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Touch is the primary way people communicate intimacy in romantic relationships, and affectionate touch behaviors such as stroking, hugging and kissing are universally observed in partnerships all over the world. Here, we explored the association of love and affectionate touch behaviors in romantic partnerships in two studies comprising 7880 participants. In the first study, we used a cross-cultural survey conducted in 37 countries to test whether love was universally associated with affectionate touch behaviors. In the second study, using a more fine-tuned touch behavior scale, we tested whether the frequency of affectionate touch behaviors was related to love in romantic partnerships. As hypothesized, love was significantly and positively associated with affectionate touch behaviors in both studies and this result was replicated regardless of the inclusion of potentially relevant factors as controls. Altogether, our data strongly suggest that affectionate touch is a relatively stable characteristic of human romantic relationships that is robustly and reliably related to the degree of reported love between partners., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Recent cross-cultural and neuro-hormonal investigations have suggested that love is a near universal phenomenon that has a biological background. Therefore, the remaining important question is not whether love exists worldwide but which cultural, social, or environmental factors influence experiences and expressions of love. In the present study, we explored whether countries' modernization indexes are related to love experiences measured by three subscales (passion, intimacy, commitment) of the Triangular Love Scale. Analyzing data from 9474 individuals from 45 countries, we tested for relationships with country-level predictors, namely, modernization proxies (i.e., Human Development Index, World Modernization Index, Gender Inequality Index), collectivism, and average annual temperatures. We found that mean levels of love (especially intimacy) were higher in countries with higher modernization proxies, collectivism, and average annual temperatures. In conclusion, our results grant some support to the hypothesis that modernization processes might influence love experiences., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Interpersonal touch behavior differs across cultures, yet no study to date has systematically tested for cultural variation in affective touch, nor examined the factors that might account for this variability. Here, over 14,000 individuals from 45 countries were asked whether they embraced, stroked, kissed, or hugged their partner, friends, and youngest child during the week preceding the study. We then examined a range of hypothesized individual-level factors (sex, age, parasitic history, conservatism, religiosity, and preferred interpersonal distance) and cultural-level factors (regional temperature, parasite stress, regional conservatism, collectivism, and religiosity) in predicting these affective-touching behaviors. Our results indicate that affective touch was most prevalent in relationships with partners and children, and its diversity was relatively higher in warmer, less conservative, and religious countries, and among younger, female, and liberal people. This research allows for a broad and integrated view of the bases of cross-cultural variability in affective touch.

This article analyzes the effect of a pedagogic module, designed to help reflect on political violence in Peru, facilitating political and social attitudes directed toward promoting a culture of peace in higher education settings. As a main source of information for developing the module, Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) report was used. The effects of the module implementation were assessed with a 2 × 2 experimental design, with an experimental group ( n  = 59) and a control group ( n  = 62), with pre and post evaluations. Results show the effectiveness of the intervention with significant increases in self-reported knowledge about the TRC and its work, and an agreement that the CVR represented a viable and integrative view of the era of violence. Even more, the pedagogic module attained a reduction of attitudes favorable to violence, and also a reduction of conservative ideological discourses that appear as a risk factor in the expression of new conflicts due to collective motives in post-conflict societies. Nevertheless, the effects observed were limited in some aspects, and the article discusses the need for new dissemination mechanisms about the era of violence to complement the positive effects of the module in the aim of generating a culture of peace.

A wide range of literature connects sex ratio and mating behaviours in non-human animals. However, research examining sex ratio and human mating is limited in scope. Prior work has examined the relationship between sex ratio and desire for short-term, uncommitted mating as well as outcomes such as marriage and divorce rates. Less empirical attention has been directed towards the relationship between sex ratio and mate preferences, despite the importance of mate preferences in the human mating literature. To address this gap, we examined sex ratio's relationship to the variation in preferences for attractiveness, resources, kindness, intelligence and health in a long-term mate across 45 countries ( n = 14 487). We predicted that mate preferences would vary according to relative power of choice on the mating market, with increased power derived from having relatively few competitors and numerous potential mates. We found that each sex tended to report more demanding preferences for attractiveness and resources where the opposite sex was abundant, compared to where the opposite sex was scarce. This pattern dovetails with those found for mating strategies in humans and mate preferences across species, highlighting the importance of sex ratio for understanding variation in human mate preferences.

The Triangular Theory of Love (measured with Sternberg's Triangular Love Scale - STLS) is a prominent theoretical concept in empirical research on love. To expand the culturally homogeneous body of previous psychometric research regarding the STLS, we conducted a large-scale cross-cultural study with the use of this scale. In total, we examined more than 11,000 respondents, but as a result of applied exclusion criteria, the final analyses were based on a sample of 7332 participants from 25 countries (from all inhabited continents). We tested configural invariance, metric invariance, and scalar invariance, all of which confirmed the cultural universality of the theoretical construct of love analyzed in our study. We also observed that levels of love components differ depending on relationship duration, following the dynamics suggested in the Triangular Theory of Love. Supplementary files with all our data, including results on love intensity across different countries along with STLS versions adapted in a few dozen languages, will further enable more extensive research on the Triangular Theory of Love.

8 March (8M), now known as International Women's Day, is a day for feminist claims where demonstrations are organized in over 150 countries, with the participation of millions of women all around the world. These demonstrations can be viewed as collective rituals and thus focus attention on the processes that facilitate different psychosocial effects. This work aims to explore the mechanisms (i.e., behavioral and attentional synchrony, perceived emotional synchrony, and positive and transcendent emotions) involved in participation in the demonstrations of 8 March 2020, collective and ritualized feminist actions, and their correlates associated with personal well-being (i.e., affective well-being and beliefs of personal growth) and collective well-being (i.e., social integration variables: situated identity, solidarity and fusion), collective efficacy and collective growth, and behavioral intention to support the fight for women's rights. To this end, a cross-cultural study was conducted with the participation of 2,854 people (age 18-79; M = 30.55; SD = 11.66) from countries in Latin America (Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Colombia, and Ecuador) and Europe (Spain and Portugal), with a retrospective correlational cross-sectional design and a convenience sample. Participants were divided between demonstration participants ( n = 1,271; 94.0% female) and non-demonstrators or followers who monitored participants through the media and social networks ( n = 1,583; 75.87% female). Compared with non-demonstrators and with males, female and non-binary gender respondents had greater scores in mechanisms and criterion variables. Further random-effects model meta-analyses revealed that the perceived emotional synchrony was consistently associated with more proximal mechanisms, as well as with criterion variables. Finally, sequential moderation analyses showed that proposed mechanisms successfully mediated the effects of participation on every criterion variable. These results indicate that participation in 8M marches and demonstrations can be analyzed through the literature on collective rituals. As such, collective participation implies positive outcomes both individually and collectively, which are further reinforced through key psychological mechanisms, in line with a Durkheimian approach to collective rituals., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2020 Zumeta, Castro-Abril, Méndez, Pizarro, Włodarczyk, Basabe, Navarro-Carrillo, Padoan-De Luca, da Costa, Alonso-Arbiol, Torres-Gómez, Cakal, Delfino, Techio, Alzugaray, Bilbao, Villagrán, López-López, Ruiz-Pérez, Cedeño, Reyes-Valenzuela, Alfaro-Beracoechea, Contreras-Ibáñez, Ibarra, Reyes-Sosa, Cueto, Carvalho and Pinto.)

Considerable research has examined human mate preferences across cultures, finding universal sex differences in preferences for attractiveness and resources as well as sources of systematic cultural variation. Two competing perspectives-an evolutionary psychological perspective and a biosocial role perspective-offer alternative explanations for these findings. However, the original data on which each perspective relies are decades old, and the literature is fraught with conflicting methods, analyses, results, and conclusions. Using a new 45-country sample ( N = 14,399), we attempted to replicate classic studies and test both the evolutionary and biosocial role perspectives. Support for universal sex differences in preferences remains robust: Men, more than women, prefer attractive, young mates, and women, more than men, prefer older mates with financial prospects. Cross-culturally, both sexes have mates closer to their own ages as gender equality increases. Beyond age of partner, neither pathogen prevalence nor gender equality robustly predicted sex differences or preferences across countries.

Humans express a wide array of ideal mate preferences. Around the world, people desire romantic partners who are intelligent, healthy, kind, physically attractive, wealthy, and more. In order for these ideal preferences to guide the choice of actual romantic partners, human mating psychology must possess a means to integrate information across these many preference dimensions into summaries of the overall mate value of their potential mates. Here we explore the computational design of this mate preference integration process using a large sample of n = 14,487 people from 45 countries around the world. We combine this large cross-cultural sample with agent-based models to compare eight hypothesized models of human mating markets. Across cultures, people higher in mate value appear to experience greater power of choice on the mating market in that they set higher ideal standards, better fulfill their preferences in choice, and pair with higher mate value partners. Furthermore, we find that this cross-culturally universal pattern of mate choice is most consistent with a Euclidean model of mate preference integration.

During the first academic term of 2010, participatory action investigation processes were conducted in three communities affected by the 2007 high magnitude earthquake that occurred in the province of Chincha (Ica, Peru). In the process, members of the communities identified, as core problems, aspects related to the community coexistence, emphasizing the attention of the most vulnerable segments (children and adolescents) in the context of economic constraints and problems aggravated by the earthquake. Results include an analysis of the needs and reactions following the earthquake, the leadership and the power relations visible in the post disaster context and, finally, the community participation throughout the reconstruction process. This article also proposes some topics resulting from the analysis, aiming to contribute to interventions focused on community participation and strengthening of local resources in contexts of great vulnerability to natural disasters.

The following study analyzes the concept of sense of community of a group of people living in a shanty town in a district in the eastern outskirts of Lima, characterized by processes of community violence. With this in mind, a mixed methodology and a concurrent design were chosen, applying the Scale of Sense of Community, SCI-2, a question to measure the perceived level of danger through a Likert scale, and five individual interviews with the population. The results show that the higher the level of danger perceived in the zone, the lower the sense of community is. Likewise, in this group of people their sense of community is based above all on an emotional shared connection and on a strong feeling of membership. On the contrary, the difficulty to satisfy their collective needs through organization and the weak relationship that exists between the population and its leaders, decrease and deteriorate the sense of community in this group.