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Tag: Behavioral Science

  • How does social media materialism induce stress and unhappiness?

    How does social media materialism induce stress and unhappiness?

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    Six questionnaires answered by over 1,200 people

    Newswise — The researchers headed by Dr. Phillip Ozimek from the Faculty of Psychology at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, recruited 1,230 people for their online survey. In order to participate, respondents had to use at least one social media channel at least once a week. On average, the participants stated that they spent just over two hours a day on social media.

    The research team used six different questionnaires to determine the extent to which the participants had a materialistic attitude and tended to compare themselves with others, whether they used social media more actively or passively, whether they were addicted to social media, how stressed and how satisfied they were with their lives. 

    Downward spiral set in motion

    “The data showed that a stronger materialistic approach goes hand in hand with a tendency to compare oneself with others,” points out Phillip Ozimek. This comparison is very easy to make on social media, primarily through passive use, i.e. by looking at the content posted by other users. Materialism and passive use were also linked to addictive use of social media. “By this we mean, for example, that users are constantly thinking about the respective channels and fear that they are missing out on something if they are not online,” explains Phillip Ozimek. This in turn leads to symptoms of poorer mental health, i.e. stress. The final link in the chain is reduced life satisfaction. “Social media is one of six stepping stones to unhappiness,” concludes Phillip Ozimek.

    Social media attracts and breeds materialists

    “Overall, the study provides further evidence that the use of social media is associated with risks, especially for people with a highly materialistic mindset,” says the psychologist. This is particularly worrying, because social media can trigger and increase materialistic values, for example through (influencer) marketing. At the same time, the platforms attract materialists anyway, as they are a perfect way to satisfy many materialistic needs.

    “It’s definitely a good idea to be aware of the amount of time you spend on social media and to reduce it,” recommends Phillip Ozimek. He advises against giving up Social Media completely. “If you did, you’re likely to overcompensate.” The research team also suggests recording materialism and social media use in patients undergoing treatment for mental health disorders. “While these factors are often irrelevant, they can be a starting point for additional interventions that patients can try out at home.”

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    Ruhr-Universitat Bochum

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  • Amnesia Caused by Head Injury Reversed in Early Mouse Study

    Amnesia Caused by Head Injury Reversed in Early Mouse Study

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    Newswise — WASHINGTON – A mouse study designed to shed light on memory loss in people who experience repeated head impacts, such as athletes, suggests the condition could potentially be reversed. The research in mice finds that amnesia and poor memory following head injury is due to inadequate reactivation of neurons involved in forming memories.

    The study, conducted by researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center in collaboration with Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, is reported January 16, 2024, in the Journal of Neuroscience.

    Importantly for diagnostic and treatment purposes, the researchers found that the memory loss attributed to head injury was not a permanent pathological event driven by a neurodegenerative disease.  Indeed, the researchers could reverse the amnesia to allow the mice to recall the lost memory, potentially allowing cognitive impairment caused by head impact to be clinically reversed.

    The Georgetown investigators had previously found that the brain adapts to repeated head impacts by changing the way the synapses in the brain operate. This can cause trouble in forming new memories and remembering existing memories. In their new study, investigators were able to trigger mice to remember memories that had been forgotten due to head impacts.

    “Our research gives us hope that we can design treatments to return the head-impact brain to its normal condition and recover cognitive function in humans that have poor memory caused by repeated head impacts,” says the study’s senior investigator, Mark Burns, PhD, a professor and Vice-Chair in Georgetown’s Department of Neuroscience and director of the Laboratory for Brain Injury and Dementia.

    In the new study, the scientists gave two groups of mice a new memory by training them in a test they had never seen before. One group was exposed to a high frequency of mild head impacts for one week (similar to contact sport exposure in people) and one group were controls that didn’t receive the impacts. The impacted mice were unable to recall the new memory a week later.

    “Most research in this area has been in human brains with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which is a degenerative brain disease found in people with a history of repetitive head impact,” said Burns. “By contrast, our goal was to understand how the brain changes in response to the low-level head impacts that many young football players regularly experience.”

    Researchers have found that, on average, college football players receive 21 head impacts per week with defensive ends receiving 41 head impacts per week. The number of head impacts to mice in this study were designed to mimic a week of exposure for a college football player, and each single head impact by itself was extraordinarily mild.

    Using genetically modified mice allowed the researchers to see the neurons involved in learning new memories, and they found that these memory neurons (the “memory engram”) were equally present in both the control mice and the experimental mice.

    To understand the physiology underlying these memory changes, the study’s first author, Daniel P. Chapman, Ph.D., said, “We are good at associating memories with places, and that’s because being in a place, or seeing a photo of a place, causes a reactivation of our memory engrams. This is why we examined the engram neurons to look for the specific signature of an activated neuron. When the mice see the room where they first learned the memory, the control mice are able to activate their memory engram, but the head impact mice were not. This is what was causing the amnesia.”

    The researchers were able to reverse the amnesia to allow the mice to remember the lost memory using lasers to activate the engram cells. “We used an invasive technique to reverse memory loss in our mice, and unfortunately this is not translatable to humans,” Burns adds. “We are currently studying a number of non-invasive techniques to try to communicate to the brain that it is no longer in danger, and to open a window of plasticity that can reset the brain to its former state.”

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    In addition to Burns and Chapman the authors include Stefano Vicini at Georgetown University and Sarah D. Power and Tomás J. Ryan at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.

    This work was supported by the Mouse Behavior Core in the Georgetown University Neuroscience Department and by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) / National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) grants R01NS107370 & R01NS121316. NINDS also supported F30 NS122281 and the Neural Injury and Plasticity Training Grant housed in the Center for Neural Injury and Recovery at Georgetown University (T32NS041218). Seed funding is from the CTE Research Fund at Georgetown.

    The authors report having no personal financial interests related to the study.

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    Georgetown University Medical Center

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  • Psychology expert available to discuss new “Social Media and Adolescent Health” report

    Psychology expert available to discuss new “Social Media and Adolescent Health” report

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    The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released a new report Wednesday, Dec. 13, on the mental and physical health effects from social media on adolescents. Written by a committee of 11 experts, “Social Media and Adolescent Health,” provides a comprehensive overview of the latest research related to platform design, transparency and accountability, digital media literacy among young people and adults, and online harassment. 

    Douglas A. Gentile, one of the committee members and Distinguished Professor of psychology at Iowa State University, is available to discuss the findings and recommendations.

    “The science documents that there are valid reasons to be concerned about social media and adolescent health, but we are not powerless. There are steps we can take as a country that will help us maximize the benefits while minimizing the potential harms of social media,” says Gentile.

    For the “Social Media and Adolescent Health” report, Gentile made significant contributions to the sections on addiction and problematic use and the chapter on education and training for teachers and physicians, which recommends:

    • The U.S. Department of Education should draw national attention to the importance of comprehensive digital media literacy and state boards of education should set standards for the same in grades K through 12.
    • The Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation should set requirements for digital media literacy education for student teachers and as part of ongoing professional development for veteran teachers. Teacher training interventions should be designed to allow for rigorous evaluation to measure their effectiveness.
    • The Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing, the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, and the Council on Social Work Education should incorporate training on the multiple effects of social media on children’s and adolescents’ well-being into professional education.

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    Iowa State University

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  • Michigan Ross Professor Yesim Orhun Explores Information Preference and Avoidance in New Research

    Michigan Ross Professor Yesim Orhun Explores Information Preference and Avoidance in New Research

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    Newswise — In her recently published research, Yesim Orhun, associate professor of marketing and Michael R. and Mary Kay Hallman Fellow, explores unique insights into what information individuals seek when making important decisions and how policymakers, medical professionals, and business leaders should communicate anxiety-provoking news.  

    Recently published in the American Economic Review, “Intrinsic Information Preferences and Skewness” was co-authored by Orhun and two collaborators – Yusufcan Masatiloglu from the University of Maryland and Collin Raymond from Cornell University.

    Orhun’s research extends precursory research that documents information avoidance. Previous studies have shown that individuals avoid obtaining information in some contexts, even when information can be useful for making better decisions. Information avoidance generally arises in anxiety-provoking situations where the information can be good or bad. For example, in deciding to take a test that will determine whether one will develop a debilitating disease later in life. To protect themselves against the emotional blow of getting bad news, people may choose to remain in the dark instead. Orhun and her collaborators tested the implications of these theories with a focus on the kinds of information people prefer.

    The team conducted experiments on informational preferences in medical testing, intelligence testing, and lotteries. First, they tested a new kind of preference — a preference for skewness. Positively skewed information sources present bad news frequently but with low precision. When they deliver good news, which happens infrequently, you can count on it being generally accurate. Negatively skewed information sources present good news frequently but with low precision, and when they deliver bad news, it’s with higher certainty. Their findings showed that when given the choice, people overwhelmingly prefer positively skewed information sources and often avoid negatively skewed information sources.

    “When we started this project, I expected the majority of people to prefer the negatively skewed information sources over the positively skewed ones because I do. I do not like to get my hopes up high only to get disappointed by reality later. In fact, much of the early discussions about this project related to medical tests I was willing to endure as an expectant mom and my inability to fathom why my husband would not share the same informational preferences. The data settled the debate, which showed that I am in the minority,” said Orhun.

    The team then focused on individuals who rejected obtaining precise information that perfectly predicted the outcome. They found that some information-avoidant individuals will agree to receive positively skewed information. “The most important insight from our paper is that more precise information does not always mean more informed decision-making. People manage their emotions about anxiety-provoking events in the future by choosing the beliefs they want to carry, which is partially managed by which information sources they want to expose themselves to,” said Orhun.

    On avenues for future research, Orhun said, “Our findings raise two fundamental questions for me. First, would people pick different information sources if they had better coping mechanisms for dealing with the emotional impact of reality, such as more social support? Secondly, how should we think about the welfare implications of information? We care about one’s emotional well-being and physical and economic well-being. Information generally leads to better decision-making. Should we force information onto people when they want to avoid it? I think this is where knowing that positively skewed information may increase information uptake really comes in handy.”

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    University of Michigan Ross School of Business

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  • Acne sufferers encounter social and professional stigma, study reveals.

    Acne sufferers encounter social and professional stigma, study reveals.

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    • Brigham researchers found that individuals with darker skin tones and more severe acne were likely to face greater stigma 

    • Researchers note the importance of treating acne as a medical problem and ensuring access to treatment 

     
    Newswise — A new study highlights how stigmatizing attitudes about individuals with acne may influence social and professional perceptions. Led by investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, the study found that individuals with acne face stigmatizing attitudes from the general public in professional and social scenarios. The researchers also found that more severe acne and darker skin tones were associated with a greater degree of stigma. These results, published in JAMA Dermatology, highlight the need to identify ways to reduce stigmatizing attitudes and increase access to care in order to improve the experience of individuals with acne. 
     

    “Our findings show that stigmatizing attitudes about acne can impair quality of life, potentially by affecting personal relationships and employment opportunities,” said corresponding author John Barbieri, MD, MBA, of the Department of Dermatology. “Acne is often wrongly perceived as merely a cosmetic issue. It’s important that people with this medical problem get access to treatment, just like any other condition.” 

    Most teenagers and many adults experience acne at some point in their lifetimes. While previous studies have examined how acne impacts the psychological well-being of individuals, not much is known about public perception and attitudes towards them. 

    ​​​For this study, Barbieri and his team obtained stock portraits of four adults, including males and females of either light or dark skin tone. The researchers digitally altered these pictures to create two additional versions of each with mild and severe acne, resulting in a total pool of 12 portraits. They then performed a cross-sectional internet survey of 1357 participants, who were randomly shown one of the 12 images and asked a set of questions regarding stigmatizing attitudes about the pictured individual. The answer scores for images with acne were compared with the corresponding original image without acne as baseline.  

    The team found that participants were less likely to want to be friends, have close contact, or post a photograph on social media with individuals with severe acne, compared to those without acne. Participants reported a greater desire to socially distance themselves from individuals with acne, particularly if the pictured individual had a darker skin tone. 

    The authors also observed that respondents were more likely to agree with stereotypes about individuals with severe acne, tending to perceive them as unhygienic, unattractive, unintelligent and untrustworthy. This stereotype endorsement was also higher in individuals with darker skin. 

    Participants with past or current acne had less stigmatizing attitudes and only 26.4% believed that acne was a cosmetic issue. Most agreed that acne does not affect only teenagers. 

    The study has some limitations. It was not possible to control for comparisons between images with differences in sex or skin tone (for example, female with light skin tone with severe acne versus male with dark skin tone and no acne). Therefore, the results regarding differences by skin tone could be due to other factors and should be interpreted cautiously. The survey population was mostly white and highly educated, limiting the generalizability of the results.  

    Further studies are required to better understand if the relationship between darker skin tones and stigmatizing attitudes result from underlying structural racism or other factors.  

    “Many insurers poorly cover acne and rosacea treatments, claiming that it’s cosmetic,” Barbieri said. “Our study highlights the need for that narrative to change and for ​​identifying approaches to reduce stigmatizing attitudes in the community.” 

    Authorship: Additional Mass General Brigham co-authors include Ali Shields (BWH), Sophia Ly (BWH), Priya Manjaly (BWH) and Arash Mostaghimi (BWH). 

    Other authors include Michael R. Nock. 

    Disclosures: Dr Mostaghimi reported personal fees from hims & hers, AbbVie, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Pfizer, Digital Diagnostics, Lilly, Equillium, ASLAN Pharmaceuticals, Boehringer Ingelheim, Fig.1 Beauty, Acom Healthcare, and Olaplex outside the submitted work. Dr Barbieri reported personal fees from Dexcel Pharma for consulting outside the submitted work. Dr Barbieri is Associate Editor and Evidence-Based Practice Editor of JAMA Dermatology but was not involved in any of the decisions regarding review of the manuscript or its acceptance. 
     
    Funding: This study was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases of the National Institutes of Health. 

    Paper cited: Shields, Ali et al. “Evaluation of Stigma Toward Individuals With Acne” JAMA Dermatology DOI:10.1001/jamadermatol.2023.4487 

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    Brigham and Women’s Hospital

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  • Taming Noise Behind Bars #Acoustics23

    Taming Noise Behind Bars #Acoustics23

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    SYDNEY, Dec. 6, 2023 – Prisons are typically noisy environments, filled with clanking metal bars and echoing concrete surfaces. This level of constant noise is harmful to both prisoners and staff, but there are few guidelines for designing better, quieter facilities.

    James Boland, an acoustician for SLR Consulting, employed insights from the field of sensory criminology to better understand the unique acoustic needs inside prison environments. His presentation will take place Dec. 6 at 2:40 p.m. Australian Eastern Daylight Time, as part of Acoustics 2023 Sydney, running Dec. 4-8 at the International Convention Centre Sydney.

    “Sensory criminology examines how sensory experiences, such as sight, sound, and touch, influence and shape perceptions of crime and justice,” said Boland. “It emphasizes the impact of auditory elements on the experiences of both prisoners and staff and considers how the constant noise contributes to the overall atmosphere, perceptions, and communication within the prison environment.”

    Auditory guidelines for prisons are often adapted from existing protocols for schools and hospitals. However, prisons are unique environments with different relationships to sound and noise. For instance, both prisoners and staff rely on noise to gauge the level of social tension. A prison that is ‘too quiet’ can sometimes be worse than one that is too loud.

    In the context of prisons, acoustic design can contribute to transforming communication dynamics and alleviating negative social interactions. By focusing on speech intelligibility, strategic reduction of noise levels, and the incorporation of privacy considerations, acoustic design can significantly improve the overall prison environment. Creating distinct zones within the prison and balancing moments of quiet with activity are essential to fostering a more comfortable and secure space.

    “The crux lies in recognizing the significance of ‘noise’ from the perspective of those inhabiting these spaces,” said Boland. “For prisoners, it’s about how sound influences their outlook in terms of power or dynamic safety in their daily lives, while for staff, it becomes a tool for decision-making and maintaining safety for themselves and those under their care.”

    By seeking input from the people who occupy and live in these spaces, Boland hopes to gain an understanding of the complex role of sound inside prisons. Such an understanding could lead to better guidelines for current and future prison facilities, benefiting everyone inside.

    “Ultimately, thoughtful acoustic design in prisons can directly influence the lived experiences of individuals, promoting positive social interactions and supporting rehabilitation efforts,” said Boland.

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    ———————– MORE MEETING INFORMATION ———————–

    The Acoustical Society of America is joining the Australian Acoustical Society to co-host Acoustics 2023 in Sydney. This collaborative event will incorporate the Western Pacific Acoustics Conference and the Pacific Rim Underwater Acoustics Conference.

    Main meeting website: https://acoustics23sydney.org/ 
    Technical program: https://eppro01.ativ.me/src/EventPilot/php/express/web/planner.php?id=ASAFALL23     

    ASA PRESS ROOM

    In the coming weeks, ASA’s Press Room will be updated with newsworthy stories and the press conference schedule at https://acoustics.org/asa-press-room/. 

    LAY LANGUAGE PAPERS

    ASA will also share dozens of lay language papers about topics covered at the conference. Lay language papers are summaries (300-500 words) of presentations written by scientists for a general audience. They will be accompanied by photos, audio, and video. Learn more at https://acoustics.org/lay-language-papers/.

    PRESS REGISTRATION

    ASA will grant free registration to credentialed and professional freelance journalists. If you are a reporter and would like to attend the meeting or virtual press conferences, contact AIP Media Services at [email protected]. For urgent requests, AIP staff can also help with setting up interviews and obtaining images, sound clips, or background information.

    ABOUT THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA

    The Acoustical Society of America (ASA) is the premier international scientific society in acoustics devoted to the science and technology of sound. Its 7,000 members worldwide represent a broad spectrum of the study of acoustics. ASA publications include The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (the world’s leading journal on acoustics), JASA Express Letters, Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, Acoustics Today magazine, books, and standards on acoustics. The society also holds two major scientific meetings each year. See https://acousticalsociety.org/.

    ABOUT THE AUSTRALIAN ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY

    The Australian Acoustical Society (AAS) is the peak technical society for individuals working in acoustics in Australia. The AAS aims to promote and advance the science and practice of acoustics in all its branches to the wider community and provide support to acousticians. Its diverse membership is made up from academia, consultancies, industry, equipment manufacturers and retailers, and all levels of Government. The Society supports research and provides regular forums for those who practice or study acoustics across a wide range of fields The principal activities of the Society are technical meetings held by each State Division, annual conferences which are held by the State Divisions and the ASNZ in rotation, and publication of the journal Acoustics Australia. https://www.acoustics.org.au/ 

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    Acoustical Society of America (ASA)

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  • Over three-fourths of Americans lose sleep due to digital distractions – sleep experts urge a change

    Over three-fourths of Americans lose sleep due to digital distractions – sleep experts urge a change

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    Newswise — As the countdown to the New Year begins, it’s the perfect time to start thinking about fresh starts and new habits, like reducing digital disruptions before bedtime. A recent survey from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine found that 91% of individuals reported they have lost sleep because they stayed up past their bedtime to binge-watch a TV show. Browsing and buying is also keeping people up at night as 75% of respondents have lost sleep because they stayed up past their bedtime to shop online. 

    “Bedtime procrastination is a common problem, as people often stay up later than intended while binge-watching a program or shopping online,” said sleep medicine physician Dr. Alexandre Abreu, a spokesperson for the AASM. “It’s important to prioritize sleep so that you can feel good and perform your best throughout the day.” 

    When having trouble falling asleep, the survey found that half of Americans (50%) watch TV and 45% use their smartphone. More than eight in 10 people (87%) keep their smartphone in the bedroom, often within arm’s reach, making midnight scrolling and late-night binge-watching an enticing habit that can unknowingly compromise sleep duration and quality. 

    “With so many digital distractions vying for our time, it can be tempting to watch one more episode or scroll through one more viral video, but anything that keeps us from getting the recommended seven hours of sleep each night can be harmful to overall health and well-being,” said Abreu.   

    The AASM recommends the following tips to reduce digital disruptions and achieve a better night of sleep: 

    • Disconnect from devices at night—Turn off all electronics at least 30 minutes to an hour before your bedtime to help prepare for sleep. 
    • Leave your phone in another room—It’s tempting to go on your phone, so keep it in a separate room at night. If you use your phone for a morning alarm, consider using an alarm clock instead. 
    • Follow a relaxing nighttime routine—Find something you look forward to doing, like taking a warm bath or shower, reading a book or journaling to help you wind down at the end of the day. 
    • Have a sleep schedule—Go to bed and get up at the same time on a regular basis and hold yourself to it. Don’t let scrolling stop you from getting your precious hours of sleep.
    • Turn off push notifications—If you must have your phone in your bedroom at night, turn off push notifications and sound to avoid distracting alerts. 

    Download these 2023 AASM Sleep Prioritization Survey results in the AASM newsroom. To learn more about the importance of healthy sleep, visit SleepEducation.org. 

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    About the Survey  

    The American Academy of Sleep Medicine commissioned an online survey of 2,005 adults in the U.S. The overall margin of error fell within +/- 2 percentage points with a confidence interval of 95%. Fieldwork took place between March 24-29, 2023. Atomik Research is an independent market research agency. 

    About the American Academy of Sleep Medicine   

    Established in 1975, the AASM advances sleep care and enhances sleep health to improve lives. The AASM has a combined membership of 12,000 accredited sleep centers and individuals, including physicians, scientists and other health care professionals who care for patients with sleep disorders. As the leader in the sleep field, the AASM sets standards and promotes excellence in sleep medicine health care, education and research (aasm.org).  

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    American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM)

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  • Research on adoptees’ parenthood experiences.

    Research on adoptees’ parenthood experiences.

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    Newswise — Parenting is always challenging, but for adopted people becoming a mum or dad can be extra demanding, as well as extra special – according to research from the University of East Anglia.

    A new study is the first in to investigate the lived experiences of adopted people in the UK as they become parents.

    It finds that they are affected by issues that link back to their adoption and to difficult experiences in their past – related to loss, rejection, abuse and neglect.

    Because of these difficult early experiences, many adoptees experience significant challenges, particularly as teenagers and young adults.

    These included mental health problems, emotional and behavioural difficulties, education and employment, relationship problems, and substance misuse.

    But while many people were parenting under the pressure of also trying to manage these challenges, becoming a mum or dad was often a key turning point and a motivation to turn their lives around.

    Lead researcher Prof Beth Neil, from UEA’s School of Social Work, said: “Adoption is a life-changing event, and it is really important to understand how people are affected throughout their whole life – not just in childhood.

    “Becoming a parent is a key life experience, but the research on adopted people becoming parents is very limited and has not tended to include people adopted through the child protection system, or the experiences of adopted men as fathers.

    “We wanted to better understand the issues faced by people who are adopted, as they become parents themselves.”

    The team worked with 20 adopted men and 20 adopted women – who were interviewed about their experiences.

    Most of the participants were in their 20s and 30s and all had been adopted under the age of 12 – with two thirds having been adopted through the child protection system.

    Almost a quarter of the parents in the study were not living with their children – including some who had themselves lost their children to care or adoption.

    Prof Neil said: “We guided them to break down their life into key chapters and talk through the high points, the low points and the turning points that were most significant to them. We wanted to understand adopted people’s life stories in their own words.

    “What we found is that when adopted people become parents, lots of issues can come up that link back to their adoption and to difficult experiences in their past such as issues of loss, rejection, abuse and neglect.

    “For some, having their first child meant meeting the first person in their life that they had a biological connection to. Others were afraid they would not bond with their child or that their child would reject them.

    “Because many of the participants had a history of abuse and neglect, thinking about their birth parents often raised anxieties that they would parent their own child poorly.

    “The flipside of this was the determination to try and break cycles of abuse, and we saw that for many, becoming a parent was a positive turning point.

    “Because the often-difficult backgrounds of the parents, many reported problems in their teenage years and as young adults with mental health, education and employment, substance misuse, relationships with parents and partners.

    “Often these problems were ongoing when they became a mum or dad, threatening their parenting and playing into their biggest fear – that they might repeat negative cycles of neglect or abuse with their own children.

    “Sadly, many adoptees feared that asking for help and expressing worries would lead to scrutiny of their parenting.

    “Most people were managing well in their role as mum and dad, but a minority were still struggling with difficult problems, and a small number of parents had experienced their worst fear – the removal of their own children. For parents who were judged unable to look after their own children, not ‘breaking the cycle’ was devastating.”

    The team say that support for adopted adults with mental health problems is a particularly pressing need, as parental mental health problems are a strong mediating factor in the link between childhood adversity and compromised parenting.

    Where adoptees are still struggling with these issues when they become a parent, then support is needed at that life stage.

    But ideally, the adoption system needs to recognise the need to provide support to adoptive families much earlier on, to prevent the difficulties that often become particularly challenging during the teenage years.

    The study found that identity issues raised by both men and women were very similar. This is important because almost all previous research had focused just on mothers. But fathers also felt deeply about the impact of adoption on their life, and issues linked to adoption came up for them when they became dads.

    “This research highlights the need for more support for adopted people both in childhood and when they become parents themselves,” added Prof Neil.

    This study was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

    ‘How do adopted adults see the significance of adoption and being a parent in their life stories? A narrative analysis of 40 life story interviews with male and female adoptees’ is published in the journal Children and Youth Services Review.

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    University of East Anglia

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  • Not all donors are billionaires: Expert suggests new approach for teaching philanthropy

    Not all donors are billionaires: Expert suggests new approach for teaching philanthropy

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    Not all donors are billionaires, but many faculty teach philanthropy by focusing on wealthy donors. With National Philanthropy Day on Monday, Nov. 12, David Campbell, professor of public administration at Binghamton University, State University of New York, suggests a different approach for teaching philanthropy to young people.

    “Many faculty teach experiential philanthropy courses through the lens of debates about giving largely shaped by the assessment of the role wealthy donors play in civic life. But most of our students will NOT become billionaire (or millionaire donors); rather, they are likely (we hope) simply to become generous individuals, who give regularly to support the issues that are important to them. For me, this has meant reorienting my classes to ask students several core questions and to get them to focus on these questions over the course of the semester:  

    • What responsibility do you (we) have to give to your community?  
    • What core values and experiences motivate your giving? 
    • What would it take to make giving a regular part of your life?  (For students, this is hard, because they are students, and don’t yet have any money to give away)?  
    • What are ways that people of limited means can be generous and still make a difference?”  

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    Binghamton University, State University of New York

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  • Study finds men less inclined to share negative information than women.

    Study finds men less inclined to share negative information than women.

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    Newswise — A new study from Carnegie Mellon University, Bayes Business School (formerly Cass), and Bocconi University has found that men are less eager and likely to share negative information than women, while there was little difference when it comes to positive news.

    Published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, the authors suggest that this may be due to a greater concern among men over how other people will see them, resulting in a tendency to self-promote by sharing positive information about themselves and not revealing their negative experiences to others.

    Dr Erin Carbone, Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Social and Decision Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University and first author of the study, said: “The results from our studies revealed a consistent, and to the best of our knowledge not previously identified, nuanced pattern, wherein the tendency for women to disclose more than men depends crucially on the nature of the information shared. These findings can help make sense of the existing literature, as well as clarify some existing stereotypes, around gender differences in disclosure.”

    Sharing in the digital age

    Most of the existing research on gender differences and information sharing predates the internet. Given that we live in a world where people readily post information on a variety of platforms on a daily basis, this new study offers insights into the way we share, as well as the consequences of sharing, in the digital age.

    To explore gender differences in the sharing of different types of information, the researchers carried out three different experiments with over 1,000 people. In the first study, people self-reported times when they felt like they were “dying” to disclose information to others, then indicated whether they actually had shared the information. Although men and women generated similar numbers of instances of wanting to share positive information (e.g., about a promotion), men were far less likely to report wanting to share negative information (e.g., a failure to receive a promotion).  Two further studies enabled the team to quantify the desire to disclose and aggregate participants’ desire as well as their propensity to disclose positive or negative information about different topics and experiences.

    Disclosure patterns

    The study also found that women reported greater satisfaction than men with their own level of disclosure, whereas most male participants reported a greater propensity to withhold information about their thoughts and feelings even when it might have been better to share it with others.

    Professor Irene Scopelliti, Professor of Marketing and Behavioural Science at Bayes Business School (formerly Cass) and one of the authors of the study, said:

    “Disclosure is increasingly prevalent and permanent in the digital age. The advent of social media and digital communication channels has enabled unprecedented levels of information sharing, which is accompanied by an array of social and psychological consequences. Our results show that gender remains an important fault line when it comes to the desire and propensity to disclose negative information, and men may be differentially advantaged by, or vulnerable to, the consequences of information sharing compared to women.”

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  • UAlbany Expert Available to Discuss President Biden’s Executive Order on AI

    UAlbany Expert Available to Discuss President Biden’s Executive Order on AI

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    ALBANY, N.Y. (Nov. 1, 2023) — On Monday, President Biden issued a new executive order on “Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence,” aimed at ensuring the United States leads the way in leveraging the promise of the technology, while also managing the risks.

    The executive order is the first of its kind in the U.S.—requiring new safety assessments, equity and civil rights guidance and research on AI’s impact on the labor market.

    George Berg, an associate professor at the University at Albany’s College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity (CEHC), studies artificial intelligence, machine learning, cybersecurity and maker technologies. 

    Berg calls the executive order a “good first step” toward ensuring that AI use is positive and not disruptive for modern society.

    “As artificial intelligence technology has become more and more successful, it is becoming an increasingly significant part of people’s lives. It has the promise to improve their work, education, and personal lives. It also has strong potential downsides, such as increased chances of threats to personal privacy, legal rights, employment prospects, and even health.

    “The President’s executive order does not limit the innovation that drives the amazing advances in these new technologies, but at the same time, it highlights the good and bad that can come from their deployment and points us in the direction of how in the U.S., and worldwide, these technologies should be harnessed to maximize their benefit.”

    Berg is available for phone or live/recorded interviews. UAlbany has an on-campus television studio available for remote interviews.

    About the University at Albany: 

    The University at Albany is one of the most diverse public research institutions in the nation and a national leader in educational equity and social mobility. As a Carnegie-classified R1 institution, UAlbany faculty and students are advancing our understanding of the world in fields such as artificial intelligence, atmospheric and environmental sciences, business, education, public health, social sciences, criminal justice, humanities, emergency preparedness, engineering, public administration, and social welfare. Our courses are taught by an accomplished roster of faculty experts with student success at the center of everything we do. Through our parallel commitments to academic excellence, scientific discovery and service to community, UAlbany molds bright, curious and engaged leaders and launches great careers. 

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    University at Albany, State University of New York

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  • Stress in America 2023: A nation grappling with psychological impacts of collective trauma

    Stress in America 2023: A nation grappling with psychological impacts of collective trauma

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    Newswise — U.S. society appears to be experiencing the psychological impacts of a collective trauma in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the results of a new survey by the American Psychological Association. Psychologists warn that a superficial characterization of life being “back to normal” is obscuring the post-traumatic effects on mental and physical health.   The long-term stress sustained since the COVID-19 pandemic began has had a significant impact on well-being, evidenced by a significant increase in reported mental health conditions and chronic illnesses, according to the results of Stress in America™ 2023, a nationwide survey conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of APA among more than 3,000 U.S. adults age 18+.  

    The survey revealed that those ages 35 to 44 reported the most significant increase in chronic health conditions since the pandemic — 58% in 2023 compared with 48% in 2019. Adults ages 35 to 44 also experienced the highest increase in mental health diagnoses — 45% reported a mental illness in 2023 compared with 31% in 2019 — though adults ages 18 to 34 still reported the highest rate of mental illnesses at 50% in 2023. Adults ages 35 to 44 were more likely to report that money (77% vs. 65%) and the economy (74% vs. 51%) were the factors that cause them significant stress today compared with 2019.

    “The COVID-19 pandemic created a collective experience among Americans. While the early pandemic lockdowns may seem like the distant past, the aftermath remains,” said Arthur C. Evans Jr., PhD, APA’s chief executive officer. “We cannot ignore the fact that we have been significantly changed by the loss of more than one million Americans, as well as the shift in our workplaces, school systems and culture at large. To move toward post-traumatic growth, we must first identify and understand the psychological wounds that remain.”

    APA psychologists noted that many people had generally positive perceptions of their physical health even when they reported being diagnosed with a chronic condition. More than four in five adults rated their physical health as good, very good or excellent (81%), yet 66% of adults said they have been told by a health care provider that they have a chronic illness.

    Furthermore, 81% of adults reported their mental health as good, very good or excellent, while more than one-third (37%) said they have a diagnosed mental health condition — a 5 percentage point increase from pre-pandemic levels in 2019 (32%).  

    The majority of adults also downplayed their stress; 67% said their problems aren’t “bad enough” to be stressed about, knowing that others have it worse. When asked why they don’t seek treatment, adults’ top reasons were the belief that therapy doesn’t work (40%), lack of time (39%) or lack of insurance (37%). Despite these reasons, nearly half (47%) said they wish they had someone to help manage their stress, and 62% reported they don’t talk about their stress because they don’t want to burden others.  

    Nearly a quarter of adults (24%) rated their average stress between eight and 10 on a scale of one to 10 where one means little to no stress and 10 means a great deal of stress. This is up from 19% in 2019, before the pandemic. This increase was mirrored across all age groups except those age 65+: 34% of those age 18 to 34 reported this in 2023 (+8 percentage points from 2019); 31% of those 35 to 44 (+10 percentage points); 22% of those 45 to 64 (+4 percentage points); and 9% of those 65+ (-1 percentage point). Parents of children under the age of 18 who ranked their average stress between eight and 10 also saw a significant increase (33% in 2023 vs. 24% in 2019).   

    In 2023, parents were more likely than other adults to report that financial strain increased in their household (46% vs. 34%), that money is a cause of fights in their family (58% vs. 30%) and that they are more likely to feel consumed by worries regarding money (66% vs. 39%). Most troubling is that compared with other adults, parents of children under the age of 18 were more likely to report that on most days their stress is completely overwhelming (48% vs. 26%), they are so stressed they feel numb (42% vs. 22%) or on most days they are so stressed they can’t function (41% vs. 20%).   “Stress affects all systems of the body, so it is crucial that Americans know the serious impacts of stress and what they can do to reduce the effect of stressors in their life, as well as receive help from their health care providers, workplace and support systems to prevent further health crises,” said Evans.

    More information on the survey findings and how to handle stress is available at www.stressinamerica.org. APA psychologists are available for media interviews to discuss these findings and provide science-based recommendations on how to address the ongoing mental health crisis in the U.S.

     

    METHODOLOGY

    The research was conducted online in the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of the American Psychological Association among 3,185 adults age 18+ who reside in the U.S. (i.e., a national sample). In addition, oversamples allowed for increased totals by race/ethnicity: 805 Black, 811 Latino/a/e and 800 Asian individuals. For adults who identify as Latino/a/e, interviews were conducted in English and Spanish. The survey was conducted Aug. 4 – 26, 2023. 

    Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in Harris’ surveys. The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured by using a Bayesian credible interval. For this study, the sample data for the national sample is accurate to within + 2.5 percentage points using a 95% confidence level. This credible interval will be wider among subsets of the surveyed population of interest.

    A full methodology is available.

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    American Psychological Association (APA)

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  • Largest-Ever Genetic Study of Suicide Finds New Risk Factors

    Largest-Ever Genetic Study of Suicide Finds New Risk Factors

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    BYLINE: Caroline Seydel

    Newswise — The reasons why people attempt suicide are complex and include external triggers like trauma and stress, as well as inherited genetic factors. A new study has identified 12 DNA variants, or variations in the human genetic code, that are associated with risk of attempting suicide. The research highlights strong genetic links between suicide attempt and factors that influence physical and behavioral health—including impulsivity, smoking, chronic pain, ADHD, pulmonary conditions, and heart disease. These findings suggest that some of the genetic underpinnings of suicide are shared with these conditions.

    One day, this information could lead to a better understanding of biological causes of suicide and improvements in prevention strategies. Eventually, such advances could help health care providers identify people who may need mental health support.

    “Many people who die from suicide have significant health conditions associated with that risk,” says Anna Docherty, Ph.D., the study’s corresponding author and associate professor of psychiatry at Huntsman Mental Health Institute at the University of Utah. “If we can use genetic information to characterize the health risks of those who attempt suicide, we can better identify those patients who need contact with the mental health care system.” The research published online on October 1 in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

    Scientists at HMHI, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham Veterans Affairs Health Care System, and Vanderbilt University Medical Center led the collaboration with multiple institutions worldwide. They analyzed data from 22 different populations across the globe, including people of diverse ancestral and ethnic backgrounds.

    Understanding genetic risk of suicide

    No single gene causes suicide. Rather, the cumulative effect of many different genes influences a person’s risk. “In psychiatry, we have many tiny genetic effects, but when we account for all of them together, we start to see a real genetic risk signal,” Docherty explains.

    To tease out such a diffuse signal, researchers applied statistical methods to data collected from a large number of people and identified genetic variations that are more common among individuals who have attempted suicide. The new analysis combines data from the Million Veteran Program (MVP) and the International Suicide Genetics Consortium (ISGC). Together, these include 43,871 documented suicide attempts and 915,025 ancestry-matched controls, making this the largest genetic study of suicide to date.

    A meta-analysis of the studies identified new genetic variants that correlated with suicide attempt. The researchers then compared all variant signals with previously published genetic data on more than 1,000 other traits and disorders, including psychiatric conditions (e.g., ADHD), physical conditions (e.g., heart disease), and behaviors (e.g., smoking), and determined that genetic variants linked to suicide attempt are also linked to other health conditions.

    “That allowed us to look at how genetic risk for suicide overlaps with genetic risk for depression, heart disease, and many other risk factors,” Docherty says. “It showed significant overlap with mental health conditions, but also a lot of physical health conditions, particularly for smoking and lung-related illnesses. This is something we can’t necessarily see in medical records of people who die from suicide.”

    The results do not mean that people with any one of these health factors are at high risk for attempting suicide, notes Hillary Coon, Ph.D., study co-author and professor of psychiatry at HMHI. Rather, combining the genetic predisposition with other stressors—which could include other genetic risk factors, health conditions, life circumstances, or traumatic events—could increase that risk, she explains.

    Initial analyses support the idea that many of the DNA variants that the scientists identified are located in genes with known biological functions, bolstering the case that changes in these genes could affect a person’s physiology or behavior. Several of the genes control processes in cells such as managing cellular stress, repairing damaged DNA, and communicating with the immune system. Most are also highly expressed in the brain and are known targets of antipsychotic and antidepressant drugs.

    Scientists will need to carry out additional studies to determine whether the variants directly or indirectly impact suicide risk, and how. The research so far has shown an association and not cause and effect.

    Understanding how suicide is linked to other health conditions could open doors to new ways of assessing—and treating—suicide risk, Docherty adds. “We want to start to explore the biological underpinnings that are common across suicide and these health factors, because that will lead to the most convincing drug targets,” she says.

    # # #

    The research published as “Genome-wide association study meta-analysis of suicide attempt identifies twelve genome-wide significant loci and implicates genetic risks for specific health factors” with support from the National Institutes of Health, Huntsman Mental Health Institute, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Janssen Research and Development, LLC, Clark Tanner Research Foundation, Clinical Science Research and Development Sevice of the Veterans Health Administraton Officde of Research and Development, and the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation.

    About Huntsman Mental Health Institute  

    Huntsman Mental Health Institute (HMHI) was established in 2021 following the Huntsman Foundation’s historic gift of $150 million to the University of Utah. HMHI is a university-wide Institute with a reputation throughout the Mountain West as a leader in advanced psychiatric treatment and care, serving a diverse population from young children to geriatric patients. Researchers at HMHI develop and apply the most advanced methods in genetics, imaging, epidemiology, and big data analysis. HMHI is also the regional training center for psychiatry and other mental health disciplines. HMHI’s main 170-bed full-service hospital is adjacent to the University of Utah campus, and HMHI’s 1,644 faculty, staff, and students provide clinical, research, and training programs in more than 20 locations across Utah and Idaho.   

    For more information, visit HMHI.utah.edu and join the conversation on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Facebook. 

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  • Increased risk of depression and anxiety when in higher education

    Increased risk of depression and anxiety when in higher education

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    Newswise — Young people who are in higher education in England face a small increased risk of depression and anxiety, compared to their peers who are not attending higher education, finds a new study led by UCL researchers.

    The research paper, published in The Lancet Public Health, is the first to find evidence of higher levels of depression and anxiety among higher education students compared with their peers.

    The authors found that by age 25, the difference had disappeared between graduates and non-graduates.

    Lead author Dr Gemma Lewis (UCL Psychiatry) said: “In recent years in the UK we have seen an increase in mental health problems among young people, so there has been an increased focus on how to support students. Here we have found concerning evidence that students may have a higher risk of depression and anxiety than their peers of the same age who are not in higher education.

    “The first couple of years of higher education are a crucial time for development, so if we could improve the mental health of young people during this time it could have long term benefits for their health and wellbeing, as well as for their educational achievement and longer-term success.”

    The researchers used data from the Longitudinal Studies of Young People in England (LSYPE1 and LSYPE2). The first study included 4,832 young people born in 1989-90, who were aged 18-19 in the years 2007-9. The second study included 6,128 participants born in 1998-99, who were aged 18-19 in the years 2016-18 (i.e., prior to the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic). In both studies, just over half attended higher education.

    Participants in the studies have completed surveys about their general mental health, to investigate symptoms of depression, anxiety, and social dysfunction, at multiple time points over the years.

    The researchers found a small difference in symptoms of depression and anxiety at age 18-19 between students (including those at university and other higher education institutions) and non-students.

    This association persisted after adjustment for potentially confounding factors including, among others, socioeconomic status, parents’ education, and alcohol use.

    The analysis suggests that if the potential mental health risks of attending higher education were eliminated, the incidence of depression and anxiety could potentially be reduced by 6% among people aged 18-19.

    First author Dr Tayla McCloud (UCL Psychiatry) said: “Based on our findings, we cannot say why students might be more at risk of depression and anxiety than their peers, but it could be related to academic or financial pressure. This increased risk among students has not been found in studies in the past, so if the association has only recently emerged, it may be related to increased financial pressures and worries about achieving high results in the wider economic and social context.

    “We would have expected higher education students to have better mental health than their non-student peers as they tend to be from more privileged backgrounds on average, so these results are particularly concerning. More research is needed to clarify the mental health risks facing students.

    “Improving our understanding of modifiable risk factors for depression and anxiety is a global health priority, and it is clear that supporting the mental health of our young people is vitally important.”

    The study was commissioned and funded by England’s Department for Education.

    Notes to editors

    For more information or to speak to the researchers involved, please contact Chris Lane, UCL Media Relations. T: +44 (0)20 7679 9222 / +44 (0)7717 728 648, E: [email protected]   

    Dr Tayla McCloud; Mr Strahil Kamenov; Prof Claire Callender; Prof Glyn Lewis; Dr Gemma Lewis, ‘The association between higher education attendance and common mental health problems among young people in England: evidence from two population-based cohorts’ will be published in The Lancet Public Health on Thursday 28 September 2023, 23:30 UK time / 18:30 US Eastern time and is under a strict embargo until this time.

    The paper will be published at https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(23)00188-3/fulltext and the DOI will be 10.1016/S2468-2667(23)00188-3.

    Mental health and wellbeing support for UCL students:

    • Prevention is a key competent to mental health and wellbeing support at UCL with a year-round events programme, including workshops on perfectionism, imposter syndrome, importance of sleep and personal safety and activities such as sunrise walks, meditation, laugher workshops and many more, equipping students with the tools to manage their own mental health and wellbeing throughout the evitable highs and lows of student life.
    • All undergraduate first-years are assigned a Student Adviser. Student Advisers sit within the academic department and offer 1-2-1 support for students, to help transition into university life and offer support for wellbeing or student experience matters.  
    • All UCL students can access up to six free sessions of counselling through our Student Psychological and Counselling Services.
    • UCL offers 24/7 free, confidential counselling services in over 35 languages, accessed via UCL’s 24/7 Student Support Line. Students can speak to an adviser who can help through any issues, including but not limited to feeling anxious or stressed, money worries, cultural differences, homesickness, addiction, relationship difficulties, bereavement, bullying, harassment and/or sexual harassment – anything impacting mental health, wellbeing or time at UCL. 
    • The advisers reflect the diverse range of backgrounds needed from our students, with options to speak to a male/female adviser, a BAME adviser or an adviser with additional training in LGBTQ+ related issues. 
    • Current students can also make a same day appointment with UCL’s Support and Wellbeing Team by askUCL or phoning the team directly on +44 (0) 20 3108 8836.
    • More information on our support and wellbeing services available for students: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/students/support-and-wellbeing
    • Report + Support is UCL’s online tool for current and former students and staff to report bullying, harassment and sexual misconduct, and it includes the option to report anonymously or on the record.
    • UCL is one of five universities nationally that qualified for the University Mental Health Charter Award which recognises its commitment to continuous improvement in mental health and wellbeing.

    About UCL – London’s Global University

    UCL is a diverse global community of world-class academics, students, industry links, external partners, and alumni. Our powerful collective of individuals and institutions work together to explore new possibilities.

    Since 1826, we have championed independent thought by attracting and nurturing the world’s best minds. Our community of more than 50,000 students from 150 countries and over 16,000 staff pursues academic excellence, breaks boundaries and makes a positive impact on real world problems.

    The Times and Sunday Times University of the Year 2024, we are consistently ranked among the top 10 universities in the world and are one of only a handful of institutions rated as having the strongest academic reputation and the broadest research impact.

    We have a progressive and integrated approach to our teaching and research – championing innovation, creativity and cross-disciplinary working. We teach our students how to think, not what to think, and see them as partners, collaborators and contributors.  

    For almost 200 years, we are proud to have opened higher education to students from a wide range of backgrounds and to change the way we create and share knowledge.

    We were the first in England to welcome women to university education and that courageous attitude and disruptive spirit is still alive today. We are UCL.

    www.ucl.ac.uk | Follow @uclnews on Twitter | Read news at www.ucl.ac.uk/news/ | Listen to UCL podcasts on SoundCloud | View images on Flickr | Find out what’s on at UCL Minds

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  • Naming and Shaming Can be Effective to Get Countries to Act on Climate

    Naming and Shaming Can be Effective to Get Countries to Act on Climate

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    Newswise — Enforcement is one of the biggest challenges to international cooperation on mitigating climate change in the Paris Agreement. The agreement has no formal enforcement mechanism; instead, it is designed to be transparent so countries that fail to meet their obligations will be named and thus shamed into changing behavior. A new study from the University of California San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy shows that this naming-and-shaming mechanism can be an effective incentive for many countries to uphold their pledges to reduce emissions.

    The study, appearing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), assesses the naming and shaming built into the 2015 Paris Agreement through its Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF). The ETF requires nations to publicly report their goals and progress toward meeting those goals. The study suggests that the ETF is most effective at motivating countries with the strongest commitments to slowing climate change.

    “The architects of the Paris Agreement knew that powerful enforcement mechanisms, like trade sanctions, wouldn’t be feasible,” said study coauthor David Victor, professor of industrial innovation at UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy and co-director of the Deep Decarbonization Initiative. “Most analysts assumed the agreement would fail to be effective without strong enforcement and are skeptical of naming and shaming. Our research suggests that pessimism is wrong. Naming and shaming is built into the system and our study shows that the policy experts who are most knowledgeable about Paris see this mechanism working well—at least for some countries.”

    Naming and shaming doesn’t work everywhere, the study shows; however, it is particularly important for countries that are already highly motivated to act. Even those countries need a spotlight on their behavior, lest they slip and fail to comply with the obligations they set for themselves under the Paris Agreement. 

    In Europe—where countries have the most ambitious and credible climate pledges—the surge in energy prices and interruptions in Russian gas supply created incentives to retain higher-emission energy technologies, such as coal. International visibility and political pressures within those countries plausibly help explain why European policymakers have kept emissions in alignment with their previously committed climate goals.

    In the U.S., naming and shaming is likely to be effective as well, but not to the same degree as in Europe, the study shows.

    “This raises some concern about the ability to maintain the momentum generated by the Inflation Reduction Act under less favorable conditions, such as rising interest rates,” said Emily Carlton, study coauthor and UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy alum.

    Study taps expert opinions of top climate negotiators from around the world

    The findings in the new PNAS study are derived from responses from a sample of registrants of the Conference of Parties (COP), consisting of more than 800 diplomatic and scientific experts who, for decades, have participated in climate policy debates. This expert group is critical to understanding how political institutions shape climate policy because they are the people “in the room” when key policy decisions are made. They are in a unique position to evaluate what is most likely to motivate their countries to act on climate.

    They were asked questions such as: is the ETF in the agreement effective? Do they support the use of the ETF, and is it a legitimate way to enforce the Paris Agreement?

    Overall, 77% of the sample agreed with using naming and shaming—that is, using the ETF for comparing countries’ mitigation efforts. The results further indicate that 57% of all respondents expect naming and shaming to substantially affect the climate policy performance of their home country—where they know the policy environment best.

    While survey respondents’ country of origin was kept anonymous to elicit the most candid responses possible, the respondents that think naming and shaming is most effective are more likely to be from democracies with high-quality political institutions. In addition, these individuals come from countries with strong internal concern about climate change and ambitious and credible international climate commitments, such as countries in Europe.

    The study finds naming and shaming is likely least effective for countries that lack strong democratic institutions, such as some large emitters like China.

    While the inability for naming and shaming to work effectively within the countries least motivated for climate action creates tension, the study does provide a hopeful narrative for enforcing cooperation on climate, according to the authors.

    “It is a really good thing that naming and shaming can keep the most climate-motivated countries on track because decarbonizing is hard and changes in circumstances and energy markets can make it even harder,” said Carlton. “Countries in Europe are some of the biggest emitters and as we saw recently, policymakers could have easily switched back to coal after the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but they did not.”

    Who should be the “namers and shamers” and who is most effective at it?

    The survey respondents were also asked which institutions should be responsible for naming and shaming. The results overwhelmingly indicated the preference for namers and shamers to be scientists, as well as neutral international organizations such as the United Nations (U.N.) and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). However, past studies have found that both diplomatic and science organizations like the U.N. and IPCC are actually ineffective at naming and shaming.

    “It is not something that these organizations do,” Carlton said. “They are positioned to try to get countries to cooperate and it’s just not a function of theirs to put countries on blast in a judgmental way. That is something you see done more effectively from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the media.”

    While naming and shaming is a mechanism that makes cooperation work, the authors believe that other strategies such as trade sanctions may be useful as well. They explored this topic in a recent study.  

    Coauthors of the PNAS paper, “Naming and Shaming as a Strategy for Enforcing the Paris Agreement: The Role of Political Institutions and Public Concern,” include Astrid Dannenberg of University of Kassel and the University of Gothenburg and Marcel Lumkowsky of the University of Kassel.

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  • What’s love got to do with it? An exception to the recognition of musical themes

    What’s love got to do with it? An exception to the recognition of musical themes

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    Newswise — New Haven, Conn. — Music can take on many forms in cultures across the globe, but Yale researchers have found in a new study that some themes are universally recognizable by people everywhere with one notable exception — love songs.

    “All around the world, people sing in similar ways,” said senior author Samuel Mehr, who splits his time between the Yale Child Study Center, where he is an assistant professor adjunct, and the University of Auckland, where he is senior lecturer in psychology. “Music is deeply rooted in human social interaction.”

    For the new study, published Sept. 7 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Yale researchers played 14-second snippets of vocals from a bank of songs that originated from a host of cultures to more than 5,000 people from 49 countries. The research team included subjects not only from the industrialized world, but more than 100 individuals who live in three small, relatively isolated groups of no more than 100.

    They then asked the listeners to rank the likelihood of each sample as being one of four music types: dance, lullabies, “healing” music, or love music.

    Unlike most psychology experiments, which are conducted in one language, this experiment was performed in 31 languages. Yet regardless of the language used in the survey, people from all cultures could easily identify dance music, lullabies, and, to a lesser extent, even music created to heal. Recognition of what the researchers identified as love songs, however, lagged these other categories.

    For instance, when we they analyzed responses based on language groupings, they found that 27 of the 28 groups correctly rated dance songs as more appropriate for dancing than other songs. All 28 of the groups were able to identify lullabies. But only 12 of the 28 groups were able to identify love songs.

    Why the difficulty in identifying musical themes about love?

    “One reason for this could be that love songs may be a particularly fuzzy category that includes songs that express happiness and attraction, but also sadness and jealousy,” said lead author  Lidya Yurdum, who works as research assistant at the Yale Child Study Center and is also a graduate student at the University of Amsterdam. “Listeners who heard love songs from neighboring countries and in languages related to their own actually did a little better, likely because of the familiar linguistic and cultural clues.”

    But other than love songs, the authors discovered, the listeners’ “ratings were largely accurate, consistent with one another, and not explained by their linguistic or geographical proximity to the singer — showing that musical diversity is underlain by universal psychological phenomena.” 

    “Our minds have evolved to listen to music. It is not a recent invention,” Yurdum said. “But if we only study songs from the western world and listeners from the western world, we can only draw conclusions about the western world — not humans in general.”

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    Yale University

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  • New data shed light on aphantasia, the inability to visualize.

    New data shed light on aphantasia, the inability to visualize.

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    Newswise — The ability to visualize faces, objects, landscapes, or even scenes from the past exists on a spectrum. While some can picture the layout of a city in minute detail and mentally walk through it, street by street, others have a perfectly blank internal cinema. In this case, we speak of aphantasia—the inability to voluntarily produce the visual mental image corresponding to an idea.

    People whose aphantasia is congenital—i.e., not due to a stroke, brain injury, or psychiatric illness—become aware of their peculiarity reasonably late in life. Indeed, this small deficit in visualization does not cause any handicap, and they have no reason to suspect they are atypical. Nor do they realize that at the other end of the spectrum are hyperphantasic individuals who can produce mental images as precise as illustrations in a book.

    “Talking to these people is fascinating. We tend to think that access to visual perception, conceptualization, and memory is the same for everyone. Nothing could be further from the truth,” Paolo Bartolomeo, neurologist and researcher at Paris Brain Institute, says. “Aphantasics cannot mentally picture what their parents, friends, or partner look like when they are away. But they can still describe the physical characteristics of their loved ones: this visual information has been stored, in one way or another”.

    Visual mental imagery in question

    There is currently a lively debate about the origin of aphantasia. Is it linked to a perceptual deficit? Emotional and psychological factors? A slight difficulty in accessing one’s sensations? To answer this question, Paolo Bartolomeo and Jianghao Liu, a doctoral student in the “Neurophysiology and Functional Neuroimaging” team at Paris Brain Institute, recruited 117 volunteers—including 44 aphantasics, 31 hyperphantasics and 42 people with typical mental imagery—and gave them a mental imagery and visual perception test.

    “Our test, called the Imagination Perception Battery (BIP), is designed to assess the link between perception and mental imagery through the different visual qualities that enable a scene to be described—such as shape, color, position in space, presence of words or faces“, Jianghao Liu explains.

    Participants were asked to look at a blank screen. At the same time, an off-screen voice announced a visual quality (such as ‘shape’), followed by two words corresponding to concepts they had to materialize in their minds as accurately as possible (‘beaver’ and ‘fox’ for example). The voice also gave them a qualifier (such as ‘long’); then, the participants were asked to decide which of the beaver or fox best matched the epithet ‘long’.

    The speed and relevance of responses were recorded, and the respondents were asked to assess the quality of the mental image they had—or had not—managed to produce from the description. Finally, they had to take a perception test in which the stimuli were presented in a visual format: the long fox appeared in the form of an image accompanied by its audio description without the participants having to picture it.

    When imagination takes its time

    “Our results indicate that the performance of people with aphantasia is equivalent to other groups in terms of perception and the ability to associate a concept with its representation,” Liu comments. “With one exception! Aphantasics are, on average, slower than hyperphantasics and typical imagers when it comes to processing visual information, particularly shapes and colors. They also have little confidence in the accuracy of their answers”.

    Previous studies have shown that aphantasics are just as quick as other people to answer questions that require manipulating abstract concepts. Therefore, only the processing of visual information is delayed for them. How can this phenomenon be explained?

    “Participants in the aphantasic group perceive elements of reality accurately and show no deficits in memory and language processing. We believe that they present a slight defect of what we call phenomenal consciousness. This means that they have access to information about shapes, colors, and spatial relationships—but that this visual information does not translate into a visual mental image in conscious experience”, Bartolomeo says. “This peculiarity is probably compensated by other cognitive strategies, such as mental lists of visual characteristics, which allow aphantasics to remember everything they have seen.”

    The future of perception

    These preliminary results are limited by the data collection method, which consisted of an online questionnaire. However, they put us on a promising track to understand how visual mental imagery works. Future studies could reveal the neural mechanisms underlying these observations and, ultimately, help us to understand the visualization deficits specific to stroke patients.

    “We also hope to develop interventional tools for certain psychiatric illnesses, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which is characterized by the eruption of images from traumatic memories. If we could rid patients of these intrusive mental images, it would greatly promote their recovery”, Liu concludes.

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    Institut du Cerveau (Paris Brain Institute)

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  • To close the gap at the top, start with the bottom

    To close the gap at the top, start with the bottom

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    Newswise — Ames, IA — Twenty years ago, the National Football League adopted the Rooney Rule. It attempted to address racial disparity in top positions by requiring teams to interview at least one person of color for every head coach opening.

    But newly published research suggests the gap will persist unless it’s closed at the bottom. The NFL has a hierarchal labor pool, explains Andreas Schwab, co-author and associate professor of entrepreneurship at Iowa State University. Under the head coach are two coordinators who oversee defense and offense. These coordinators supervise position-specific coaches who may have their own assistant coaches.

    “To become a head coach, individuals need to move through the ranks. This paper shows that where you start in the hierarchy of coaching matters because the likelihood that coaches in that position get promoted to the next level differs,” says Schwab.

    The researchers found 79% of the promotions to head coach were from the coordinator position. While the data shows no racial disparity in promotions from coordinator to head coach, white coaches were twice as likely to be promoted from a lower-level position to a coordinator position.

    “The lower level feeds the top. If bias is embedded in the entire process, then it’s difficult to get the most capable candidates into the pool for the top position,” he explains.

    Big data dive

    The researchers collected and analyzed the career history data of more than 1,300 NFL coaches from all 32 teams between 1985 and 2015. They compared coaches who played the same position, started their careers coaching the same position, and performed equivalently based on a wide-range of objective performance measures, including:

    • Percentage of games won by the team when the coach had a chance of being promoted.
    • Offensive or defensive performance related to each coach’s primary responsibilities.
    • Coaching position-specific performance based on 52 metrics.

    The researchers also ruled out alternative explanations based on remaining differences between teams and coaches. This included whether coaches had worked for a team that went to the Super Bowl and had relatives who also coached in the NFL.

    Taking all these factors into account, the researchers found persistent racial bias in both the hiring and promoting of lower-level coaches.

    “These data analyses show where biases are hiding, and once we know that, we can think about interventions and measure their effectiveness,” says Schwab.

    The researchers say parity will be achieved only by rewarding coaches equally with promotions at the earliest stages of their careers. But Schwab emphasizes that there are no easy, quick fixes and any intervention requires adequate time to have an effect.

    Beyond the NFL

    Schwab says the NFL offers a unique opportunity to study bias in organizations. Along with a large amount of objective performance data, it provides transparency in the hiring, firing and promoting of coaching staff for an entire industry.

    In other industries, a lack of data and more subjective performance metrics often prevent solid statistical analyses of employee careers, even though biases are likely “just as relevant in other organizations,” says Schwab. “Beyond providing entertainment, the NFL can help us as a society to better understand and manage employee hiring and promotion processes.”

    Schwab co-authored the paper with Christopher Rider, University of Michigan; James Wade, George Washington University; and Anand Swaminathan, Emory University.

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    Iowa State University

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  • New study shows algorithms promote bias–and that consumers cooperate

    New study shows algorithms promote bias–and that consumers cooperate

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    Newswise — Just watched a rom-com on Netflix? Well, now there are “top picks” just like it in your queue, thanks to the streaming service’s matching system.

    Every time you engage with Amazon, Facebook, Instagram, Netflix and other online sites, algorithms are busy behind the scenes chronicling your activities and queuing up recommendations tailored to what they know about you. The invisible work of algorithms and recommendation systems spares people from a deluge of information and ensures they receive relevant responses to searches.

    But Sachin Banker says a new study shows that subtle gender biases shape the information served up to consumers. The Journal of Consumer Psychology published the study, which was co-authored by Shelly Rathee, Arul Mishra and Himanshu Mishra.

    “Everything you’re consuming online is filtered through some kind of recommendation system,” said Banker, an assistant professor of marketing in the David Eccles School of Business, “and what we’re interested in understanding is whether there are subtle biases in the types of information that are presented to different people and how this affects behavior.”

    Banker, who researches how people interact with technology, said gender bias is relatively easy to study because Facebook provides information about that social characteristic. And it is not necessarily surprising that algorithms, which make word associations based by all the texts on the internet, pick up biases since they exist in human language. The bigger questions are to what extent is this happening and what are the consequences.

    In their multi-step study, the  researchers first demonstrated that gender biases embedded in language are incorporated in algorithms—associating women with negative psychographic attributes such as  impulsivity, financially irresponsibility and irrationality.

    The team then tweaked a single word in an ad—“responsible” versus “irresponsible”—to see who subsequently received it; they found ads with negative psychographic attributes were more likely to be delivered to women even though there was no basis for such differentiation.

    It’s a self-perpetuating loop, the researchers found, because undiscerning consumers reinforce the algorithmic gender bias by often clicking on the ads and accepting the recommendations they receive.

    “There are actual consequences of this bias in the marketplace,” Banker said. “We’ve shown that people are split into different kinds of consumption bubbles and that influences your thoughts and behaviors and reinforces historical biases.”

    For online technology companies, the study indicates a greater need for proactive work to minimize gender bias in algorithms used to serve up consumer ads and recommendations, Banker said. People advertising products may want to test an ad before launch to detect any subtle bias that might affect delivery. And consumers should be aware of the biases at play as they scroll through their feeds and visit online sites and engage in healthy skeptism about ads and recommendations.

    Most people, he said, don’t totally understand how these things work because the online giants don’t disclose much about their algorithms, though Amazon appears to be providing more information to consumers about the recommendations they receive.

    And while this study focused on gender bias, Banker said biases likely exist for other social characteristics, such as age, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, etc.

     

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    University of Utah

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  • Nematodes joy ride across electric voltages

    Nematodes joy ride across electric voltages

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    Newswise — Hokkaido University researchers found that tiny nematode worm larvae surf electric fields to hitch rides on passing insects.

    Many living organisms are known to make use of electric fields. Some fish species use them to detect predators or prey, and insects such as bees use them to attract pollen while foraging. Now, a research group including scientists from Hokkaido University has discovered that juvenile nematode worms can surf electric fields to leap through the air and hitch a ride on passing insects. Their findings have been published in the journal Current Biology.

    Nematodes are one of many species that rely on larger animals to help them travel and disperse, an interaction called phoresy. They have been observed lifting themselves up on the tips of their tails (nictation), thus reducing their surface connection, to make it easier to attach themselves to a passing organism.

    To explore how they achieve this, the research team bred the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans on dog food in a petri dish. They noticed that the larvae of the nematode, called dauer larvae, consistently moved to the lid of the dish. Some of the larvae reached the lid by crawling up the side of the dish, and others appeared on the lid in a fraction of a second.

    “To more directly confirm the leap of C. elegans dauer larvae and to see how the worms leap in the dish and the characteristics of the leaping action, we observed a worm leaping in the Petri dish with a high-speed camera,” says Associate Professor Katsuhiko Sato at the Research Institute for Electronic Science, Hokkaido University, corresponding author of the study.

    This showed that the larvae kept its body quite straight before the leap, and a single dauer larvae engaged in this behavior could also carry several other larvae with it in a leap.

    The research team speculated that the nematode larvae might be using electrostatic forces to travel across the millimeters-wide gap between the substrate and the lid of the petri dish. They set up an experiment using a petri dish filled with agar and studded with tiny glass electrodes, with a separate glass electrode set up parallel to it. The larvae were placed on the agar, and the researchers applied different voltages to the two sets of electrodes to see how the larvae would behave.

    When no electric charge was applied, the larvae did not leap. But when an electric field above a certain voltage was applied, the nematodes leapt from one electrode to another at an average speed just under one meter per second.

    They then performed a second experiment using the bumblebee Bombus terrestris, which is known to use electrostatic charge to help it collect pollen, and saw the same leaping behavior when the bumblebee came with one to two millimeters of the nematode larvae.

    “Although C. elegans has not been reported to attach to bees, it is known to attach to flying insects such as moths and flies in the wild,” Sato notes. “We assume that C. elegans uses electric interactions to attach to insects, including bumblebees, in the wild.”

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    Hokkaido University

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