Tag: Behavioral Science

How people feel about their sleep matters to their well-being, new research suggests

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How people feel about their sleep has a greater impact on their well-being than what sleep-tracking technology says about their sleep quality, research led by the University of Warwick has found.

Across a two-week period, over 100 participants aged 18-22 years were asked to keep a daily sleep diary about the previous night’s sleep, including what time they went to bed, time they got ready to fall asleep, the amount of time it took them to fall asleep, what time they woke up, what time they got out of bed, and how satisfied they were with their sleep in general.

Five times throughout the following day, participants were asked to rate their positive and negative emotions and how satisfied they were with their life. Participants also wore an actigraph on their wrist which measures a person’s movement, for the duration of the study, to estimate their sleep patterns and rest cycles.

Researchers compared the actigraphy data with the participants’ perceptions of their sleep and how they felt throughout the following day. They wanted to find out how fluctuations from people’s usual sleep patterns and quality are related to their mood and life satisfaction the next day.

Lead author Dr Anita Lenneis, from the University of Warwick’s Department of Psychology, said: “Our results found that how young people evaluated their own sleep was consistently linked with how they felt about their well-being and life satisfaction.

“For example, when participants reported that they slept better than they normally did, they experienced more positive emotions and had a higher sense of life satisfaction the following day. However, the actigraphy-derived measure of sleep quality which is called sleep efficiency was not associated with next day’s well-being at all.

“This suggests there is a difference between actigraphy-measured sleep efficiency and people’s own perception of their sleep quality in how they link to people’s evaluations of their well-being.”

Professor Anu Realo, from the Department of Psychology at the University of Warwick added: “Our findings are consistent with our previous research that identified people’s self-reported health, and not their actual health conditions, as the main factor associated with their subjective well-being and especially with life satisfaction.

“It’s people’s perception of their sleep quality and not the actigraphy-based sleep efficiency which matters to their well-being.”

Overall, the study suggests that evaluating your sleep positively may contribute to a better mood on the next day.

“Even though a sleep tracking device might say that you slept poorly last night, your own perception of your sleep quality may be quite positive. And if you think that you slept well, it may help better your mood the next day,” Dr Lenneis added.

“On the contrary, if a sleep tracker tells you that you slept well, but you did not experience the night as such, this information may help you to reassess how well you actually slept. A sleep tracker offers information about your sleep which is typically not accessible whilst being asleep. So, it may improve your subjective perception of last night’s sleep and thereby your overall next day’s well-being.”

The study, The Influence of Sleep on Subjective Well-Being: An Experience Sampling Study, is published in Emotion.

ENDS

Notes to Editors

The study, The Influence of Sleep on Subjective Well-Being: An Experience Sampling Study, is published in Emotion. DOI: 10.1037/EMO0001268

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August 3, 2023
New study: Political animosity is global

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Newswise — EAST LANSING, Mich. – A new study by an interdisciplinary team of researchers across six different countries found that affective polarization, or the tendency to dislike people who belong to opposing political parties while favoring people from their own political party, is a global bias — not just an American one. The research further indicates that the dislike grows stronger when two people think about political issues the same way but come away with different beliefs about those issues.

For instance, two people from two separate political parties both may think that tax policy and trade should be thought of together as a package. The researchers found that even though these two people share a way of thinking about political issues, they will have the largest degree of affective polarization if they end up having different conclusions. This suggests that sharing cognitive frameworks with political outgroups can intensify negative attitudes toward them.

“You can imagine how frustrating it is to interact with someone who seems to think about things in a similar way and who shares the same basic logic of how things work as you do, but yet come to opposite conclusions,” said Mark Brandt, an associate professor of psychology at Michigan State University and a researcher in the field of social psychology. “We think that sharing a way of thinking about issues with a political outgroup is likely a signal that they are competitors in the political system.”

This study, led by Felicity Turner-Zwinkels, a social psychologist from Tilburg University’s Department of Sociology, investigated the underlying factors contributing to affective polarization. The findings indicate that across many different countries, we dislike political outgroups the more we disagree with them.

“This study matters because we examined a topic (affective polarization) that is heavily discussed and studied in America and brought it to a global scale. This shows that it is global and not just an American phenomenon,” said Brandt. “People should care because it helps better explain the way humans interact with each other in the realm of politics.”

“Why do we dislike each other so much even when we think about an issue similarly? This helps explain it,” said Brandt. “This tells us that these feelings are widespread. Americans might think we’re special in our political entrenchment, but it turns out we’re not.”

The research suggests two potential interventions that were not directly tested: highlighting shared opinions across political groups, which could reduce affective polarization, and encouraging individuals to contemplate political issues and their interconnectedness in new and unique ways.

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Michigan State University has been advancing the common good with uncommon will for more than 165 years. One of the world’s leading research universities, MSU pushes the boundaries of discovery to make a better, safer, healthier world for all while providing life-changing opportunities to a diverse and inclusive academic community through more than 400 programs of study in 17 degree-granting colleges.

For MSU news on the Web, go to MSUToday. Follow MSU News on Twitter at twitter.com/MSUnews.

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August 2, 2023
Extroverts More Likely to Resist Vaccines, Study Shows

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Newswise — EL PASO, Texas (Aug. 2, 2023) – Which types of personalities were more hesitant about COVID-19 vaccination during the pandemic’s peak? Extroverts — according to a new study on more than 40,000 Canadians.

“We expected that people who were especially high in extroversion would be more likely to get the vaccine,” said Melissa Baker, Ph.D., lead author and assistant professor at The University of Texas at El Paso. “We figured those people would want to get back out in the world and socialize, right? It’s actually the opposite.”

The findings, published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, can help with future public health messaging and vaccination campaigns, according to the team of scientists, based at UTEP and the University of Toronto. It also offers a unique perspective in vaccine hesitancy research, a field that has largely focused on political affiliation.

“We wanted to look at vaccine hesitancy a different way,” said Baker who is a member of the Department of Political Science and Public Administration. “Of course, politics can help explain some of it, but there are personal differences between people, too — and that led us to this personality aspect.”

The study is based on surveys of more than 40,000 Canadian adults, taken between November 2020 and July 2021. Online questions evaluated each participant’s personality, based on a model known as “big five,” which gauges an individual’s openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and emotional stability.

Additional questions probed how respondents felt about vaccination. One question, for example, asked, “When a COVID-19 vaccine becomes available, will you be vaccinated?” As the vaccine rollout began, questions were altered to reflect their availability.

Most of the team’s hypotheses were supported. For instance, people who were more open and agreeable were more likely to get the vaccine.

“Those are the kind of people who are open to new things, new information and just like to go with the flow,” Baker said. “We also expected that for people with high conscientious because they are detail-oriented and big planners.”

On the other hand, those with low emotional stability — or those who experience extreme emotions — were less likely to be vaccinated. And extroverts, to their surprise, were 18 percent more likely to refuse the vaccine.

While the pandemic is over, the team said the findings could help with future public health messaging strategies for vaccination from various diseases, not just COVID-19.

Baker explained, “If we know you need to reach a certain type of personality, we can think about the message that will actually reach and persuade that person.

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About The University of Texas at El Paso

The University of Texas at El Paso is America’s leading Hispanic-serving University. Located at the westernmost tip of Texas, where three states and two countries converge along the Rio Grande, 84% of our 24,000 students are Hispanic, and half are the first in their families to go to college. UTEP offers 169 bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree programs at the only open-access, top-tier research university in America.

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August 2, 2023
Being proactive alone is not a shortcut to good leadership

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Newswise — New research from the University of Adelaide demonstrates that being proactive could earn an individual a leadership position, but merely being proactive alone does not make for a good leader.

Individuals must be aware of their own leadership competencies to avoid the traps of the Peter Principle, which acknowledges that employees tend to be promoted to leadership positions based on their past performance as employees, not their competence in leading.

The University of Adelaide’s Associate Professor Chad Chiu, Adelaide Business School, is lead author on a recently published research paper titled Is leader proactivity enough: Importance of leader competency in shaping team role breadth efficacy and proactive performance.

“Proactive individuals are those who initiate change-oriented actions to cope with encountered challenges. In other words, proactive people are not satisfied with merely following the existing protocols to perform their jobs. Instead, they tend to seek new ways to achieve better outcomes,” Associate Professor Chiu said.

Previous research has shown a positive correlation between individuals’ proactive personalities and their marketability. Proactive employees are usually believed to have ‘leader-like’ abilities because they can come up with novel ideas to change the status quo.

“The modern business environment is more dynamic and unpredictable than ever, and nowadays being proactive is believed to be an essential leadership quality.”

However, Associate Professor Chiu warned that being proactive alone is simply not enough to demonstrate good leadership.

“Our new study provides empirical proof that having a proactive leader does not guarantee the building of a proactive team. When employees are dealing with a proactive yet incompetent leader, they tend to perceive the proposed proactive goals as too risky. They can become pessimistic about their own capabilities to be a proactive team,” he said.

“Our data also demonstrates that this type of leader is even worse than a passive and incompetent one, as the passive boss will not consistently generate impractical ideas that cannot be well executed. In addition, proactive leaders may rush to offer assistance that their followers do not need, which undermines the team.”

Yet proactive leaders are still a great asset to businesses if those individuals possess corresponding skills and competence to generate constructive outcomes.

“When leaders’ proactivity and competence are both high, their teams exhibit a higher level of collective confidence and, as a result, achieve better proactive performance,” Associate Professor Chiu said.

“The real issue lies in people’s lack of self-awareness regarding their own leadership capabilities. This phenomenon can be attributed to the Dunning-Kruger effect, whereby humans, especially those with low competencies, tend to unconsciously overestimate their abilities.”

Studies have shown that although 95 per cent of people think they are self-aware enough to critically evaluate their own performance, in fact only 10-15 per cent actually are. This effect is particularly prominent among organisational leaders who have succeeded in promotion competitions.

Associate Professor Chiu proposes that before granting managers full autonomy to be proactive, organisations should invest in training these managers to ensure they possess the necessary competence to demonstrate ‘wise proactivity’.

“Essential leadership competencies, including problem interpretation and analysis, gained via support, coaching, communication, and coordination, can equip managers to successfully execute proactive initiatives. We want to promote the idea of ‘wise proactivity’ within organisations.”

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University of Adelaide

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August 1, 2023
Harmful impact of activewear shopping on women

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Newswise — Though it’s just as likely to be worn while lounging on the couch as in the gym, a large driver of activewear’s popularity among women is its association with a dynamic lifestyle, positive wellbeing and overall good health.

However, two new Edith Cowan University (ECU) studies suggest online shopping for activewear may in fact be harmful to women’s body image.

Sales of “Athleisure” — a hybrid style of athletic clothing typically worn as everyday wear — have risen rapidly following the onset of COVID-19 and are expected to be worth more than $548 billion globally by 2024.

Led by ECU psychology researcher Dr Ross Hollett, the new studies are the first to use an eye-tracking experiment to explore online clothing shopping for activewear and its psychological outcomes.

During laboratory sessions, women were randomly allocated to browse an activewear, casualwear or home decor website for 15-20 minutes.

Their body image and self-esteem were then measured using a combination of self-report and reaction time measures.

After the shopping activity, researchers used eye tracking technology to measure the women’s eye gaze behaviour towards a new set of female images, to see if the websites they browsed led to changes in where they focused their attention.

Both studies found women felt worse about their looks and experienced lower self-esteem after browsing an activewear website.

In comparison, browsing for casual clothing or homewares did not lead to negative body image or lower self-esteem.

Dr Hollett said activewear retailers deliberately used body-focused marketing to promote their products, which tended to be tight, form-fitting or revealing.

“Activewear marketers often use images of toned athletic models who are cropped to focus on specific body parts, for example buttocks or breasts,” he said.

“This type of imagery can be very threatening to women’s body image because it promotes an idealised and difficult to attain physique.”

Clues from gaze behaviour

Dr Hollett said the first experiment found an interesting pattern of attention when researchers tracked women’s eyes towards a new set of female images after the activewear shopping activity.

“Women who browsed for activewear showed much lower body gaze, meaning they preferred to gaze at faces, compared to women who browsed for casualwear,” he said.

“One potential reason for this finding is that women who browsed for activewear may have felt their body image was threatened by the body-focussed imagery used by the activewear website.

“When body image is threatened, women may be less likely to continue looking at other women’s bodies after browsing for activewear because they feel more uncomfortable.”

Choose websites wisely to protect your self-esteem

Almost 100 per cent of women involved in Dr Hollett’s study had shopped online for clothes in their lifetime, and 80 per cent had done so in the past month.

They spent about 90-100 minutes per week browsing for clothes online, with activewear one of the most popular clothing categories — second only to casualwear.

“In one of our studies, we found a general reduction in negative mood across all the shopping websites, suggesting that online shopping might be used by women to alleviate negative mood by offering a distraction from everyday stresses,” Dr Hollett said.

However, Dr Hollett said if women do engage with online shopping to reduce negative mood, the choice of website is important.

“Browsing some apparel websites might put women at risk of negative self-concept because they are comparing themselves with fit and toned models in tight fitting clothing which may contribute to longer term issues such as body shame and depression,” he said.

Dr Hollett said clothing retailers are under increasing pressure to operate in ethically responsible ways, such as reducing environmental impact or avoiding exploitative labour.

However, he said minimising the negative impact of retail imagery on the psychological wellbeing of consumers was also their responsibility.

“Our research offers some of the first experimental evidence that the use of sexually objectifying imagery by some online apparel retailers is threatening to women’s wellbeing,” he said.

“These findings provide an impetus to explore alternative marketing strategies which achieve the retailer’s objectives while minimising threats to the self-worth of consumers.”

The study ‘Gaze behaviour, body image in women and online apparel shopping’ was published in the International Journal of Consumer Studies and the study ‘Experimental evidence that browsing for activewear lowers explicit body image attitudes and implicit self-esteem in women’ was published in the Journal Body Image.

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July 28, 2023
TikTok health videos: trends, topics, influencers

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Newswise — PULLMAN, Wash. –Sexual health, diet and exercise are the three topics that steal the show when it comes to popular health-related videos on TikTok. Unfortunately, there’s little else in terms of engaging health-related content on the video sharing platform, a Washington State University study found.

The social media platform’s mostly young audience also seems to prefer health-related videos featuring popular influencers’ role model appeals, such as their diet or exercise routine, rather than expert medical advice, according to the study in the Journal of Health Communication.

“Not surprisingly, we saw a great deal of role model appeals as influencers have a strong voice on this platform,” said Nicole O’Donnell, a WSU assistant professor of communications and lead author of the study. “The issue we have with this from a health communication perspective is that most of these videos weren’t providing attainable steps for behavior change but rather sharing aesthetic details of what is often a highly unobtainable lifestyle.”

Compared to Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, TikTok is a relatively new platform with user patterns that scientists are still trying to understand. To address this knowledge gap, the research team, comprised of O’Donnell and communications Ph.D. students Sultana Ismet Jerin and Di Mu, analyzed 400 health-related videos from TikTok’s #EduTok campaign.

They found most of the videos focused on mental health diet, exercise, or sexual health, which are areas of interest likely influenced by TikTok’s younger audiences. However, mental health videos had relatively low levels of audience engagement, and other important topics that are especially relevant to teens, such as substance abuse prevention, bullying and sexual violence prevention, were largely absent.

Unsurprisingly, they also found that videos employing ‘role model’ appeals, such as a famous actress or sports star encouraging a healthier lifestyle, had the highest levels of engagement. Videos designed to shock or scare people from participating in a certain type of behavior also did well in terms of viewership. But both these types of videos often lacked essential factual information and fell short of promoting attainable behavior changes.

“Almost 50% of the videos had role model appeals in them,” Jerin said. “Our results indicate that audiences highly engage with personal stories. The emotional appeal of the content is also a factor that influences audience engagement. In another study, we are specifically looking at emotional appeals of mental health messaging to learn more about engagement as mental health videos appeared the least engaging although being the most frequently covered health topic in EduTok videos.”

Another worrisome trend that the researchers identified was the prevalence of videos promoting self-diagnosis of mental health issues, with O’Donnell noting the potentially serious implications of individuals, especially young people, diagnosing their own health issues based on brief social media videos.

“Videos of people self-diagnosing their depression, anxiety or other issues related to mental health tended to have very high engagement which is a problematic trend that we would hope to have some public messaging about in the future,” O’Donnell said. “We plan to look more closely at the topic of mental health in general and the emotional appeals that creators are using.”

Moving forward, the researchers hope is that healthcare providers as well as state and federal agencies can use their findings to better engage with young people on a variety of health-related topics.

“Authentic stories about people’s lives tended to generate a lot more engagement than a person in a white coat sharing their opinion,” O’Donnell said. “And so, one strategy we would recommend is to have health professionals find ways to share people’s authentic stories while also providing credible and reliable information.”

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Washington State University

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July 26, 2023
CSUF Study Examines Ways to Deter Cheating Online

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Newswise — As the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to conduct classes online, colleges and universities around the world experienced increases in academic dishonesty.

A new study by Cal State Fullerton faculty members is among the first to explore the outcomes and motivations of passive versus active proctoring on academic honesty. Gerard Beenen, professor of management, and Sinjini Mitra, professor of information systems and decision sciences, are the co-authors of “Deterring Cheating Online: Passive Versus Active Proctoring Through a Social Facilitation Lens.”

The paper was selected for the Academy of Management’s Best Paper in Management Education and Development Award.

The researchers found that academic dishonesty appeared to be less likely in conditions of active (live instructor) versus passive (invisible instructor) proctoring. In addition, the strongest motivational mechanisms for deterring academic dishonesty were self-awareness and evaluation apprehension.

Beenen and Mitra said: “Given the potential for cheating in online exams…it is important to identify strategies to mitigate academic dishonesty for online assessments.

“To our knowledge, this is the first research to examine potential differences in student cheating motivations, intentions and behaviors for a continuum of passively to actively proctored exams.”

Read more about Beenen and Mitra’s research.

About Cal State Fullerton: The largest university in the CSU and the only campus in Orange County, Cal State Fullerton offers 110 degree programs and Division 1 athletics. Recognized as a national model for supporting student success, CSUF excels with innovative, high-impact educational practices, including faculty-student collaborative research, study abroad and competitive internships. Our vibrant and diverse campus is a primary driver of workforce and economic development in the region. CSUF is a top public university known for its success in supporting first-generation and underrepresented students, and preparing all students to become leaders in the global marketplace. Visit fullerton.edu .

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July 19, 2023
Memory and Learning Genes Date Back 650 Million Years: Study

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Newswise — A team of scientists led by researchers from the University of Leicester have discovered that the genes required for learning, memory, aggression and other complex behaviours originated around 650 million years ago.

The findings led by Dr Roberto Feuda, from the Neurogenetic group in the Department of Genetics and Genome Biology and other colleagues from the University of Leicester and the University of Fribourg (Switzerland), have now been published in Nature Communications.

Dr Feuda said: “We’ve known for a long time that monoamines like serotonin, dopamine and adrenaline act as neuromodulators in the nervous system, playing a role in complex behaviour and functions like learning and memory, as well as processes such as sleep and feeding.

“However, less certain was the origin of the genes required for the production, detection, and degradation of these monoamines. Using the computational methods, we reconstructed the evolutionary history of these genes and show that most of the genes involved in monoamine production, modulation, and reception originated in the bilaterian stem group.

“This finding has profound implications on the evolutionary origin of complex behaviours such as those modulated by monoamines we observe in humans and other animals.”

The authors suggest that this new way to modulate neuronal circuits might have played a role in the Cambrian Explosion – known as the Big Bang – which gave rise to the largest diversification of life for most major animal groups alive today by providing flexibility of the neural circuits to facilitate the interaction with the environment.

Dr Feuda added: “This discovery will open new important research avenues that will clarify the origin of complex behaviours and if the same neurons modulate reward, addiction, aggression, feeding, and sleep.”

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July 14, 2023
Butterfly species’ big brains adapted giving them a survival edge, study finds

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BYLINE: Laura Thomas

Newswise — Heliconius butterflies’ brains grew as they adopted a novel foraging behaviour, scientists at the University of Bristol have found.

A region of their brain, known as the mushroom body due to its shape, are two to four times larger than those of their close relatives.

The findings, published today in Nature Communications, suggest that the structure and function of the nervous system are closely linked to an organism’s ecological niche and behaviour.

Dr Stephen Montgomery of Bristol’s School of Biological Sciences explained: “Heliconius are the only butterflies known to collect and digest pollen, which gives them an adult source of protein, when most other butterflies exclusively obtain protein as caterpillars.

“This shift in diet allows Heliconius to live much longer lives, but they seemingly only collect pollen from specific plant species that occur at low densities.

“Learning the location of these plants is therefore a critical behaviour for them, but to do so they must presumably invest more in the neural structures and cells that support spatial memory.”

The team focused on the relationship between mushroom body expansion, sensory specialization and the evolutionary innovation of pollen feeding.

The study involved a unique synthesis of comparative data on large-scale brain structure, cellular composition and connectivity in the brain, and studies of behaviour across species.

They built 3D models of the brain in 30 pollen-feeding species of Heliconius, and 11 species from closely related genera, collected from across Central and South America.

The volume of different brain areas was measured and mapped over phylogenetic (family) trees to estimate where major evolutionary changes in brain composition occurred.

They then investigated changes in neural circuitry by quantifying in the number of neurons in the mushroom bodies and the density of their connections, as well as sensory specialisation by tracing neural inputs from brain areas that process visual information and smell before sending it to the central brain.

Finally, in partnership with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, they conducted behavioural experiments in key species to assess whether the observed expansion of the mushroom body correlated with improved visual learning and memory.

One striking result is the remarkable range of variation in mushroom body size observed among these closely-related species within a relatively short evolutionary timeframe. Across the whole dataset mushroom body size varies by 25-fold.

This provides a compelling example of how specific brain structures can vary independently over evolutionary time, known as mosaic evolution, when under strong selective constraints for behavioural adaptation.

Dr Montgomery added: “We identified that changes in mushroom body size are due to an increased number of ‘Kenyon cells’, the neurons that form the majority of the mushroom body and whose interactions are thought to be the basis of memory storage, as well as increased inputs from the visual system.

“This expansion and visual specialization of the mushroom bodies were accompanied by enhanced visual learning and memory abilities. Through this synthesis of data types, we provide a clear example of a novel foraging behaviour coinciding with adaptations in the brain and associated cognitive shifts.”

Co-lead author, Bristol’s Dr Antoine Couto, said: “”The study reveals how brain structure of Heliconius butterflies, specifically the mushroom bodies, has undergone remarkable changes that are tightly linked to their specialized foraging behaviours.

“These butterflies have evolved larger mushroom bodies with enhanced visual processing abilities, allowing them to discriminate complex visual patterns and retain visual memories over extended periods. These findings highlight the fascinating connection between brain evolution and behavioural adaptations in the natural world.”

Dr Fletcher Young, also co-lead author, added: “This study provides a rare combination of neurobiological and behavioural data across closely related species, revealing a clear example of marked evolutionary changes in the brain over a relatively short time scale coinciding with improved visual learning and memory abilities. Identifying such relationships between brain adaptations and behavioural shifts are crucial to our understanding of cognitive evolution.”

Dr Montgomery concluded “We provide evidence that brain structure can vary in striking ways between even closely related species that live in the same habitats.

“In this example, the innovation of one suite of behaviours has led to a dramatic expansion of critical learning and memory centres in the brain, and we show these neural changes co-occur with substantial enhancements in cognitive ability.

“We hypothesise that these behavioural differences reflect either a direct response to selection on foraging behaviour, and the information the butterflies are extracting for the environment around them to guide their behaviour.”

Understanding the relationship between brain anatomy, sensory processing, and foraging behaviour in Heliconius butterflies could also provide insights into the evolution of learning and memory mechanisms in not only insects, but other animals as the function and circuitry of mushroom bodies share some similarities with vertebrate brains. Hence these butterflies provide an excellent system in which to explore the neural basis of learning and memory with widespread relevance.

Paper:

‘Rapid expansion and visual specialisation of learning and memory centers in the brains of Heliconiini butterflies’ in by Stephen Montgomery et al in Nature Communications.

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July 12, 2023
Rattlesnakes find calm with nearby ‘friend’ amid stress

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Newswise — When animals suffer from acute or chronic stress, they produce more hormones causing shifts in the nervous system, immune response, and behavior. Some animals, if they are in the presence of a conspecific, can modulate their response to buffer stress. This is known as social buffering.

There is some research suggesting that snakes can exhibit complex social behavior. Nevertheless, social buffering in reptiles, as well as in other asocial organisms and solitary foragers, hasn’t been studied extensively. Now, researchers in the US have examined if rattlesnakes inhabiting Southern California use social buffering to alleviate acute stress.

“We showed that when two snakes were together and experienced a stressful situation, they could buffer each other’s stress response, much like what happens to humans when they endure a stressful event together,” said Chelsea Martin, a PhD student at Loma Linda University and first author of a new Frontiers in Ethology study. “This dampening of the stress response has not been reported previously in any reptile species.”

Snakes that rattle buffer

When exposed to stress, the presence of a snake companion reduced the change in heart rate of snakes significantly. Because the researchers worked with wild-caught rattlesnakes, they could show that social buffering likely exists in nature and can persist in captivity.

“Our test snakes came from populations that overwinter individually and communally. We found no differences in snake populations who did or didn’t overwinter in groups,” Martin explained. “We also did not observe a difference in social buffering between the sexes.”

Montane rattlesnakes hibernate communally, which could have been an indicator of stronger social networks than in lowland rattlesnakes, which usually overwinter alone. It is also known that female rattlesnakes aggregate during pregnancy and remain with newborn offspring. Testing for these variables helped the researchers establish that proclivity to buffer was equally pronounced in both populations as well as female and male snakes.

Snakes in a bucket

For their study, the researchers assessed social buffering in 25 wild-caught southern Pacific rattlesnakes in three scenarios: when the snakes were alone, in the presence of a rope that served as inanimate control object, and while the snakes were in the presence of a same-sex companion.

Measuring rattlesnakes’ heart rates should be a reliable indicator of acute stress levels and social buffering. To obtain data, the researchers outfitted the snakes with electrodes near their hearts and attached the sensors to a heart rate monitor. They then placed the snakes in a bucket – a dark, enclosed testing environment.

After an adjustment period of 20 minutes, the snakes were artificially disturbed. Then Martin et al. measured the snakes’ heart rate increase from baseline, the time it took for their heart rate to return to normal, and the time they spent rattling.

An image boost for rattlesnakes

“Our results provide insights into social behavior patterns of snakes,” said Martin. “But it might also improve rattlesnakes’ image. In the public eye they are often maligned. Our findings could help to change that,” she added.

The scientists also pointed to some limitations they worked with. During the experiment’s duration, the snake pairs were kept in very confined spaces. Accordingly, they did not examine whether a stress buffering response occurs when snakes are close, but not in physical contact with each other. Another unknown variable, which the researchers hope to test in the future, is if familiarity between two snakes impacts their social buffering response.

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July 6, 2023
Netherlands Study Finds Factors Linked to Learning Disabilities and Autism Resulted in Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide Requests

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Newswise — A Kingston University, London study found several people with learning disabilities and autism in the Netherlands chose to die legally through euthanasia and assisted suicide due to feeling unable to cope with the world, changes around them or because they struggled to form friendships.

There were almost 60,000 cases of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide between 2012 and 2021 in the Netherlands. More than 900 case reports were recorded on an online, searchable database. This form of dying is legal in the country provided six due care criteria are met, one of which is that the patient’s suffering is unbearable, with no prospect of improvement.

Study lead and Professor of Intellectual Disability and Palliative Care at Kingston University Irene Tuffrey-Wijne and colleagues examined the database to understand the situations where people with learning disabilities or autism spectrum disorders had been granted requests for euthanasia or assisted suicide, and the main causes of suffering that led to the request.

They found 39 cases that involved people with either learning disabilities or autism spectrum disorder, or in some cases, both. Of these, 19 were male and 20 were female, with 18 of the 39 under the age of 50.

Published in the BJPsych Open Journal, the study found a majority, around two-thirds, chose that path solely, or mostly, due to characteristics associated with their condition, such as anxiety, loneliness and not feeling they had a place in society. In eight of the 39 cases the reasons for the individual’s suffering were exclusively related to the learning disability or autism, with people feeling unable to cope with the world, changes around them and a struggle to make friendships and connections.

The research team said the findings highlighted a need for an international philosophical and ethical debate around criteria for euthanasia and assisted suicide and how to deal with such requests from vulnerable patient groups.

Within the study, a further eight said their autism or learning disability made it hard to cope with non-life-threatening physical illness or decline, while the same number stated their condition combined with psychiatric problems like anxiety and loneliness was their reason for wanting to die. Of the 39 cases, causes of suffering that led people to asked for help to die included loneliness (77 per cent of cases), a dependence on others (62 per cent), a lack of resilience or coping strategies (56 per cent) and a lack of flexibility and difficulty adapting to change (44 per cent).

Finally, in a third of the cases, doctors noted explicitly that the individual’s learning disabilities or autism were not treatable and that this was a key consideration in their assessment that there was no prospect of improvement and therefore an assisted death was the only remaining option for the patient.

Commenting on the findings, Professor Tuffrey-Wijne said that alongside the need for a wider debate on the ethics of dealing with requests from vulnerable groups, the research also highlighted the importance of investing in highly individualised support services around the world. “What these individuals needed was a society where they felt they belonged, with people around them who not just accept and accommodate, but welcome their unique ways of being,” she said.

“There is no doubt some people feel helpless, suffer deeply and profoundly and the support needed is complex but hopefully there can be a culture shift and a big investment in services that are significantly under-resourced.”

In addition to this work, Professor Tuffrey-Wijne gave oral evidence at a government health and social care select committee about an assisted dying and suicide inquiry earlier this month.

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Kingston University

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July 5, 2023
Find the latest expert commentary on the recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions here

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This Thursday, the United States Supreme Court rejected affirmative action at colleges and universities around the nation, declaring that the race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina were unlawful. Now on Friday, the Supreme Court decided to block the Biden administration’s student debt relief program and sided with a Christian web designer in Colorado who refuses to create websites to celebrate same-sex weddings out of religious objections. Despite their limited federal elected power, Conservatives have racked up more huge wins in the great political battles of the early 21st century.

Newswise is your source for expert commentary. Below is a roundup of recent expert pitches concerning the United States Supreme Court.

Sociologists Available to Discuss Affirmative Action Ruling in College Admissions

– American Sociological Association (ASA)

Law and diversity experts react to Supreme Court’s affirmative action decision

– Tulane University

Three important takeaways from SCOTUS decision in Groff v. DeJoy

– University of Georgia

SCOTUS decision on race-based admission: experts can comment

– Indiana University

U law expert available to comment on Supreme Court decision on affirmative action

– University of Utah

Recent SCOTUS decision puts to rest extreme 2020 presidential election claims, confirms state judicial input on states’ election rules

– University of Georgia

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Newswise

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June 30, 2023
Getting adults on board with messy nature play

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Newswise — Climbing trees, making mud pies, or simply playing outside, parents and educators know that being in nature is an important part of every childhood. But when it comes to messy or risky play, it’s a whole different story according to new research from the University of South Australia.

Talking to parents and early childhood educators, researchers found that parents and educators will happily open the door to ‘safe’ or ‘clean’ nature play but are more reluctant to let children engage in ‘messy’ activities or play that may be perceived as ‘risky’.

UniSA researcher and PhD candidate Kylie Dankiw says that parents and educators act as important gatekeepers when it comes to nature play.

“Nature play is well known for its positive effects on children’s health, development, and wellbeing,” Dankiw says, “and this was a common theme when interviewing parents and carers alike.

“Nature play helps improve emotional regulation, physical skills, and learning outcomes, and can encourage children to develop their creativity and imagination.

“Parents and educators also identified that nature play can help children form a connection with the natural world and learn about sustainable practices.

“Importantly, parents and carers felt that nature play experiences could be used to offset technology use such as TV and screens.

“But despite the known benefits, parents and carers can find it difficult when it comes to engaging children in nature play, especially if activities are messy or dirty (such as water or mud play) or are thought of as being risky (such as climbing).

“Educators tell us that safety regulations and time restrictions can limit what they choose as outdoor activities, especially when they need to change children’s clothes after muddy play, or when parents expect for their child to come home clean from childcare.

“There can be a conflict between encouraging children to experience nature, and what adults need to deal with in the so-called aftermath.”

Nearly 50% of Australia’s children aged 0-12 years (two million) spend time in formal or informal early childhood education care, with long day care being the most common type of care for children aged 0-4 years.

Paediatric expert UniSA’s Dr Margarita Tsiros says given the large number of children in care, further education and training for both early childhood educators and parents could help overcome some of the challenges that might be linked with nature play.

“Our research highlights that opportunities for young children to engage in nature play is influenced by other people in their lives,” Dr Tsiros says.

“While parents and educators recognise the benefits of nature play, they can struggle with certain aspects of being in nature, particularly risk.

“Understanding these barriers can help inform strategies to promote nature play for different age groups. It can also help inform policies and practices to promote enabling factors.

“A key move will be to boost educators’ knowledge about nature-based learning, what constitutes nature play, and how they can use natural resources to facilitate nature play experiences.

“In a time where screens threaten to consume children’s interest, it’s vital that we present opportunities for them to engage in nature play, and to achieve this, we need to have parents and educators on board.”

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University of South Australia

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June 29, 2023
Mothers showcase ideals through children’s fashion on social media

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Newswise — Mothers often share fashion photos of their children on social media, a practice which combine the traditions of family photos and the commercial symbolism of fashion images. A joint study of the University of Jyväskylä and Aalto University investigated how this phenomenon, which has become increasingly common in recent years, is connected to consumption, parenting and childhood as well as to children’s privacy.
For the survey, 16 Finnish mothers were interviewed. These mothers have Instagram accounts concentrating on children’s clothes, and they actively post content through these accounts.

According to the results, the fashion photos of children reflect the mothers’ taste, aesthetic skills and values, but also help the mothers identify themselves with their own reference group and save memories of themselves and their children. A key concept in this study is “sharenting”, a combination of “sharing” and “parenting”. The concept refers to parents’ practices of photographing their children and share the photos on social media. The photography practices include selecting the venue and clothes as well as taking, editing and posting the pictures.

“Photography practices highlight the character of the images as constructed representations,” says doctoral researcher Minna Kallioharju. “For the mothers, the photos serve as a tool for expressing their own lifestyle and values as well as the prevailing commercial and social media trends. Through these, they can strengthen their own identity and parenthood and also build connection with other mothers.”

Drawing on the visual symbolism of family photos and fashion advertisements, the photos communicate traditional childhood ideals such as an authentic and natural appearance. Although the mothers were aware that the pictures typically present the best sides of everyday life, the Instagram account was regarded as a diary and a photo album, also as a means to save memories.

“The mothers were aware of the potential negative consequences of sharing,” Kallioharju says, “but fashion images were found to be mostly harmless due to their aesthetic and positive character. Some mothers took a more critical stance to the sharing of pictures of their children and avoided including portray their child’s face, for example.”

The study has raised wide attention, and the article was downloaded more than 2000 times during the first week.

The study was funded by Kone Foundation, the Academy of Finland and its Strategic Research Council.

https://doi.org/10.1108/YC-06-2022-1541

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Jyvaskylan Yliopisto (University of Jyvaeskylae)

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June 28, 2023
Laughter: The Ultimate Medicine

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Laughter and humour are potent tools that can significantly impact our wellbeing, according to research conducted by the University of Warwick.

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University of Warwick

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June 26, 2023
Racial discrimination contributes to increases in alcohol craving to cope with racial stress

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Newswise — Alcohol craving is associated with relapse following alcohol use disorder (AUD) treatment. A new study is the first to examine how distinct experiences of interpersonal racial discrimination contribute to elevated alcohol craving. Findings will be shared at the 46^th annual scientific meeting of the Research Society on Alcohol (RSA) in Bellevue, Washington.

“Cravings can be intense and challenging to not act on,” said Sarah L. Pedersen, associate professor of psychiatry and psychology at the University of Pittsburgh. “Research has also shown that stress increases craving for alcohol and can precipitate a lapse or relapse following AUD treatment. My team is invested in identifying influences of inequities in alcohol-related problems and, given prior research showing associations between general stress and craving, we wanted to understand how specific experiences of discrimination may increase alcohol craving.”

Pedersen will discuss her study’s findings at the RSA meeting on Sunday, 25 June 2023.

Data for this study were drawn from a larger ongoing alcohol administration study: 140 young adults (44% self-identified as Black or African American, 56% self-identified as White or European American) who consume alcohol at least weekly completed a survey and a 17-day assessment of acute alcohol craving as well as experienced microaggressions.

“The Racial and Ethnic Microaggressions Scale is a 28-item self-report measure examining five domains of racial discrimination experiences during the previous six months,” explained Pedersen. “Examples include: ‘Someone told me that they don’t see color,’ ‘I was ignored at school or work because of my race,’ and ‘someone assumed I was poor because of my race.’”

Black individuals reported higher average levels of alcohol craving across the 17-day assessment window compared to White individuals.

Pedersen believes that experiences of interpersonal racial discrimination contribute to increases in craving alcohol to cope with racial stress. “These results have treatment implications related to promoting the development of emotion regulation skills and strategies after experiencing racial discrimination, and policy and training implications regarding the deleterious effects of exposure to interpersonal racial discrimination,” she said. Additional analyses by Pedersen’s team will integrate momentary experiences of discrimination and subsequent alcohol craving in a naturalistic environment.

“My team uses a community-engaged approach and we have worked closely with community members to understand their needs, experiences, and ideas for research,” added Pedersen. “Our community partners are centered in our research and have been incredible contributors to this study; including the interpretation and presentation of these results.”

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Pedersen will present these findings, “Examination of interpersonal racial discrimination in relation to naturalistic alcohol craving,” during the RSA 2023 meeting in Bellevue, Washington on Sunday, 25 June 2023. More information can be found at RSoA on Twitter @RSAposts.

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Research Society on Alcoholism

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June 25, 2023
People Are Falsely Denying Firearm Ownership, and It’s Not Who You Might Think

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Newswise — Some firearm owners may not want researchers to know they own firearms, according to a study by the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center at Rutgers.

In a study published in Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, researchers found that based on their answers to a variety of other questions, a group of individuals appeared as though they might be falsely denying firearm ownership when directly asked by researchers.

While some of these individuals resemble what previous research indicated to be a typical American firearm owner (e.g., white, male), others looked quite different (racial or ethnic minority, female, living in urban environments), highlighting that the landscape of firearm ownership in the United States may be shifting.

“Some individuals are falsely denying firearm ownership, resulting in research not accurately capturing the experiences of all firearm owners in the U.S.,” said Allison Bond, lead author of the study and a doctoral student with the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center. “More concerningly, these individuals are not being reached with secure firearm storage messaging and firearm safety resources, which may result in them storing their firearms in an unsecure manner, which in turn increases the risk for firearm injury and death.”

Rutgers researchers surveyed a group of 3,500 English-speaking adults who are U.S. residents. Each participant was asked if they own a firearm as well as demographic factors and questions assessing perceived threats.

The study indicates a percentage of firearm owners may not feel comfortable disclosing their ownership status. Among those identified as potentially falsely denying firearm ownership, many were women living alone in urban environments.

Recent research shows that since 2019, half of all new firearm owners in the U.S. identify as female and more individuals from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds have purchased firearms.

Although researchers can’t say with certainty that individuals in the study were lying about firearm ownership, the study nonetheless highlights the importance of considering that our understanding of who owns firearms and our efforts to reach firearm owners on issues, such as secure firearm storage, may be overlooking parts of the intended audience.

“There are several reasons some firearm owners might feel uncomfortable disclosing that they own firearms,” said Michael Anestis, executive director of the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center and senior author of the study. “These results serve as an important reminder that we should not assume we know everything about who owns firearms and that we should ensure that our efforts to reach firearm owners can resonate with broad audiences we might not realize would benefit from the message.”

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Rutgers University-New Brunswick

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June 23, 2023
When Majority Men Respect Minority Women, Groups Communicate Better: A Neurological Exploration

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Newswise — Kyle Emich, a professor of management at the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics, along with Rachel Amey and Chad Forbes, then with UD’s Psychology and Brain Sciences Department, were searching for clues about why women’s knowledge often gets ignored in the workplace and how to improve the situation.

Drawing on both a problem-solving group exercise and measurements of brain activity, their findings, now published by the journal Small Group Research, illustrate ways stereotypes and attitudes can stifle the benefits of diversity efforts. At the same time, the study also offers hope for solutions.

While women are often urged to fight for status, a key takeaway Emich and his colleagues highlighted from their research was that the onus should actually be placed on high-status men to respect and accept women’s expertise.

At the root of their research is the concept of diversity. It’s often touted not just as basic fairness, but a way to benefit companies or other organizations. People with different backgrounds and experiences, the reasoning goes, can offer fresh perspectives and a more complete view of the world that makes a team stronger.

It only works, though, if they not only share those fresh perspectives with the team, but the team listens.

Previous research shows that this is often not the case — people in minority positions, like a woman on an all-male team, are reluctant to go against the group by sharing knowledge that contradicts the narrative.

Emich and his collaborators looked for evidence of differing levels of respect for men and women, how that affects the group, and how attitudes shape respect for women.

Attitudes, diversity and their effects on a group can be hard to measure. But the researchers developed a novel way to do it, by measuring team members’ brain activity as they collaborated on solving a problem with a clear answer: a murder mystery.

How the study worked

The researchers divided student volunteers into teams of three, always with a gender minority. Some teams were made up of two men and one woman, and some had two women and one man. In each case, the minority group member had clues key to solving the case, so to be effective the group had to draw on all its members’ knowledge and work together.

In a twist, the experimenters also hooked up participants to an EEG monitor so they could see how their brains were functioning as they participated in the group activity. The researchers had a theory: that men who were approach-oriented (focused on a positive goal like solving the murder), would be more inclusive than men who were avoidance-oriented (focused on a negative goal like staying away from risk).

“We just thought it would be a good application, because most (EEG) studies are either at the individual level or with only two people,” Emich said. “They’re not in actual interacting teams.”

With this approach, they didn’t have to rely on asking subjects to imagine being in the minority — they could put them in that position directly.

What they found

Even though all the groups were diverse, it turned out that the teams made up of two men and one woman were less effective.

These women faced a double burden. First, women often struggle to speak up when they are in the minority. Emich and his fellow researchers also found that the more the minority women on these teams shared their unique information, key to solving the case, the less respect they got from their team.

“They kind of liked her better if she just sat there and was quiet, as opposed to trying to get into the discussion,” Emich said.

On teams with majority women, the man’s input was more valued, so these teams were more effective as they shared information to solve the problem.

Assessing the EEG readings gave more insight into men’s mental states. The men who did better at including women’s input were, in fact, those whose brain activity indicated their mindset was more approach-oriented, set on solving the problem rather than avoiding risk.

On the flip side, whether the women in the majority on their teams were more approach- or avoidance-oriented, as measured by the EEG, “they were sort of accepting the man’s information into their team,” Emich said. “And then the team ended up doing better.”

What does this mean?

The findings, Emich and his team said, confirm the idea that a lack of respect for minorities undermines the benefit of diversity. They also argue that while the burden is often put on women to make sure they have a voice, men in power should also bear this responsibility.

Women are told, “You need to lean in, or you need to break the glass ceiling,” Emich said. “… And what we’re saying here is the onus is really on the men, because they have the power, right? So it’s difficult for the women in these teams to come out and kind of take over the team conversation, because they don’t have the power or status to do that.”

He’s not arguing that women shouldn’t assert their rights or “lean in,” but that to make real change, men (or people in power, generally) also have a responsibility to make space for minority perspectives.

The “approach” or “avoidance” mindsets they studied, Emich said, can be altered. That is, they aren’t an unavoidable part of someone’s personality. It’s not a matter of finding all the avoidance-oriented men in your office and banning them from teams. Rather, these terms describe a person’s motivation in a given moment, and that motivation can change.

In an avoidance mindset, Emich explained, people are worried about protecting themselves and staying away from things that might be dangerous. In business oriented, decision-making groups, unique information is seen as being risky. Adding to that, women are generally seen as lower status, he said, so men see the unique information they offer as being extra risky.

This is an outlook that can be changed with training and experience, Emich said. Responsibility falls on the group leader to “make the environment feel a little bit safer for people.” That comes both through the words leaders say and the actions they model.

Overall, “I think what this [research] does is it helps to highlight why we see this broad effect that lots of people have observed about women’s information not being listened to,” Emich said.

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University of Delaware

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June 23, 2023
Weak policies and political ideologies risk jeopardising plans to tackle health and climate change, says Cambridge expert

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Newswise — Efforts to tackle major issues facing the UK, including the nation’s health and climate change, are being hampered because politicians often ignore the existing evidence when setting policies, according to Dame Theresa Marteau, a public health expert at the University of Cambridge.

Writing in the journal Science and Public Policy, Professor Marteau argues that this ‘evidence-neglect’ is a result of incentive structures that encourage politicians to set ambitious policy goals while simultaneously disincentivising them from implementing the policies needed to achieve them, and of political ideologies and interests that conflict with effective policies.

Two changes could mitigate these factors, she writes: engaging citizens more in policy-making so their interests dominate; and increasing the accountability of politicians through legally binding systems for all stages of policy-making.

Recent UK governments have set ambitious goals to improve the nation’s health and tackle climate change. These include halving childhood obesity by 2030, eradicating smoking by 2030, narrowing the gap in healthy life expectancy by 2030, and achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

But, says Professor Marteau, Director of the Behaviour and Health Research Unit at Cambridge, “None of these ambitions is on course. Of course, scientific evidence is just one of many sources of information for policymakers to consider, but neglecting evidence is a sure-fire route to unsuccessful policymaking.”

According to predictions, childhood obesity is on track to double, not halve, by 2030. Smoking eradication is on track sometime after 2050, not by 2030. By 2030, the gap in healthy life expectancy between local areas where it is highest and lowest will have narrowed, but by 2035 is set to rise by five years. And the UK Sixth Carbon Budget – a key target towards achieving net zero carbon emissions – is likely to be missed by “a huge margin”.

Achieving each of these ambitions requires sustained changes in several sets of behaviour across all socio-economic groups including what we eat, drink, whether we smoke, and how we travel. A wealth of research demonstrates that achieving such change is difficult, requiring many interventions that change the environments or systems that too readily cue, reinforce and maintain unhealthier and unsustainable behaviours.

“There are many possible reasons why these policy ambitions are so far off-track, but chief among them is the neglect of evidence, particularly around achieving sustained changes in behaviour across populations,” said Professor Marteau.

“Put simply, these failures are baked-in, given the policies designed to achieve these ambitions are based on interventions that cannot achieve the change required.”

Part of the problem, she says, lies in the incentive structures for politicians, which favour setting ambitious policy goals whether as part of achieving election promises, attracting positive publicity or both. But they also discourage the policies needed to achieve them.

“Fear of electoral damage plays a role here. Take taxes on tobacco, alcohol, junk food and carbon emissions: these are among the most effective interventions for improving health and the climate, but they are unpopular with the public and so politicians are unwilling to adopt them.”

Such policies may not just be unpopular with the public – they may also run counter to political interests and ideologies. Neoliberalism, for example, emphasises a small role for governments in the economy and public policy more generally, and a larger role for individuals to be personally responsible for behaving in ways to achieve health, wealth and happiness. Such ideologies often portray attempts by the government to intervene as ‘Nanny Statism’.

Certain industries, too, focus on personal responsibility to discourage politicians from adopting effective policies that conflict with their industries’ interests, such as those aimed at reducing consumption of fossil fuels, tobacco, alcohol, meat and junk food. These industries may cast doubt on the effectiveness of policies that would reduce their sales, as well as lobbying governments to persuade them of the business case for the status quo.

Professor Marteau added: “There are no quick or single fixes to overcoming these problems, but there are two changes which could help: engaging citizens more in priority setting and policy design, and increasing the accountability of politicians through introducing legally-binding systems for reporting progress on policy ambitions.”

There are a number of options available to policymakers when it comes to engaging citizens, including: surveys, focus groups, town hall meetings and citizen assemblies, as well as working with civil society organisations. This approach has the potential to reduce the political costs of unpopular policies by exposing citizens to evidence for the effectiveness of policies, which – across many studies – has been shown to increase policy support. Policies designed with citizen engagement also attract more public support, such policies being seen as fairer and more successful as a result.

Introducing legally binding systems for reporting policies and progress on policy ambitions, with plans to get back on track if progress is off course, could be a powerful way to decrease the neglect of evidence which is central to policy success.

An example of this is the UK government’s recent Levelling Up strategy paper, which included plans to introduce a statutory obligation for government to report annually on progress towards meeting the Levelling Up missions. Alongside these plans, it published a set of metrics against which to measure progress against the missions and evaluate the success of the strategy.

“Although these requirements are by no means perfect, the legislation as drafted will at least allow parliament significantly more scrutiny of progress towards a government ambition than is often the case.”

According to Professor Marteau, failure to consider the evidence risks undermining the government’s attempts to take action.

“Laudable policy ambitions to improve a nation’s health and protect life on the planet will remain unfulfilled ambitions unless and until evidence is given a more central role in the policy-making process.”

Reference

Marteau, TM. Evidence-neglect: addressing a barrier to UK health and climate policy ambitions. Science and Public Policy; 20 June 2023; DOI: 10.1093/scipol/scad021

ENDS

Once the published, the full article will be available at: https://academic.oup.com/spp/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/scipol/scad021

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University of Cambridge

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June 19, 2023
People with alcohol use disorder impaired after heavy drinking, despite claims of higher tolerance

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Newswise — While heavy drinkers can tolerate a certain amount of alcohol better than light or moderate drinkers, the concept of “holding your liquor” is more nuanced than commonly believed, according to new research from the University of Chicago.

The researchers conducted the study with three groups of young adults in their 20s with different drinking patterns. They found that drinkers with alcohol use disorder (or AUD, traditionally known as alcoholism) displayed less impairment on fine motor and cognitive tasks than light or heavy social drinkers after consuming a standard intoxicating dose—equivalent to four to five drinks that produce breathalyzer readings of 0.08-0.09%, i.e., the threshold for drunk driving. Yet when those drinkers with AUD consumed a higher amount akin to their usual drinking habits—equivalent to seven to eight drinks and breathalyzer readings of 0.13%–they showed significant impairment on those same tasks, more than double their impairment at the standard intoxicating dose that did not return to baseline performance three hours after drinking.

“There’s a lot of thinking that when experienced drinkers (those with AUD) consume alcohol, they are tolerant to its impairing effects,” said Andrea King, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience at UChicago and senior author of the study. “We supported that a bit, but with a lot of nuances. When they drank alcohol in our study at a dose similar to their usual drinking pattern, we saw significant impairments on both the fine motor and cognitive tests that was even more impairment than a light drinker gets at the intoxicating dose.”

A study of different drinking patterns

The new paper, published this week in Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research, is part of the Chicago Social Drinking Project, an ongoing research study started by King in 2004 that examines the effects of common substances like alcohol, caffeine, and antihistamines on mood, performance, and behavior in people with a wide range of alcohol drinking patterns. For the latest research, they worked with three groups of participants based on their binge drinking patterns, i.e., consuming five or more drinks for a man or four or more for a woman. The groups were light drinkers who do not binge drink, heavy social drinkers who binge drink several times a month, and drinkers who meet the criteria for AUD and binge drink frequently, at least one third or more days in a typical month.

In a clinical setting, the research team told participants they would be receiving a drink containing either alcohol, a stimulant, a sedative, or a placebo. The alcoholic beverage was a flavored drink mix in water with 190-proof alcohol at 16% volume based on body weight, which was equivalent to four to five drinks, a high dose considered enough to intoxicate a typical drinker (female participants received a dose that was 85% of that for males to adjust for sex differences in metabolism). The participants consumed the drink over a 15-minute period.

At 30, 60, 120, and 180 minutes after drinking the beverage, the participants took a breathalyzer test and completed two performance tasks. The first was a fine motor task that asked them to retrieve, rotate, and insert a grooved metal peg into 25 randomly slotted holes on a 4×4” metal board; participants were scored on how long it took to fill all 25 holes. The second test was paper and pencil task to test cognitive skill, in which the participants had 90 seconds to input symbols from a key pair onto a numbered grid and were scored on how many correct symbols they provided.

At the 30- and 180-minute intervals, participants were also asked to report how impaired they felt, from “not at all” to “extremely.” The AUD and heavy social drinkers both reported feeling less impaired than the light drinkers. While they did show less overall alcohol impairment on the motor and cognitive tests, at the 30-minute interval they had similar slowing on the fine motor test as the light drinkers. They also recovered quicker to their baseline levels, supporting the notion that they had more tolerance and can “hold their liquor” better than people who don’t drink as much.

However, people with AUD do not often stop drinking at four or five drinks and engage in high intensity drinking. Thus, a subset of the drinkers with AUD in the study participated in a separate session where they drank a beverage more consistent with their regular drinking habits, equivalent to about seven or eight drinks. At this higher dose of alcohol, they showed more than double the amount of mental and motor impairment than after they had the standard intoxicating dose. They also never got back to their baseline level of performance, even after three hours. Their level of impairment even exceeded that of the light drinkers who consumed the standard dose, suggesting that the physical effects of the alcohol add up the more someone drinks, experienced or not.

“I was surprised at how much impairment that group had to that larger dose, because while it’s 50% more than the first dose, we’re seeing more than double the impairment,” King said.

The double-edged sword of intoxication

King’s group has conducted other research showing that heavy social drinkers and those with AUD are more sensitive to the pleasurable effects of alcohol, and want to drink more alcohol than their lighter drinking counterparts, compounding the issue. “They’re having the desire or craving to drink more and more, even though it’s impairing them. It’s really a double-edged sword,” she said.

Annual deaths caused by drunk driving have fallen significantly after the national minimum drinking age was set at 21 in 1984 and the public awareness campaigns that followed. Despite these successes, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that more than 140,000 people die from excessive alcohol use in the U.S. each year, and 30% of traffic fatalities still involve alcohol intoxication. King says that a more nuanced understanding of the effects of intoxication could begin to prevent more harm.

“It’s costly to our society for so many reasons, that’s why this study is just so important to understand more,” she said. “I’m hoping we can educate people who are experienced high-intensity drinkers who think that they’re holding their liquor or that they’re tolerant and won’t experience accidents or injury from drinking. Their experience with alcohol only goes so far, and excessive drinkers account for most of the burden of alcohol-related accidents and injury in society. This is preventable with education and treatment.”

The study, “Holding your liquor: Comparison of alcohol-induced psychomotor impairment in drinkers with and without alcohol use disorder,” was supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Additional authors include Nathan Didier, Ashley Vena, Abigayle Feather, and Jon Grant from the University of Chicago.

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University of Chicago Medical Center

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June 18, 2023