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Previous research has shown that body postures and body movements influence people's attitudes, preferences and feelings. In the present study, we explored the influence of body posture on the feeling of closeness towards others and how this effect may interact with contextual variables. Study 1 was conducted in a naturalistic setting in which 127 participants observed a series of live dance sequences either standing up or remaining seated. After each sequence, participants reported the feelings elicited by the dance performance on a questionnaire. Visibility of performers' facial expressions and background tempo were used as contextual variables. Results showed that participants who watched the performance standing up felt significantly closer to the dancers than participants who remained seated. Study 2 was carried out in a laboratory setting to explore the relationship between body posture, tempo and heart rate. Results showed a significant increase in heart rate when standing compared to when sitting and no effect of tempo. The present research demonstrates a link between body posture and social connection providing evidence that standing up strengthens the feeling of closeness to others, and showing that posture not only has an impact on self-related feelings (e.g. fear, anger, sadness) as previous research has shown, but also has an impact on feelings towards others at the base of all human social relations. The present research also suggests that heart rate may be a mediator of the effect of posture on the feeling of closeness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Replicated study shows that personality similarity is negligible in unrelated look-alikes. [•] Unrelated look-alikes express little social closeness toward one another. [•] Unrelated look-alikes do not experience feeling of familiarity toward one another. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The concept of context awareness is believed to be a key enabler for the new ubiquitous network service paradigm brought by cloud computing platforms and smartphone OSs. In particular, autonomous context-based service customization is becoming an essential tool in this context because users cannot be expected to pick step by step the appropriate network services by manually and explicitly matching preferences for their current context. In this work, we hence focus on the core problem of how to detect changes of context for network services. In turn, detection of such changes can trigger timely system reconfigurations. We introduce a trigger detection mechanism based on a mixed graph-based representation model able to encode geographical and social relationships among people and social objects like stores, restaurants, and event spots. Our mechanism generates a trigger when a significant change in the graph takes place, and it is able to render significant changes in a geographical relationship that holds among objects socially connected with each other. The main benefits of our method are that (1) it does not require building reference models in advance, and (2) it can deal with different kinds of social objects uniformly once the graph is defined. A computer simulation scenario provides evidence on the expected performance of our method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We examined whether interpersonal closeness increases salivary progesterone. One hundred and sixty female college students (80 dyads) were randomly assigned to participate in either a closeness task with a partner versus a neutral task with a partner. Those exposed to the closeness induction had higher levels of progesterone relative to those exposed to the neutral task. Across conditions, progesterone increase one week later predicted the willingness to sacrifice for the partner. These results are discussed in terms of the links between social contact, stress, and health. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Twins' marriages to non-twins yield genetically and socially informative kinships. Monozygotic (MZ) twins' genetic identity makes them ‘genetic parents’ of their nieces/nephews, and their nieces/nephews their ‘genetic children’. The present study is the first to apply twin-family models to study social relatedness. Analyses of twin families (MZ: N = 248; DZ: N = 75) tested evolutionary-based concepts concerning social closeness, perceived similarity and caretaking. Hypotheses based on Hamilton's inclusive fitness theory were supported: MZ twin aunts/uncles expressed greater social closeness towards their nieces/nephews than DZ twin aunts/uncles; and female twins from same-sex pairs expressed greater closeness towards their nieces/nephews than male twins from same-sex pairs. This study underlines benefits of associations between behavioural-genetic and evolutionary psychological theories, methods and interpretations. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Aspects of the Ackerman and Heggestad (1997) meta-analysis were updated and expanded to address the complex, contradictory findings of the extraversion–intelligence relation. Although the estimated effect sizes in the current study remained slightly positive, there was a decrease in the magnitude of the effect across extraversion–intelligence pairs in comparison to the 1997 meta-analytic results. Correlations between the date of publication of the study and the observed extraversion–intelligence correlations were generally negative, which suggested a change in the magnitude of the extraversion–intelligence relation over time. Furthermore, the estimated effect size between extraversion and intelligence for studies conducted in the year 2000 and later was (p <.05), indicating that not only has the magnitude of the correlation decreased, but also that the direction of the correlation has changed from positive to slightly negative. Trends associated with two potential moderator variables are also discussed: the use of different measures and the average age of the samples. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper explores the logic driving the evolving geography of business service provider/suppler relationships in Norway. It explores the ways in which Norwegian SMEs access external knowledge provided by management consultants through three case studies that have been developed using a matched pairs methodology (clients and consultants). The paper highlights the relationships between geography and client sourcing of external knowledge and expertise in three kinds of client/consultant relationship: local (clustered) knowledge; dislocated or distantiated knowledge, and; knowledge that is relatively distance insensitive. The concept of dislocated expertise or knowledge adds an additional dimension to literatures that highlight the importance of localised knowledge and strategies to reduce transaction costs, as well as providing insights into the complex relationships that occur between suppliers and consumers of knowledge and expertise. The importance of local business cultures and patriotic purchasing are also identified as playing important roles in influencing the behaviour of Norwegian firms. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

There are wider issues relating to the communication difficulties experienced by people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) than simply the physical problems caused by diminished oral control. In addition, existing literature on ALS rarely considers communication to be a joint interaction which depends on the strategies adopted by both communication partners, nor does it present communication in real life settings. This paper presents some of the findings from a 3-year research project which investigated the communication of people with ALS and their partners in their own homes. It discusses the purpose of human communication, and through examination of conversations in people's own homes has identified a range of strategies and techniques that families with ALS employ. For some people with ALS, although speech may deteriorate, they are still able to communicate closely and in a way that is more focused on topics that are particularly important to them. The findings from this study will be of interest to those who work with people with ALS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Children and apes have been shown to connect to others by watching a video together. • Here, an experimenter tried to create common ground through a communicative look. • Children approached faster after an experimenter tried to create common ground. • Great apes showed no difference between conditions. • Creating social closeness through common ground may be uniquely human. To create social closeness, humans engage in a variety of social activities centered around shared experiences. Even simply watching the same video side by side creates social closeness in adults and children. However, perhaps surprisingly, a similar psychological mechanism was recently shown in great apes. Here we asked whether the process by which this social closeness is created is the same for children and great apes. Each participant entered a room to see an experimenter (E1) watching a video. In one condition, E1 looked to the participant at the start of the video to establish common ground that they were watching the video together. In another condition, E1 did not look to the participant in this way so that the participant knew they were watching the same video, but the participant did not know whether E1 was aware of this as well, so there was no common ground (E1 looked to the participant later in the procedure). Children, but not great apes, approached the experimenter faster after the common ground condition, suggesting that although both humans and great apes create social closeness by co-attending to something in close proximity, creating social closeness by sharing experiences in common ground may be a uniquely human social-cognitive process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twin-family designs estimate genetic and environmental influences underlying individual differences in observed traits. The children-of-twins design recognizes human monozygotic (MZ) twins share 100% of their segregating genes, making co-twins the "genetic parents" of their nieces/nephews, as well as their aunts/uncles. Human dizygotic (DZ) twins, who share 50% of their segregating genes on average, retain conventional aunt/uncle-niece/nephew relationships. Twin-family methods can assess hypotheses informed by evolutionary reasoning. Hypothesis 1, derived from inclusive fitness theory, was that MZ twin aunts/uncles should express greater social closeness toward nieces/nephews (co-twin's children) than DZ twin aunts/uncles. This hypothesis was confirmed in prior multivariate analyses from a twin-family project. The present analysis, using a larger sample (n = 482twins), and multivariate analyses and structural equation modeling, extended this finding. Multivariate analyses supported hypothesis 2, derived from the concept of paternity uncertainty, that twins with twin sisters should indicate greater social closeness toward nieces/nephews than twins with twin brothers. Structural equation modeling showed that the relationship between zygosity and closeness (a second-order factor containing perceived closeness and current closeness) is mediated by perceived similarity; factors of perceived closeness, current closeness and perceived similarity were generated by factor analysis. Examining evolutionary-psychological hypotheses via behavioral-genetic methodology is encouraged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human social relationships are often formed through shared social activities in which individuals share mental states about external stimuli. Previous work on joint attention has shown that even minimal shared experiences such as watching something together facilitates social closeness between individuals. Here, we examined whether young children already connect with others through joint attention. In the current studies, children sat next to a novel adult who either watched a film with them or was not able to see the film and read a book instead. After the video, we measured children's willingness (i.e., latency) to approach the experimenter holding out a toy. In both studies, the 2.5-year-olds who watched the film together approached more quickly than the other children. These results show that both minimally interactive shared experiences and noninteractive shared experiences lead children to feel more comfortable with a novel adult. This suggests that joint attention interactions, and shared experiences in general, play an important role not only in children's cognitive development but also in their social development and the formation of their social relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]