated with greater use of strategies intended to improve one’s own mood (intrinsic affect-improving strategies). This suggests that narcissistic individuals may try to regulate their emotions by focusing on positive ways to make themselves feel better.

Pathological narcissism was also associated with greater use of strategies intended to make others feel better (extrinsic affect-improving strategies). However, it is unclear whether narcissists are genuinely trying to make others feel better or if this is related to their grandiose fantasies and desire for admiration.

Importantly, results from this study showed that gender played a moderating role in these relationships. On average, narcissistic men tended to use intrinsic affect-improving emotion regulation strategies more often than narcissistic women.

“Male narcissists may be particularly likely to use emotion regulation strategies that improve their own and others’ affect (or at least they believe that they are doing this) and, conversely, female narcissists may use affect-improving emotion regulation strategies more rarely,” the researchers wrote. “This may explain why male narcissists tend to have better mental health outcomes than female narcissists.”

“Male narcissists, viewing themselves as improving the way that they and others feel, may have less incentive to change compared to female narcissists,” they added. “Narcissism may simply ‘feel better’ for men, possibly reflecting that narcissism is more closely associated with traditionally masculine gender roles

However, the study had some limitations, such as the use of a college student sample, which may not represent the general population, and the correlational nature of the data, which prevents drawing definitive causal conclusions.

Future research should explore these relationships further and consider other factors that could influence emotion regulation in narcissism, such as socially desirable responding and gender role adherence. Understanding these unique presentations of narcissism in men and women could lead to more informed clinical diagnosis and improved treatment outcomes.

The study, “Gender moderates relationships between pathological narcissism and intrinsic-extrinsic emotion regulation strategies“, was authored by Michael D. Barnett, Kessie K. Mollenkopf, and Ashley N. Haygood.

2023/07/27
© PsyPost

Australian ant honey inhibits tough pathogens, new research shows

The Conversation
July 26, 2023

Honeypot Ants (Shutterstock)

The medicinal value and potent antimicrobial activity of honey has been a topic of considerable interest in recent years, particularly in light of the alarming rise in antibiotic resistance.

While most honey comes from honey bees (Apis mellifera), other insects such as stingless bees, wasps and even ants can produce honey-like products from plant nectar.

One of these insects is the honeypot ant Camponotus inflatus, found throughout the central desert region of Australia. We set out to determine whether its honey might be medically useful.

Our results, published in PeerJ, show the honey has powerful anti-microbial effects, particularly against certain heat-tolerant yeasts and moulds which resist most current antifungal drugs.

Pots of gold

Honeypot ants are social ant species that develop large nests in the soil. Within these colonies, certain worker ants known as “repletes” serve as living food stores.

The repletes are fed by other members of the colony, who forage for nectar and honeydew in the environment. The repletes accumulate a golden honey-like substance in their flexible abdomens.

The repletes become so engorged with honey they are rendered almost immobile. They hang together from the ceiling of the nest, forming a sort of ant pantry.


Honeypot ant ‘repletes’ store honey for the nest. 

Andrew Dong, Author provided

In times of need, other worker ants visit the repletes and stroke their antennae. The repletes cough up some honey in response, and the other workers then distribute it throughout the colony.

Most honeypot ants live in very dry environments. Their unusual lifestyle has been so successful it has evolved multiple times.

Honeypot ants in First Nations culture


Digging for honeypot ants.

 Danny Ulrich, Author provided

In Australia, Camponotus inflatus is found throughout the central desert region and holds cultural and nutritional significance to local Indigenous people.

Danny Ulrich of the Tjupan language group, operator of Goldfields Honey Ant Tours in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, says

For our people, honey ants are more than just a food source. Digging for them is a very enjoyable way of life. It’s a way of bringing the family together, to connect with each other and nature.

There are also reports of traditional use of honeypot ant honey for treating ailments like colds and sore throats, and possibly as a topical ointment to help keep infections at bay, suggesting potential antimicrobial properties.

Not your usual honey activity

To investigate further, we obtained honeypot ant repletes from Goldfields Honey Ant Tours, collected and pooled the honey from the ants and tested its ability to inhibit various pathogenic bacteria, yeasts and moulds.

We compared this to two well-studied bee honeys with anti-microbial properties: manuka honey from New Zealand, and jarrah honey from Western Australia.

Our results revealed striking differences between the honeypot ant honey and the bee honeys.

Both bee honeys showed broad activity and were able to inhibit every pathogen tested at similar levels. However, the honeypot ant honey showed remarkable potency against certain microbes, but little against others.

Important factors that contribute to the antimicrobial power of bee honey are its high sugar and low water content, which sucks the water out of microbial invaders.

We found honeypot ant honey to have a much higher moisture content than the bee honeys, however, putting it in a range that could support the growth of some microorganisms.

Most bee honeys also contain enzymes that produce hydrogen peroxide, a known antimicrobial compound. However, honeypot ant honey retained most of its activity even after we removed all the hydrogen peroxide.

Finally, some honeys contain antimicrobial proteins and peptides that are derived from the honey bee. These can be destroyed by heat, and when we heated the honeypot ant honey to 90℃ for 10 minutes it lost most of its antimicrobial activity.


We therefore think this unique antimicrobial activity is likely due to proteins or peptides, and these are probably derived from the honeypot ant.
Evolution of antimicrobial activity in the insect world

In the natural environment, animals, plants, and the products they make are exposed to a huge range of microorganisms looking for their next meal. Sweet, nutritious honey is an enticing food source for these microbial scavengers and must be vigorously protected, both to prevent its spoilage and to stop invasion of the hive or nest by rapidly growing moulds.


Intriguingly, we found honeypot ant honey was particularly effective against some pathogens we consider to be quite “tough”. These pathogens are well adapted to living in soils and dry conditions, and can also cause very serious infections in people with severely weakened immune systems.

In particular, the ant honey was able to inhibit heat-tolerant yeasts and moulds that are likely to be present in the honey ant nest and surrounding environment. Importantly, these can be very difficult to kill with most currently available antifungal drugs.

We suggest the evolutionary pressure imposed by these soil microorganisms has resulted in the potent, selective antimicrobial activity of honeypot ant honey.
Science catches up with Indigenous knowledge

Our results clearly support the medicinal use of honeypot ant honey by Australian Indigenous communities and provide a new understanding of the intricate relationship between honeypot ants, their environment, and the remarkable antimicrobial activity exhibited by their honey.

Due to the cultural significance of the ants, and challenges with rearing them at a commercial scale, it is not feasible to domesticate honeypot ants for honey production.

However, honeypot ant honey may provide valuable insights for the development of useful new antimicrobial peptides. These may help expand our arsenal of effective antibacterial and antifungal treatments, which are increasingly needed to combat emerging challenges in healthcare.

Dee Carter, Professor of Microbiology, University of Sydney; Andrew Dong, Research Affiliate, Microbiology, University of Sydney; Danny Ulrich, Operator, Goldfields Honey Ant Tours, Indigenous Knowledge; Kenya Fernandes, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Sydney, and Nural Cokcetin, Research scientist, University of Sydney

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.