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Tag: Behavioral Science

  • Negative self-perception appears to self-perpetuate, researchers find

    Negative self-perception appears to self-perpetuate, researchers find

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    Newswise — At the end of a bad day, how do you feel about yourself? The answer could indicate not only how your self-perception formed, but also how it renews, according to experimental results from a research group in Japan.

    They published their findings on Oct. 10 in Cognitive Therapy and Research.

    “People with psychiatric disorders including major depression tend to hold negative self-schema such as ‘I am incompetent’ and ‘I am a loser in life,’” said corresponding author Noboru Matsumoto, associate professor in Shinshu University’s Division of Psychology. Self-schemas are what a person thinks of themselves. “However, how people form and update self-schema and what individual differences are involved in these processes are unresolved issues in scientific research.”

    To investigate the formation and renewing of self-schema, the researchers designed a psychological experiment in which undergraduate students believed they were testing a machine learning-based personality assessment. After each question in a fictional psychological test, the participants were presented with one sentence of feedback on their personality traits, behavioral tendencies and future prospects. All participants received the same feedback in a random order. They then rated each feedback sentence on how well it applied to them. After completing the assessment, they were given a surprise memory test in which they had to recall the feedback received.

    “We found two important factors are involved in self-schema formation and updating: emotional valence — positive or negative — of the event experienced and how much people think the event is consistent with their current self,” said Matsumoto. “Cognitive reactivity, or the tendency to overreact when in a negative or depressive mood, was associated with greater self-schema updating.”

    The experiment is based on the mnemic neglect paradigm, which describes how people selectively forget negative information about themselves. People with psychological disorders, such as depression, are less likely to exhibit mnemic neglect and are more likely to remember the negative information. According to Matsumoto, people who already view themselves negatively are more likely to remember and incorporate negative feedback because it aligns with their already-established self-perception. This is more deeply enforced by cognitive reactivity, Matsumoto said, since people with negative self-schema are also more likely to take even minor negative information more personally.

    To further explore how self-schema are established in the first place, the researchers also ran simulations of self-schema development.

    “In contrast to laboratory settings, where the participants already hold well-established self-schemas, the simulation can demonstrate how self-schemas develop without previous knowledge,” said ‘Matsumoto. “The simulation allows us to mimic the influence of accumulated positive and negative experiences from early life on self-schema development. By manipulating parameters related to cognitive reactivity, we can evaluate how individual differences influence the dynamics of self-schema development.”

    From the simulations, the researchers found that when people with high cognitive reactivity experienced some negative events in early life, negative self-schema developed and strengthened — even if they experienced many positive events later in life.

    “These findings suggest why some individuals develop mental illnesses even in good environments,” Matsumoto said, noting that longitudinal studies are needed to compare how well the simulations match to real life. “Altering the way people encode and integrate events into self-schema may enable the prevention and treatment of mental illness.”

    The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science supported this research.

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    About Shinshu University:

    Shinshu University is a national university founded in 1949 located nestling under the Japanese Alps in Nagano known for its stunning natural landscapes. Our motto, “Powered by Nature – strengthening our network with society and applying nature to create innovative solutions for a better tomorrow” reflects the mission of fostering promising creative professionals and deepening the collaborative relationship with local communities, which leads up to our contribution to regional development by innovation in various fields. We’re working on providing solutions for building sustainable society through interdisciplinary research fields: material science (carbon, fiber and composites), biomedical science (for intractable diseases and preventive medicine) and mountain science, and aiming to boost research and innovation capability through collaborative projects with distinguished researchers from the world. For more information visit https://www.shinshu-u.ac.jp/english/ or follow us on Twitter @ShinshuUni for our latest news.

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  • Ethiopian schools study suggests COVID has “ruptured” social skills of the world’s poorest children

    Ethiopian schools study suggests COVID has “ruptured” social skills of the world’s poorest children

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    Newswise — School closures during the COVID-19 pandemic have “severely ruptured” the social and emotional development of some of the world’s poorest children, as well as their academic progress, new evidence shows.

    In a study of over 2,000 primary school pupils in Ethiopia, researchers found that key aspects of children’s social and emotional development, such as their ability to make friends, not only stalled during the school closures, but probably deteriorated.

    Children who, prior to the pandemic, felt confident talking to others or got on well with peers were less likely to do so by 2021. Those who were already disadvantaged educationally – girls, the very poorest, and those from rural areas – seem to have been particularly badly affected.

    Both this research and a second, linked study of around 6,000 grade 1 and 4 primary school children, also found evidence of slowed academic progress. Children lost the equivalent of at least one third of an academic year in learning during lockdown – an estimate researchers describe as “conservative”. This appears to have widened an already significant attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and the rest, and there is some evidence that this may be linked to the drop in social skills.

    Both studies were by academics from the University of Cambridge, UK and Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia.

    Professor Pauline Rose, Director of the Research in Equitable Access and Learning (REAL) Centre at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, said: “COVID is having a long-term impact on children everywhere, but especially in lower-income countries. Education aid and government funding must focus on supporting both the academic and socio-emotional recovery of the most disadvantaged children first.”

    Professor Tassew Woldehanna, President of Addis Ababa University, said: “These  severe ruptures to children’s developmental and learning trajectories underline how much we need to think about the impact on social, and not just academic skills. Catch-up education must address the two together.”

    Both studies used data from the Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) programme in Ethiopia to compare primary education before the pandemic, in the academic year 2018/19, with the situation in 2020/21.

    In the first study, researchers compared the numeracy test scores of 2,700 Grade 4 pupils in June 2019 with their scores shortly after they returned to school, in January 2021. They also measured dropout rates. In addition, pupils completed the Children’s Self Report Social Skills scale, which asked how much they agreed or disagreed with statements such as “I feel confident talking to others”, “I make friends easily”, and “If I hurt someone, I say sorry”.

    The second study measured relative progress during the pandemic using the numeracy scores of two separate cohorts of Grade 1 and Grade 4 pupils. The first of these cohorts was from the pre-pandemic year; the other from 2020/21.

    The results suggest pupils made some academic progress during the closures, but at a slower than expected rate. The average foundational numeracy score of Grade 1 pupils in 2020/21 was 15 points behind the 2018/19 cohort; by the end of the year that gap had widened to 19 points. Similarly, Grade 4 students started 2020/21 10 points behind their predecessor cohort, and were 12 points adrift by the end. That difference amounted to roughly one third of a year’s progress. Similar patterns emerged from the study of children’s numeracy scores before and after the closures.

    Poorer children, and those from rural backgrounds, consistently performed worse academically. Dropout rates revealed similar issues: of the 2,700 children assessed in 2019 and 2021, more than one in 10 (11.3%) dropped out of school during the closures. These were disproportionately girls, or lower-achieving pupils, who tended to be from less wealthy or rural families.

    All pupils’ social skills declined during the closure period, regardless of gender or location. Fewer children agreed in 2021 with statements such as “Other people like me” or “I make friends easily”. The decline in positive responses differed by demographic, and was sharpest among those from rural settings. This may be because children from remote parts of the country experienced greater isolation during lockdown.

    The most striking evidence of a rupture in socio-emotional development was the lack of a predictive association between the 2019 and 2021 results. Pupils who felt confident talking to others before the pandemic, for example, had often changed their minds two years later.

    Researchers suggest that the negative impact on social and emotional development may be linked to the slowdown in academic attainment. Children who did better academically in 2021 tended to report stronger social skills. This association is not necessarily causal, but there is evidence that academic attainment improves children’s self-confidence and esteem, and that prosocial behaviours positively influence academic outcomes. It is therefore possible that during the school closures this potential reinforcement was reversed.

    Both reports echo previous research which suggests that lower-income countries such as Ethiopia need to invest in targeted programmes for girls, those from rural backgrounds, and the very poorest, if they are to prevent these children from being left behind. Alongside in-school catch-up programmes, action may be required to support those who are out of school. Ghana’s successful Complementary Basic Education initiative provides one model.

    In addition, the researchers urge education policy actors to integrate support for  social skills into both catch-up education and planning for future closures. “Social and emotional skills should be an explicit goal of the curriculum and other guidance,” Rose said. “Schools may also want to think about after-school clubs, safe spaces for girls, and ensuring that primary-age children stay with the same group of friends during the day. Initiatives like these will go some way towards rebuilding the prosocial skills the pandemic has eroded.”

    Ruptured School Trajectories is published in the journal, Longitudinal and Life Course Studies. Learning Losses during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Ethiopia, is available on the REAL Centre website.

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  • Research shows crowds hold the cards in referees’ decisions

    Research shows crowds hold the cards in referees’ decisions

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    Newswise — A team of university researchers have found that football crowds are influencing referees’ behaviour in the top four professional Leagues in England.

    The study, published in the Journal of Global Sport Management, confirmed that without crowds, there was no home advantage in association football during the COVID-19 2020-21 season.

    Sport officials’ experts Dr Tom Webb and Alastair Pearson at the University of Portsmouth worked with project lead, Alan Nevill at the University of Wolverhampton, on the study ‘No crowds, no home advantage in football during the COVID-19 season: Are crowds able to manipulate all but the best referees’ behaviour?’

    The COVID-19 pandemic provided a unique opportunity to assess the influence of crowds or, more accurately, their absence on the home advantage. During their research, the experts compared referees’ actions in ‘crowd vs no crowd’ games.

    The number of home and away red and yellow cards awarded in the ‘no crowd’ COVID-19 2020-21 season for the top four English divisions were compared with the home and away cards awarded during the previous ten ‘crowd’ seasons from 2010-11 to 2019-20.

    Results revealed that there was no home advantage in red and yellow cards awarded by referees in all four English divisions during the COVID-19 2020-21 season. In contrast, referees awarded significantly more cards to away players when adjudicating with crowds during seasons 2010-11 to 2019-20.

    However, in more recent ‘crowd’ seasons, Premier League referees are less susceptible to such influences with a narrowing of the gap between home and away yellow cards, suggesting that their preparation, management, and training provide them with an element of ‘crowd immunity.’

    The research team’s findings concluded that home crowds are, in fact, able to influence all but the very best referees’ behaviour.

    Project Lead, Alan Nevill, Research Professor in the Faculty of Education Health and Wellbeing at the University of Wolverhampton said: “Our study provides overwhelming evidence that crowds are able to manipulate professional referees to award significantly more red and yellow cards to away players (compared to home players), an effect that disappears when crowds are absent.”

    These findings have the potential to influence the training and development of referees at many levels of the game and to provide referee educators with the information to focus future training initiatives aimed at reducing home advantage further in all professional leagues in England.

    Dr Tom Webb, Senior Lecturer in Sport Management and MSc Sport Management course leader in the School of Sport, Health and Exercise Science at the University of Portsmouth, said: “Our findings provide powerful evidence that home crowds can manipulate all but the very best referees to be their twelfth man.

    “It is interesting that Premier League referees appear to be less susceptible than less experienced referees in lower divisions – there are a variety of reasons why that may be. For example, in the Premier League psychologists have been introduced to work with referees and technological innovations, such as goal-line technology and video assistant referees (VAR), have been introduced to assist referees in their performance.

    “Also, the growth of the Premier League has led to increased investment in professional referees and the potential for a wider gap to emerge between these referees and those referees operating within the professional game in the lower leagues.”

    Alastair Pearson, who is currently undertaking a Professional Doctorate in global netball match officiating, in the School of Sport, Health and Exercise Science at the University of Portsmouth said: “It’s clear that there needs to be more advanced and effective training provision for referees that operate outside the Premier League. This can be done in a number of ways. First, training on the subject of home advantage specifically and decision-making should be introduced for referees. They should also be trained to shut out the crowd and to deal with hostile crowds when officiating.

    “There should be a wider and more structured mentoring programme for referees at lower levels to engage with more experienced officials and placement at matches in higher leagues as part of their development process.

    “Further financial investment is crucial to ensure that referees continue to develop their decision-making skills. Further psychological support could also be provided for referees operating in League 1 and League 2.”

    Ends

    Notes for editors:

    1. A copy of the paper, No Crowds, No Home Advantage in Football during the COVID-19 Season: Are Crowds Able to Manipulate All but the Best Referees’ Behaviour? is attached and available to download here.
    2. The University of Portsmouth is a progressive and dynamic university with an outstanding reputation for innovative teaching and globally significant research and innovation.

    The University’s research and innovation culture is impacting lives today and in the future and addressing local, national and global challenges across science, technology, humanities, business and creative industries. http://www.port.ac.uk/

    For more information:

    Glenn Harris, Senior Media Manager, University of Portsmouth, Tel: 07809 757779, Email: [email protected]

     

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    University of Portsmouth

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  • Do acquisitions harm the acquired brand? Identifying conditions that reduce the negative effect

    Do acquisitions harm the acquired brand? Identifying conditions that reduce the negative effect

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    Newswise — Researchers from University of Leeds, University of Vienna, and University of Pennsylvania published a new Journal of Marketing article that examines why consumers develop negative reactions towards acquired brands and explains conditions that attenuate that negative effect.

    The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled “When and Why Consumers React Negatively to Brand Acquisitions: A Values Authenticity Account” and is authored by Alessandro Biraglia, Christoph Fuchs, Elisa Maira, and Stefano Puntoni.

    When Unilever acquired GROM, an Italian gelato company, 83% of consumers polled by a newspaper described the acquisition as “bad news.” This reduced consumer interest led to the closure of several GROM retail outlets, including the ice cream maker’s first store, four years after the acquisition. Similarly, consumer ratings for The Body Shop, a cosmetic brand, plummeted after L’Oréal acquired it.

    Companies often engage in mergers and acquisitions to expand their portfolio and generate growth – the global value of acquisitions amounted to $2.3 trillion in 2019, according to JP Morgan – but there is plenty of anecdotal evidence suggesting that brand acquisitions can potentially generate negative reactions among consumers. Yet little is known about when and why brand acquisitions might trigger these negative reactions.

    This new study explains why consumers develop negative reactions towards acquired brands in terms of lower brand choice and reduced purchase likelihood. As Biraglia explains, “We find that, across product categories, consumers often see an acquired brand as having compromised the authentic values upon which it was founded. This perception is triggered not only when a big company acquires a smaller one, but also when the sizes of the acquirer and acquired brand are comparable. Furthermore, the negative effect appears even in the case of partial acquisition such as 15% of ownership.”

    Conditions that Attenuate the Negative Effect of Acquisitions

    Across ten studies using different methods, research designs, product categories, and brands, the researchers demonstrate that negative brand reactions can be explained by the perceived loss of a brand’s unique values. “Building on this values authenticity account, we find that the negative effect of acquisitions depends on the acquired brand’s values, brand age, leadership continuity, and the alignment between acquiring and acquired brands,” says Fuchs. The conditions that attenuate the negative effect of acquisitions are as follows:

    • Consumers develop a lower purchase intention when a previously acquired brand is acquired again by another company, as the original values may have already been diluted during the first takeover.
    • Consumers seem less concerned when the original leadership team remains in charge after the acquisition because this may act as a reassurance that the authentic values are retained.
    • Consumers react less negatively if the values of the acquirer brand align with those of the acquired brand. The negative effect is mitigated if a brand that produces sustainable products is acquired by a brand with sustainability as a core value.
    • Consumers react less negatively when the acquired brand has been established with a strategic orientation towards growth. In these cases, they don’t see the takeover as a loss of the brand’s authentic values. For instance, many start-ups are founded with the desire to get bigger and many communicate this in their statements (e.g., Bill Gates often mentioned his vision to have a “PC on every desk in every home”). Sometimes founders even invoke growth values as the reason for selling the company (e.g., the founder of Dot’s Pretzels explained the acquisition by Hershey’s in November 2021 by saying she had “built the business with the idea of sharing them with everyone.”)
    • Consumers react less negatively if a young brand is acquired. Consumers consider the acquisition of a younger company less disruptive of values authenticity. Conversely, for older companies with a set of values crystallized over decades – or even centuries – we find a more severe negative effect.

    Managerial Implications

    Before the acquisition:

    • “Managers should examine the target brand’s communications and identify whether the vision statement, advertising, social media accounts, and other forms of branding contain any references to growth or reaching a broader range of customers. Such cues may make the acquisition process more favorable in the eyes of consumers,” explains Maira. Targeting brands aligned with the acquiring company’s core values and making this alignment salient can benefit the acquisition process.
    • Similarly, scouting for young, promising brands could prove beneficial, potentially giving the acquirer an aura of patronage and a reputation for investing in nascent businesses.

    After the acquisition:

    • “Managers should carefully plan how to effectively frame acquisition announcements. If the founders/original owners will not be involved after the acquisition, managers may want to consider retaining long-term employees and highlighting this in communications,” suggests Puntoni.
    • When the acquirer has values that align with those of the acquired brand, highlighting this can boost perceptions of the acquisition and nurture the acquired brand.
    • If there is no strong alignment of values between the acquirer and the acquired brand, the research team suggests that managers focus on other aspects that can benefit from the acquisition. For example, an acquirer could highlight an increase in R&D facilities or a potential increase in product quality.

    Full article and author contact information available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/00222429221137817

    About the Journal of Marketing 

    The Journal of Marketing develops and disseminates knowledge about real-world marketing questions useful to scholars, educators, managers, policy makers, consumers, and other societal stakeholders around the world. Published by the American Marketing Association since its founding in 1936, JM has played a significant role in shaping the content and boundaries of the marketing discipline. Shrihari Sridhar (Joe Foster ’56 Chair in Business Leadership, Professor of Marketing at Mays Business School, Texas A&M University) serves as the current Editor in Chief.
    https://www.ama.org/jm

    About the American Marketing Association (AMA) 

    As the largest chapter-based marketing association in the world, the AMA is trusted by marketing and sales professionals to help them discover what is coming next in the industry. The AMA has a community of local chapters in more than 70 cities and 350 college campuses throughout North America. The AMA is home to award-winning content, PCM® professional certification, premiere academic journals, and industry-leading training events and conferences.
    https://www.ama.org

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  • Witchcraft beliefs are widespread, highly variable around the world

    Witchcraft beliefs are widespread, highly variable around the world

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    Newswise — A newly compiled dataset quantitatively captures witchcraft beliefs in countries around the world, enabling investigation of key factors associated with such beliefs. Boris Gershman of American University in Washington, D.C., presents these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on November 23, 2022.

    Numerous prior studies conducted around the world have documented people’s beliefs in witchcraft—the idea that certain individuals have supernatural abilities to inflict harm. Understanding people’s witchcraft beliefs can be important for policymaking and other community engagement efforts. However, due to a lack of data, global-scale statistical analyses of witchcraft beliefs have been lacking.

     To deepen understanding of witchcraft beliefs, Gershman compiled a new dataset that captures such beliefs among more than 140,000 people from 95 countries and territories. The data come from face-to-face and telephone surveys conducted by the Pew Research Center and professional survey organizations between 2008 and 2017, which included questions about religious beliefs and belief in witchcraft. 

    According to the dataset, over 40 percent of survey participants said they believe that “certain people can cast curses or spells that cause bad things to happen to someone.” Witchcraft beliefs appear to exist around the world but vary substantially between countries and within world regions. For instance, 9 percent of participants in Sweden reported belief in witchcraft, compared to 90 percent in Tunisia.

    Using this dataset, Gershman then conducted an investigation of various individual-level factors associated with witchcraft beliefs. This analysis suggests that, while beliefs cut across socio-demographic groups, people with higher levels of education and economic security are less likely to believe in witchcraft.

    Gershman also combined this dataset with other country-level data, finding that witchcraft beliefs differ between countries according to various cultural, institutional, psychological, and socioeconomic factors. For instance, witchcraft beliefs are linked to weak institutions, low levels of social trust, and low innovation, as well as conformist culture and higher levels of in-group bias—the tendency for people to favor others who are similar to them”

    These findings, as well as future research using the new dataset, could be applied to help optimize policies and development projects by accounting for local witchcraft beliefs. 

    The author adds: “The study documents that witchcraft beliefs are still widespread around the world. Moreover, their prevalence is systematically related to a number of cultural, institutional, psychological, and socioeconomic characteristics.”

    #####

    Press-only preview: https://plos.io/3UYlmOl

    In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS ONE: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0276872

    Image Caption: A map showing country-level prevalence of witchcraft beliefs around the world

    Image Credit: Boris Gershman, 2022, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

    Image Link: https://plos.io/3UziaJ5 

    Citation: Gershman B (2022) Witchcraft beliefs around the world: An exploratory analysis. PLoS ONE 17(11): e0276872. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0276872

    Author Countries: USA

    Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work. 

    Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

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  • Gene that guides earliest social behaviors could be key to understanding autism

    Gene that guides earliest social behaviors could be key to understanding autism

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    Newswise — Little is known about how social behavior develops in the earliest stages of life. But most animals––including humans––are born with an innate ability to interact socially or form bonds with others. And that contributes to success throughout life.

    Now, a new animal study points to a gene that is important for the earliest development of basic social behaviors.

    The work also suggests that exposure to certain drugs and environmental risk factors during embryonic development can cause changes to this gene, leading to alterations in social behavior that are similar to those found in individuals who have autism. Much to their surprise, the researchers also found they could reverse some of the effects using an experimental drug.

    “This study helps us understand at the molecular level why sociability is disrupted during the very earliest stages of life,” says Randall T. Peterson, Ph.D., the corresponding author of the study and dean of the University of Utah College of Pharmacy. “It also gives us an opportunity to explore potential treatments that could restore sociability in these animals and, perhaps in time, eventually in humans as well.”

    More broadly, their findings suggest that the gene—TOP2a—controls a large network of genes that are known to increase the risk of autism. It also may serve as a link between genetic and environmental factors that contribute to onset of disorder, Peterson adds.

    The study, conducted by University of Utah Health researchers and colleagues nationwide, appears in the Nov. 23 issue of Science Advances.

    Anti-social animals

    Scientists suspect many social traits are determined before birth. But the precise mechanisms involved in this process remain murky. One promising area of research suggests that social behavior and other characteristics and traits are influenced not only by our genetic makeup but also how and where we live. 

    To test this model, the scientists evaluated whether environmental exposures during embryonic development could influence social behavior. Peterson and his colleagues exposed zebrafish embryos to more than 1,100 known drugs––one drug per 20 embryos––for 72 hours beginning three days after conception.

    The researchers determined that four of the 1,120 tested drugs significantly reduced sociability among the zebrafish. Fish exposed to these drugs were less likely to interact with other fish. It turned out that the four medications all belonged to the same class of antibiotics, called fluoroquinolones. These drugs are used to treat upper and lower respiratory tract infections in people.

    When the scientists gave a related drug to pregnant mice, the offspring behaved differently when they became adults. Even though they appeared normal, they communicated less with other mice and engaged in more repetitive acts—like repeatedly poking their head in the same hole—than other rodents.

    A basis for sociability

    Digging deeper, the researchers found that the drugs suppressed a gene called TOP2a, which, in turn, acted on a cluster of genes that are known to be involved in autism in humans.

    They also found that the cluster of autism-associated genes shared another thing in common—a higher than usual tendency to bind a group of proteins called the PRC2.  The researchers hypothesized that Top2a and the PRC2 work together to control the production of many autism-associated genes.

    To determine whether the anti-social behaviors could be reversed, the research team gave embryonic and young zebrafish an experimental drug called UNC1999, which is known to inhibit the PRC2. After treatment with the drug, fish exposed to fluoroquinolones were more likely to swim closer to other fish, demonstrating that the drug helped restore sociability. They saw similar results with other drugs known to inhibit the same key gene, TOP2a. 

    “That really surprised me because I would’ve thought disrupting brain development when you’re an embryo would be irreversible,” Peterson says. “If you don’t develop sociality as an embryo, you’ve missed the window. But this study suggests that even in those individuals later in life, you can still come in and inhibit this pathway and restore sociality.”

    Moving forward, the researchers plan to explore how and why this drug had this effect.

    Although the scientists only found four compounds that are Top2a inhibitors, evidence suggests hundreds of other drugs and naturally occurring compounds in our environment can inhibit its activity.

    “It’s possible that these four compounds are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of substances that could be problematic for embryonic exposure,” Peterson says.

    However, Peterson notes that this study was conducted in animals, and more research needs to be done before any of its results can be confirmed in humans. Therefore, he cautions against drawing conclusions about real-world applications.

    “We have no evidence that fluroquinolones or any other antibiotic causes autism in humans,” Peterson says. “So, there is no reason to stop using antibiotics. What this paper does identify is a new molecular pathway that appears to control social development and is worthy of further exploration.”

                                                    ###

    In addition to Dr. Peterson, U of U Health scientists Yijie Geng, Tejia Zhang, Ivy G. Alonzo, Sean C. Godar, Christopher Yates, Brock Plummer, and Marco Bortolato contributed to this study. Other participating institutions include the University of Chicago; Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston; Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School; the Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts; and MDI Biological Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine.

    The study, “Top2a promotes the development of social behavior via PRC2 and H3K27me3,” appears in the Nov. 23, 2022, issue of Science Advances. This research was supported by the L. S. Skaggs Presidential Endowed Chair and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences at the National Institutes of Health.

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  • Fear of COVID-19 continues to impact adversely on psychological wellbeing

    Fear of COVID-19 continues to impact adversely on psychological wellbeing

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    Newswise — Research by psychologists from the School of Psychology at Swansea University found that people’s fear of COVID-19 has led to worsened mental health. The study, just published in the Journal of Health Psychology, also found that older participants and those from minority ethnic groups were most likely to experience COVID-19 fear.

    The researchers examined the impact of COVID-19 fear on key aspects of psychological wellbeing with an online survey of the same sample of participants at two different timepoints during the pandemic.

    The first timepoint took place in February 2021 when daily death rates and hospitalisations were at their highest during the pandemic (to date) and vaccination rates were low. At this point, COVID-19 fear predicted higher levels of anxiety, depression, worry, loneliness, sleep difficulties and problems coping with uncertainty

    The second timepoint took place in June 2021 when daily death rates and hospitalisations had dropped considerably, and many participants had received two vaccinations.  At this  second point, levels of COVID-19 fear had decreased; however, fear of the virus still predicted higher levels of worry, sleep difficulties and problems in dealing with uncertain situations.

    In this way, the impact of COVID-19 evolved, impacting different aspects of wellbeing among the same sample of participants.

    Dr Martyn Quigley, Lecturer in Psychology at Swansea University, who led the study, said:

    “This research demonstrates the significant toll of the pandemic on the psychological wellbeing of many people, especially at the most challenging times during the pandemic. What is particularly striking though is that COVID-19 fear continued to have an impact on people’s wellbeing when circumstances had appeared to considerably improve, thus demonstrating the long-term impact of the pandemic on wellbeing.”

    The research was conducted as part of a Welsh Government (Ser-Cymru) funded project examining the impact of COVID-19 on psychological wellbeing. In addition to conducting survey-based studies, the researchers have conducted online experiments adapted from tasks regularly used in the laboratory to provide behavioural performance markers of mental health coping as we emerge from the pandemic.

    END

    Notes to editors:

    The article entitled, “Longitudinal assessment of COVID-19 fear and psychological wellbeing in the United Kingdom”, can be accessed here: https://doi.org/10.1177/13591053221134848

    Swansea University is a world-class, research-led, dual campus university offering a first-class student experience and has one of the best employability rates of graduates in the UK. The University has the highest possible rating for teaching – the Gold rating in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) in 2018 and was commended for its high proportions of students achieving consistently outstanding outcomes.

    Swansea climbed 14 places to 31st in the Guardian University Guide 2019, making us Wales’ top ranked university, with one of the best success rates of graduates gaining employment in the UK and the same overall satisfaction level as the Number 1 ranked university.

    The 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014 results saw Swansea make the ‘biggest leap among research-intensive institutions’ in the UK (Times Higher Education, December 2014) and achieved its ambition to be a top 30 research University, soaring up the league table to 26th in the UK.

    The University is in the top 300 best universities in the world, ranked in the 251-300 group in The Times Higher Education World University rankings 2018.  Swansea University now has 23 main partners, awarding joint degrees and post-graduate qualifications.

    The University was established in 1920 and was the first campus university in the UK. It currently offers around 350 undergraduate courses and 350 postgraduate courses to circa 20,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students.  The University has ambitious expansion plans as it moves towards its centenary in 2020 and aims to continue to extend its global reach and realise its domestic and international potential.

    Swansea University is a registered charity. No.1138342. Visit www.swansea.ac.uk

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  • Moral behavior pays off

    Moral behavior pays off

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    Newswise — Selfless behaviour and cooperation cannot be taken for granted. Mohammad Salahshour of the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences (now at Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior), has used a game theory-based approach to show why it can be worthwhile for individuals to set self-interests aside.

    One of the most fundamental questions facing humanity is: why do we behave morally? Because it is by no means self-evident that under certain circumstances we set our self-interest aside and put ourselves in the service of a group – sometimes to the point of self-sacrifice. Many theories have been developed to get to the bottom of this moral conundrum. There are two well-known proposed solutions: that individuals help their relatives so that the common genes survive (kin selection), and that the principle of “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” applies. If people help each other, everyone benefits in the end (principle of reciprocity).

    Prisoner’s dilemma combined with a coordination game

    Mathematician Mohammad Salahshour of the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences in Leipzig, Germany, has used the tools of game theory to explain the emergence of moral norms – because game theory studies how people make rational decisions in conflict situations. For Salahshour, the question at the outset was: why do moral norms exist in the first place? And why do we have different, or even contrasting moral norms? For example, while some norms such as “help others”, promote self-sacrificing behaviour, others, such as dress codes, appear not to have much to do with curbing selfishness. To answer these questions, Salahshour coupled two games: first, the classic prisoner’s dilemma, in which two players must decide whether to cooperate for a small reward or betray themselves for a much larger reward (social dilemma). This game can be a typical example of a social dilemma, where success of a group as a whole requires individuals to behave selflessly. In this game everybody loses out if too many members of a group behave selfishly, compared to a scenario in which everybody acts altruistically. However, if only a few individuals behave selfishly, they can receive a better outcome than their altruistic team members. .Second, a game that focuses on typical decisions within groups, such as a coordination task, distribution of resources, choice of a leader, or conflict resolution. Many of these problems can be ultimately categorized as coordination or anticoordination problems.

    Without coupling the two games, it is clear that in the Prisoner’s Dilemma, cooperation does not pay off, and self-interested behaviour is the best choice from the individual’s perspective if there are enough people who act selflessly. But individuals who act selfishly are not able to solve coordination problems efficiently and lose a lot of resources due to failing to coordinate their activity. The situation can be completely different when the results of the two games are considered as a whole and there are moral norms at work which favour cooperation: now cooperation in the prisoner’s dilemma can suddenly pay off because the gain in the second game more than compensates for the loss in the first game.  

    Out of self-interest to coordination and cooperation

    As a result of this process, not only cooperative behaviour emerges, but also a social order. All individuals benefit from it – and for this reason, moral behaviour pay off for them. “In my evolutionary model, there were no selfless behaviours at the beginning, but more and more moral norms emerged as a result of the coupling of the two games,” Salahshour reports. “Then I observed a sudden transition to a system where there is a lot of cooperation.” In this “moral state”, a set of norms of coordination evolve which help individuals to better coordinate their activity, and it is precisely through this that social norms and moral standards can emerge. However, coordination norms favour cooperation: cooperation turns out to be a rewarding behaviour for the individual as well. Mahammad Salahshour: “A moral system behaves like a Trojan horse: once established out of the individuals’ self-interest to promote order and organization, it also brings self-sacrificing cooperation”.

    Through his work, Salahshour hopes to better understand social systems. “This can help improve people’s lives in the future,” he explains. “But you can also use my game-theoretic approach to explain the emergence of social norms in social media. There, people exchange information and make strategic decisions at the same time – for example, who to support or what cause to support.” Again, he said, two dynamics are at work at once: the exchange of information and the emergence of cooperative strategies. Their interplay is not yet well understood – but perhaps game theory will soon shed new light on this topical issue as well.

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  • Deprivation in childhood linked to impulsive behaviour in adulthood – research

    Deprivation in childhood linked to impulsive behaviour in adulthood – research

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    Newswise — Children who have experienced deprivation are more likely to make more impulsive choices than those who don’t and can lead to addictions in later life – research has shown.

    ‘Trait impulsivity’, the preference for immediate gratification, has been linked to spending more on food, especially unhealthy, highly calorific food. Studies have shown that children who experience poverty and food insecurity tend to have a higher body-mass index as adults than those who do not.

    Researchers from the School of Psychology at Aston University found a link between deprivation in childhood and impulsive behaviour – leading to addictions later in life. The findings, which are a culmination of six years of research, also found a further link between impulsivity, obesity and the cost of living crisis.

    Professor Richard Tunney, head of the School of Psychology at Aston University, published a study in Scientific Reports earlier this year where he showed that children who experience deprivation make more impulsive choices than children who don’t.

    The research team studied 146 children, with an average age of eight, living in some of the most deprived areas of England and compared them with children living in some of the most affluent neighbourhoods.

    Children were given a choice between taking home a small amount of money (for example, £1) or getting £10 a week, or even more a year later. How long a person is willing to wait for the larger amount of money can be used to calculate a ‘discount rate’ that shows how much the waiting time reduces the value of the money.

    An impulsive person might prefer £1 now because the value of £10 in six months is ‘discounted’ to less than £1 right now. This means that, for them, the £10, is discounted by £9 over the six-month wait.

    A less impulsive person might be willing to wait six months for £10, but not wait for a whole year for £15. This means that, for them, the value of the £15 is discounted by £5 over the additional six-month wait. This discount rate is a measure of how impulsive someone is.

    Commenting on the findings, Professor Tunney said: “The results showed that children living in the most deprived areas had significantly higher discount rates than children living in the least deprived areas, regardless of age or intelligence, indicating that deprivation was the causal factor in the children’s choice.

    “This preference for immediate outcomes is a stable personality trait that remains constant throughout a person’s life.”

    However, in the research team’s most recent study published by the Royal Society, they investigated impulsivity in over 1,000 older adults aged between 50 and 90.

    The study found that older adults living in the most deprived areas showed the same preference for smaller-sooner financial outcomes as the children in the first study.

    It also found that a person’s job predicted the choices they made. Adults working in technical or routine occupations, such as mechanics or cleaners, chose to receive smaller amounts of money than wait for larger amounts compared with people in professional occupations, such as engineers or scientists.

    Professor Tunney added: “These findings are concerning because impulsivity doesn’t just predict obesity. These findings tell us a lot about why people living in poorer areas tend to be unhealthier than people living in wealthy areas.

    “People who experience deprivation as children are more likely to choose to do things that, although they might be pleasurable in the short term, are unhealthy in the long run. This includes overeating, taking drugs, smoking cigarettes and gambling.

    “We know too, that impulsivity can help to explain why some people go on to become addicts, while other people can avoid some of the more harmful effects of drugs and alcohol.

    “Deprivation is one of many factors that can lead to impulsive behaviour throughout a person’s lifetime. Genetics also plays a role in impulsivity. Policymakers can’t do anything about a person’s genes but they can influence the nation’s long-term mental and physical health by minimising child poverty. Failing to do so will have long-term implications for the children living through today’s cost of living crisis.”

    For more information about the School of Psychology at Aston University, please visit our website.

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  • Made by women: Why women buy from women and men buy from women and men

    Made by women: Why women buy from women and men buy from women and men

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    Newswise — Researchers from Technical University of Munich and Copenhagen Business School published a new paper in the Journal of Consumer Psychology that provides fresh insights into how individual purchase decisions are influenced by the gender of the person producing the goods. The research has implications for online platforms marketing handmade products and policymakers seeking to promote socially responsible behavior.

    The article, recently published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, “Made by her vs. him: Gender influences in product preferences and the role of individual action efficacy in restoring social equalities” is authored by Benedikt Schnurr and Georgios Halkias.

    Nearly 100 million consumers bought handmade products on Etsy in 2021, reflecting consumers’ preference for more personal and unique purchase experiences, according to the authors.  

    The researchers found that female consumers show a strong preference for goods made by women, while male consumers are neutral about the producer’s gender. Through a series of 13 studies, they also discovered that female consumers more strongly believe that their purchase decisions can contribute to restoring gender equality in business compared to their male counterparts.  The authors call this tendency “action efficacy beliefs.”

    Further, their studies suggest that the more female consumers believe that women face gender discrimination in business and the more they want to act against it, the greater their preference for products made by women. In fact, buying from a female producer matters more to women consumers than buying goods from a group of combined male and female producers whose revenues support a gender equality fund.

    In addition, the team found female consumers’ higher action efficacy beliefs drive their choice of women-made products more than their beliefs that those products reflect their own identity – a common motivator of purchasing behavior.

    The desire to reduce social inequalities isn’t enough to change behavior. “Consumers need to believe that their seemingly trivial individual actions can contribute to the cause,” the authors write. “In this sense, consumers need to believe that their action counts.”

    The article offers potentially sales-boosting insights to women producers and online platform managers marketing handmade goods. Additionally, policymakers can leverage the findings to advance gender equity in business.

    Full article and author contact information available at:  https://myscp.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jcpy.1327

    About the Journal of Consumer Psychology

    The Journal of Consumer Psychology publishes top-quality research articles that contribute both theoretically and empirically to our understanding of the psychology of consumer behavior. The Journal is intended for researchers in consumer psychology, social and cognitive psychology, judgment and decision making, and related disciplines. It is also relevant to professionals in advertising and public relations, marketing and branding, consumer and market research, and public policy. Published by the Society for Consumer Psychology since its founding in 1992, JCP has played a significant role in shaping the content and boundaries of the consumer psychology discipline. Dr. Lauren Block (Lippert Professor of Marketing at the Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College) serves as the current Editor-in-Chief.

    About the Society for Consumer Psychology (SCP)

    The Society for Consumer Psychology is the premier voice to further the advancement of the discipline of consumer psychology in a global society. Building upon the Society’s excellence in mentoring young behavioral scientists, the SCP facilitates the generation and dissemination of intellectual contributions and promotes professional development and research opportunities for its members around the globe. Dr. Gita V. Johar (Meyer Feldberg Professor of Business at the Columbia Business School, Columbia University) serves as the current President.

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  • Targeting serial returners to stem a growing problem for retailers

    Targeting serial returners to stem a growing problem for retailers

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    Newswise — AMES, IA – This holiday season is expected to set another record for online sales, according to the National Retail Federation. But if consumer habits mirror previous years, 20% to 30% of the merchandise will be returned. It’s a big financial hit and logistical challenge for retailers that cover all the shipping, sorting and processing.  

    “Supply chain managers are really good at moving things to the customer. They’re not as good at bringing things back in because it’s a jumbled, disorganized flow back into the company for a product that they may not be able to resell,” said Robert Overstreet, assistant professor of supply chain management at Iowa State University.

    To slow the backward flow and offset costs, retailers are increasingly adopting stricter return policies. Some are shortening the return window; others are adding processing fees or scrapping free shipping altogether.

    The risk with this approach, Overstreet says, is backlash from customers. He points to L.L. Bean as an example. The company ranked 16th among U.S. RepTrack’s 100 Most Reputable Companies in 2017 but fell out completely the next year after changing its return policy. L.L. Bean reduced its lifetime replacement guarantee to a year-long return window and required customers to show a receipt.

    Overstreet and his co-authors say in a newly published study that consumers are more likely to shop elsewhere if they view a return policy change as unfair or breaking a promise. They’re also more likely to complain to friends and family. But retailers may be able to retain customers and protect their reputations if they specifically target “serial returners” with the policy change.

    Serial returners include people who order multiple sizes, colors or models of a product to choose one and send the rest back. Last year, a Narvar study found that more than half of online shoppers in the U.S. buy more than they intend to keep. Another shopping behavior that’s contributed to the growth in returns is known as wardrobing or retail borrowing. Someone buys something for short-term use (e.g., a bassinet for a newborn, speakers for a one-time event) and sends it back before the return window closes.

    “With higher costs this year and increasing volumes of excess inventory, many retail giants are considering revamping their return policies,” said Overstreet. “Change is coming. But how they implement and communicate those changes will matter.”

    Targeted vs. generalized

    The researchers designed a vignette experiment featuring ABCmart, a fictionalized clothing retailer with an online presence and physical stores in all medium-to-large U.S. cities. Over 460 participants were asked to imagine they were loyal customers of ABCmart and planning to return a recent online purchase.

    Half of the participants were told the company was shortening its return window for all customers (i.e., a generalized policy.) The other half were told the shorter return window would affect only consumers who have abused the return policy (i.e., a targeted policy for serial returners.) Participants were told that they learned about the new policy because it was either 1.) widely covered on television, radio, and social media (i.e., high-intensity communication) or 2.) posted on ABCmart’s website and within their retail stores (i.e., low-intensity communication).

    The researchers found that the participants were significantly more likely to speak negatively about ABCmart when the policy change was generalized. Further, that negative word of mouth was significantly related to customer intentions to switch to a different website.

    In another survey, 100 participants were asked about their thoughts about generalized versus targeted policy changes. When the return policy change was targeted, 44% of the participants expressed positive emotions, while only 13% expressed negative emotions. The other 43% were neutral.

    Those on the positive side of the spectrum often made comments about fairness. For example: “I would feel proud of the company for taking action against people who try to cheat the system.”

    “Respondents largely understood that cheaters were increasing the price paid by everyone,” said Overstreet.

    Thirty-five percent of the participants in the targeted policy group also indicated they would talk about the policy change with friends and family. However, they said these comments would be neutral or positive. Only one participant indicated switching to another company when the returns policy change was targeted.

    However, when the return policy change was generalized, 64% of the participants expressed negative emotions, while only 2% expressed positive emotions. The other 34% were neutral. Nearly half of the participants indicated they would speak negatively about the change to family and friends (45%) and shop at another store (42%).

    Retailer communication

    Both showed the way the policy change was communicated to participants also mattered. Low-intensity communication for a targeted policy change led to the best outcome.

    “The majority of customers are not going to be affected by a policy change that targets serial returners, so there’s no benefit to wide-scale communications. Only offenders will be upset, not the whole group,” Overstreet explained.

    Pat Daugherty and Russell Laczniak, emeritus professors of supply chain management and marketing, respectively; and Tyler Morgan, assistant professor of supply chain management at Auburn University, contributed to the paper published in the Journal of Business Research. The research was funded by multiple grants from the Ivy College of Business.

    Overstreet and Daugherty are working with a Ph.D. candidate at Iowa State to develop a risk framework for returns management that includes recommended mitigation strategies.

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  • Corporal punishment affects brain activity, anxiety, and depression

    Corporal punishment affects brain activity, anxiety, and depression

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    Newswise — Don’t spank your kids. That’s the conventional wisdom that has emerged from decades of research linking corporal punishment to a decline in adolescent health and negative effects on behavior, including an increased risk for anxiety and depression. Now, a new study explores how corporal punishment might impact neural systems to produce those adverse effects.

    Corporal punishment can be simply defined as the “intentional infliction of physical pain by any means for the purpose of punishment, correction, discipline, instruction, or any other reason.” This violence, particularly when inflicted by a parent, evokes a complex emotional experience. The researchers, led by Kreshnik Burani, MS, and working with Greg Hajcak, PhD, at Florida State University, wanted to understand the neural underpinnings of that experience and its downstream consequences.

    The study appears in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, published by Elsevier.

    The researchers conducted a longitudinal study on 149 boys and girls ages 11 to 14 from the Tallahassee, FL, area. Participants performed a video game-like task and a monetary guessing game while undergoing continuously recorded electroencephalography, or EEG – a noninvasive technique to measure brain-wave activity from the scalp. From the EEG data, the researchers determined two scores for each participant – one reflecting their neural response to error and the other reflecting their neural response to reward.

    Two years later, participants and their parents completed a series of questionnaires to screen for anxiety and depression and to assess parenting style. As expected, kids who had experienced corporal punishment were more likely to develop anxiety and depression.

    “Our paper first replicates the well-known negative effect that corporal punishment has on a child’s wellbeing: we found that corporal punishment is associated with increased anxiety and depressive symptoms in adolescence. However, our study goes further to demonstrate that corporal punishment might impact brain activity and neurodevelopment,” said Burani.

    That was reflected by larger neural response to error and a blunted response to reward in the adolescents who received physical punishments.

    “Specifically,” Burani added, “our paper links corporal punishment to increased neural sensitivity to making errors and decreased neural sensitivity to receiving rewards in adolescence. In previous and ongoing work with Dr. Hajcak, we see that increased neural response to errors is associated with anxiety and risk for anxiety, whereas decreased neural response to rewards is related to depression and risk for depression. Corporal punishment, therefore, might alter specific neurodevelopmental pathways that increase risk for anxiety and depression by making children hypersensitive to their own mistakes and less reactive to rewards and other positive events in their environment.”

    Cameron Carter, MD, Editor of Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, said of the findings, “Using EEG, this study provides new insights into the mechanisms that may underlie the adverse effects of corporal punishment on mental health in children as well as the neural systems that may be affected.”

    The work provides new clues as to the neural underpinnings of depression and anxiety and could help guide interventions for at-risk youth.

    https://www.elsevier.com/about/press-releases/research-and-journals/corporal-punishment-affects-brain-activity-anxiety-and-depression

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  • Got the sniffles? Here’s how to make the right decision around family gatherings

    Got the sniffles? Here’s how to make the right decision around family gatherings

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    Newswise — With what some are calling a “tripledemic” of COVID-19, the influenza virus and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, soaring in many parts of the country, the holiday season will come with some tough decisions again this year:

    Should you go to that Thanksgiving gathering even though you woke up with the sniffles? Send your child to that school performance even though she was coughing last night? Wear a mask to the grocery store after you learned your friend has COVID-19?

    New University of Colorado Boulder research, published in the journal PNAS Nexus, shows that when people simply take a moment to reflect on the consequences of their behavior they tend to choose options that impose fewer risks on other people.

    The international study of 13,000 people also found that, almost universally, people value others’ health and wellbeing.

    “Most people aspire to behave in a way that considers others’ wellbeing but often, in the moment, they behave more selfishly than they aspire to,” said senior author Leaf Van Boven, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at CU Boulder. “Our lab is trying to devise ways to help people better align their in-the-moment behavior with their values.”

    For the study, conducted at the height of the pandemic, Van Boven and collaborators in London, Austria, Singapore, Israel, Italy and Sweden presented participants in those countries and the United States with three hypothetical scenarios:

    In one, they owned a small restaurant and were considering reducing capacity as the virus surged.

    In another, they were supposed to meet with 50 friends for a birthday party after months of isolation but their government cautioned that, due to a COVID-19 surge, gatherings of 10 or more were unwise.

    In a third, they considered whether to cancel a planned Thanksgiving celebration with 30 family members, including older adults and young children.

    Before making a decision, half of study subjects were instructed to pause and practice a technique called “structured reflection,” developed in Van Boven’s lab, aimed at helping people be more mindful of their own values.

    They asked themselves two questions contrasting how their decision would impact them personally vs. how it would impact public health. For instance, in the Thanksgiving scenario, they asked,

    “How much (on a scale of 1 to 7) should your decision be influenced by the likelihood that COVID-19 may spread among family members?” And “How much should your decision be influenced by your satisfaction of spending time with family members?”

    Across all countries, cultures, ages and political parties, almost everyone gave at least equal weight to others’ wellbeing.

    “That’s encouraging,” said Van Boven. “Our study and others suggest it is a universal human tendency that people believe they should care about how their behavior affects other people.”

    Those in the structured reflection group were significantly more likely to say they would cancel Thanksgiving, and in the other scenarios they were more likely to err on the side of minimizing public health risks.

    Van Boven said that such techniques could be applied to achieve a host of public health goals in which in-the-moment personal benefit tends to overshadow broader public health considerations.

    “People know that they should not text while driving, that it’s better for the planet if they take the bus instead of drive, that they should eat more vegetables and exercise, but knowing is only the first step,” Van Boven said.

    While public health campaigns often focus on changing people’s minds, Van Boven’s team takes a different approach: to help people be their best selves and do what they already know they should do.

    As COVID-19 restrictions lift, such personal responsibility will grow increasingly important, he said.

    “I would encourage everyone to develop a habit of asking themselves when they are considering any sort of large social gathering: What is the risk you might impose on other people and is the benefit of the gathering worth the risk?”

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  • Little objective evidence to show effectiveness of learner-centred teaching methods, study warns

    Little objective evidence to show effectiveness of learner-centred teaching methods, study warns

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    Newswise — There is currently relatively little objective evidence that the much-promoted “learner-centred” approach to teaching is effective, according to new research.

    Learner centred pedagogy is designed to encourage pupils to become more involved in decision-making in the school and more active in class and participate in lessons.

    It has been advocated by international bodies such as UNESCO and World Bank and considerable time, money, and resources have been invested in LCP in many countries worldwide despite the lack of a comprehensive body of evidence regarding its implementation and outcomes.

    New research, by Dr Nozomi Sakata, Dr Leanne Cameron and Dr Nicholas Bremner show how the approach can have positive results, but there is currently little objective evidence to prove its effectiveness. Researchers have called for more larger scale, objective, rigorous research on its effectiveness over time.

    Some studies report teachers and students feedback that the teaching style helped to boost motivation, confidence, and enhanced relationships. But there is little proof it is more effective than what teachers have been doing previously.

    Dr Bremner, from the University of Exeter, said: “Existing evidence has shown learner-centred pedagogy can have a positive impact, but not enough to justify such a massive policy emphasis worldwide. Much of the evidence is too thin and simplistic to recommend either schools either abandon it or embrace it. On the basis of current evidence, there is a real gap in hard data to prove or disprove the value of LCP, especially given its continued prominence in worldwide policy discourses.

    “Many policies have been introduced with good intentions, but they could be implemented in a more thoughtful way which allows teachers to make sensible decisions about using different methods and approaches at different times.”

    In the article, published in the International Journal of Educational Development, researchers conducted a review of 62 journal articles from 2001 to 2020 reporting the outcomes of LCP implementation in low- to middle-income countries around the world.

    A total of 28 texts cited examples of teachers’ positive experiences of LCP and seven negative.However, only 9 out of the 62 studies contained objective evidence of improved academic learning outcomes.

    A total of 26 out of the 62 texts cited examples of teachers or students’ perspectives of enhanced student learning, whilst 9 texts cited examples of little to no improvement in student learning.

    Dr Bremner said: “Larger scale experimental studies may be challenging from a methodological perspective and are likely to imply a large investment in time and resources. However, on the basis of current evidence, there is a real gap in hard data to prove or disprove the value of LCP, especially given its continued prominence in worldwide policy discourses.

    “The more subjective research, for example studies presenting perspectives of teachers and students, was more prevalent than objective research, and did seem to lean towards positive experiences of LCP for non-academic outcomes such as student motivation and confidence, as well as enhanced relationships. Such outcomes may not always be the priority for educational policymakers, but many would argue they are extremely important.”

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  • Attitudes towards corona vaccination among medical and nursing staff

    Attitudes towards corona vaccination among medical and nursing staff

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    Newswise — COLOGNE. Due to their close contacts with patients, people working in the medical and nursing fields have a higher risk of infecting themselves and others with the COVID-19 coronavirus. Being vaccinated is therefore essential not only for their own protection but also for their patients. Carolin Muschalik and co-authors from the Federal Center for Health Education (BZgA) have now asked whether (and to what extent) the attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination in this group differ from those in the general population, and whether identified differences could support recommendations for action (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2022;119.DOI: 10.3238/arztebl.m2022.0206).

    To address these questions, the authors carried out a Germany-wide survey in the framework of the CoSiD study between 9 July and 5 August, 2021, using computer-assisted web and telephone interviews. The attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination were collected using the so-called 5C scale, which describes five psychological reasons for or against vaccination. Based on their vaccination status, the views of medical and nursing personnel (n = 506) were compared with those of persons in the general population who were younger than 66 years old and not employed in a medical or nursing field (n = 1505). Differences between the reference group of unvaccinated medical and nursing personnel and the three other groups were determined using linear regressions for complex samples and controlled for age, education, and gender.

    The research team found that 82 percent of medical and nursing personnel had been vaccinated at least once, and 75 percent had been vaccinated twice, at the time of the survey. The vaccination rate was similarly high in the general population (81 and 64 percent, respectively). In both groups, unvaccinated people had significantly more negative views about the COVID-19 vaccination than vaccinated people, but unvaccinated medical and nursing personnel were more critical than the unvaccinated general population: they had stronger concerns about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine and less trust in decisions made by state authorities, and they were less likely to perceive being vaccinated as a collective responsibility. A similar percentage of unvaccinated persons in both groups thought that the COVID-19 vaccination was superfluous, and that COVID-19 did not pose a major threat.

    Based on these results, the authors see a need for specific measures to help convince unvaccinated medical and nursing personnel of the benefits of mandatory vaccination. In their opinion, the professional environment in these fields is particularly suitable for this.

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  • Rats bop to the beat

    Rats bop to the beat

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    Newswise — Accurately moving to a musical beat was thought to be a skill innately unique to humans. However, new research now shows that rats also have this ability. The optimal tempo for nodding along was found to depend on the time constant in the brain (the speed at which our brains can respond to something), which is similar across all species. This means that the ability of our auditory and motor systems to interact and move to music may be more widespread among species than previously thought. This new discovery offers not only further insight into the animal mind, but also into the origins of our own music and dance. 

    Can you move to the beat, or do you have two left feet? Apparently, how well we can time our movement to music depends somewhat on our innate genetic ability, and this skill was previously thought to be a uniquely human trait. While animals also react to hearing noise, or might make rhythmic sounds, or be trained to respond to music, this isn’t the same as the complex neural and motor processes that work together to enable us to naturally recognize the beat in a song, respond to it or even predict it. This is referred to as beat synchronicity.

    Only relatively recently, research studies (and home videos) have shown that some animals seem to share our urge to move to the groove. A new paper by a team at the University of Tokyo provides evidence that rats are one of them. “Rats displayed innate — that is, without any training or prior exposure to music — beat synchronization most distinctly within 120-140 bpm (beats per minute), to which humans also exhibit the clearest beat synchronization,” explained Associate Professor Hirokazu Takahashi from the Graduate School of Information Science and Technology. “The auditory cortex, the region of our brain that processes sound, was also tuned to 120-140 bpm, which we were able to explain using our mathematical model of brain adaptation.”

    But why play music to rats in the first place? “Music exerts a strong appeal to the brain and has profound effects on emotion and cognition. To utilize music effectively, we need to reveal the neural mechanism underlying this empirical fact,” said Takahashi. “I am also a specialist of electrophysiology, which is concerned with electrical activity in the brain, and have been studying the auditory cortex of rats for many years.”

    The team had two alternate hypotheses: The first was that the optimal music tempo for beat synchronicity would be determined by the time constant of the body. This is different between species and much faster for small animals compared to humans (think of how quickly a rat can scuttle). The second was that the optimal tempo would instead be determined by the time constant of the brain, which is surprisingly similar across species. “After conducting our research with 20 human participants and 10 rats, our results suggest that the optimal tempo for beat synchronization depends on the time constant in the brain,” said Takahashi. “This demonstrates that the animal brain can be useful in elucidating the perceptual mechanisms of music.”

    The rats were fitted with wireless, miniature accelerometers, which could measure the slightest head movements. Human participants also wore accelerometers on headphones. They were then played one-minute excerpts from Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major, K. 448, at four different tempos: Seventy-five percent, 100%, 200% and 400% of the original speed. The original tempo is 132 bpm and results showed that the rats’ beat synchronicity was clearest within the 120-140 bpm range. The team also found that both rats and humans jerked their heads to the beat in a similar rhythm, and that the level of head jerking decreased the more that the music was sped up.

    “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on innate beat synchronization in animals that was not achieved through training or musical exposure,” said Takahashi. “We also hypothesized that short-term adaptation in the brain was involved in beat tuning in the auditory cortex. We were able to explain this by fitting our neural activity data to a mathematical model of the adaptation. Furthermore, our adaptation model showed that in response to random click sequences, the highest beat prediction performance occurred when the mean interstimulus interval (the time between the end of one stimulus and the start of another) was around 200 milliseconds (one-thousandth of a second). This matched the statistics of internote intervals in classical music, suggesting that the adaptation property in the brain underlies the perception and creation of music.”

    As well as being a fascinating insight into the animal mind and the development of our own beat synchronicity, the researchers also see it as an insight into the creation of music itself. “Next, I would like to reveal how other musical properties such as melody and harmony relate to the dynamics of the brain. I am also interested in how, why and what mechanisms of the brain create human cultural fields such as fine art, music, science, technology and religion,” said Takahashi. “I believe that this question is the key to understand how the brain works and develop the next-generation AI (artificial intelligence). Also, as an engineer, I am interested in the use of music for a happy life.”

    ####

    Paper Title:

    Yoshiki Ito, Tomoyo Isoguchi Shiramatsu, Naoki Ishida, Karin Oshima, Kaho Magami, Hirokazu Takahashi. Spontaneous beat synchronization in rats: Neural dynamics and motor entrainment. Science Advances 8, eabo7019 (2022). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abo7019

    Funding: 

    This work was supported in part by JSPS KAKENHI (20H04252, 21H05807) and JST Moonshot R & D program (JPMJMS2296).

    Useful Links:

    Graduate School of Information Science and Technology: https://www.i.u-tokyo.ac.jp/index_e.shtml

    Hirokazu Takahashi Lab: http://www.ne.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/index-e.html  

    About the University of Tokyo
    The University of Tokyo is Japan’s leading university and one of the world’s top research universities. The vast research output of some 6,000 researchers is published in the world’s top journals across the arts and sciences. Our vibrant student body of around 15,000 undergraduate and 15,000 graduate students includes over 4,000 international students. Find out more at www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/ or follow us on Twitter at @UTokyo_News_en.

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  • Having good friendships may make for a healthier gut microbiome

    Having good friendships may make for a healthier gut microbiome

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    Newswise — Social connections are essential for good health and wellbeing in social animals, such as ourselves and other primates. There is also increasing evidence that the gut microbiome – through the so-called ‘gut-brain axis’ – plays a key role in our physical and mental health and that bacteria can be transmitted socially, for example through touch. So how does social connectedness translate into the composition and diversity of the gut microbiome? That’s the topic of a new study in Frontiers in Microbiology on rhesus macaques, Macaca mulatta.

    Lead author Dr Katerina Johnson, a research associate at the Department of Experimental Psychology and the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Oxford, said: “Here we show that more sociable monkeys have a higher abundance of beneficial gut bacteria, and a lower abundance of potentially disease-causing bacteria.”

    Monkey island

    The scientists focused on a single social group (with 22 males and 16 females between the ages of six and 20 years) of rhesus macaques on the island of Cayo Santiago, off the eastern coast of Puerto Rico. Macaques originally only lived in North Africa and Asia. But in 1938, a founder population of 409 rhesus macaques was moved from India to Cayo Santiago. Today, more than 1,000 macaques live on the 15.2 hectare island, divided into several social groups. They range and forage freely, although their diet gets supplemented daily with monkey chow. Researchers do behavioral observations on the monkeys each year.

    Between 2012 and 2013, the authors collected a total of 50 uncontaminated stool samples from this social group. As a measure of social connectedness, they used the time each monkey spent grooming or being groomed in 2012 and 2013, and his or her number of grooming partners.

    Social grooming

    Co-author Dr Karli Watson, from the Institute of Cognitive Science at the University of Colorado Boulder, explained: “Macaques are highly social animals and grooming is their main way of making and maintaining relationships, so grooming provides a good indicator of social interactions.”

    Johnson, Watson et al. analyzed DNA sequence data from the stool samples to measure the composition and diversity of the gut microbial community, and looked at the relationship with social connectivity. They also took into account sex, age, season, and rank within the group’s hierarchy. They focused on microbes that have been repeatedly shown in to be either more or less abundant in people or rodents with autism-like symptoms (commonly accompanied by social disconnection) or which are socially deprived.

    Sociable monkeys have more ‘good’ microbes

    “Engagement in social interactions was positively related to the abundance of certain gut microbes with beneficial immunological functions, and negatively related to the abundance of potentially pathogenic members of the microbiota,” said co-author Dr Philip Burnet, a professor from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford.

    For example, genera more abundant in the most sociable monkeys included Faecalibacterium and Prevotella. Conversely, the genus Streptococcus, which in humans can cause diseases such as strep throat and, pneumonia, was most abundant in less sociable monkeys.

    “It is particularly striking that we find a strong positive relationship between the abundance of the gut microbe Faecalibacterium and how sociable the animals are. Faecalibacterium is well known for its potent anti-inflammatory properties and is associated with good health,” said Johnson.

    Cause and effect?

    But what drives the relationship between social connectedness and gut microbiome composition? Distinguishing between cause and effect isn’t easy.

    “The relationship between social behavior and microbial abundances may be the direct result of social transmission of microbes, for example through grooming. It could also be an indirect effect, as monkeys with fewer friends may be more stressed, which then affects the abundance of these microbes. As well as behavior influencing the microbiome, we also know it is a reciprocal relationship, whereby the microbiome can in turn affect the brain and behavior,” said Johnson.

    Co-author Dr Robin Dunbar, a professor from the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford, said: “As our society is increasingly substituting online interactions for real-life ones, these important research findings underline the fact that as primates, we evolved not only in a social world but a microbial one as well.”

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  • What happens to our dopamine system when we experience aversive events?

    What happens to our dopamine system when we experience aversive events?

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    Newswise — A new study at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience has examined how the dopamine system processes aversive unpleasant events.

    It is well known that the dopamine system plays a crucial role in motivation, learning and movement. One of the main functions of dopamine is to predict the occurrence of rewarding experiences and the availability of rewards in our environment. In this context, the dopamine system informs our brains about so-called ‘reward prediction errors’ – the difference between received and predicted rewards. Dopamine neurons become more active when a reward occurs unexpectedly or if it is bigger than expected, and they show depressed activity when we receive less reward than predicted. These error signals help us to learn from our mistakes and teach us how to achieve rewarding experiences.

    Rewarding versus aversive stimuli

    While a large number of studies has focused on the relationship between dopamine release and rewarding stimuli, few have looked at the effect of unpleasant and aversive stimuli on dopamine. Although the results of these few experiments have been inconsistent, it has become clear that aversive stimuli have an impact on the dopamine system. But there is an active debate among neuroscientists on what precise role dopamine neurons play in processing aversive stimuli: Does their activity change in response to aversive events? Do they predict aversive events? Do they encode an aversive prediction error?

    New findings on the role of dopamine in aversive events

    A new study at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience has examined how the dopamine system processes aversive events. The team around PhD student Jessica Goedhoop and group leader Ingo Willuhn exposed rats to white noise in combination with stimuli that predicted the white noise, while they measured the release of dopamine in the brain. White noise is a well-known example of an unpleasant auditory stimulus for rats.

    The researchers found that the release of dopamine gradually decreased during the exposure to white noise. Furthermore, after consistent presentation, stimuli that occurred a few seconds before white-noise exposure began to have the same depressing effect on dopamine neurons. However, in contrast to how it processes rewards, dopamine did not encode a prediction error for this aversive stimulus. Overall, this new study demonstrates that the dopamine system helps the brain to anticipate the occurrence and duration of unpleasant events, but without taking prediction errors into account.

    Group leader Ingo Willuhn: ‘This is a very thorough and systematic study that takes a lot of variables into account. The results give us a better understanding of the role of dopamine release in processing aversive events. There is a growing interest into the role of dopamine in aversion. We used a novel aversive stimulus that enabled to conduct a more thorough analysis of dopamine than previously possible.’

    Addictive drugs hijack and amplify dopamine signals and induce exaggerated, uncontrolled dopamine effects on neuronal plasticity. This study brings us closer to understanding the underlying mechanism behind this pathological phenomenon.

    Source: eLife

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  • Ambition to succeed despite adversity motivates people from diverse backgrounds to pursue legal careers, study shows

    Ambition to succeed despite adversity motivates people from diverse backgrounds to pursue legal careers, study shows

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    Newswise — A desire to succeed despite adversity motivates people to pursue a legal career, but barriers caused by finances and careers advice are obstacles, a new study suggests.

    Those who have become solicitors and barristers said experiencing difficult circumstances in their lives and their personal qualities had been a bigger influence than any structural class or education barriers. Some wanted to prove others wrong and succeed against the odds.

    Experts say their findings could be used to devise systems to encourage and actively promote widening participation into the legal profession with support which is emotional and psychological rather than exclusively financial.

    Experts analysed 650 UK tweets posted under the twitter hashtag #mypathtolaw in 2018, which was started by Dr Matthew Channon from the University of Exeter Law School – following his experiences – to encourage law students, solicitors, barristers and legal academics to share their personal paths to a legal career. It has already contributed in changing the narratives of entry into the legal profession by celebrating diverse routes and in providing inspiration for future lawyers from ‘non-standard’ backgrounds.

    The tweets reveal an encouraging picture of the ability of many to overcome barriers to their entry into a legal career through support from family, or personal resilience and perseverance, or the financial and emotional support of legal firms or teachers. Tweeters said poor or discouraging careers advice had been a significant barrier to them.

    Narratives of financial struggles and how they are overcome featured strongly in the tweets and the study says earlier financial support for aspiring lawyers is crucial to widen access.

    The study says greater support from legal firms through mentoring and scholarships combined with greater support from schools in careers advice, preparation for interviews, and work experience placements may significantly aid individuals to overcome barriers in their entry into the legal profession. Thus many barriers to the legal profession are conquerable with earlier financial assistance and better careers advice.

    Many of the tweeters (62.5 per cent) chose not to reference their secondary school education at all. A total of 156 mentioned having to combine work and study, 64 the influence of family or legal firms and 89 the importance of work experience. Twenty-five respondents specifically mentioned being motivated by having experienced or seen injustices while 23 mentioned luck. Gender wasn’t mentioned as a significant issue, although other research has identified it as a barrier.

    The research, published in the journal Research in Post-Compulsory Education, was carried out by Ruth Flanagan, Anna Mountford-Zimdars and Dr Channon, all from the University of Exeter.

    Professor Mountford-Zimdars said: “Social class, poverty measures like free-school meals, postcode data and gender are used as standard measures of barriers to entry for professions such as the law. It is striking that our tweeters choose to focus on different narratives.

    “Gender was only mentioned explicitly in two tweets whereas being a single parent was more commonly mentioned as a barrier. Gender was notable by its absence. In addition, references were made to losing a parent and experiences or exposure to mental illness, categories seldom part of social mobility survey research.

    “Striking also was the focus on enablers and personal characteristics that had allowed them to be successful, such as resilience, a strong character or a strong internal motivation for wishing to become a lawyer, such as a sense of injustice. While the sociological literature focuses more on barriers than enablers our tweeters focused on their individual drive to succeed. It may indeed be the tweeters focus on individual characteristics and traits that has allowed them to successfully become lawyers when others with similar backgrounds may have failed.”

    Ruth Flanagan said: “The dissatisfaction with career advice is clearly a policy issue universities can address in their outreach and schools and colleges can address in their advice practices. A greater degree of support and preparation for law as a career choice would have benefitted many of our tweeters. It might be that career advisors themselves require greater training of progress to law to be able to give the most useful advice. Changing the narratives about who can be successful in law rather than pitching law as an inaccessible profession is another way forward. Instead of encouraging individuals to self-eliminate from consideration for a legal career a wider dispersal of these narratives may further facilitate the opening of the legal profession to those from all backgrounds.

    Dr Channon said: “Advice from teachers and sometimes law-firms proved to be a strong enabler where it was positive and an impactful barrier when it was negative: tweeters remembered both encouraging and discouraging words from many years ago as having had the power to change their paths. The impact lesson here is that everyone engaging in conversations about future career aspirations must not under-estimate the huge impact their words could have.”

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  • Why eye contact is rare among people with autism

    Why eye contact is rare among people with autism

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    Newswise — New Haven, Conn. — A hallmark of autism spectrum disorder, ASD, is the reluctance to make eye contact with others in natural conditions. Although eye contact is a critically important part of everyday interactions, scientists have been limited in studying the neurological basis of live social interaction with eye-contact in ASD because of the inability to image the brains of two people simultaneously.

    However, using an innovative technology that enables imaging of two individuals during live and natural conditions, Yale researchers have identified specific brain areas in the dorsal parietal region of the brain associated with the social symptomatology of autism. The study, published Nov. 9 in the journal PLOS ONE, finds that these neural responses to live face and eye-contact may provide a biomarker for the diagnosis of ASD as well as provide a test of the efficacy of treatments for autism.

    “Our brains are hungry for information about other people, and we need to understand how these social mechanisms operate in the context of a real and interactive world in both typically developed individuals as well as individuals with ASD,” said co-corresponding author Joy Hirsch, Elizabeth Mears and House Jameson Professor of Psychiatry, Comparative Medicine, and of Neuroscience at Yale.

    The Yale team, led by Hirsch and James McPartland, Harris Professor at the Yale Child Study Center, analyzed brain activity during brief social interactions between pairs of adults — each including a typical participant and one with ASD — using functional near-infrared spectroscopy, a non-invasive optical neuroimaging method. Both participants were fitted with caps with many sensors that emitted light into the brain and also recorded changes in light signals with information about brain activity during face gaze and eye-to-eye contact.

    The investigators found that during eye contact, participants with ASD had significantly reduced activity in a brain region called the dorsal parietal cortex compared to those without ASD.  Further, the more severe the overall social symptoms of ASD as measured by ADOS (Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, 2nd Edition) scores, the less activity was observed in this brain region. Neural activity in these regions was synchronous between typical participants during real eye-to-eye contact but not during gaze at a video face. This typical increase in neural coupling was not observed in ASD, and is consistent with the difficulties in social interactions.

    “We now not only have a better understanding of the neurobiology of autism and social differences, but also of the underlying neural mechanisms that drive typical social connections,” Hirsch said.

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