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Article Archive: Godoy RA

Does village inequality in modern income harm the psyche? Anger, fear, sadness, and alcohol consumption in a pre-industrial society.
Godoy RA, Huanca T, Leonard WR, McDade T, Reyes-García V, Tanner S, Vadez V
Soc Sci Med 63(2):359-72
1 July 2006
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Researchers have found a positive association between income inequality and poor individual health. To explain the link, researchers have hypothesized that income inequality erodes community social capital, which unleashes negative emotions, stress, and stress behaviors that hurt health. Few studies have tested the hypothesized path. Here we estimate the association between (a) village income inequality and social capital, and (b) three distinct negative emotions (anger, fear, sadness) and one stress behavior (alcohol consumption). We use four quarters of panel data (2002-2003) from 655 adults in 13 villages of a foraging-farming society in the Bolivian Amazon (Tsimane'). We found that: (1) village income inequality was associated with more negative emotions but with less alcohol consumption, (2) social capital always bore a negative association with outcomes, and (3) results held up after introducing many changes to the main model. We conclude that village income inequality probably affects negative emotions and stress behaviors through other paths besides social capital because we conditioned for social capital. One such path is an innate dislike of inequality, which might have pre-human origins. Our prior research with the Tsimane' suggests that village income inequality bore an insignificant association with individual health. Therefore, village income inequality probably affects negative emotions and stress behaviors before undermining health.

Academic Articles by NU Faculty
Adult, Alcohol Drinking/economics, Alcohol Drinking/epidemiology, Bolivia, Econometric, Emotions, Female, Humans, Income, Indians, Interpersonal Relations, Male, Models, Psychological/economics, Psychological/epidemiology, Rural Population, Social Support, South American, Stress, Stress
Human's cognitive ability to assess facial cues from photographs: a study of sexual selection in the Bolivian Amazon
Eisenberg DT, Godoy RA, Huanca T; TAPS. Bolivia Study Team, Leonard WR, Magvanjav O, McDade TW, Nyberg C, Reyes-García V, Tanner S, Undurraga EA, Wang R
PLoS One 5(6):e11027
9 June 2010
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BACKGROUND: Evolutionary theory suggests that natural selection favors the evolution of cognitive abilities which allow humans to use facial cues to assess traits of others. The use of facial and somatic cues by humans has been studied mainly in western industrialized countries, leaving unanswered whether results are valid across cultures.

METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Our objectives were to test (i) if previous finding about raters' ability to get accurate information about an individual by looking at his facial photograph held in low-income non western rural societies and (ii) whether women and men differ in this ability. To answer the questions we did a study during July-August 2007 among the Tsimane', a native Amazonian society of foragers-farmers in Bolivia. We asked 40 females and 40 males 16-25 years of age to rate four traits in 93 facial photographs of other Tsimane' males. The four traits were based on sexual selection theory, and included health, dominance, knowledge, and sociability. The rating scale for each trait ranged from one (least) to four (most). The average rating for each trait was calculated for each individual in the photograph and regressed against objective measures of the trait from the person in the photograph. We found that (i) female Tsimane' raters were able to assess facial cues related to health, dominance, and knowledge and (ii) male Tsimane' raters were able to assess facial cues related to dominance, knowledge, and sociability.

CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our results support the existence of a human ability to identify objective traits from facial cues, as suggested by evolutionary theory.

Academic Articles by NU Faculty
Bolivia Cognition, Face, Female, Genetic, Humans, Male, Models, Photography Selection, Sexuality, Statistical
Nutritional status and spousal empowerment among native Amazonians
Godoy RA, Leonard WR, McDade T, Patel A, Reyes-García V, Seyfried CF Jr, Tanner S, Vadez V
Soc Sci Med 63(6):1517-30
1 September 2006
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Researchers and development organizations have shown interest in individual empowerment because it presumably improves well-being. Estimates of empowerment's effects on well-being contain biases from the potential endogeneity of empowerment. Using data from a sexually egalitarian and highly autarkic society of foragers and horticulturalists in the Bolivian Amazon, the Tsimane', we overcome the problems that this poses by: (1) matching spouses' responses to the same questions about who makes decisions or who breaks ties in 10 domains to improve accuracy in measures of empowerment; and (2) using parental attributes of spouses as instrumental variables for spousal empowerment. Outcomes include two anthropometric indices of short-run nutritional status: body-mass index and age and sex-standardized z scores of mid-arm muscle area. The amount of empowerment of household heads did not affect their nutritional status or other indicators of their well-being, such as income, wealth, expenditures, happiness, social capital, or self-perceived health. It also did not affect the nutritional status of their offspring. Nor did it affect the difference in income, wealth, or monetary expenditures between spouses. The insubstantial effects persisted with other definitions of empowerment or types of regressions. We end with a discussion of why empowerment, despite its popularity in development discourse, has such tenuous links with objective indicators of well-being, and the implication of this finding for future studies of empowerment's effects.

Academic Articles by NU Faculty
Adult, Asian Continental Ancestry Group/statistics & numerical data, Basal Metabolism, Body Composition, Body Size, Calorimetry, Deuterium Oxide/diagnostic use, Energy Metabolism, Female, Humans, Indirect, Life Style, Male, Middle Aged, Motor Activity, Physical Exertion, Sex Factors, Siberia
On the accuracy of perceived parental height in a native Amazonian society
Godoy RA, Huanca T, Leonard WR, McDade TW, Patel AM, Reyes-García V, Seyfried C, Tanner S
Econ Hum Biol 5(1):165-78.
1 March 2007
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Studies of secular trends in adult height in rural pre-literate societies are likely to show no change owing to random measurement error in age. In such societies, adults lack birth certificates and guess when estimating their age. We assess the accuracy of perceived height of the same-sex parent to estimate secular trends. We tested the method among the Tsimane', a native Amazonian society of farmers and foragers in Bolivia. Subjects included 268 women and 287 men >20 years of age. Over half the sample reported inaccurately the height of their same-sex living parent, with a tendency to report no difference when, in fact, differences existed. Results highlight the pitfalls of using perceived parental height to examine secular trends in adult height among the Tsimane', though the method might yield accurate information in other societies. We discuss possible reasons for the low accuracy of Tsimane' estimates.

Academic Articles by NU Faculty
Adult Body Height, Data Collection/methods, Female, Humans, Indians, Male, Middle Aged, Parents, Reproducibility of Results, Sex Factors, South American/statistics & numerical data
On the accuracy of perceived parental height in a native Amazonian society
Godoy RA, Huanca T, Leonard WR, McDade TW, Patel AM, Reyes-García V, Seyfried C, Tanner S
Econ Hum Biol 5(1):165-78.
1 March 2007
Link to Article

Studies of secular trends in adult height in rural pre-literate societies are likely to show no change owing to random measurement error in age. In such societies, adults lack birth certificates and guess when estimating their age. We assess the accuracy of perceived height of the same-sex parent to estimate secular trends. We tested the method among the Tsimane', a native Amazonian society of farmers and foragers in Bolivia. Subjects included 268 women and 287 men >20 years of age. Over half the sample reported inaccurately the height of their same-sex living parent, with a tendency to report no difference when, in fact, differences existed. Results highlight the pitfalls of using perceived parental height to examine secular trends in adult height among the Tsimane', though the method might yield accurate information in other societies. We discuss possible reasons for the low accuracy of Tsimane' estimates.

Academic Articles by NU Faculty
Adult Body Height, Data Collection/methods, Female, Humans, Indians, Male, Middle Aged, Parents, Reproducibility of Results, Sex Factors, South American/statistics & numerical data
Physical stature of adult Tsimane' Amerindians, Bolivian Amazon in the 20th century
Godoy RA, Goodman E, Huanca T, Leonard WR, McDade T, Reyes-García V, Tanner S, Vadez V
Economics and human biology 4(2):184-205
1 June 2006
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We examine the association between exposure to the market and Western society on the height of adult Tsimane', a foraging-farming society in the Bolivian Amazon. As with other contemporary native peoples, we find little evidence of a significant secular change in height during 1920-1980. Female height bore a positive association with own schooling and fluency in spoken Spanish and with maternal modern human capital (schooling, writing ability, and fluency in spoken Spanish), but male heights bore no association with parental height or with modern human capital. The absence of a secular change likely reflects the persistence of traditional forms of social organization and production that protect health.

Academic Articles by NU Faculty
Adult, Anthropometry/methods, Body Height/physiology, Bolivia, Female, Humans, Male, Nutritional Status, Population Groups, Western World
Predictors of C-reactive protein in Tsimane' 2 to 15 year-olds in lowland Bolivia
Burhop J, Godoy RA, Huanca T, Leonard WR, McDade TW, Reyes-García V, Vadez V
Am J Phys Anthropol 128(4):906-13
1 December 2005