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A major source of social stress in the Chinese society is losing face. Inspired by the roles of cortisol functions in stress-coping, we investigated whether cortisol functions (e.g., cortisol level and glucocorticoid receptor gene) are related to social face in Chinese. Study 1 examined the association between salivary cortisol level and social face among 134 college students; and Study 2 investigated associations between the polymorphisms (i.e., rs41423247 and rs10052957) of glucocorticoid receptor gene (NR3C1) and social face among 688 college students. Results from Study 1 indicated that salivary cortisol level was positively correlated to the scores on social face; and results from Study 2 showed that the GG genotype of rs41423247, which is related to higher receptor expression, was related to higher social face score as compared with the C allele. Moreover, the association between rs41423247 and social face was mediated by public self-consciousness. These findings highlight the importance of cortisol functions to social face and demonstrate a link between genetic polymorphism, social face and public self-consciousness., Author(s): Pingyuan Gong [sup.1] [sup.2] [sup.3] , Wenxuan Guo [sup.1] , Xia Zhang [sup.1] , Keqing Cao [sup.1] , Quanhe Wang [sup.1] , Mengfei Zhang [sup.1] , Jinting Liu [sup.4] [...]

Forgiveness, an emotion regulation strategy for overcoming personal distress and healing injuries following interpersonal conflicts, is greatly modulated by parental bonding (e.g. parental care and overprotection) and genetic predispositions. Inspired by the roles of dopamine β-hydroxylase (DBH) gene in empathy and emotion regulation, we examined how parental bonding interacted with the DBH-1021C/T (i.e. a polymorphism accounts for 35–52% of variance in DBH activity) in forgiveness. Results indicated that (1) the score on forgiveness was positively related to parental care, but negatively related to parental overprotection; (2) parental care significantly interacted with the DBH-1021C/T in forgiveness with differential susceptibility model. The TT/CT genotypes were related to lower forgiveness than the CC genotype among individuals with lower parental care, butwere related to higher forgiveness among individuals with optimal parental care. These findings provide a new insight into the gene–environment interaction in the development of forgiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has highlighted the roles of oxytocin in empathy and altruistic behaviors. Based on these findings, recent studies have examined the association between the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) and outcome-based moral judgment with sacrificial dilemmas (e.g. runaway trolley case). However, little is known about the relationships between OXTR polymorphisms and intent-based moral judgment of harms (e.g. attempted but failed harm or intentionally committed harm). This study investigated the association between the OXTR rs53576 and intent-based moral judgment in college students (N  = 544) and prisoners (N  = 540). Results indicated that both students and prisoners with the GG genotype of OXTR rs53576 rated attempted but failed harm as less permissible than those with the AA and AG genotypes. These findings highlight the role of the OXTR gene in intent-based moral judgment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To search the evidence of molecular evolution mechanism for aquatic and cave habitat in Andrias davidianus, the evolution analysis was carried out among several species transcriptome data. The transcriptome data of Notophthalmus viridescens, Xenopus tropicalis, Cynops pyrrhogaster, Hynobius chinensis and A. davidianus were obtained from the Genbank and reassembled except Xenopus tropicalis. The BLAST search of transcriptome data obtained 1244 single-copy orthologous genes among five species. A phylogenetic tree showed A. davidianus to have the closest relationship to H. chinensis. Fourteen positively selected genes were detected in A. davidianus and N. vridescens group and fifteen in A. davidianus and H. chinensis group. Five genes were shared in the both groups which involved in the immune system, suggesting that A. davidianus adaptation to an aquatic and cave environment required rapid evolution of the immune system compared to N. viridescens and H. chinensis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]