I checked 4 preprints servers on Saturday, February 28, 2026 using the Open Science Foundation API. For the period February 21 to February 27, I found 347 new paper(s).

MetaArxiv

Results from Randomized Controlled Trials are Highly Sensitive to Data Preprocessing Decisions: A Multiverse Analysis of 97 Outcomes
Giuseppe Alessandro Veltri; Joshua Gilbert
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The sensitivity of statistical results to data preprocessing decisions is well known, but the influence of preprocessing on empirical data from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) is less well quantified. We examine preprocessing sensitivity across 97 outcomes drawn from behavioral RCTs in the Item Response Warehouse. For each outcome, we apply a 4 × 3 × 3 grid of defensible preprocessing decisions (outlier handling, missing-data handling, and outcome transformation) and estimate the average treatment effect (ATE) in a fixed ANCOVA-style linear model. Across outcomes, the median within-outcome standard deviation (SD) of the ATE across pipelines is 0.045 and the median range is 0.116 (SD min–max: 0.005–0.355; range min–max: 0.013–0.787). Because one transformation option is standardization (an affine rescaling), we distinguish transformation-driven variation that is mechanical (unit changes) from non-mechanical variation due to nonlinear re-expression (shifted log transformation). In coefficient-scale decompositions, the transformation factor explains most of the dispersion in reported ATE magnitudes (median η²_transform = 0.811), but scale-free robustness analyses show a different pattern: decomposing variability in the treatment t-statistic (invariant to affine rescaling) reveals that outlier handling dominates changes in statistical evidence (median η²_outlier = 0.570) while the transformation component is small (median η²_transform = 0.014). A within-pipeline standardized effect-size decomposition (computed after all preprocessing steps, including the log branch) yields a similar pattern (median η²_outlier = 0.599; median η²_transform = 0.020). A linear-only, fixed-denominator effect-size analysis confirms that once unit changes are removed, remaining variability is driven primarily by outlier handling (median η²_outlier = 0.858), with missing-data handling contributing in some outcomes (median η²_missing = 0.094). These results imply that preprocessing decisions should be treated as an explicit component of the analytic model and routinely reported and stress-tested via multiverse-style sensitivity analyses.

PsyArxiv

How does increased worry affect worries about unrelated issues?
Jan Urban; Tomasz Grzyb; Dariusz Dolinski; MarkĂŠta Braun KohlovĂĄ; Kamil Izydorczak
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There are two competing accounts explaining how increased worry about one issue affects people’s worry about unrelated issues. According to one account, it decreases worries about other issues, reflecting a negative cross-effect consistent with the finite pool of worry hypothesis. In the second account, it increases worry, reflecting a positive cross-effect driven by generalized affect and availability heuristics. We conducted a web-based experiment on representative samples of adults in the Czech Republic and Poland (total N = 7,051). We manipulated worry about one of three societal issues and measured the effect of this manipulation on the degree of worry about 12 unrelated issues. We also examined the underlying mechanism by looking at whether the effect was mediated by affect (a mechanism related to generalized affect) and moderated by issue similarity (a mechanism related to availability heuristics). The study provides strong evidence for a positive but negligible cross-effect of worry on non-target worries (i.e., target worries increase non-target worries) that becomes somewhat larger, yet still small, for some target worries and when examined in each of the two countries separately. Further, there is strong evidence that this effect is mediated by generalized affect (specifically its valence; small effect size) and positively moderated by issue similarity (negligible effect size). These results support both hypothesized mechanisms of positive cross effects, namely that these are driven by generalized affect and availability heuristics. Our result contributes to a better understanding of how increased worry affects worries about other issues.
Sobering truths: The influence of victim intoxication status and expert testimony on mock jury decision-making
Erica Martin; Celine van Golde; Lauren Ann Monds
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Objectives: Victims are often intoxicated with alcohol during crimes and jurors must evaluate their testimony at trial. This study investigated the impact of (1) a victim’s intoxication status and (2) expert testimony, on mock jurors’ assessments of victim credibility and verdict decisions in a simulated trial involving group deliberation. Hypotheses: We expected more pro-defence decisions (i.e., lower victim credibility ratings and fewer guilty verdicts) as victim intoxication level increased. We also anticipated more pro-defence decisions when expert testimony was absent compared to present. Finally, we expected the informative effects of expert testimony to be more pronounced at lower levels of victim intoxication. Method: The current study employed a 4 (victim intoxication status: sober, low, moderate, severe) x 2 (expert testimony: present, absent) between-subjects design. Participants (N = 166) listened to a fictional trial and provided individual ratings of victim credibility and verdict decisions. Mock jurors then engaged in deliberation to render group verdicts. Participants’ demographic data and alcohol-related consumption and work/training history were also collected. Results: Intoxicated victims were generally viewed as less credible compared to sober victims. However, mock jurors did not differentiate between specific intoxication levels when assessing credibility. Sensitivity to intoxication level only slightly improved following secondary analyses that clarified mock jurors’ perceptions of the victim’s intoxication status. Pre- and post-deliberation verdicts overwhelmingly favoured acquittal. These not guilty verdicts were most often justified based on the victim’s lack of credibility and her intoxicated state during the crime. Expert testimony did not affect perceptions of victim credibility or verdicts. Conclusions: The dose-dependent relationship between alcohol intoxication and eyewitness memory is not a matter of common knowledge among jurors. Explicit clarification of an individual’s degree of intoxication and what this means for their testimony is essential at trial. Future research should refine expert testimony as a method of evidence-based support for jurors in intoxication-related cases.
How experience affects sustainable behavior when sharing a common pool resource with conditional cooperators
Arlen McKinnon; Gerda Kabailaitė; Robert D Rogers; Paul Rauwolf
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Objective: Many of humanity’s largest challenges, such as managing our shared resources, are long-term collective action problems, where we must learn to cooperate with others over time. However, research has found that participants play repeated resource dilemma games less sustainably over time. Improving our understanding of this is vital to inform policy advocating long-term cooperation. One hypothesis is that increasingly uncooperative behavior is driven by other uncooperative actors – if others act unsustainably then other individuals reciprocate. Alternatively, given the environmental and social uncertainty often found in collective action problems, individuals might struggle to learn to find cooperative, sustainable solutions even if other uncooperative actors are removed. Here, we experimentally juxtapose these hypotheses. Method: Over two incentive-compatible experiments involving monetary payments (Experiment 1) and raffle tickets (Experiment 2), 351 participants played three consecutive resource dilemma games with three computer partners who collectively deployed a conditionally cooperative ('tit-for-tat') strategy (i.e., where one cooperates if others cooperate, but defects if others defect). The best strategy for the participant was to learn to sustain the resource, maximizing long-term gains. Results: By the third game, most improved their outcomes, but only 9.12% of participants found long-term sustainable strategies which outperformed short-term unsustainable strategies. We demonstrate that this failure is partially due to difficulty learning the social and environmental dynamics at play. Conclusions: These results suggest that most struggle to learn to act sustainably even when interacting with partners who are willing to cooperate, illuminating a systemic difficulty with learning to act sustainably over time.
The neonatal brain at rest: a systematic review of task-free functional connectivity in the first 100 days
Laura Carnevali; Letizia Della Longa; Teresa Farroni; Mark Henry Johnson
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Over the first 100 days post-partum human brain functions may undergo rapid changes, with plasticity peaking. Studies of task-free functional connectivity (FC) during this period provide a window into early brain organization. Despite growing interest, no systematic review has synthesized findings specifically from this period. We address this gap by reviewing 103 studies examining FC in the neonate brain at rest. Summarised evidence indicates a remarkable degree of both specificity and individual variability in brain function. Neonatal networks exhibit small-world topology with strong local clustering and emerging long-range integration. Sensorimotor, visual, and auditory networks form robust interconnected hubs, supported by structure-function coupling via local myelination and subcortical scaffolding. Early development involves strengthening interhemispheric and long-range connections and increasing network modularity. Higher-order networks (default mode, frontoparietal, salience) are identifiable but less segregated, reflecting their reliance on pathways that are still developing structurally and functionally. Despite these group-level patterns, substantial interindividual variability exists, shaped by both infant- and context-related influences. We discuss these findings within frameworks of Interactive Specialization and experience-dependent learning. We propose that early FC provides intrinsic pre-training for learning and that structure and function co-develop through reciprocal interactions shaped by coordinated activity across subcortical and cortical networks, and early experiences. Adopting a perspective in which intrinsic FC, structural changes, and environmental influences are deeply intertwined, we highlight the need for multimodal longitudinal studies to clarify how such coupled processes shape later developmental trajectories.
Multimodal correlates of socioemotional movie-watching explain internalizing symptoms across childhood and adulthood
Sofia Scatolin; Elena Federici; Plamina Dimanova; RĂŠka BorbĂĄs; Mirjam Habegger; Nora Maria Raschle
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Socioemotional skills emerge from coordinated behavioral, autonomic, and neural processes that continue to reorganize across development, yet how these systems jointly support emotion regulation and mental health remains unclear. Using a naturalistic movie-watching paradigm, we integrated behavioral, cardiac, and fMRI measures in children (6–14 years) and adults (18–30 years), alongside independent ratings of experienced valence and arousal. Across age groups, positive and negative emotional content elicited coordinated changes in subjective experience, heart rate, and corticolimbic activity, including engagement of the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex. Despite these shared patterns, marked developmental differences emerged. Children reported more positive affect, showed larger heart-rate deceleration, and exhibited stronger recruitment of thalamic and lateral prefrontal regions, consistent with more sensory-driven and effortful regulatory processing. Adults, in contrast, showed greater activation in hippocampal and posterior midline regions, suggesting increased reliance on memory-based and self-referential appraisal. During negative emotional content specifically, children preferentially engaged medial prefrontal regions, whereas adults showed enhanced lateral prefrontal recruitment, indicating a developmental shift from reactive to more deliberate emotion regulation. Importantly, models integrating behavioral, cardiac, and neural indices explained substantially more variance in internalizing symptoms than any single modality alone, highlighting the value of multimodal approaches for understanding developmental pathways to mental well-being.
Football club identity leadership and supporters’ feelings of safety at matches
Kayleigh Smith; Matti Wilks; Sue Widdicombe; Anne Templeton
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Football clubs can promote positive fan-club relationships through strategies aligned with dimensions of identity leadership. However, it is unclear how club identity leadership contributes to attendees’ feelings of safety at matches. Across two studies, we explored whether perceptions of football club identity leadership relate to spectators’ feelings of safety at matches, and whether this is mediated through trust in and expected support from the club to maintain safety at events. Study 1 presents a cross-sectional survey (N = 238) exploring supporters' ratings of their club's identity leadership, trust in their club, expected support from their club, and feelings of safety when attending matches. Study 2 presents an online experiment (N = 330) manipulating identity leadership (positive vs negative) through news article vignettes about a fictional football club. Overall, we found a significant positive direct effect of identity leadership on feelings of safety, alongside a significant indirect effect via trust and expected support.
Uptake, Barriers, and Facilitators of Open Science in Clinical Psychology: Findings from an Exploratory Survey in German-speaking Countries
Anja Christine Feneberg; Jakob Fink-Lamotte; Helen Niemeyer
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Open Science practices (OSP) aim to enhance transparency, reproducibility, and research quality, yet empirical research regarding their uptake in clinical psychology remains scarce. The present survey examined OSP across clinical psychological research, teaching, and psychotherapeutic practice at universities and university clinics in German-speaking countries. Based on responses from 130 participants (M=37.13Âą9.75 years of age, 61.54% female) preregistration, a-priori sample size planning, and open access publishing were the most commonly reported OSP. Ethical and legal concerns, time constraints, and fear of mistakes were the most prominent barriers, while access to infrastructure and incentives were the most needed types of support. Teaching activities addressed Open Science topics, whereas implementation in clinical practice remained limited. Overall, the findings suggest a promising trend toward normalization of Open Science in clinical psychology, while highlighting the need for field-specific guidelines, institutional support, and aligned incentive structures to foster sustainable adoption across career-stages and contexts.
Bounded rationality and human development
Samuel David Jones
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Although multi-scale, multi-directional feedback between genes, brain, cognition, and behaviour is the cornerstone of well-evidenced interactionist models of human development (e.g., Gottlieb, 2007), contemporary theories of neurodevelopmental variation and disorder characteristically describe only unidirectional cascades across this hierarchy. To complement this dominant view, I present a new theoretical account of the cognitive and behavioural origins of individual differences in human development. This account is grounded in the ideas of restricted search and satisficing that are central to the bounded rationality paradigm (Simon, 1955, 1956, 1990), and which set this account apart from claims that agents optimise utility functions or maximise their learning. I develop a new formal model of adaptive restricted search and satisficing that incorporates reciprocal influences on development and learning, and integrate a broad contemporary empirical literature in support of this model. This work motivates the novel position that adaptive restricted search and satisficing not only amplify neurodevelopmental differences beyond their primary neurogenetic origins (explaining developmental multifinality and fanning) but also provide a route by which disparate primary causal processes are anchored to common phenotypes (explaining developmental equifinality). While the focus of this paper is on early developmental variation and conditions of clinical significance, I argue that bounded rationality offers a general paradigm through which to understand the emergence of individual differences across the lifespan, from psychopathology to expertise. The recommendation of this report is that cognitive and behavioural feedback should be embedded more widely into causal process models of the origins of individual differences in human development.
Similar exercise adherence and physical fitness outcomes are observed across distinct motivation profiles in older adults participating in a home-based structured exercise programme
Alexandra Munns; Jack Feron; Joan Duda; Sindre Fosstveit; Kelsey Elizabeth Joyce; Foyzul Rahman; Linda Wheeldon; Hilde Lohne Seiler; Sveinung Berntsen; Jet Veldhuijzen van Zanten
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Purpose: Motivation and self-efficacy are established predictors of engagement and persistence within structured exercise programmes; however, it remains unclear whether these psychological factors predict objective adherence metrics and associated physical fitness outcomes within home-based exercise programmes for older adults. This study adopted a person-centred approach to examine whether distinct psychological profiles predict adherence and fitness outcomes following a structured home-based exercise programme. Methods: Eighty-eight older adults (age = 67.2 ± 5.5 years) completed a 26-week home-based exercise programme. Objective adherence was defined as compliance with prescribed exercise volume and quantified using cumulative metabolic equivalent minutes (MET-mins) derived from heart rate–based measures of exercise intensity and duration. Psychological profiles were identified using latent profile analysis based on autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, and exercise self-efficacy. Cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular strength, flexibility, and mobility were assessed pre- and post-intervention. Results: Two psychological profiles were identified: an autonomous and highly confident profile and a moderately autonomous and confident profile. Controlled motivation was comparable between profiles, and no differences were observed in baseline demographic or physiological characteristics. Adherence was high and similar across profiles (e.g., cumulative MET-mins: 129 ± 66% vs. 116 ± 38%). Both profiles demonstrated significant and comparable improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness (V̇O₂peak), muscular strength, flexibility, and mobility. Conclusions: Baseline differences in self-efficacy and autonomous motivation did not predict objective adherence or fitness outcomes within a structured, well-supported home-based exercise programme for older adults. Consistent objective monitoring and regular behavioural support may therefore reduce the impact of psychological profile membership on adherence and outcomes. Keywords: ageing; exercise adherence; home-based exercise; latent profile analysis; autonomous motivation; self-efficacy
Neural Synchrony During Music-Listening: A Systematic Review of EEG-Based Inter-Subject Correlation Studies
Weihan Angela Ng; Natalia Polouliakh; Akima Connelly; Taketo Akama
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Music listening engages complex neural processes spanning auditory perception, prediction, emotion, and memory. Inter-subject correlation (ISC), a measure of neural synchrony across listeners, has emerged as a promising tool for investigating shared neural engagement during music listening using electroencephalography (EEG). However, the growing literature in this area remains fragmented, with substantial variability in experimental paradigms, EEG acquisition parameters, and analytic approaches. This systematic review synthesizes findings from 8 studies, identified through database search following PRISMA guidelines. Results demonstrate that music reliably evokes significant inter-subject neural synchrony regardless of analytic method, with intact and structurally coherent music producing stronger ISC than temporally disrupted controls. Key modulatory factors include repetition, familiarity, and musical training, while applied studies demonstrate that ISC predicts real-world outcomes such as commercial music streaming. ISC computation methods, EEG configurations, and sampling rates varied considerably across studies. Evaluation of meta-analytic feasibility revealed that only six of eleven experiments provided extractable effect sizes, and the conceptual heterogeneity of reported metrics precluded formal quantitative synthesis. These findings establish ISC as a potential marker of shared neural engagement during music listening while highlighting the need for standardized reporting practices, including consistent effect size reporting and structured ISC summaries, to enable future meta-analytic integration.
Inside and outside the body space: A study on environmental knowledge, interoceptive and functional body representations in the prodromal stage of dementia
Fabiana Mogavero; Gaia Galluzzi; Erica Dolce; Daniela Malangone; Simona Raimo; Antonella Di Vita; eleonora galosi; Giuseppe Bruno; Micaela Sepe Monti; Giuseppina Talarico
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Background: There is increasing interest in identifying sensitive cognitive markers for the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Spatial navigation has emerged as a promising marker, as impairments in both egocentric and allocentric navigation have been reported in preclinical AD and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). However, findings regarding the relative involvement of these navigational representations remain inconsistent. Moreover, little is known about how MCI affects other forms of spatial representation beyond navigation. Objective: The present study aims to investigate navigational, inner, and outer bodily representations in individuals with MCI, in order to provide a broader characterization of cognitive changes associated with this condition in different space representations. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional comparative study involving 28 healthy controls (HC) and 25 participants diagnosed with MCI (PtwMCI). All participants completed tasks and questionnaires probing: a) different interoceptive dimensions (interoceptive accuracy [IAcc], awareness [IAw], and sensibility [ISe]); b) action-oriented (aBR) and non–action-oriented (NaBR) body representations; c) landmark, route, and survey knowledge of a virtual environment. Results: PtwMCI showed reduced IAcc and ISe, and performed less accurately in both landmark and route tasks compared to HC. Conclusions: Our findings indicate early impairments in the inner body (interoceptive) and navigational processing, even at the initial stages of cognitive decline. These difficulties may thus represent an early marker of neurodegeneration. This opens new directions for research on how body-related cognitive processes influence broader cognitive functions in the Alzheimer’s disease continuum.
Self-Control Strategies to Reduce Meat Consumption: An Ecological Momentary Intervention
Alice Elena Seffen; Laura M KĂśnig; Simone Dohle
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An increasing number of individuals aim to reduce their meat consumption, but implementing this is challenging. Self-control strategies could support this change; however, their effectiveness remains understudied. This study examines whether providing self-control strategies supports motivated individuals in reducing meat intake. Based on the Process Model of Self-Control, we tested whether situational strategies outperform intrapsychic strategies. Additionally, we examined whether combining both strategy types is more effective than either strategy alone. We conducted an ecological momentary intervention including a baseline (week 1), an intervention (weeks 2-4), and a follow-up (week 9). Participants—156 German students who regularly consumed meat and aimed to reduce their consumption—were randomized to one of four groups: during the intervention, they received either no, intrapsychic, situational, or both strategies. Meat consumption (grams) was measured through end-of-the-day reports. Two-part multilevel models showed that receiving strategies (vs. none) and receiving both strategy families (vs. one) increased the odds of meat-free meals during the intervention, but did not affect overall meat consumption reduction. All groups meaningfully reduced meat consumption, even up to the one-month follow-up, highlighting the effectiveness of self-monitoring. Findings challenge the key prediction of the Process Model and inform the design of future diary interventions.
Statistical distinguishability of psychopathology symptom network and common factor models in longitudinal data
Sakari Johannes Lintula; Jaakko Tammilehto; Suoma Saarni; Tom RosenstrĂśm
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Psychometric conceptualizations of psychopathology have gained popularity. Most prominent approaches are the common factor (CF) and the symptom network models. A known problem in theory development through empirical findings is the statistical indistinguishability of CF and symptom network models in cross-sectional data. However, the extent of this problem and its implications have not been inspected formally for longitudinal studies. In this study, we sought to clarify the distinguishability between CF and symptom network models in longitudinal designs. We show necessary and sufficient conditions for indistinguishability in covariance for commonly applied vector autoregressive symptom network models and CF models and suggest a procedure for assessing whether a CF model can be refuted based on an estimated symptom network model. We give easy-to-implement R -functions for conducting the comparison. Numerical and empirical examples show that potential indistinguishability is relevant when interpreting the published literature. Overall, this study promotes comparative analysis of symptom network and CF models.
Hypnosis and Suggestion
Kevin Sheldrake; Zoltan Dienes
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Hypnosis is shown to be one of many ways a general capacity for phenomenological control shows itself. Phenomenological control is an evolved capacity to deceive ourselves so as to support socially useful beliefs. It allows one to strategically construct subjective experiences that misrepresent reality despite contradictory evidence in order to meet goals. It is so good at its evolved function that researchers of it have often found themselves being deceived: The participants in their studies feel energies, special states or parts of themselves that are taken to be constitutive of the mechanism of construction rather than what the mechanism constructs. Key points: • Hypnosis is just one context in which phenomenological control is used; others include spirit possession, many spiritual experiences, esoteric martial arts, everyday experiences and psychology experiments • Phenomenological control is a metacognitive trick one plays on oneself: No other abilities are gained nor lost • For example, hypnosis does not improve memory, strength, nor attentional capacity • It can nevertheless be clinically useful in, for example, making pain go away by itself, precisely because it involves the motivated transformation of subjective experience • No special state is needed to explain how or when phenomenological control is used • There are enduring individual differences in the capacity for phenomenological control that have yet to be explained
The Fossilized Rhotic: Acoustic Rigidity and AI-Detected Entrenchment in Tikriti Arabic Speakers’ English /r/
HUSSEIN HIJRAN AMEEN AL-KASAB
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Abstract This study investigates the fossilization of English /r/ among native speakers of the Tikriti dialect of North Mesopotamian Arabic a phonetically conservative variety underrepresented in second language (L2) phonetics research. Drawing on experimental phonetics and self-supervised artificial intelligence (AI), we examine whether persistent rhotic substitution reflects acoustic rigidity and neural entrenchment. Twenty Tikriti Arabic–English bilinguals and ten native English controls produced English words containing /r/ across initial, post-consonantal, and vocalic contexts. Acoustic measurements (F1–F3, duration) were extracted using Praat, while contextualized speech representations were obtained via Wav2Vec 2.0. Results reveal that Tikriti speakers consistently produce /r/ with elevated F3 (>2200 Hz), characteristic of alveolar trills, contrasting sharply with native English /r/ (F3 < 1800 Hz). Critically, within-speaker variability in F3 was significantly lower among Tikriti participants (M = 45 Hz) than controls (M = 95 Hz), indicating phonetic rigidity. A Random Forest classifier achieved 92% accuracy in distinguishing fossilized tokens using combined acoustic and AI features. These findings support the AI-Mediated Automatization Theory (Al-Kasab, 2025) fossilization arises not from learning failure but from over-automatized sensorimotor routines that resist re calibration. The convergence of human acoustics and AI embeddings offers a novel framework for detecting entrenched pronunciation patterns. Implications for L2 phonology, cross-linguistic transfer, and AI-augmented phonetics are discussed.
Categories or Dimensions? A Critical Systematic Review of Taxometric Evidence in Autism, ADHD, and Language Disorders
Enrico Toffalini; Margherita Calderan; Riccardo Pagan; Valentina Tobia; Edmund Sonuga-Barke
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Background. Taxometric analysis is designed to test whether the latent structure underlying clinical conditions is categorical (taxonic) or dimensional. Despite its relevance to ongoing debates on neurodevelopmental conditions, its application to this field remains limited. Methods. We conducted a preregistered systematic review (OSF) searching PsycINFO, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science from inception to April 2025, with a supplementary search made in January 2026. We included peer-reviewed empirical studies applying at least one taxometric procedure (e.g., MAMBAC, MAXEIG, MAXCOV, L-Mode) to neurodevelopmental conditions/traits and reporting a categorical versus dimensional conclusion (or sufficient indices to infer it). Two reviewers independently screened and extracted data. Study quality (risk of bias for taxometric inference) was appraised using an ad hoc checklist focused on key threats, especially artificial admixture/compound sampling, and on reporting of indicator validity, nuisance covariance, and skewness. Results. We identified 126 records across the main database search (n=110) and the supplementary search (n=16). Fourteen studies were included. ADHD and language impairment studies largely supported dimensional models, whereas most autism and subtype studies reported taxonic patterns. Artificial admixture was very common in studies reaching taxonic conclusions, especially for autism. In Monte Carlo simulations, admixture consistently generated false-positive taxonic findings from dimensional data. Conclusions. Based on the best available evidence, ADHD and language impairment appear continuous dimensions rather than discrete categories. Evidence for a categorical structure is stronger for autism, but a definitive conclusion is frustrated by sampling-related biases, especially artificial admixture. More population-based, methodologically transparent taxometric studies, especially in relation to autism, are needed.
Bodily Rhythms Gate Action–Perception Coupling
Alejandro Galvez-Pol; Micah Allen; Lucas NARANJO; James Kilner
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Perception and action form a feedback loop through which organisms gather information to guide behavior. Yet many theories still treat perception as relatively passive, disconnected from the movements and bodily rhythms that shape sensory input and sustain life. We advance a framework that integrates active sensing, the voluntary control of sensing through movement, with interoceptive physiology in an active-inference framework. We propose that cardiac and respiratory cycles rhythmically tune the reliability of sensory evidence and readiness to move, creating recurring windows that favor sampling or action. Accordingly, cardiorespiratory rhythms shape action–perception coupling primarily by biasing when organisms sample information, for how long, and when they initiate action. Organisms can exploit permissive periods of the cardiorespiratory cycle and compensate during suppressive periods by delaying commitment, extending sampling, or adjusting decision criteria. Because respiration is partly under voluntary control, organisms can adjust their breathing to shift or extend these periods, thereby shaping this coupling. We further formalize how interoceptive and exteroceptive streams may interact under limited processing capacity to bias the weighting of sensory evidence and prior expectations, yielding testable predictions in both constrained laboratory designs and self-paced, naturalistic tasks. Treating bodily rhythms as internal control variables may unify accounts of moment-to-moment variability in perception and action, support more ecologically valid experimental designs, and motivate body-based interventions to enhance sensorimotor performance.
Teaching Personalized Doctor-Patient Communication with AI: PerTRAIN – A Prototype for Interpersonally Responsive Virtual Patients in Medical Education
Anna Junga; Ole Hätscher; Jennifer Dabel; Gabriyel Mado; Alberta Ajani; Leon Pielage; Pascal Kockwelp; Simon Mats Breil; Helena Baur; Jan Siebenbrock
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Personalized medicine requires physicians to adapt clinical communication and decision-making to patients’ individual motives, emotions, and interpersonal behaviors. However, training these skills remains challenging, as established simulation-based formats—particularly actor-based simulations—are resource-intensive and difficult to scale. Consequently, there is a need for scalable and flexible training approaches that allow repeated practice across diverse patient personalities and clinical contexts. The PerTRAIN (Personalization Training in Medicine) project addresses this need by leveraging large language models (LLMs) to simulate virtual patients with dynamically adapting personality expression at scale. Grounded in Contemporary Integrative Interpersonal Theory (CIIT), patient behavior is modelled along the dimensions of agency and communion and updated in response to the medical trainee’s behavior, enabling systematic variation and dynamic adaptation of interpersonal behavior within medical scenarios. This allows trainees to learn how patient personality shapes communication, and to practice adaptive, patient-centered communication strategies and appropriate clinical decision-making. For the personalization trainings, we developed clinical cases in which personality expression substantially influences behavior in doctor–patient interactions, that represent common encounters in primary care, and that align with national guidelines for patient-centered care. An initial chat-based implementation enables structured interactions, dynamic personality adaptation, and iterative refinement. The system is designed as a complementary tool to existing simulation formats, offering a scalable, low-threshold environment for repeated practice and reflection. A first application in curricular teaching is scheduled for 2026. Future extensions of the framework are discussed, such as large-scale empirical validation, modelling long-term interpersonal trajectories, and the extension of interactions to multimodal formats.
Who Should Solve Social Problems? A Framework of Comparative Responsibility Attributions
CT; Jolanda Jetten; Winnifred R Louis
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From climate mitigation to pandemic control and poverty reduction, public debates centre on who should take action, whether governments, businesses, or citizens. Existing work maps the drivers of responsibility attribution to specific actors, but often treats these judgements as separate. We argue that responsibility judgements are often comparative, such that expectations for one actor are shaped by what people think other actors can and should do. We propose two dimensions that structure these comparisons. The first captures whether actors are seen as able to act on their own (independent) or as reliant on others to act (interdependent). The second captures whether assigning responsibility to one actor is seen as reducing what is expected of others (zero-sum) or increasing what is expected of them (positive-sum). These dimensions explain when responsibility assigned to one actor is expected to lead others to step back versus step in, and when action is expected to be sequential versus simultaneous.
How Visual Illusions Boost Sharing of Misinformation: Parallel and Sequential Mediations by Triggered Situational Interest and Truthiness
Kaito Takashima; Takahiro Kawabe
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Visual illusions are a popular scientific topic frequently shared on social media. When shared online, illusion images are usually accompanied by explanatory statements, which often contain misinformation. Although such posts combining illusion images and misinformation are widely shared, the psychological mechanism underlying this sharing remains unclear. To address this issue, we hypothesized that illusory experiences would shape user’s intention to share misinformation primarily through two mediators: user interest (triggered situational interest) and truthiness. In an online experiment, participants viewed posts that paired an illusion image with explanatory descriptions containing a brief misinformation statement. They then rated their illusory experience, user interest, truthiness, and intention to share. Mediation analysis revealed that illusory experience had a significant total effect on intention to share whereas its direct effect was not significant. Instead, the illusory experience indirectly influenced the intention to share through the two mediators. The pathway via user interest was the strongest, indicating that an increase in triggered situational interest was the principal driver of sharing intentions. The pathway via truthiness was weaker but still significant, suggesting a secondary role of truthiness in shaping sharing intentions. Regarding supplementary factors, neither valence (positive vs. negative) nor presentation type (original vs. repost) exerted significant effects on the outcomes. Overall, the findings indicate that illusory experience influences information-sharing behavior indirectly through psychological mediators, underscoring the importance of considering individual perceptual experience when accounting for misinformation sharing on social media.
Beliefs About Free Will and Libre Arbitre: The Roles of Choice, Willpower, and Constraints Across Languages
Alison Oliver; Paulius Rimkevičius; Renato Cesar Cardoso; Marcel Brass; Uri Maoz
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Lay judgments about free will are central to debates in moral psychology and philosophy, yet it remains unclear which features of the folk concept drive these judgments and whether language shapes their salience. Across two studies, we compared English- and French-speaking Canadians using a minimally linguistic comic-based measure that holds scenario content constant while reducing translation and framing confounds. Study 1 tested a linguistic relativity prediction that language would shift the willpower-versus-choice association in free will judgments. Contrary to this prediction, ratings were broadly similar across language groups. Instead, judgments showed a strong and consistent scenario-type structure: comics depicting choice were judged as more representative of free will than comics depicting willpower or neutral situations, with willpower comics the least representative of free will. Study 2 directly tested the interpretation that scenario-type differences reflect perceived attributes of the depicted situations. Participants rated each comic on key attributes (e.g., doing what one wants, absence of constraints), and these perceptions tracked the scenario-type differences in free will judgments, with choice- and constraint-related cues providing the strongest differentiation. The findings indicate that, in this within-country comparison, free will judgments are stable across two language communities and are anchored primarily in choice-related features of agency.
A Counterfactual Pathway to Responsibility Judgments in Children
Shalini Gautam; Fiery Andrews Cushman
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Judgments of responsibility are foundational to human social life. Adults judge responsibility by considering not just what someone chose to do, but also the alternative choices available to them. Thus, the development of adult-like responsibility judgments in children depends on their capacity to reason about counterfactual choices. We distinguish three key elements of this capacity: first, understanding that counterfactual choices are possible, second, successfully reasoning about counterfactual worlds, and third, identifying the most relevant counterfactuals in any given situation. This framework clarifies the relationship between counterfactual reasoning and responsibility judgments in childhood, identifies conceptually distinct elements of children’s understanding of responsibly, and opens new avenues for inquiry into an essential element of children’s social reasoning.
Re-thinking Parenting Flexibility: An Integrated Multilevel Conceptual Model
Yuxiao Zhao; Xiaoning Sun; Zitong Li
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Over the years, numerous theories of parenting behaviors have been proposed. Among these theories, the concept of parenting flexibility has been implicitly or explicitly incorporated, with, however, its conceptualization remaining fragmented. This narrative review proposes an integrated multilevel framework for defining parenting flexibility as a contextually and developmentally sensitive capacity that enables caregivers to adapt their strategies to children’s changing needs. Integrating findings from the current literature, we operationalize parenting flexibility across both dynamic and static levels. From a dynamic perspective, parenting flexibility manifests as intra-individual variability across two time-scales, including moment-to-moment adaptations within parent-child interactions (micro level) and broader shifts in parenting across developmental stages (macro level). From a static perspective, parenting flexibility is characterized as a stable tendency to respond appropriately to situational demands. The framework highlights the necessity for caregivers to balance consistency and adaptability to support children’s socioemotional development. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
Decomposing subject retrieval: Diverging interference profiles for agreement and thematic dependencies in English
Matthew Kogan; Matthew Wagers
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The resolution of long-distance dependencies is mediated by both grammatical knowledge and domain-general working memory systems. Much previous work has investigated how and whether such memory operations are fine-tuned to the grammatical requirements of various linguistic dependencies. The present study recenters this issue in the context of two subject-verb dependencies with distinct grammatical functions: agreement, involving the checking of matching morphosyntactic features, and thematic binding, involving the fulfilment of argument-structure requirements. In one speeded acceptability judgment experiment and three self-paced reading experiments, we examine the online and offline profiles of dependency resolution for agreement and thematic binding in English. Experimental items in each experiment utilized ditransitive alternations to introduce several distractors intervening between the subject-verb dependency. Our results indicate that agreement is highly susceptible to interference from distractors which are syntactically dissimilar to the retrieval target but morphologically compatible with the retrieval probe. However, thematic binding is more restrictive, with interference only arising from distractors maximally similar to the retrieval target. Together, these results motivate a view of subject-verb dependency resolution in which the distinct grammatical functions of agreement and thematic binding yield distinct retrieval operations, despite targeting an identical constituent. We discuss the consequences of these interference profiles for models of cue-based retrieval and interference, whereby subject retrieval is decomposed into multiple retrievals relativized to the features most reliable for executing distinct grammatical functions.
Why three studies by Vuorre and Przybylski should not be used to assess the impact of social media on adolescent mental health
Liam Sigaud; Zachary M Rausch; Alec McClean; Jonathan Haidt
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The relationship between adolescent social media use and mental health is a topic of ongoing debate, with substantial diversity in the conclusions reached by researchers. This commentary examines three papers by Matti Vuorre and Andrew Przybylski, often cited as evidence that social media is not harmful to adolescents. We identify one conceptual issue (relying on blending together groups and technologies while dismissing consistent evidence of harms when those groups and technologies are unblended) and three methodological issues (such as Meta’s involvement in the research design of one study) which reduce their relevance to questions about social media’s effects on adolescent mental health. Suggestions for better approaches to studying such effects are provided.
Who Considers, Who Owns? Multi-Study Evidence on the Behavioral Process of Cryptocurrency Adoption in the United States
Erin B. Fitz; Kyle L. Saunders
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Cryptocurrency is a rapidly expanding landscape of digital assets spanning sociopolitical, psychological, technological, and financial domains. Although prior research identifies factors associated with owning cryptocurrency, most work overlooks the prerequisite considering stage. We draw on the Theory of Planned Behavior to examine whether individuals who would consider owning cryptocurrency differ from owners and those who reject the possibility of owning outright. Using three independent, nationally representative samples of US adults (n = 803; n = 1908; n = 2086) and a modeling approach that allows us to compare the three groups, we find that roughly one in five respondents do not own, but would consider owning, cryptocurrency. While both considerers and owners share similar demographics and personality traits, considerers are not like owners in all ways or to the same degree: Conservative political ideology and technological optimism (support for developing artificial intelligence) relate more strongly to considering than owning, whereas stock ownership and disruptive orientations (the “Need for Chaos”) relate more strongly to owning than considering. Our data also mirror aggregate market patterns, with most respondents considering and owning Bitcoin (followed by Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies, e.g., Dogecoin and XRP). However, we further demonstrate that many individuals would consider or own more than one type. Taken together, the implication is that focusing only on ownership or certain types of cryptocurrency may obscure meaningful differences in evaluation and behavior. Accounting for these differences is therefore essential for understanding what cryptocurrency represents to various individuals, as well as effective communication, segmentation, and policy design.
A Rubric-Guided Multimodal Approach Using High-Capacity LLMs Provides Psychometrically Sound Creativity Assessment in Learning Games
Seyedahmad Rahimi; Hongming Li; Salah Esmaeiligoujar; Deniz Ercan; Anthony F Botelho
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Creativity assessment at scale is difficult because expert ratings are resource-intensive and hard to use in dynamic settings. Large language models (LLMs) offer potential for automated assessment, yet their validity for evaluating multimodal creative artifacts in authentic educational contexts remains unexplored. Here we evaluated whether LLMs can assess human creativity in Physics Playground, an educational physics game where students design playable levels. We compared rubric-guided and rubric-free prompting approaches across 421 student-created levels, tested three multimodal input configurations, and examined reliability and model capacity effects using GPT and Gemini model families. Rubric-guided prompting yielded strong agreement with human expert ratings compared to rubric-free approaches (rs ranged from .61 to .81). Multimodal inputs combining images with structured data significantly enhanced validity compared to text-only methods. These effects were consistent across GPT-4o and Gemini 2.5 Flash. Also, single model calls achieved comparable reliability to averaged responses. Model capacity substantially influenced performance, with larger, high-capacity models (e.g., GPT-4o) consistently outperforming smaller, low-capacity variants (e.g., GPT-4o-mini). Theoretically, these findings extend creativity assessment to multimodal artifacts in authentic contexts. Practically, embedding assessment in learning games enables them to foster creativity and support STEM learning and AI literacy.
Open Science Practices in Behavioral Addictions: An Exploratory Survey
Charlotte Eben; Robert Heirene; Lucas Palmer; Joel Billieux; Beáta Bőthe; Damien Brevers; Zhang Chen; Joshua B. Grubbs; Anja Kräplin; Karol Lewczuk
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Background: The field of behavioral addictions (BA) research addresses activity domains such as excessive gaming, gambling, and other online behaviors that influence public health policies. A failure to embrace open science practices may lead to concerns about the trustworthiness and reliability of its research outputs. This study explored the current use of open science practices among BA researchers, focusing on the adoption, underlying motivations, concerns, and support needs across seven specific open science practices. Methods: We distributed an exploratory survey through professional networks, conferences, and social media and received a final N = 83 (early career researcher (ECRs) N= 41). The survey covered six domains: general use, frequency, importance, engagement, concerns, and support needs related to open science practices. Results: Most respondents reported positive attitudes toward open science, with preregistration (75% of total N) and data sharing (65% of total N) as the most commonly used practices. Descriptively, ECRs placed greater importance on these practices than their established counterparts, suggesting a potential generational shift. ECRs primarily reported concerns about insufficient knowledge and fear of errors, while established researchers emphasized workload and a lack of incentives. Both groups highlighted the need for increased time, resources, institutional support, and training. Discussion: Although our findings are descriptive and limited by self-selection and sample bias, they offer initial insights into how open science is perceived and practised in the field. Sustained progress requires coordinated action from individuals, institutions, and professional societies in terms of knowledge transfer and incentives to ensure inclusive and equitable adoption of open science practices.
Validation of the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology – Self Report (HiTOP-SR): Internal Structure and Construct Validity against the MMPI-3 in a Community Sample
Rachel S. Faulkenberry; Ka Yan Lee; Richard Linscott; Miriam K. Forbes; Antonia N. Kaczkurkin; Kristin Naragon-Gainey; Kristian Eric Markon; Martin Sellbom
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The current study aimed to evaluate the hierarchical structure and construct validity of the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology Self-Report (HiTOP-SR) measure. Using data from a combined sample of 775 community and undergraduate participants, exploratory factor analysis initially yielded a 7-factor solution reflecting broad psychopathology domains: Internalizing, Disinhibited Externalizing, Antagonistic Externalizing, Low Positive Emotionality, Eating Pathology, Sexual Dysfunction, and Anankastia. Subsequent elaboration of a lower order structure based on the first three broader domains yielded seven additional factors: Fear and Somatoform, Thought Disorder, Suicide, Negative Affectivity, and Narcissism, resulting in a total of 11factors at the most nuanced level. Sequential hierarchical modeling iteratively traced the factor structure from one global psychopathology factor down to the 7-factor level, and subsequently, 11-factor level. Construct validity of the factor structures was evaluated via correlation and regression analyses using scales from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-3 (MMPI-3). These results yielded broad support for the convergent validity of the HiTOP-SR structure, as the various factors demonstrated meaningful associations with conceptually relevant MMPI-3 scale scores. These findings provide preliminary evidence for the HiTOP-SR as a promising dimensional assessment tool aligned with key aspects of the HiTOP framework, while also highlighting directions for further replication and refinement.
Neural Synchrony During Music-Listening: A Systematic Review of EEG-Based Inter-Subject Correlation Studies
Weihan Angela Ng; Natalia Polouliakh; Akima Connelly; Taketo Akama
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Music listening engages complex neural processes spanning auditory perception, prediction, emotion, and memory. Inter-subject correlation (ISC), a measure of neural synchrony across listeners, has emerged as a promising tool for investigating shared neural engagement during music listening using electroencephalography (EEG). However, the growing literature in this area remains fragmented, with substantial variability in experimental paradigms, EEG acquisition parameters, and analytic approaches. This systematic review synthesizes findings from 8 studies, identified through database search following PRISMA guidelines. Results demonstrate that music reliably evokes significant inter-subject neural synchrony regardless of analytic method, with intact and structurally coherent music producing stronger ISC than temporally disrupted controls. Key modulatory factors include repetition, familiarity, and musical training, while applied studies demonstrate that ISC predicts real-world outcomes such as commercial music streaming. ISC computation methods, EEG configurations, and sampling rates varied considerably across studies. Evaluation of meta-analytic feasibility revealed that only six of eleven experiments provided extractable effect sizes, and the conceptual heterogeneity of reported metrics precluded formal quantitative synthesis. These findings establish ISC as a potential marker of shared neural engagement during music listening while highlighting the need for standardized reporting practices, including consistent effect size reporting and structured ISC summaries, to enable future meta-analytic integration.
The co-evolution of language and psychopathology: parsing within and between person effects across childhood
Arianna M Gard; Sriparna Sen
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Background. Childhood mental health disorders are pervasive, costing the U.S. billions of dollars annually, and conferring enduring negative outcomes. However, there remains limited consensus on shared risk factors that could inform targeted intervention. Receptive language may be one such factor that contributes to the emergence and maintenance of psychopathology. However, little is known about how language and latent dimensions of psychopathology co-evolve across childhood. Methods. This study investigates the longitudinal associations between receptive vocabulary and psychopathology (internalizing; INT, externalizing; EXT, superordinate P) in a large, sociodemographically diverse sample of children from the Future Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 4,898). Data from the Child Behavior Checklist and Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test was collected when participants were aged 3, 5, and 9. Longitudinal measurement invariance of the bifactor model was first tested using structural equation modeling. Next, a random-intercepts cross-lagged panel model (RICLPM) was used to examine the temporal associations between receptive vocabulary and psychopathology across childhood. Results. The bifactor model met criteria for partial longitudinal metric invariance, corroborating dimensions of INT, EXT, and superordinate p across all childhood. The RICLPM revealed that much of the variance linking vocabulary to psychopathology dimensions was accounted for by between-person and within-person autoregressive effects, rather than within-person cross-lagged associations. At the between-person level, receptive vocabulary was negatively associated with P and INT, INT was negatively associated with EXT, and P was positively associated with EXT and INT. Conclusions. Stable between-person differences across childhood may account for the associations between receptive vocabulary and psychopathology.
From brain networks to the patient-environment system in clinical neuroimaging
david corredor; Maxime Carriere; AnaĂŻs Vallet; MELINA GASTELUM; Francis Eustache; berengere guillery
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Despite major advances in clinical neuroimaging, our understanding of how neural processes contribute to psychiatric disorders remains limited. Clinical imaging studies have focused on identifying maladaptive brain networks and computations underlying psychiatric illness. However, these approaches overlook the action-oriented aspect of these disorders. In the present work, we first review the current information-processing approach in clinical neuroimaging. Then, we introduce an action-oriented conceptual framework, emphasizing that the body and the environment are just as important as the nervous system for explaining and understanding cognition. Finally, we show how recent technological developments, coupled with action-oriented theoretical frameworks, enable us to broaden the scope of brain imaging research to include the dynamic relationship between a patient’s bodily skills and the environment in which they are deployed. This perspective opens new avenues for using neuroimaging data to better understand the brain’s role in psychiatric disorders.
Pattern Recognition and Selective Search: Comparison between AlphaZero and Human Expertise
Andrew J. Waters; Fernand Gobet; Dmitry Bennett; Andrea Brancaccio
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Research on expertise has identified pattern recognition and selective search as key components in decision making. This article compares the processes of human experts in chess with those of DeepMind’s AlphaZero (AZ), an AI program that has achieved superhuman performance in chess, shogi, and Go by learning through self-play, knowing only the rules of the games. Like humans, AZ predominantly relies on pattern recognition and selective search, raising the possibility that it exhibits intuition. However, at a micro level, there are notable differences. In addition to being much stronger than even top grandmasters in these games, AZ conducts more extensive look-ahead search. Moreover, AZ does not utilize several types of knowledge (e.g., episodic and semantic knowledge) that human experts draw upon. Despite these differences, AZ research has significant implications for the psychology of human expertise, including enhancing human decision-making, developing better training methods, and potentially transforming the way experts understand their domain. Keywords:
A Stochastic Block Prior for Clustering in Graphical Models
Nikola Sekulovski; Giuseppe Arena; Jonas M B Haslbeck; Karoline Huth; Nial Friel; Maarten Marsman
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Graphical models facilitate the representation of psychological variables as complex systems of interacting variables structured as a network. However, their current statistical estimation procedures overlook the assumption of clustering, which refers to the grouping of subsets of variables that are more densely connected within the network, despite this assumption playing a central role in many psychological theories. We address this gap by proposing the use of the Stochastic Block Model (SBM) as a prior distribution on the network structure of a graphical model for binary and ordinal data. The SBM assumes that variables belong to latent clusters, where the probability of an edge depends on the cluster membership of the nodes. Embedding this prior in a Bayesian graphical modeling framework allows researchers to formally incorporate theoretical expectations about clustering, test hypotheses about the number of clusters, and estimate cluster assignments from cross-sectional data. We demonstrate the benefits of this approach in a simulation study and reanalyze 30 openly available empirical datasets to test for clustering. This work highlights how the Bayesian framework can embed theoretical assumptions into network models via priors and introduces a new tool for latent cluster inference in psychological network analysis.
Philosophical arguments can boost charitable giving
Kirstan Brodie; Eric Schwitzgebel; Jason Nemirow; Fiery Andrews Cushman
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Do reasoned arguments increase charitable giving? Evidence is mixed. One possible explanation is that arguments vary in effectiveness. We crowdsourced 90 philosophical arguments in favor of charitable giving, coding them for a variety of features. In Study 1 (N=2161, MTurk), participants read either a control text or one of five arguments preselected as especially promising. Participants who read the philosophical arguments expressed more positive attitudes towards donating and donated about $1 more on average of a potential $10 bonus than participants who read the control text. Study 2 (N=8982, MTurk) employed all 90 arguments, with each participant reading one argument. We analyzed the relationship between the coded argument features and donation behavior, and found arguments to be more effective when they mentioned children, mentioned the specific impacts of donating, and/or emphasized that large benefits can be achieved at low cost. Among the features less predictive of donation: addressing counterarguments, mentioning the equivalence of persons or the participant’s own assumed good fortune, appealing to religion or expert authorities, or appealing to the participant’s self-interest. Together, these studies provide evidence that reasoned arguments can indeed shift moral behavior such as charitable giving, but that some arguments are simply more effective than others. Further, we identify specific argument features that are most and least effective in eliciting donations.
Functional Magnetic Resonance Methods for Mapping for the Neural Underpinnings of Emotion
Joao F Guassi Moreira
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In this chapter I provide a concise methodological overview of how functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) can be used to investigate the neural bases of emotion. I begin by briefly reviewing core fMRI fundamentals, including the biophysics of the blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signal and key limitations. I then outline three broad classes of fMRI designs commonly used in affective science: task-based paradigms that model specific affective processes through experimental manipulations; resting-state paradigms that characterize intrinsic functional architecture; and naturalistic paradigms that leverage complex, dynamic stimuli such as films or narratives to better approximate real-world affective experience. Finally, I survey a set of analytic approaches that can be paired with these designs, including mass-univariate contrast testing, decoding, voxel-wise encoding models, connectome-based predictive modeling, graph theoretic methods, and intersubject correlation analysis. For each, I describe how the method works and the kinds of inferences it affords about affective phenomena. Collectively, these tools illustrate the expanding methodological repertoire available for mapping emotion onto brain function.
Teaching Personalized Doctor-Patient Communication with AI: PerTRAIN – A Prototype for Interpersonally Responsive Virtual Patients in Medical Education
Anna Junga; Ole Hätscher; Jennifer Dabel; Gabriyel Mado; Alberta Ajani; Leon Pielage; Pascal Kockwelp; Simon Mats Breil; Helena Baur; Jan Siebenbrock
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Personalized medicine requires physicians to adapt clinical communication and decision-making to patients’ individual motives, emotions, and interpersonal behaviors. However, training these skills remains challenging, as established simulation-based formats—particularly actor-based simulations—are resource-intensive and difficult to scale. Consequently, there is a need for scalable and flexible training approaches that allow repeated practice across diverse patient personalities and clinical contexts. The PerTRAIN (Personalization Training in Medicine) project addresses this need by leveraging large language models (LLMs) to simulate virtual patients with dynamically adapting personality expression at scale. Grounded in Contemporary Integrative Interpersonal Theory (CIIT), patient behavior is modelled along the dimensions of agency and communion and updated in response to the medical trainee’s behavior, enabling systematic variation and dynamic adaptation of interpersonal behavior within medical scenarios. This allows trainees to learn how patient personality shapes communication, and to practice adaptive, patient-centered communication strategies and appropriate clinical decision-making. For the personalization trainings, we developed clinical cases in which personality expression substantially influences behavior in doctor–patient interactions, that represent common encounters in primary care, and that align with national guidelines for patient-centered care. An initial chat-based implementation enables structured interactions, dynamic personality adaptation, and iterative refinement. The system is designed as a complementary tool to existing simulation formats, offering a scalable, low-threshold environment for repeated practice and reflection. A first application in curricular teaching is scheduled for 2026. Future extensions of the framework are discussed, such as large-scale empirical validation, modelling long-term interpersonal trajectories, and the extension of interactions to multimodal formats.
NetPsy: An Open-Source Interactive R/ShinyWeb Application for Undirected Psychological Network Analysis
Jose Ventura-Leon; Andy SĂĄnchez-Villena; Goldie Gamboa-Melgar; Jonathan Ruiz Castro; Shirley Tocto-MuĂąoz; Cristopher Lino-Cruz
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Psychological network analysis has gained considerable attention in the last years, yet the requirement of R programming still excludes many potential users. We present NetPsy, a free and open-source R/Shiny web application that wraps the full pipeline of undirected network analysis behind a graphical interface, from data import through automated reporting. Users can upload CSV or Excel files, run Goldbricker redundancy checks (which flag item pairs that may be too similar to distinguish empirically), and estimate networks for continuous data (Gaussian Graphical Models with EBICglasso or ggmModSelect), binary data (Ising models), or mixed data (mgm). The application computes standard centrality indices such as strength and expected influence, together with bridge centrality measures relevant to comorbidity research. Bootstrap routines provide case-dropping CS coefficients and nonparametric confidence intervals for edge weights. Group comparisons rely on the Network Comparison Test, reporting invariance statistics for network structure (M), global strength (S), and individual edges (E) with Holm correction. Visualization uses Fruchterman–Reingold layouts with adjustable parameters, and an optional module generates DOCX reports assisted by large language models. We illustrate these capabilities with simulated data and compare NetPsy against JASP Network and direct R scripting in terms of coverage, accessibility, and reproducibility.
Update of the Altered States Database (ASDB): 2025-12-31
Veronika ChvostovĂĄ; Johanna Prugger; Tim Hirschfeld; Timo Torsten Schmidt
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The Open Data initiative Altered States Database (ASDB) collects psychometric questionnaire data on the subjective experiences of pharmacologically and non-pharmacologically induced altered states of consciousness. The ASDB is updated annually and can be utilized by both researchers and non-scientists to access information or conduct further analyses. The current update adds data published in the year 2025, sourced from a systematic literature review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. A total of 578 items were screened, resulting in 32 included journal articles, of which nineteen report on the Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ30), eighteen on the 11-Altered States of Consciousness Rating Scale (11-ASC), fourteen on the 5D-ASC, two on the Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory (PCI), and one on the Hallucinogen Rating Scale (HRS). In total, the ASDB now encompasses data from 36 pharmacological and 18 non‑pharmacological consciousness modifying techniques (CMT) (plus control substances/techniques), incorporating 289 journal articles and 836 single datasets from 29.287 participants across datasets. The ASDB can be accessed on https://asdb.info and data tables can be downloaded from Open Science Framework (OSF; https://osf.io/8mbru).
Testing the dependency of metacognitive monitoring and executive functions in children: A cross-sectional and longitudinal study.
Donna Bryce; Janina Eberhart
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Accurate metacognitive monitoring is crucial for effective regulation of learning and performance, yet little is known about its cognitive determinants in childhood. The present study investigated the role of executive functions – specifically inhibition and updating of working memory – in children’s metacognitive monitoring accuracy. While prior research has established correlational links between executive functions and metacognitive skills, the current experimental study aimed to provide insight into the causal nature of these relationships by systematically manipulating executive function demands within a task and examining the impact on local monitoring judgment accuracy. Sixty children from two age groups (7 and 9 years) participated, providing cross-sectional data; children in the younger cohort were reassessed approximately 17 months later, contributing longitudinal data. Data were analysed using linear mixed effect models and the results indicated that executive functions and metacognitive monitoring have a dependent relationship in childhood. Moreover, this dependency strengthened with age for inhibition and with repeated task exposure for both inhibition and working memory. These findings are consistent with a competition for resources account of the association between executive functions and metacognitive monitoring, suggesting that when cognitive resources are occupied resolving cognitive conflict or maintaining items in memory, fewer resources remain for monitoring processes and monitoring accuracy suffers. Results are also interpreted within the cue-utilization view of metacognitive monitoring, suggesting developmental changes in the cues children rely on when forming monitoring judgments and a differential dependency of these cues on executive functions.
Behavioral Disinhibition Model of Addiction: A review and new findings from the Minnesota Twin Family Study
Brian M. Hicks; William G. Iacono
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We provide an historical perspective on the development, empirical support, and evolution of the behavioral disinhibition model of addiction that has been a central aim of the Minnesota Twin Family Study (MTFS). Conceived by David Lykken, the MTFS initiated a 35-year collaboration between Matt McGue and Bill Iacono, who together built the Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research (MCTFR). The behavioral disinhibition model posited that a heritable psychobiological liability expressed as the failure to conform to normative behavior and deficits in self-regulation underlies the co-occurrence, family transmission, and early onset of substance use problems and externalizing psychopathology. MCTFR longitudinal investigations spanning childhood through adulthood and twin, adoption, family, and genome-wide association studies support the genetic basis of behavioral disinhibition and its associations with numerous impulse control problems. Heritability of externalizing peaks in late adolescence, while there is consistent evidence for shared environmental influences on child antisocial behavior and early adolescent problem behaviors. Environmental adversity amplifies genetic vulnerability, driving an adolescent onset of substance use problems while behavioral disinhibition is key to their persistence. We also present an updated behavioral disinhibition model that spans childhood through young adulthood and report novel cotwin control analyses of 1382 twin pairs finding bidirectional associations wherein heavy substance use has robust casual non-familial effects that contribute to greater antisocial behavior and a more disinhibited personality structure in adulthood and vice versa. Genetic and shared environmental influences on behavioral disinhibition and the non-familial effects of heavy substance use create a system of person-environment transactions that maintain stable developmental trajectories and changes in adjustment across young adulthood.
Elevated suicidal thoughts and behaviors among adults reporting symptoms of Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome: Results from a national survey of US adults
Brian M. Hicks; Amanda Price; Paula Goldman; Mark A. Ilgen
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ABSTRACT Objective: As cannabis use has increased in the United States, so has cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome (CHS), a disorder characterized by severe nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain among heavy cannabis users. We previously showed that CHS symptoms are associated with several behavioral and psychological characteristics linked to psychosocial impairment. We examined links between CHS symptoms and suicidal thoughts, behaviors, and proximal suicide risk factors. Methods: We used data from the National Firearms, Alcohol, Cannabis, and Suicide survey, a nationally representative survey of 7,034 US adults. Items assessed symptoms of CHS and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Comparisons focused on: those with daily cannabis use and CHS symptoms (n = 191), those with daily cannabis use without CHS symptoms (n = 882), those with past year cannabis use but not daily use (n = 1288), and those without past year cannabis use (n = 4673). Results: Those with CHS symptoms reported the highest prevalence of suicidal thoughts and behaviors with most lifetime rates being significantly higher than those with daily cannabis use without CHS symptoms. Those with CHS symptoms also reported higher mean-levels of thoughts and feelings associated with suicide (i.e., perceived burdensomeness, thwarted belongingness, defeat, entrapment) than all the other groups. Conclusions: Those with CHS symptoms reported especially high rates of suicidal thoughts, behaviors, and attempts even when compared to others with daily cannabis use. People with CHS symptoms appear to be at high risk of suicide, possibly related to distress from their gastrointestinal symptoms and psychiatric, substance use, and medical comorbidities.
Similarity of Major Life-Event Perceptions and Relationship Satisfaction among Romantic Couples: The Case of Moving in Together
Karla Fliedner; Janina Larissa Buehler; Cornelia Wrzus; Louisa Scheling; Kai Tobias Horstmann
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This study examined the similarity of partners’ event perceptions of a major life event (i.e., moving in together as couple) and how similarity relates to relationship satisfaction. Considering event perceptions from multiple individuals can enhance knowledge of the event itself and the relationship dynamics in which it occurs. Using multilevel models, we analyzed data from N = 400 participants (200 couples), who provided self- and partner reported multidimensional event perceptions and ratings of relationship satisfaction at two assessments. First, we found evidence for similarity of self-reports and similarity of self- and partner reports between partners—higher than in random couples or due to normativeness. Second, higher similarity was related to higher relationship satisfaction. Third, similarity did not increase over time, and fourth, similarity did not co-develop with relationship satisfaction. Similarity of self-reports appears to be most relevant for relationship satisfaction, informing future research and potential intervention programs with couples.
The influence of glucose intake and psychosocial stress on food craving in healthy adults
Flora Nasilowski; Julia Reichenberger; Bernadette Denk; Raphaela Gaertner; Elea S. C. Klink; Eva Unternaehrer; Nina Volkmer; Stella Wienhold; Jens C Pruessner; Maria Meier
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Stress has been linked to the consumption of palatable food and may contribute to the development of obesity. Interindividual differences in cortisol stress reactivity are discussed as mediating mechanisms, yet findings linking food craving to cortisol reactivity are heterogeneous. Methodological differences in whether participants receive a sugary preload or are invited fasted may contribute to these divergences. Hence, this study set out to systematically investigate the effect of glucose and psychosocial stress on food craving in healthy adults. Overall, 62 healthy, fasted adults (mean age = 23.13; SD = 3.02; 54.84 % female, 45.16 % male) reported current food craving on the Food Craving Questionnaire, received either glucose or water and were later exposed to psychosocial stress or a friendly control condition. After stressor exposure, food craving was assessed a second time. We repeatedly assessed salivary cortisol and blood glucose and used linear mixed models to test whether the experimental manipulations predicted changes in craving and explored associations with sex and stress-eating tendency. Blood glucose increased in those consuming glucose and the stress test increased cortisol significantly. Higher cortisol reactivity, and even stronger, a greater increase in blood glucose led to significant reductions in food craving over time. We found no supportive evidence that glucose and cortisol reactivity interactively affected craving. These findings suggest that short-term metabolic signals may be more influential in shaping immediate food craving than acute stress, and that acute cortisol elevations may not universally promote food craving.
The relation between math anxiety and math self-concept to math performance varies across study math load
Krzysztof Cipora; Maristella Lunardon; Ida von Lehsten; Gabriella Daroczy; Klaus Willmes; Hans-Christoph Nuerk; Christina Artemenko
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Arithmetic skills are important to navigate everyday tasks and to successfully engage in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Among the factors supporting these skills, lower math anxiety and better math self-concept show consistent associations with better performance. However, the effect size of these associations is heterogeneous, and the factors that contribute to this variability are still not fully understood. Most of the studies on adults were conducted among psychology students, who may not be representative of the whole population and do not consider the different importance that mathematics plays for individuals’ careers. Therefore, the present study investigated whether the relation of arithmetic performance to math anxiety and math self-concept varies between university programs with different levels of math load. 836 German university students were included in the present online study. They completed self-report questionnaires to assess math anxiety and math self-concept and a timed arithmetic task. We found that arithmetic performance is negatively associated with math anxiety and positively with math self-concept overall, but the size of this association is different across math loads of the individuals’ study programs. Specifically, these associations were almost twice as strong among students in university programs with low math load compared to students in programs with high math load. We conclude that the math load of the university program is a factor to take into account, as results from students of a particular subject (e.g. psychology) are not representative of the relationship of math anxiety and math self-concept with math performance and should not be overgeneralized. Specifically, those individuals whose negative attitudes do not translate to lower performance are the ones likely to be enrolled in math intense programs.
Day-to-day fluctuations in craving and the value of drugs and food in daily life
Sergej Grunevski; Emmanuel E. Alvarez; Emma M. Schweitzer; Julia Kong; Sahar Hafezi; Anna B. Konova
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Craving is a powerful urge for a specific target (e.g., food, drugs) that prompts decisions directed at satisfying craving. While prior laboratory studies suggest craving biases behavior by amplifying target-specific value, the real-world generalizability of this mechanism remains unknown. We validate and extend these findings in a 28-day naturalistic smartphone-enabled study in patients with opioid use disorder (N=67) and community controls (N=49) who reported on their food (savory, sweet) and drug (opioid) urges and willingness-to-pay values. Despite person-level (mean) covariation, food and drug urges fluctuated largely independently within individuals while maintaining target-specific relationships with value. Using dynamics in drug urge and value and computational modeling, we isolated a distinct, ecologically relevant craving “state” tied to drug cue exposure and drug use in daily life. This research shows craving acts on normative valuation processes in real-world decision making and offers a novel approach to infer clinically vulnerable moments for behavior change.
The Day Preconstruction Method: A novel method to strengthen Future Self-Continuity
Jonas Hjalmar Blom; Per Kristensson; Erik Wästlund
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This article presents the Day Preconstruction Method (DPM), a writing exercise designed to strengthen individuals' connection to their future selves. Across four preregistered randomized controlled experiments (N = 1,624), we tested whether the DPM strengthens future self-continuity and influences real monetary choices and valued living. DPM reliably increased future self-continuity in all studies, with positive affect and vividness as consistent predictors. No effects were observed on real monetary delay discounting. In Study 4, however, participants who imagined a distant future day showed increases in valued living over one week, an effect partially mediated by future self-continuity. These findings suggest that simple, scalable text-based interventions can strengthen psychological connectedness to the future self and support value-aligned behavior, even when economic behavior remains unchanged.
Who goes with whom: The multidimensional cognitive map of U.S. political coalitions
Isaias Ghezae; Yphtach Lelkes; Mina Cikara
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Polarization debates often presume two sorted “camps” in American politics, yet we lack a map of how citizens perceive the coalitions that constitute these camps--perceptions that structure partisan animus, guide information processing and vote choice, and shape political behavior. Across four studies using historical and novel survey data, we inductively discover this cognitive map. Our analyses consistently reveal a stable, asymmetric, tripartite structure: a unified conservative coalition alongside a durably fractured liberal wing composed of distinct “Ideological” and “Demographic” coalitions. This structure is organized along two dimensions: a primary ideological dimension capturing the traditional left-right conflict, and a secondary common-fate dimension distinguishing groups perceived to be motivated by tangible, widespread concerns from those motivated by narrower, “special” interests. This perceptual architecture explains the entanglement of social-group stereotypes with partisanship, reconciles rising affective polarization with stable demographic sorting, and identifies concrete limits on persuasion and mobilization.
Similar exercise adherence and physical fitness outcomes are observed across distinct motivation profiles in older adults participating in a home-based structured exercise programme
Alexandra Munns; Jack Feron; Joan Duda; Sindre Fosstveit; Kelsey Elizabeth Joyce; Foyzul Rahman; Linda Wheeldon; Hilde Lohne Seiler; Sveinung Berntsen; Jet Veldhuijzen van Zanten
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Purpose: Motivation and self-efficacy are established predictors of engagement and persistence within structured exercise programmes; however, it remains unclear whether these psychological factors predict objective adherence metrics and associated physical fitness outcomes within home-based exercise programmes for older adults. This study adopted a person-centred approach to examine whether distinct psychological profiles predict adherence and fitness outcomes following a structured home-based exercise programme. Methods: Eighty-eight older adults (age = 67.2 ± 5.5 years) completed a 26-week home-based exercise programme. Objective adherence was defined as compliance with prescribed exercise volume and quantified using cumulative metabolic equivalent minutes (MET-mins) derived from heart rate–based measures of exercise intensity and duration. Psychological profiles were identified using latent profile analysis based on autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, and exercise self-efficacy. Cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular strength, flexibility, and mobility were assessed pre- and post-intervention. Results: Two psychological profiles were identified: an autonomous and highly confident profile and a moderately autonomous and confident profile. Controlled motivation was comparable between profiles, and no differences were observed in baseline demographic or physiological characteristics. Adherence was high and similar across profiles (e.g., cumulative MET-mins: 129 ± 66% vs. 116 ± 38%). Both profiles demonstrated significant and comparable improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness (V̇O₂peak), muscular strength, flexibility, and mobility. Conclusions: Baseline differences in self-efficacy and autonomous motivation did not predict objective adherence or fitness outcomes within a structured, well-supported home-based exercise programme for older adults. Consistent objective monitoring and regular behavioural support may therefore reduce the impact of psychological profile membership on adherence and outcomes. Keywords: ageing; exercise adherence; home-based exercise; latent profile analysis; autonomous motivation; self-efficacy
Belief in State Propaganda Narratives Is Associated with Russian Soldiers’ Combat Motivation
Jais Adam-Troian; Jocelyn Belanger; Olena Metelkina; Volodymyr Vakhitov; Anna Vyshniakova; Maria Chayinska
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This study examines the psychological mechanisms through which belief in state war propaganda relates to combat motivation among Russian soldiers during the war in Ukraine. Using a cross-sectional survey of 1,060 Russian prisoners of war, we examined the relationship between belief in official propaganda narratives and two key outcomes: voluntary surrender and self-reported intentions to re-enlist. Results revealed that stronger belief in propaganda was associated with a lower likelihood of surrendering voluntarily and higher intentions to re-enlist upon release. Mediation analyses identified perceived legitimacy of the "Special Military Operation" (SMO) as the primary psychological pathway, such that perceived legitimacy statistically fully accounted for the association between propaganda beliefs and both outcomes in our models. Contrary to expectations, identity fusion with the "Russian World" ideology and dehumanization of Ukrainians did not exhibit significant effects in the mediation models once covariates were accounted for. These findings suggest that propaganda’s influence on combat motivation may operate primarily by reinforcing soldiers’ perceptions of the war’s legitimacy rather than through identity-based or dehumanizing processes. The study offers empirical insights on propaganda's link to combat motivation via legitimacy, informing narrative interventions in deradicalization and conflict psychology.
Attachment and ADHD: how are they related? Exploring the application of the Learning Theory of Attachment to ADHD
Saskia van der Oord; Gail Tripp; Tycho Dekkers; Wout Vandycke; Amelie Verschueren; An-Katrien Hulsbosch; Melisse Houbrechts; Axel Van de Weyer; Marina Danckaerts; Karen Vertessen
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Children with ADHD are often insecurely attached. Despite its importance, there is very little research on, or understanding of, the mechanisms underlying insecure attachment in ADHD. The Learning Theory of Attachment (Bosmans et al., 2020) proposes insecure attachment to be largely grounded in learning experiences; over time the child learns to trust the parent and develops secure attachment through consistent soothing by parents in distressing situations. The Dopamine Transfer Deficit hypothesis (Tripp & Wickens, 2008) proposes learning deficits underlie ADHD behavior. Building on both these theories, we propose that alterations in dopamine-related learning may drive the higher rates of insecure attachment in children with ADHD; potentially linked to altered dopamine functioning they may have more difficulty in learning to trust their parents in daily life, to associate their parents with comfort, and as a result have a higher chance of developing insecure attachment. We present this novel “Learning Theory of Attachment model in ADHD” to explain attachment development in ADHD, integrating important insights from both theories. Finally, we reflect on the potential relevance of this Learning Theory of Attachment model in ADHD for both behavioral and pharmacological interventions for children with ADHD.
Understanding the Experience of Daily Events: A Dimensional Taxonomy of the Perceived Characteristics of Daily Events
Peter Haehner; Karla Fliedner; Wiebke Bleidorn; Kai Horstmann; Vivian Schmiedecke; Sophia Salzburg; Hannah Tkaczik; Felix WĂźrtz; Maike Luhmann
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Daily events like a relationship conflict, a work-related success, or a pleasant meeting with a friend can significantly influence people’s well-being and mental health. To fully understand their psychological effects, different theories stress that people’s subjective perception of daily events must be considered. However, a systematic examination of the perceived characteristics of daily events is still missing, which has led to jingle-jangle problems and the negligence of their perceived characteristics in existing research. To overcome these problems, we conducted a systematic literature review and four empirical studies (Ntotal = 1,468) to develop a taxonomy that systematically captures the perception of daily events on eight dimensions: positive emotion, challenge, relevance, threat to self, predictability, duty, sociality, and external control. Furthermore, we validated a measure – the Daily Event Questionnaire – to reliably and validly assess these perceived characteristics of daily events. Applying our taxonomy and measure, we found that the perception of daily events systematically differed from the perception of everyday situations. Moreover, the perception of daily events predicted fluctuations in daily and weekly well-being over time. We discuss how this dimensional taxonomy of perceived event characteristics may advance future research and theory development regarding the effects of daily events on well-being and discuss similarities and differences between our taxonomy and taxonomies of the perception of situations and major life events.
Four Decades of Change in the Acoustic Profile of Japanese Hit Songs (1980–2025)
Satoshi Kawase; Kei Eguchi
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Music is often described as mirroring the socio-cultural landscape of its time. However, the long-term acoustic evolution of hit songs in non-Western contexts remains underexplored. This study investigated the temporal changes in loudness, spectral flux, and groove-related acoustic features of 360 Japanese hit songs released between 1980 and 2025. Acoustic descriptors were extracted using MIRtoolbox, including RMS, loudness units relative to full scale (LUFS), dynamic range, full-band and sub-band spectral flux, pulse clarity, percussiveness, event density, tempo, brightness, roughness, and mode. Regression analyses revealed a substantial long-term increase in overall loudness (RMS and LUFS), consistent with the so-called “loudness war” in the Western context. Spectral flux increased, particularly in low-frequency sub-bands; however, the salience of the change was lower than that reported in Western datasets. Event density, roughness, and major mode tendencies increased significantly over the years. By contrast, percussiveness and pulse clarity did not exhibit any systematic changes. These findings suggest that Japanese hit songs have progressively incorporated certain embodiment- and groove-related characteristics, similar to those found in Western hit charts; however, not all groove-related elements have increased uniformly. Taken together, hit songs appear to retain region-specific characteristics while simultaneously exhibiting convergent acoustic trends across cultures over time.
Sustainability Going Viral: Pathogen Avoidance as a Barrier to Second-Hand Consumption Addressable by Smell-Based Interventions
Matteo Perini; Jasper H. B. de Groot
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The fashion industry is a major environmental polluter, and behavioral scientists can investigate strategies to reduce obstacles to second-hand sustainable solutions. We propose an evolutionary framework rooted in the behavioral immune system literature as a comprehensive explanation for differences in attitudes toward second-hand clothing. We postulate that second-hand clothing triggers evolved pathogen-avoidance mechanisms that form a barrier to second-hand purchases. This barrier, however, can be mitigated by hygiene-related sensory cues, like a clean-laundry odor. In a field study (N = 257), we counterbalanced three odor conditions (clean-laundry, citrus, and regular store odor) and found that the clean-laundry scent significantly boosted purchasing behavior, overriding the negative effect of germ-aversion. Indeed, among customers, higher levels of pathogen avoidance resulted in less spending and more negative attitudes toward second-hand clothing. Further support for this mechanistic model was provided by experimentally increasing pathogen salience in survey responders, which resulted in more negative attitudes toward second-hand clothing, and a lab pilot study showing that clean-laundry scent significantly reduced pathogen concerns while enhancing perceived garments’ value and appeal. Taken together, this research highlights the critical role of pathogen-avoidance mechanisms and olfactory cleanliness cues in shaping consumer behavior, offering a novel path for promoting environmentally sustainable consumer practices.
Validation of the Turkish Version of the YFAS 2.0 and Item-Level Insights for Short-Form Development
Burak kemal Ateş; Meltem Anafarta-Şendağ
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This study presents the first comprehensive Turkish adaptation and psychometric evaluation of the Yale Food Addiction Scale 2.0 (YFAS 2.0). A total of 346 adults completed an online survey including the YFAS 2.0, measures of maladaptive eating, impulsivity, depressive and anxiety symptoms, and social desirability. Translation followed established cross-cultural adaptation procedures, and psychometric analyses examined factorial structure, internal consistency, test–retest reliability, and convergent and discriminant validity. Food addiction (FA) prevalence was 9.3%. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the original unidimensional structure of the 11 diagnostic criteria, with strong factor loadings (.73–.94) and good model fit. Internal consistency (KR-20 = .86) and test–retest reliability (ICC = .70) were adequate. FA symptoms were found correlated with related constructs, including BMI, depressive and anxiety symptoms, emotional and uncontrolled eating, and impulsivity— particularly urgency—demonstrating convergent validity. Weak but significant correlations emerged with cognitive restraint and (lack of) perseverance, whereas no meaningful associations were observed with sensation seeking or social desirability, providing evidence for discriminant validity. Item-level analysis of the short-form item set indicated largely comparable but partially shifted highest-loading items relative to the original mYFAS 2.0 configuration, suggesting possible cultural or linguistic influences on item functioning. Overall, findings indicate that the Turkish YFAS 2.0 is a valid and reliable measure for assessing addictive-like eating in non-clinical adult populations. The scale performs similarly to previously validated international versions and provides a robust instrument for future research on food addiction, emotion-related eating, and associated psychological correlates among Turkish-speaking individuals.
Measuring the Content of Visual Hallucinations Induced by Psychedelics and Stroboscopic Light: The Six-Dimensional Visual Hallucination Questionnaire (6D-VHQ)
Trevor Hewitt; Anil Seth; David J Schwartzman
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Hallucinations arise from disruptions in neural processes that construct perceptual experience from sensory input. Progress in consciousness science may therefore benefit from methods that precisely characterise their phenomenology. We introduce and validate the 6-Dimensional Visual Hallucination Questionnaire (6D-VHQ), a brief instrument designed to quantify visual hallucination content across contexts. The 6D-VHQ measures six dimensions: geometric and semantic content, detail level, vividness, entropy, and focality. It focuses on perceptual content rather than broader altered-state features. We report three studies: an image-based validation study, an application to stroboscopically induced visual hallucinations, and an application to psychedelic closed-eye visuals. Across 962 responses, the questionnaire showed high internal consistency, a factor structure aligned with the intended dimensions, and stable performance across settings. High inter-item redundancy indicated an initially over-complete but coherent implementation of the instrument. Compared with the 11-Dimensional Altered States of Consciousness questionnaire (11D-ASC), both instruments similarly captured simple and complex visual hallucinations despite differing psychometric properties. While the 11D-ASC showed low internal consistency, the 6D-VHQ has high internal consistency alongside high inter-dimensional redundancy. While the 11D-ASC correlates to participant traits, and 6D-VHQ is largely invariant to these, capturing the differences in visual phenomenology between different classes of hallucinatory experiences. The 6D-VHQ showed that stroboscopic stimulation predominantly elicited vivid simple geometric hallucinations, whereas psychedelic experiences showed combined geometric content alongside more vivid, detailed, and semantic visuals. The 6D-VHQ provides an operationalisation of a six-dimensional model of visual hallucination content that distinguishes broad classes of hallucinations across induction methods.
Critical Consciousness Socialization in K-12 Schools and Student Development: A Mixed Methods Systematic Review
Miriam Schwarzenthal; Valentin Emslander; Tugce Aral; Sauro Civitillo; Lisa Bardach
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This mixed-methods systematic review synthesizes empirical research on critical consciousness socialization in K-12 schools and student development across sociopolitical, academic, socioemotional, and identity-and intergroup-related domains. Across 67 articles (2014-2025), quantitative studies show consistent effects on students’ critical reflection on social inequities and, in structured curricular interventions, academic engagement. Findings for critical motivation and action, socioemotional, and identity- and intergroup-related development are mixed. Qualitative synthesis illustrates that students experience critical consciousness socialization as fostering uneven sociopolitical development, meaningful academic engagement and epistemic complexity, socioemotional challenge and growth, and expanded self-understanding and intergroup connection. Findings vary by social positionality and implementation features, with curricular relevance, student leadership, cognitive rigor, action scaffolding, and psychological safety as facilitating characteristics. The literature centers on U.S. secondary schools, short-term effects, and includes minimal intersectional analysis. Overall, developmental consequences of critical consciousness socialization depend less on exposure per se than on how it is enacted in classrooms.
Beyond Symptom Reduction: The Causal Effect of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy on Interpersonal Problems
Jonas Hallgans; Stephan Bartholdy; Tim Kaiser; Marit Kristine List; Eva-Lotta Brakemeier
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Objective: Interpersonal problems are important transdiagnostic features in the development and treatment of mental disorders. However, evidence on causal effects of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and differential treatment effects on interpersonal problems is scarce. Therefore, this study examines whether modern routine outpatient CBT more strongly reduces interpersonal problems than a naturalistic waitlist control condition. Potential heterogeneity of treatment effects is inspected, specifically focusing on differences in childhood emotional neglect and abuse. Method: Using observational data of outpatients with various mental disorders at three measurement points (intake on a waitlist, pre- and post-therapy assessments), we construct two treatment arms (NCBT = 256 vs. Nwaiting condition = 431) and train a Causal Forest to estimate treatment effects on interpersonal problems, given observed covariates. Results: Our results indicate a robust, moderate effect of CBT on interpersonal problems while fostering a dominant interpersonal style. Neither broad nor specific tests of heterogeneity indicate differential treatment effects. Conclusion: Although the findings are subject to methodological limitations and should be interpreted cautiously, they provide preliminary evidence that CBT may be an effective and broadly applicable treatment for interpersonal problems. Future randomized controlled trials are needed to confirm these results and establish causal inference.
Mental Health and Intolerance of Uncertainty across Domains and Age: A Special Role for Intolerance of Social Uncertainty
Weike Wang; Sarah Daniels; Susanne Schweizer
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Humans’ physical and social environments are filled with uncertainty. Negative reactivity to uncertainty has determinantal health impacts, especially for mental health. Higher levels of Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU), defined as more negative responses to uncertainty, are associated with greater risk of experiencing affective and anxiety disorders. Yet little is known about whether affective responses to uncertainty are the same across domains of uncertainty and whether they show cumulative or domain-specific associations with mental health. To address these knowledge gaps, the current study developed and validated a novel scale assessing affective responses to common types of uncertainty: academic/professional, climate, financial, health, political and social in three independent samples (Sample A: N = 371, 18-76 years; Sample B: N = 403, 18-74 years; Sample C: N = 192, 18-32 years). The 24-item Affective Responses to Daily Uncertainty Scale offered a reliable measure of affective responses to uncertainty across domains. Negative affective responses across domains generally decreased with age. Social uncertainty demonstrated the strongest association with affective and anxiety disorder symptoms across age. Improving individuals’ tolerance to social uncertainty therefore offers a promising target for intervention.
Collection of body–object interaction ratings for 5,637 Japanese words
Masaya Mochizuki; Naoto Ota
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Body-object interaction (BOI)—the degree to which a person physically interacts with objects or entities—has been shown to affect language processing, although studies have reported inconsistent results depending on the language or context. Moreover, no large-scale BOI database exists for Japanese. To address this gap, we collected BOI ratings for 5,637 Japanese words from 1,267 native Japanese speakers. The ratings demonstrated notable levels of intra-item and inter-rater reliabilities and cross-linguistic validity. We further examined the relationship between BOI ratings and normative data from a lexical decision task for Japanese words. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis controlling for various lexical and semantic variables revealed that BOI was a significant predictor of lexical decision task performance. However, unlike the original BOI effect, higher BOI ratings were associated with longer response times and lower accuracy. This finding aligns with recent results from large-scale studies on BOI data collection, highlighting the need to reevaluate the impact of BOI on lexical processing.
Uptake, Barriers, and Facilitators of Open Science in Clinical Psychology: Findings from an Exploratory Survey in German-speaking Countries
Anja Christine Feneberg; Jakob Fink-Lamotte; Helen Niemeyer
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Open Science practices (OSP) aim to enhance transparency, reproducibility, and research quality, yet empirical research regarding their uptake in clinical psychology remains scarce. The present survey examined OSP across clinical psychological research, teaching, and psychotherapeutic practice at universities and university clinics in German-speaking countries. Based on responses from 130 participants (M=37.13Âą9.75 years of age, 61.54% female) preregistration, a-priori sample size planning, and open access publishing were the most commonly reported OSP. Ethical and legal concerns, time constraints, and fear of mistakes were the most prominent barriers, while access to infrastructure and incentives were the most needed types of support. Teaching activities addressed Open Science topics, whereas implementation in clinical practice remained limited. Overall, the findings suggest a promising trend toward normalization of Open Science in clinical psychology, while highlighting the need for field-specific guidelines, institutional support, and aligned incentive structures to foster sustainable adoption across career-stages and contexts.
Visual Anthropomorphism Shifts Evaluations of Gendered AI Managers
Ruiqing Han; Hao Cui; Taha Yasseri
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This research examines whether competence cues can reduce gender bias in evaluations of AI managers and whether these effects depend on how the AI is represented. Across two preregistered experiments (N = 2,505), each employing a 2 × 2 × 3 design manipulating AI gender, competence, and decision outcome, we compared text-based descriptions of AI managers with visually generated AI faces created using a reverse-correlation paradigm. In the text condition, evaluations were driven by competence rather than gender. When participants received unfavourable decisions, high-competence AI managers were judged as fairer, more competent, and better leaders than low-competence managers, regardless of AI gender. In contrast, when the AI manager was visually represented, competence cues had attenuated influence once facial information was present. Instead, participants showed systematic gender-differentiated responses to AI faces, with feminine-appearing managers evaluated as more competent and more trustworthy than masculine-appearing managers, particularly when delivering favourable outcomes. These gender effects were largely absent when outcomes were unfavourable, suggesting that negative feedback attenuates the influence of both competence information and facial cues. Taken together, these findings show that competence information can mitigate negative reactions to AI managers in text-based interactions, whereas facial anthropomorphism elicits gendered perceptual biases not observed in text-only settings. The results highlight that representational modality plays a critical role in determining when gender stereotypes are activated in evaluations of AI systems and underscore that design choices are consequential for AI governance in evaluative contexts.
Event segmentation aligns emotional learning and episodic memory
Patrick Laing; Josh Cisler; Joseph E. Dunsmoor
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Emotion prioritizes not only what was significant, but when it was significant. When temporal structure is insufficient to bind emotional relevance to distinct episodes, emotional experiences can lead to overgeneralization and source confusion. Here, we tested whether event boundaries serve as a control mechanism that allows emotional prioritization in memory to reset and re-bind as relevance changes over time. Participants completed a preregistered two-day Pavlovian category-conditioning in which category-shock associations reversed across multiple learning phases. In one group, each reversal phase was preceded by a brief but explicit event boundary signaling an associative transition; in the other group, reversals occurred continuously without an explicit boundary. Episodic recognition memory for trial-unique conditioned stimuli, tested 24-hours later, showed selective enhancement for threat-predictive items in the segmentation group—most prominently during early and final learning epochs—whereas continuous encoding produced flatter, less selective memory profiles that failed to fully track changing emotional contingencies. Individual differences in learning dynamics during encoding predicted selective episodic memory at 24hrs, with event segmentation shifting this learning-memory coupling to the most recent threat reversal rather than the earliest one. Overall, event boundaries promoted tighter alignment between episodic memory and emotional relevance at the time of experience. These findings suggest that event segmentation supports adaptive memory prioritization by binding emotional significance to what is most relevant in the moment.
All Mixed Up: A Solution to the Evolutionary Mystery of Humor
David Pinsof
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Human social life is filled with coordination problems: passing each other in a hallway, taking turns talking and listening, differentiating the meanings of "hook up with" and "meet up with," gathering at the same time and place, etc. But what happens when we suffer a mix-up—for instance, we get stuck dancing back and forth in the hallway, or I casually mention that I “hooked up” with your mother last night? Here, I argue that such mix-ups posed a significant adaptive problem for our ancestors, disrupting cooperation, damaging reputations, fomenting needless conflict, and destroying valuable relationships. Natural selection favored three solutions to this adaptive problem: 1) a sense of humor (i.e., the ability to detect, anticipate, and avoid mix-ups), 2) mutual laughter in response to humor (which creates common knowledge of the mix-up and defuses its costs), and 3) joking as a hard-to-fake signal of one’s ability to detect and avoid mix-ups (and thus one’s value as a coordination partner). I present a formal model of these phenomena suggesting that agents with a sense of humor, the ability to laugh at (or mutually signal) the humor they’ve sensed, and a preference for partners with a ‘good sense of humor,’ would have been favored by natural selection under conditions that were plausibly characteristic of human evolution. I use the model to shed light on the nature of wordplay, comic timing, practical jokes, awkwardness, embarrassment, mockery, absurdity, mirth, seriousness, impersonations, slapstick, satire, creepy clowns, and cringe comedy.
The Geometry and Brittleness of Latent Correlations in Confirmatory Factor Analysis
Mahbod Mehrvarz; Jeffrey N. Rouder
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An independent cluster model in confirmatory factor analysis (ICM-CFA) is a factor model in which each variable loads on one and only one of several factors. Accordingly, variables that load on the same factor form a cluster corresponding to a specific construct. Correlations between factors represent latent correlations among these constructs. In this paper, we derive necessary and sufficient conditions on the manifest correlation matrix under which an ICM-CFA model holds. The key is that within- and between-cluster correlation submatrices must *align*, such that within-cluster correlation patterns constrain between-cluster correlations up to a multiplicative constant. This alignment condition imposes a geometric constraint on the manifest correlation matrix. Importantly, it provides a framework for studying how misspecification affects latent correlations. Misspecification can occur in two ways: variables may be assigned *a priori* to the wrong cluster (misassignment), or within-cluster correlation patterns may fail to align with those between clusters (misalignment). Using the alignment condition, we prove that misassignment necessarily leads to inflation of latent correlations. Using simulation, we show that misalignment can also inflate latent correlations. The alignment geometry also provides a new approach to understanding the relationship between ICM-CFA and bifactor models.
Spontaneous but not effortless pro-black evaluations during first-impression evaluations of faces
Julie Grezes; Lucile Bottein; Lou Safra
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Although racist biases create pervasive inequalities and discrimination, some individuals exhibit pro-Black behaviors. These behaviors have been observed in both laboratory and field settings, prompting the need for a deeper understanding of the underlying psychological processes. Various experiments and models have been proposed to explain these counter-stereotypical behaviors, emphasizing their occurrence outside of awareness. However, it is still an open question whether this process requires cognitive control or is implemented without effort. In this paper, we present three studies (total N = 180) on first impressions of competence and threat using highly controlled avatars. Our findings suggest that pro-Black behavior stems from a shift in decision thresholds rather than a change in sensitivity to social cues, which diminishes over time. Thus, our studies provide the first evidence of the effortful nature of pro-minority behavior and the potential recruitment of proactive cognitive control processes.
Sleep hygiene and its relation to sleep in adolescents with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Wout Vandycke; Finja Marten; Lena Keuppens; Dieter Baeyens; Stephen P. Becker; Saskia van der Oord
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Objective: Adolescents with ADHD frequently experience sleep problems which contribute to greater impairment across multiple domains of functioning. Sleep hygiene, practices that can both protect against and worsen sleep problems, may be particularly challenging for adolescents with ADHD. To better understand sleep hygiene practices and their relation to sleep problems in this group, this study compares sleep hygiene across adolescents with ADHD without sleep problems (ADHD-), adolescents with ADHD and co occurring sleep problems (ADHD+), and non ADHD peers (NT), and examines group differences in the associations between sleep hygiene and sleep parameters using objective (actigraphy) and subjective (sleep diaries) assessments. Method: Participants were 153 adolescents (13¬¬–17 years) comprising three groups: ADHD+ (n = 64), ADHD- (n = 25), and NT (n = 64). Groups were compared on multiple sleep hygiene practices using pre-specified path models. Group was explored as a moderator in the relation between sleep hygiene and sleep outcomes. Results: ADHD- exhibited significantly better sleep hygiene than both ADHD+ and NT, with the latter two having comparable sleep hygiene. The ADHD+ group reported significantly fewer weekly hours of exercise than the ADHD- and the NT group. Explorative analysis showed that across groups, better sleep hygiene was positively associated with total sleep time and earlier bedtimes (actigraphy and diary). Associations with sleep onset latency were variable; significant effects emerged for objective weekday measures in ADHD+ only. Some differential associations of sleep hygiene and sleep parameters between groups emerged. Conclusion: Adolescents with ADHD do not consistently demonstrate poorer sleep hygiene than non-ADHD peers. Findings underscore substantial heterogeneity in how sleep hygiene relates to sleep among adolescents with ADHD.
Non-linear estimates of nutritional properties, driven by health biases, lead to systematic errors in caloric food choice
Caroline Candy; Alex Martin; Jason Avery
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Maintaining a daily caloric deficit while dieting underlies most successful weight loss programs. Accurate estimation of caloric content is central to effective dietary regulation, yet most everyday food choices rely on subjective judgments rather than labeled nutritional information. We investigated whether these judgments are systematically biased and how such biases influence caloric decision-making. In Experiment 1, online participants estimated the caloric and macronutrient content of 68 photographed foods. Across nutrients, subjective estimates were better characterized by a logarithmic than a linear function of objective nutritional values, consistent with previous results (Carrington et al., 2024), suggesting Weber– Fechner–like magnitude compression. Additionally, the degree of non-linearity scaled with each nutrient’s association with perceived healthfulness; caloric estimates were most strongly (negatively) correlated with healthfulness judgments. In Experiment 2, participants completed a forced-choice task selecting the higher-calorie item from pairs of foods that differed by ~200 kcal or ~100 kcal. Choice accuracy declined as the average caloric magnitude of food pairs increased, consistent with the magnitude compression model. Critically, errors were disproportionately driven by “health conflict” trials, in which perceived healthfulness opposed actual caloric differences. Participants who relied more heavily on perceived healthfulness were significantly less accurate overall. Together, these findings demonstrate that caloric judgments are shaped by both psychophysical compression and healthfulness heuristics. When caloric discrimination becomes difficult, particularly among calorie-dense foods, individuals substitute health-based impressions for objective magnitude computations, leading to systematic and predictable errors. Such biases may contribute to everyday misestimation of energy intake with cumulative consequences for weight regulation.
respyra: A General-Purpose Respiratory Tracking Toolbox for Interoception Research
Micah Allen
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Interoception research has focused primarily on perception, with comparatively little attention to the control of bodily state. Respiration offers a tractable entry point to this gap, as breathing is continuously sensed yet voluntarily regulated. We present respyra, an open-source Python toolbox for respiratory tracking experiments that integrates PsychoPy with a low-cost wireless respiration belt to enable closed-loop breathing control with real-time visual feedback. Participants track prescribed breathing waveforms while the system synchronously records respiratory output and target dynamics. Respyra implements visuomotor gain perturbations that distort visual feedback while preserving task goals, allowing dissociation of baseline respiratory control from adaptive responses to altered sensorimotor mappings. In a proof-of-concept study, tracking was stable under veridical feedback, systematically disrupted under perturbation, showed trial-level adaptation, and demonstrated good reliability (Spearman–Brown = 0.86). By extending visuomotor learning paradigms to respiration, respyra provides a practical platform for studying respiratory control, sensorimotor adaptation, and embodied regulation. The toolbox is distributed as an open-source Python package with a fully documented API and reproducible example experiments.
Evaluating the Neurotrophic Mechanisms of Hericium erinaceus in Mood Regulation: Emerging Evidence and Translational Barriers
Sepide Emarati; Mohammadali Estahbanati; Ahmadreza Ahmadi
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Background: The limitations of current monoaminergic antidepressants in treating major depressive disorder (MDD) have driven exploratory interest in neurotrophic compounds. Hericium erinaceus (Lion’s Mane), a macrofungus containing cyathane diterpenoids, has demonstrated putative neurogenic properties in preclinical models. Aims: This narrative review critically evaluates the evidence regarding the neurobiological mechanisms of H. erinaceus and its translational viability in clinical mood regulation. Methods: A targeted review of peer-reviewed literature (January 2010–February 2024) evaluated evidence across a hierarchy from in vitro cell cultures to human pilot trials. Inclusion logic prioritized studies utilizing chemically characterized extracts and validated psychiatric instruments. Results: Preclinical murine data suggest that H. erinaceus upregulates nerve growth factor (NGF) and promotes hippocampal neurogenesis. However, clinical translation remains premature. Existing human trials report exploratory improvements in mood scores but are constrained by small sample sizes, lack of robust blinding, and heterogeneous clinical profiles. Furthermore, clinical human pharmacokinetics, long-term safety profiles, and extract standardization remain poorly characterized. Conclusion: H. erinaceus represents a biologically plausible target for investigation. However, clinical recommendations are currently unsubstantiated. Rigorous, large-scale randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are required to establish causal therapeutic efficacy and isolate specific neurotrophic mechanisms from epiphenomenal psychological effects.
How clinical outcomes reshape physician intent: a recursive extension of the Theory of Planned Behaviour using repertory grid technique
Yngve Mikkelsen
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Background: The Theory of Planned Behaviour models behavioural intent as a function of attitude, social norms, and perceived behavioural control. Outcomes are treated as consequences of behaviour rather than inputs to subsequent decisions, leaving the theory unable to account for how prior outcomes reshape future intent. This limitation is particularly salient in physician work, where outcomes are both consequential and recurrent. This study examines whether clinical outcomes influence subsequent physician behavioural intent, identifies the perceived behavioural control facet through which this influence operates, and formalises the resulting recursive structure. Methods: This study combined qualitative evidence with formal modelling. Repertory Grid Technique interviews were conducted with 26 physicians across five clinical specialities at a Norwegian university hospital. Using triadic elicitation, 213 personal constructs were generated from evaluations of clinical cases and classified into 33 inductively derived categories, then mapped to TPB components using normalised variance analysis. Semi-structured interviews explored patterns of outcome attribution. The empirically supported feedback structure was formalised as a recursive extension of the Theory of Planned Behaviour, from which testable dynamic propositions were derived. Results: Constructs related to external perceived behavioural control (resource availability, time, continuity, cooperation, resource utilisation) collectively accounted for 26.3% of all constructs. Internal perceived behavioural control constructs (interpretation, experience, full responsibility, competency level, responsibility, confidence) accounted for 16.4%, yielding an external-to-internal ratio of 1.6:1. In semi-structured interviews, physicians predominantly attributed adverse outcomes to external factors and reported they would do “more of the same” if constraints were removed, indicating intact self-efficacy. From this empirically supported structure, the formal model predicts that asymmetric outcome updating produces a self-reinforcing degradation cycle under resource constraints, with degradation occurring faster than recovery. Conclusions: This study proposes a recursive extension of the Theory of Planned Behaviour, in which outcome feedback primarily operates through external perceived behavioural control under resource-constrained conditions. The framework generates testable predictions about intent dynamics and provides a basis for intervention design that targets perceived system capacity rather than individual confidence. Keywords: Theory of Planned Behaviour, perceived behavioural control, physician behaviour, outcome feedback, repertory grid technique, resource constraints, self-efficacy, learned helplessness
Expertise Shapes the Multidimensional Perception of Stories
Qingzhi Ruby Zeng; Derek Lilienthal; Coraline Rinn Iordan; Aaron Steven White; Elise A. Piazza
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Stories have the power to connect people, evoke memories, and spark imagination. People can appreciate stories on multiple dimensions, but many previous studies have focused narrowly on the evaluation of story creativity, relying on experts’ ratings and high inter-rater reliability, overlooking meaningful differences between ratings across populations and the opportunity to assess other narrative dimensions (e.g., cohesiveness). Moreover, although some quantitative linguistic features are predictive of story creativity ratings, it is unclear how those features drive a broader range of narrative qualities and individual differences in human ratings. Here, we addressed these limitations by examining how expertise shapes ratings of five dimensions of story quality (creativity, imagination, novelty, complexity, cohesiveness) and analyzing how ratings are influenced by four linguistic feature categories (language productivity, lexical predictability, semantic similarity, and content composition). Online storytellers improvised spoken stories, transcripts of which (N=108) were rated by both novices (N=304) and creative writing/storytelling experts (N=15) on the five story dimensions and analyzed using the linguistic feature categories above. Overall, experts and novices provided similar average ratings, and their rating spaces both showed two distinct underlying principal components–essentially, creativity and cohesiveness–which were, in turn, predicted by distinct linguistic features. Notably, experts perceived the five dimensions as more differentiated, and their ratings were less driven by linguistic features than novices’. These findings indicate that experts’ judgments are more nuanced and may rely less on fine-grained structural features of narratives, highlighting the importance of capturing individual differences and multidimensionality in story perception.
A nonpartisan source-grounded AI voter guide is perceived as trustworthy and affects voting intentions
Joseph S. Mernyk; Jonne Kamphorst; Keshav Sivakumar; Adam Bonica; Robb Willer
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Generative AI tools like large language models (LLMs) are increasingly used to find and understand political information, but evidence on neutrality, accuracy, and impacts on voters remains limited. We developed a voter information chatbot grounded in a nonpartisan political information source (Ballotpedia) to answer questions about federal and state-level races in the 2024 U.S. general election. In a preregistered experiment conducted the week before the election, eligible voters in California and Texas (N = 2,474) were randomly assigned to use the chatbot or to consult their usual election information sources. Across party affiliations, participants rated the information from the chatbot as trustworthy, accurate, and unbiased, consistent with text analyses showing chatbot responses closely tracked source content. Additionally, participants assigned to use the chatbot reported higher turnout intentions, warmer affect toward supporters of the opposing party, and modest shifts in candidate vote intentions, including increased intentions to vote for Democratic candidates and, in some races, increased intentions to vote for candidates whose positions aligned with their own. In a national survey of U.S. adults (N = 2,842), 13.9% reported already using AI for voter information and 49.9% reported willingness to use a validated, nonpartisan AI voter guide, while most also reported concerns about accuracy and bias. Together, results suggest that AI voter guides grounded in nonpartisan sources could be widely adopted, can provide information voters perceive as trustworthy, and influence stated voting intentions, highlighting the importance of transparent design and independent evaluation of the accuracy and neutrality.
Dropping things: Probing counterfactual thinking without counterfactual language
David Rose; Siying Zhang; Sophie Elizabeth Colby Bridgers; Hyowon Gweon; Tobias Gerstenberg
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A hallmark of human intelligence is the ability to think about how things could have gone differently. Such counterfactual thinking underlies causal, social, and moral judgments. However, our understanding of how counterfactual thinking develops has been limited in at least two ways. First, many tasks rely on counterfactual language which may be difficult for young children to understand. Second, in most tasks, children can succeed without using genuine counterfactual thinking. We present a novel task that probes genuine counterfactual thinking without using counterfactual language. Data from both children (N = 480) and adults (N = 90) in the U.S. across three versions of the task suggest that genuine counterfactual thinking emerges around five years of age.
The (in)distinguishability of Machiavellianism and psychopathy? Discovering the daily dynamics
Dawid Walczak; Radosław Rogoza; Dan Jones
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We synthesize previous findings and contribute to the redundancy debate on Machiavellianism and psychopathy from a longitudinal perspective, which accounts for the situational nature of Machiavellianism. We recruited 317 participants, who completed state measures of Machiavellianism and psychopathy for 30 days. Using multilevel confirmatory factor analysis we found the two-factor solution to be of better fit, compared to the single-factor model. Next, the connection between factors was weaker at the within-person level as compared to the between-person level. Finally, the pattern of fluctuations, investigated using Dynamic Structural Equation Modelling differentiated both constructs. While we acknowledge the concerns pertaining to Machiavellianism and psychopathy redundancy at the self-reported assessment level, we provide evidence of their distinguishability when their within-person trajectories are considered.
A unifying framework to understand digital autonomy
Georgia Turner; Amy Orben
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Despite ubiquitous concern about human self-control over technology use, there is little scientific consensus on how to define digital autonomy. Here, we propose a conceptualisation of digital autonomy as comprising not just the ability to pursue one’s current goals, but also to have these goals themselves free from manipulation. To motivate this definition, we review theories of digital autonomy across philosophy, human-AI alignment and cognitive psychology. We then integrate these approaches by considering digital behaviour as a hierarchical control system, with theories of autonomy in different disciplines referring to different parts of this system. Finally, we discuss evidence for technology-induced goal change within the hierarchical system. This framework bridges across cognitive disciplines, providing an expanded definition to direct future research.
Sensory competition during working memory strengthens long-term memory
Ian Ballard; Lana Gaspariani; Maytus Piriyajitakonkij; Ioannis Pappas; Anastasia Kiyonaga
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Working memory (WM) continually interacts with the external environment, yet how such interactions shape short- and long-term memory remains unclear. A key factor modulating this influence is the perceptual similarity between external inputs and WM content. Sensory inputs that resemble what we hold in mind could facilitate or interfere with WM content, or simultaneously engage both processes. To adjudicate between these possibilities, we developed a WM task using naturalistic stimuli in which a task- irrelevant distractor appeared during WM maintenance. We systematically varied the similarity of this sensory input to both task-relevant and -irrelevant WM items. To assess how competition between WM and sensory inputs shapes long-term memory (LTM), we later tested memory for stimuli encountered in the WM task. Across two studies, we found that moderate similarity between sensory inputs and behaviorally relevant WM content yielded the best WM performance, whereas dissimilar or highly similar inputs impaired it. These results suggest that perceptually similar inputs can support WM representations up to a point, beyond which interference dominates. Strikingly, stronger interference during WM predicted better long-term memory, indicating that competition between internal and external representations promotes durable encoding. Together, these findings reveal how perceptual overlap between thought and perception shapes both momentary cognition and lasting memory.
Joint Perception Biases Subjective Awareness Reports
Benjy Barnett; Daniel Yon
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Humans are fundamentally social creatures, yet how our social context modulates perceptual decision making remains unknown. In a joint decision making paradigm, we examined whether participants’ subjective awareness reports in a perceptual detection task are influenced by the awareness reports of a computerised partner. Across multiple experiments, we reveal that participants match their awareness reports to those of their partner – irrespective of whether the partner was prone to detecting the stimulus more or less often than themselves. Critically, ‘matched’ awareness reports continued once the social interactions ended, suggesting that this effect outstripped public reports of awareness and penetrated participants’ private cognition. Social and non-social tasks revealed this effect to be a combination of social-specific and domain-general mechanisms. These results point to a mechanism that could enable sociocultural learning to alter awareness – with possible implications for understanding how extraordinary beliefs and visual experiences vary across cultures.
SCEIMA: Social Coordination Evaluation through Integrated Model Analysis
Bavo Van Kerrebroeck; Caroline Palmer; Guillaume Dumas; Alexander Pantelis Demos
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Computational models are increasingly used as interactive partners in studies of human coordination, yet it remains unclear whether observed differences in human behavior reflect properties of the models themselves, changes in human behavior elicited by such artificial partners, or both. We introduce SCEIMA (Social Coordination Evaluation through Integrated Model Analysis), a two-stage framework designed to disentangle human-specific, model-specific, and interaction-driven contributions to coordination in human–machine interaction paradigms. In the empirical stage, human participants perform a coordination task with both human partners and computational models, establishing reference human–human and human–model interaction patterns. In the analytical stage, the same models are paired with one another and optimized through simulations to reproduce empirical coordination metrics. Comparing human–human, human–model, and simulated model–model interactions reveals whether coordination differences arise from intrinsic model dynamics, from human adaptation to artificial partners, or from their interaction. SCEIMA treats computational models as contrastive instruments whose capacity to elicit and reproduce human behavior can be systematically evaluated. We illustrate the framework with two distinct case-studies, a sensorimotor synchronization task and a conversational turn-taking task, showing how distinct outcome patterns diagnose the sources of coordination differences. By providing a principled methodological framework for evaluating interactive computational models, SCEIMA improves interpretability in human–machine interaction research and informs the design of artificial agents that coordinate with humans more naturally and responsively.
Psychological Symptoms and Syndromes in Namibia: Convergence and Divergence with Western Models
Amber Gayle Thalmayer; Daniel Hofmann; Elizabeth N. Shino; Mathilda Maletzky; Christopher James Hopwood
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Objective: Clinical assessment and treatment in Namibia rely on Western constructs. We explore their cross-cultural transferability involving multiple ethnolinguistic groups, and a US-based comparison sample. Method: Nine International Mental Health Assessment scales were tested for cross-group measurement invariance and association with protective and risk factors among three samples in Namibia: Khoekhoe-, Oshiwambo-, and English-speakers (N = 1,912). Results: Depression and Life Stress were metric invariant across all samples. Substance Abuse and Partner-Conflict were invariant within Namibia but varied from the US sample. Post-Traumatic Stress, Sleep Problems, and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity scales were least consistent. Most divergent from other groups was the rural Oshiwambo-language sample. Satisfaction with life, physical health, being older, and higher income and education were protective of mental health generally, and religious engagement against substance abuse. Conclusions: Psychological symptoms include cross-culturally transferable elements but are also shaped by linguistic and cultural factors important to integrate into assessment and treatment.
Neural dynamics of mindfulness training: A longitudinal EEG network analysis of focused attention and open monitoring meditation
Yanli Lin; Marne White; Jihong Zhang; Todd Samuel Braver
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Neural oscillatory activity within the alpha and theta bands have long been considered putative markers of state mindfulness, yet understanding of their functional role has been limited by the challenges of linking objective brain indices with subjective experience. To address this gap, the current study applied longitudinal network analysis to a unique dataset from sixteen novices who completed up to 24 laboratory training sessions of both focused attention (FA) and open monitoring (OM) meditation, during which both EEG and self-report measures of state mindfulness quality were collected. This approach enabled the parsimonious characterization of both cross-lagged temporal (across-session) and contemporaneous (within-session) influences of regional spectral power on state mindfulness. The analysis revealed distinguishable neurophenomenological network structures for each practice, providing data-driven support for their theoretical differentiation. These distinctions emerged alongside shared commonalities to both practices, including strong autoregressive effects for state mindfulness, consistent with training-related skill acquisition, and opposing regional influences of frontal vs. posterior alpha power. Taken together, these findings challenge monolithic interpretations of meditation related EEG activity, advancing a more nuanced neurophenomenological approach wherein the functional significance of neural activity is dynamically situated within the specific type and time course of training.
Laypeople’s and Researchers’ Perspectives on Real-Life Risky Choices: A Comparative Analysis of Overlaps and Discrepancies
Olivia Fischer; Aaron Benjamin Lob; Renato Frey
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To validate novel measurement instruments of people's decision making, the behavioral sciences often assess how frequently people make specific risky choices in real life. Yet, it remains unclear to what degree the risky choices tapped by such frequency measures reflect those choices people actually (have to) make. To address this issue, we compared 100 risky choices representing laypeople's perspective with 63 risky choices representing researchers' perspective. In study 1, we leveraged natural language processing calibrated on human judgments to gauge the similarity between choices of both perspectives and found that they only had 18% of the choices in common. In study 2, we further examined the implications of this mismatch in terms of the psychological mechanisms that the various choices may tap into by asking 825 participants to rate the perceived relevance of seven classes of psychological mechanisms to their decision making in these choices. Bayesian mixed effects models revealed credible differences between the two perspectives in five out of seven classes of mechanisms: For choices representing laypeople's perspective, choice attributes, time factors, experience and knowledge, and goals and motivation were on average perceived as more relevant, and social factors were perceived as less relevant, relative to the choices representing researchers' perspective. These findings suggest that decision-making paradigms calibrated on frequency measures from the researchers' perspective may have limited generalizability to the broad range of risky choices people face in their lives, underscoring the need to better understand the complexity of real-life decision making
Two common practices that minimize evidence of risks associated with the use of social media
Jonathan Haidt; Zachary M Rausch
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Why do researchers analyzing the same datasets reach different conclusions about whether social media use poses risks to adolescent mental health? We argue that two common practices can minimize evidence of harm and lead to a systematic divergence in conclusions. First, many studies emphasize correlation coefficients without evaluating risk elevation, thus obscuring concentrated risk to heavy users. Second, researchers often rely on highly blended analyses that combine exposures (e.g., multiple digital activities), outcomes (e.g., well-being composites), and populations (e.g., girls with boys). Such blending can dilute the core issue in the public health debate—the association between heavy social media use and internalizing symptoms in adolescent girls. We illustrate how sequential blending can transform a clinically relevant association into a negligible one, which helps explain the persistent disagreement in the literature. We conclude by highlighting two further limitations in the literature: limited platform-specific measurement and the undercounting of harms beyond internalizing outcomes.
Arithmetic deficits in Parkinson’s Disease? – A Registered Report
Hannah Loenneker; Inga Liepelt-Scarfone; Klaus Willmes; Hans-Christoph Nuerk; Christina Artemenko
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Elderly people and patients with neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s Disease (PD) immensely rely on arithmetic skills to lead an independent life. Activities such as medication management, financial transactions or using public transport require intact abilities to manipulate numbers with different arithmetic operations. However, research on cognitive deficits in PD has been focussing on domain-general functions such as executive functions, attention or working memory so far – largely neglecting potential domain-specific aspects of numerical cognition (e.g., carry or problem size effect). These aspects should be addressed, as PD-immanent deterioration of domain-specific numerical areas and domain-general functions suggests mechanisms of both primary and secondary (mediated by other cognitive deficits) arithmetic deficits, respectively. The current study systematically investigated arithmetic performance and effects in PD patients differing in cognitive impairment for the first time, targeting domain-specific cognitive representations of arithmetic as well as the influence of domain-general factors. Besides healthy controls (HC), PD patients with normal cognition (PD-NC) and PD patients with mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI) were compared in arithmetic performance in the four basic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division). The deficits consisted of problems in two-digit addition and subtraction and PD-MCI, as well as delayed arithmetic fact retrieval for single-digit multiplication and division in PD-NC and PD-MCI. Deficits were not domain-specific, as arithmetic effects (problem size, carry, and borrow effects) did not differ between the groups. Discriminant analyses showed that performance in addition, multiplication and division tasks could differentiate between PD-NC and PD-MCI. The study results help us to understand the underlying mechanisms of arithmetic deficits faced by PD patients in daily life.
Competition, concurrence, and cooperation between external and internal attention
Sam Verschooren; Tobias Egner; Mariam Aly
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Attention can be selectively directed to both external sensory inputs and internally generated representations. The relationship between these external and internal attentional states is not fixed but varies between competition, concurrence, and cooperation. However, the conditions that allow for each of these relationships to occur remain poorly understood. We distinguish between the level of brain states and behavior and synthesize evidence for each of these relationships at both levels. Our review shows that shared, capacity-limited mechanisms and opposing computational modes (e.g., encoding vs. retrieval) often produce competitive dynamics, particularly in the presence of simultaneous and incompatible demands. At the same time, several studies have revealed partially independent substrates that permit concurrent selection of internal and external information, especially when controlled, intentional processing is not required. More recently, researcher have started exploring conditions under which external and internal can support or facilitate each other, enabling cooperative integration in the service of a single goal. We argue that task demands, degree of control, representational overlap, and the considered timescale jointly determine whether external and internal attention compete, co-occur, or cooperate, and we outline key directions for future work aimed at a more nuanced understanding of how these states jointly shape cognition.
How Do Expectations Shape Actions? Integrating Motor Control, Decision Making, and Clinical Neuroscience
Benjamin Straube
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Expectations do not merely shape perception—they fundamentally structure how actions are selected, prepared, executed, and updated. Across motor control, decision making, and clinical neuroscience, converging evidence suggests that behaviour is guided by hierarchical predictions about sensory consequences, action–outcome contingencies, value, and controllability. This review integrates predictive processing, reinforcement learning, and active inference accounts to propose a stage-based framework—the Expectations Shape Action (ExSA) model—that links generalised expectations and context-specific expectations to motivation, attention, motor preparation, monitoring, and belief updating. We argue that expectations operate as precision-weighted constraints on action policies, influencing both behavioural vigour and flexibility across timescales. Distinct disturbances in expectation formation, precision control, or updating may produce similar behavioural phenotypes, including avoidance, compulsivity, psychomotor slowing, or impaired agency. By organising empirical findings across computational, neural, and clinical levels, the ExSA framework provides a mechanistic account of how predictive control governs adaptive action and how its disruption contributes to psychopathology. This synthesis highlights expectations as actionable computational targets for experimental manipulation and therapeutic intervention.
From Temperament to Regulation: The Role of Cognitive Control and Flexibility in Emotion Regulation
Sarah Struyf; Rudi De Raedt; Ernst H. W. Koster
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Emotion regulation (ER) is shaped by both temperament traits and cognitive-affective mechanisms. The aim of this study was to investigate how broad and specific dimensions of temperament relate to adaptive and maladaptive ER strategies, and to what extent these associations are mediated by cognitive control over emotions and appraisal/coping flexibility. A large community adult sample (N = 1508; predominantly Western European; collected in 2023) completed self-report measures of temperament, cognitive control, flexibility, and ER. Structural equation modeling compared a broad-factor model (Positive Emotionality [PE], Negative Emotionality [NE], and Effortful Control [EC]) with a more detailed subscale model. Higher PE and EC were associated with more adaptive ER at the total-effect level, primarily through indirect pathways via cognitive control and flexibility. NE showed associations with maladaptive ER, both directly and indirectly through reduced cognitive control. Cognitive control over emotions was consistently linked to greater adaptive and lower maladaptive strategy use, whereas appraisal/coping flexibility was associated with broader strategy engagement. At the subcomponent level, negative perseveration emerged as the strongest vulnerability factor, while activation control and positive perseveration were linked to more adaptive ER. The subscale model provided slightly improved fit, though the broad-factor model offered greater parsimony. These findings underscore the value of integrating temperament with cognitive-affective mechanisms and of differentiating between specific temperament components in understanding individual differences in ER. Clinically, they suggest that enhancing cognitive control over emotions in particular may be a key pathway to improving regulation, especially for individuals high in NE.
Beliefs versus Reality: People Overestimate the Actual Dishonesty of Others
Jareef Martuza; Helge Thorbjørnsen; Hallgeir Sjüstad
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Do people believe that others are similarly, more, or less dishonest than they truly are? The accuracy of dishonesty beliefs is not only important for psychological knowledge, but also has implications for organizations and policymaking. In this paper, Study 1 presents a research program on moral decision-making comprising 31 different effects from 11 experiments, where participants could anonymously lie for personal gain. Crucially, participants were also asked to estimate what percentage of other people would lie in the same situation. An internal meta-analysis summarizing all belief-behavior comparisons revealed that people substantially overestimate others' dishonest behavior (g = 0.61; k = 31; N = 8,126), by 13.6 percentage points on average. This effect holds across study contexts and participants’ own behavior, and 63.5% of participants overestimated dishonesty by 5 percentage points or more (only 25.4% underestimated it). We then examined potential consequences of biased dishonesty beliefs in three pre-registered follow-up studies. Study 2 (N = 981) found that providing correct information about actual honesty levels enhanced general prosocial expectations (e.g., trustworthiness, fairness). Study 3 (N = 285) revealed that professional managers have pessimistic beliefs also about people’s real-world dishonesty (e.g., insurance fraud, workplace theft), and moral pessimism predicted greater support for freedom-restrictive countermeasures to reduce dishonesty (e.g., surveillance). Study 4 (N = 741) demonstrated that providing managers with correct information about actual honesty levels causally reduced their support for freedom-restrictive countermeasures. In conclusion, the pessimistic bias in dishonesty beliefs about others is robust, and it shapes prosocial expectations and policy preferences.
How Does Social Media Make Adolescents Lonely? Social Capital and Social Comparison as Heterogeneous Within-Person Mediators
Rebecca Godard; Amber van der Wal; Ine Beyens
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Social media is often blamed for the “epidemic” of loneliness facing today’s adolescents, yet evidence remains mixed. Drawing on the extended active–passive social media use model, the current study tested two potential mechanisms linking social media use to adolescent loneliness—social capital and social comparison. Using a three-week experience-sampling study of 387 adolescents (Nobs = 35,356), we employed dynamic structural equation modelling to conduct longitudinal, within-person, and person-specific mediation analyses. Contrary to theoretical predictions, when adolescents engaged in more active social media use (e.g., messaging) than usual, they reported greater loneliness, and this effect was mediated by lower social capital. Supporting theoretical predictions, when adolescents engaged in more passive social media use (e.g., scrolling) than usual, they reported greater loneliness, and this effect was mediated by greater social comparison. Both indirect effects displayed significant heterogeneity across adolescents, and meaningful effects were concentrated among a subset of adolescents. Exploratory analyses also revealed that indirect effects varied over time within adolescents. Given the prevalence of adolescent loneliness, it is highly concerning that both active and passive social media use may contribute to this pressing issue. The mediating roles of social capital and social comparison suggest avenues for interventions to promote healthy social media use. Finally, between-person and across-time heterogeneity in effects highlights the need to avoid one-size-fits-all conclusions about social media and adolescent loneliness, and to consider individual difference and contextual factors that drive social media effects.
Generative AI Readiness in Teacher Education: A Mixed-Methods Study of Pre-Service Teachers’ Competencies, Strategies, and Support Needs
Phuong Bui; Sini Kontkanen; Linh Nghiem; Tiina Korhonen; Sorella Karme; Satu Piispa-Hakala; Minh Nhat Nguyen; Marjaana Veermans
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As Generative AI tools become more embedded in educational practice, teacher education faces urgent questions about readiness, ethical use, and pedagogical integration. This demands both robust measurement tools and deeper understanding of pre-service teachers’ evolving relationships with GenAI technologies. This cross-sectional mixed-methods study, conducted between April 2024 to March 2025, investigated Finnish pre-service teachers’ (PST) GenAI readiness during the early stages of adoption. The study has three aims: (1) to validate the GenAI Readiness instrument by combining data from a previously published pilot study (April - June 2024; N = 56; Bui et al., 2025) and a subsequent data collection (October 2024- March 2025; N = 114), yielding a total sample of N = 170; (2) to examine participants’ experiences, challenges, coping strategies and support needs through thematic analysis of open-ended responses; and (3) to integrate quantitative and qualitative findings using joint displays and meta-inferences, through which qualitative insights helped explain and contextualize quantitative patterns. Findings suggest that GenAI readiness is both a measurable psychological construct and a developmental experience. Usage frequency emerged as the strongest predictor of readiness dimensions; perceived accuracy concerns persisted regardless of users’ confidence or experience level. Most importantly, PSTs demonstrated operational fluency with GenAI tools while showing limited metacognitive and self-regulated learning applications, indicating that hands-on experience alone does not cultivate the critical judgment required for a responsible use of GenAI. These patterns point to a broader reconceptualization of human-AI interaction in education: GenAI is increasingly positioned as a collaborative partner for cognitive exploration rather than an authoritative source, demanding ongoing critical evaluation rather than passive consumption. Implications highlight the need for teacher education programs to move beyond technical and procedural training toward cultivating evaluative judgment, structured verification practices, and the capacity to model critical, reflective GenAI engagement for students.
Revisiting Gino, Ayal, et al.’s (2009) Contagion and Differentiation in Unethical Behavior: A Registered Conceptual Replication and Extension
Jareef Martuza; Esra Aslan
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Individual behavior is often shaped by observing others’ actions. The seminal Gino, Ayal, et al.'s (2009) study found that individuals behave more dishonestly after witnessing blatant dishonesty by an ingroup member than by an outgroup member. However, because there was no group-irrelevant baseline condition, it remains unclear whether ingroup contagion, outgroup differentiation, or both drives the effect. Furthermore, using natural groups of university students leaves it unclear whether distinct properties of natural groups are necessary, or if mere categorization into arbitrary groups suffices. In this registered report, we tested Gino, Ayal, et al.'s (2009) general hypothesis that exposure to ingroup dishonesty norms increases individual dishonest behavior more than exposure to outgroup dishonesty norms. We conducted a conceptual replication and extension of their Experiment 1 with 3,323 U.S. Americans using both minimal and natural groups. Participants were exposed to standardized information about others' dishonest behavior, where we systematically varied the group identities of dishonest others. Then, they completed an incentivized coin-flip task where participants could double their earnings by lying. Despite manipulation checks suggesting that participants processed norm information and strongly identified with natural groups, the pre-registered ingroup-outgroup hypotheses were not supported. Bayesian analyses provided moderate to strong evidence for null effects across comparisons (BF₀₁ = 3.15-14.71). The core ingroup-versus-outgroup prediction received particularly strong null evidence (BF₀₁ > 14). We conclude that exposure to ingroup versus outgroup dishonesty norms, delivered through descriptive statistics in online settings, might not differentially affect individual dishonest behavior, revealing a boundary condition of the original finding.
Examining Pathways Between Rumination Facets and PTSD Clusters in U.S. Military Veterans: A Directed Acyclic Graph Approach
Miguel A. Segura-Vargas; Kristof Hoorelbeke; Michelle Kelley; Adrian Jorge Bravo
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Objective. Rumination has been linked to maladaptive responses following trauma exposure. Although often treated as a unitary construct, accumulating evidence indicates that rumination comprises multiple facets, each of which may relate differently to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Method. The current exploratory study used Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) modeling (1,000 bootstrapped samples) in a U.S. military veteran sample (N=300) to identify potential pathways between rumination facets (repetitive thoughts, counterfactual thinking, problem-focused thoughts, anticipatory thoughts) and PTSD symptom clusters (re-experiencing, avoidance, negative alterations in cognition and mood, hyperarousal). We examined the robustness of the findings across estimation methods. Results. The averaged DAG revealed two subnetworks, reflecting activation patterns among PTSD symptom clusters and among rumination facets. Within the PTSD subnetwork, avoidance, negative alterations in cognition and mood, and hyperarousal contributed to re-experiencing symptoms. Avoidance and hyperarousal also activated negative alterations in cognition and mood, which emerged as a central bridging hub to rumination facets. This node further activated problem-focused thoughts, cascading into anticipatory thoughts. Robustness analyses indicated potential bidirectionality within each subnetwork. However, the connection between the subnetworks was predominantly characterized by an outgoing influence from PTSD symptom activation toward rumination facets. Conclusions. Although cross-sectional, our findings highlight PTSD-related alterations in cognition and mood as a key driver of rumination in military veterans, a pattern replicated across different estimation methods. These results point to specific pathways through which PTSD symptoms may propagate into ruminative processes. Longitudinal follow-up studies are needed to clarify the temporal dynamics between PTSD symptoms and rumination facets.
The effects on parent-child separation on cognition: a systematic review
Dominic O'Connor; Mica Komarnyckyj; Ryan Shepherd; Olivia Duchouquette; Catherine Kay; Helen Minnis; Rebecca Elliott
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Introduction: Parent-child separation affects millions of children globally, yet its specific cognitive consequences remain inadequately synthesised. This systematic review examined cognitive outcomes following parent-child separation across diverse populations and contexts. Method: Three databases (APA PsycInfo, Embase, Ovid Medline) were systematically searched through March 2025. Studies examining associations between parent-child separation before age 18 and cognitive outcomes were included. Twenty-three studies (14 longitudinal, 9 cross-sectional) met inclusion criteria, spanning multiple countries and separation contexts including parental death, war displacement, adoption, and migration. Results: Twenty of twenty-three studies demonstrated significant cognitive impairments across multiple domains: global cognitive function, memory, inhibition/impulsivity, emotional-social cognition, and intelligence. Effects persisted from childhood through late adulthood. Critical modifying factors included separation timing, parent and child gender, alternative care quality, and cultural context. Two studies suggested potential for cognitive recovery with early intervention, particularly when foster placement occurred before age two. Conclusions: Parent-child separation consistently associates with impaired cognitive development across domains. Findings underscore the importance of early intervention strategies and quality alternative caregiving. Future research should employ dimensional approaches to adversity, prospective longitudinal designs, and account for contextual factors to develop evidence-based interventions for this vulnerable population. Key words: Cognition, separation, adversity, attachment, development
Questionable necessity effects on creativity in the workplace: A comment on Mercier and Lubart (2026)
Kimmo Sorjonen; Bo Melin; Marika Melin
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Mercier and Lubart analyzed data (N = 1384) with necessary condition analysis (NCA) and concluded that creativity self-efficacy and, to a lesser degree, creative process engagement, creative personal identity, openness to experience, and creative personality appeared necessary for creativity in the workplace. However, it has been established that necessity effects in NCA may be spurious due to correlations between the variables. Here, we estimated ranges of spuriousness across 1000 necessity effects estimated in data generated to have the same sample size and correlations between variables as in the data used by Mercier and Lubart. The necessity effects reported by Mercier and Lubart did not fall above these ranges of spuriousness, meaning that the reported effects may have been spurious and the conclusions by Mercier and Lubart premature. It is important for users of NCA to be aware that necessity effects in NCA do not prove necessity any more than correlations prove causality. We recommend researchers using NCA to scrutinize their findings by estimating, as we did here, ranges of spuriousness and to require that necessity effects fall above this range before claiming necessity.
Promoting clothing repair with in-person workshops: A quasi-experimental field study
Anna Bosshard; Linli Zhou; Cameron Brick; Frenk van Harreveld
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Repair can help extend clothing lifecycles. However, this behavior is infrequent in high-income countries, especially among younger adults who often lack practical repair skills. In this quasi-experiment, we tested whether a group workshop could motivate repair and reduce consumption in young adults. Participants were assigned to a skills workshop (n = 62) or a control group (n = 51) who only received a persuasive message about clothing repair. The workshop strongly increased self-efficacy both immediately after the workshop and four weeks later. Although the workshop did not impact environmental attitudes or emotions associated with repair, workshop participants reported moderately higher intentions to repair their clothes and identified more with others who did (but these effects were not durable). The workshop did not increase the number of self-reported repairs nor reduce purchases four weeks later. There was some evidence for lower disposals at follow-up (but the effect was uncertain). A single workshop may thus spark motivation but not materialize in behavior changes four weeks later. This study highlights the importance of hands-on practice for boosting self-efficacy and demonstrates how quasi-experimental designs with follow-up surveys can contribute to understanding the potential of behavioral interventions.
A unifying framework to understand digital autonomy
Georgia Turner; Amy Orben
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Despite ubiquitous concern about human self-control over technology use, there is little scientific consensus on how to define digital autonomy. Here, we propose a conceptualisation of digital autonomy as comprising not just the ability to pursue one’s current goals, but also to have these goals themselves free from manipulation. To motivate this definition, we review theories of digital autonomy across philosophy, human-AI alignment and cognitive psychology. We then integrate these approaches by considering digital behaviour as a hierarchical control system, with theories of autonomy in different disciplines referring to different parts of this system. Finally, we discuss evidence for technology-induced goal change within the hierarchical system. This framework bridges across cognitive disciplines, providing an expanded definition to direct future research.
Living in the afterlife: clues from direct experiencers
Patrizio Tressoldi; Bruno Abbondanza; Juliette Gallo; Mariella Garofano; Laura Liberale; Fernando Sinesio; Jana Stapel
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The aim of this study is to obtain detailed information about the afterlife, and how discarnate entities live there by using for the first time 18 independent sources of information comprising seven selected participants claiming to be able to interview entities living in the afterlife, and eleven books written by different authors who claimed to be able to visit or communicate with entities from this dimension. The information obtained from these 18 sources was analyzed for their content consensus level using three artificial intelligence tools, namely ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude to control their agreement level. Among the main common characteristics related to the afterlife, it emerged that individual consciousness continues after physical death, that the afterlife is a realm of spiritual growth and evolution, consisting of multiple levels, dimensions, or planes of existence, and that it is thoughts and emotions responsive. Differences were noted in the description of individual soul’s appearance, the natural and artificial environment, types of communications, and types of mental activity. These variations may reflect different stages of spiritual evolution or different perspectives given by entities at various levels of understanding as well as representing the limitations of human language in capturing the essence of non-physical existence. Although most of the information obtained by our different sources converge on the general description of the afterlife, and how life proceeds in these realms, they cannot be considered conclusive evidence of the afterlife and its characteristics. However, they can be used as preliminary information for future studies using different sources of information and methods of investigation.
Local coherence effects are task sensitive: Evidence from event-related potentials in German
Pia Schoknecht; Shravan Vasishth
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When the research question targets online measures of sentence processing, offline tasks are sometimes an afterthought in experimental design. The present study shows that offline tasks (acceptability judgments vs. comprehension questions) can modulate online processing. We investigated how the task shapes local coherence effects in German. Previous and present data using the same local coherence design in German was analyzed in a single model and it was found that P600 modulations due to local coherence were task sensitive. Previous work using acceptability judgments found a more positive P600 for a locally coherent condition compared to a control condition. In the present experiment using comprehension questions, the mean estimate of the difference between conditions was reduced to almost zero. The absence of a meaningful processing difficulty due to local coherence under questions is compatible with two opposing interpretations. One interpretation is that comprehension-driven reading enhanced grammar supervision, mostly preventing merely locally coherent parses from being considered. The alternative interpretation is that comprehension-driven reading induced good-enough processing. Good-enough processing might leave syntactic relations underspecified or parsing conflicts unresolved; as a result, the merely locally coherent parse competed less with the global parse, which eliminated the local coherence effect. Overall, our findings demonstrate that offline task demands can shape online syntactic processing.
Flow in mind, flow in fingers: Parallelism in written language production
Jens Roeser; Mark Torrance
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Language production is known to operate on different levels of representation. “Flow” in writing results from parallelism in the coordination of subsequent planning units. In this article we discuss three points arising from Roeser, Conijn et al. (2025): (1) parallel processing results in non-additive effects, (2) study of the production of multisentence texts permits testing of questions around how language production is coordinated in real time, and, more generally, (3) statistical models must closely align with what we know about the cognitive process of what is being studied.
Applying Adaptive Gain Theory to Pupillary Dynamics During Hands-Off L2 Driving Under High Cognitive Load
Courtney Michael Goodridge; Rafael C. Gonçalves; Ali Arabian; Anthony Horrobin; Albert Solernou; Yee Thung Lee; Audrey Bruneau; Jonny Kuo; Michael G. LennÊ; GaÍtan Merlhiot
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Arousal plays a vital role in facilitating the human ability to respond flexibly in a goal-directed manner. Adaptive Gain Theory (AGT) posits that the Locus Coeruleus-Norepinephrine (LC-NE) system is implicated in this regulation and that pupillometry is a non-invasive indicator of LC activity. Most tests of AGT have focused on highly controlled cognitive and perceptual tasks, however it has been proposed that the LC-NE system plays a more general role in regulating the cortical based mechanisms involved in arousal. Transitions of control from intermediate levels of automation to manual driving are a potentially useful testbed for complex processes that are mediated by this neuromodulatory arousal system. To date, pupillometry has focused on the detection of cognitive load in the context of automated and manual driving. Therefore, this driving simulator experiment had two general aims: to establish whether pupillometry during hands-off Level 2 (L2) driving was a reliable and valid indicator of cognitive load, and to test the predictions of AGT in an applied context. The size and reactivity of drivers’ (N = 38) pupils were measured during hands-off L2 driving with and without a cognitive load task, followed by critical and non-critical transitions of control. Analysis revealed that mean, not standard deviation, of pupil diameter was a reliable indicator of cognitive load. Furthermore, partial support for AGT predictions was found; higher baseline pupil diameter was associated with smaller task-evoked pupillary responses (TEPRs), even after correcting for regression to the mean artifacts. Finally, more critical events were associated with larger tonic pupil diameter, indicating that drivers were exerting greater effort to manage the transition. These results indicate that pupillometry is a useful measure of cognitive load as well as an indication of the physiological arousal needed to facilitate cognition during transitions of control. We discuss the need for neuroscientific theories and methodologies in the pursuit of valid and reliable Driver Monitoring Systems (DMS).
Facing emotional vocalizations and instrumental sounds: Sighted and blind individuals spontaneously and selectively activate facial muscles in response to emotional stimuli
Kinga Wołoszyn; Mateusz Hohol; Michal Kuniecki; Piotr Winkielman
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Facial mimicry of visually observed emotional facial actions is a robust phenomenon. Here, we examined whether such facial mimicry extends to auditory emotional stimuli. We also examined if participants’ facial responses differ to sounds that are more strongly associated with congruent facial movements, such as vocal emotional expressions (e.g., laughter, screams), or less associated with movements, such as non-vocal emotional sounds (e.g., happy, scary instrumental sounds). Furthermore, to assess whether facial mimicry of sounds reflects visual-motor or auditory-motor associations, we compared individuals that vary on lifetime visual experience (sighted vs. blind). To measure spontaneous facial responding, we used facial electromyography to record the activity of the corrugator supercilii (frowning) and the zygomaticus major (smiling) muscles. During measurement, participants freely listened to the two types of emotional sounds. Both types of sounds were rated similarly on valence and arousal. Notably, only vocal, but not instrumental, sounds elicited robust congruent and selective facial responses. The facial responses were observed in both sighted and blind participants. However, the muscles’ responses of blind participants showed less differentiation between emotion categories of human vocalizations. Furthermore, the groups differed in the shape of the time courses of the zygomatic activity to human vocalizations. Overall, the study shows that emotion-congruent facial responses occur to non-visual stimuli and are more robust to human vocalizations than instrumental sounds. Furthermore, the amount of life-time visual experience matters little for the occurrence of cross-channel facial mimicry, but it shapes response differentiation.
Challenging Heights: Findings from a Proof-of-Principle Randomized Controlled Trial Testing Interpretation Bias Modification as an Adjunct to Exposure Therapy for Acrophobic Patients
Beray Macit; Annalisa Lipp; Armin Zlomuzica; Harald Engler; Simon Edward Blackwell; Felix WĂźrtz; JĂźrgen Margraf; Marcella Lydia Woud
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Exposure is highly effective for treating acrophobia and there is growing consensus that cognitive mechanisms play an important role in exposure-based therapies. The present randomized controlled trial investigated whether adding a Cognitive Bias Modification - Interpretation (CBM-I) training to a single-session exposure therapy further facilitates cognitive change. The sample included diagnosed acrophobia patients (N = 81), all of whom received exposure therapy. One day later they were randomized to receive either CBM-I or a sham training. The CBM-I trained patients to interpret and appraise ambiguous, height-related scenarios in a less threatening and adaptive manner, whereas the sham training comprised ambiguous, neutral scenarios. Outcomes included changes in interpretational biases (Encoding Recognition Task, Heights Interpretation Questionnaire, Scrambled Sentences Task), acrophobia-related symptoms (Acrophobia Questionnaire), and behavioral avoidance (Behavioral Approach Test). In intention-to-treat analyses patients receiving CBM-I showed a greater reduction in interpretational biases post-training compared to the sham condition (primary outcome). However, group differences were not sustained at follow-up, with both groups demonstrating improvements across all outcomes, except for the Scrambled Sentences Task. No significant group differences in reductions in other acrophobia-related cognitions, symptoms, or behavior emerged over time. Exploratory analyses revealed strong associations between the assessed cognitive, behavioral, and subjective outcomes, but neither of these outcomes correlated with the hormonal measures (progesterone, estradiol). To conclude, our findings suggest that while CBM-I can temporarily facilitate cognitive change in the context of exposure, its long-term benefits and downstream effects may require further optimization. Future research should refine CBM-I protocols to maximize its efficacy as a potential adjunct to exposure therapy.
The Perils of Perceived Power: The Dual Threat Model of Antisemitism
Britt Hadar; Nir Halevy; Taya R. Cohen; Evan Apfelbaum; Lauren Chan
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Antisemitism, characterized by prejudice, discrimination, and hostility toward Jews, is marked by two enduring paradoxes. First, although people typically defer to powerholders, perceptions of Jews as powerful are associated with disdain rather than deference among antisemites. Second, antisemitism emerges among individuals with opposing ideological worldviews, those who strongly support societal hierarchies and those who vehemently oppose them. To explain these paradoxes, we introduce the Dual Threat Model of Antisemitism, which highlights the central role of perceived Jewish power in fueling antisemitism. The model posits that perceived Jewish power—defined as perceived control over valuable resources—elicits two distinct types of threat. For proponents of hierarchy, perceived Jewish power threatens in-group dominance, challenging their desire to maintain group superiority. For opponents of hierarchy, perceived Jewish power threatens egalitarian ideals, undermining their vision of a fair and equal society. Evidence from the US, Mexico, Australia, UK, Germany, and Poland lends cross-cultural support to the model. We discuss the implications of the model and the empirical evidence for designing interventions aimed at curbing antisemitism.
Ambivalent Tolman: indirect influence on enactivism of Tolman’s sign-Gestaltism through Merleau-Ponty
Hiroshi Matsui; Kohei Yanagawa
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Tolman, an experimental psychologist renowned for his research on the “cognitive map” and “latent learning” in rats, pursued his career within the tradition of behaviorisms. In the history of psychology, he is positioned as a precursor to cognitivism. This is because the concepts he introduced as intervening variables were later interpreted as having a representational nature. On the other hand, the philosophy of Maurice Merleau-Ponty was also influenced by Tolman's concepts, particularly his theory of sign-Gestalt. Merleau- Ponty’s ideas, especially as developed in The Structure of Behavior, have had a profound impact on the notion of embodiment within enactivism. Enactivism, as a school of thought opposing representationalism, sharply contrasts with cognitivism, which places Tolman at the intersection of two opposing intellectual currents. This paper, thus, reexamines Tolman’s ambivalent nature, exploring how it arose and reassessing his ideas as a precursor not only to cognitivism but also indirectly to enactivism. We argue that Merleau- Ponty inherited Tolman’s concept of sign-Gestalt as having a non-representational nature and utilized it within his relational account of behavior. While Tolman’s own theoretical framework remained ontologically ambiguous, Merleau-Ponty recast his insights into a conception of behavior as a structured, embodied interaction between organism and environment. These reformulated insights subsequently provided a conceptual foundation for enactivist cognitive science, particularly in its emphasis on the co-constitution of perception and action, and the dynamic coupling of agent and environment. By tracing this lineage, we can move beyond the standard narrative and reposition Tolman as an intellectually ambivalent figure whose work served as a hidden source for both cognitivism and enactivism.
AI Psychosis: Mechanisms, Clinical Risks, and Safety Considerations in Generative AI Chatbots
Lotenna Olisaeloka; John-Jose Nunez; Daniel Vigo; Raymond Ng
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As generative AI chatbots become embedded in everyday life, their inherent risks are manifesting in unprecedented ways. Emerging reports describe cases of AI Psychosis in which intensive chatbot use triggers delusional thinking and altered behaviour. This paper proposes a mechanism wherein baseline user vulnerabilities and specific engagement patterns interact with generative AI attributes, such as sycophancy and hallucination, to induce cognitive distortions. Subsequently, it outlines clinical, design, and regulatory strategies that can help mitigate risks.
Is a Random Human Peer Better than a Highly Supportive Chatbot In Reducing Loneliness Over Time?
Ruo-Ning Li; Dunigan Parker Folk; Abhay P Singh; Lyle H Ungar; Elizabeth Warren Dunn
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AI chatbots are increasingly embedded in social life, offering accessible companionship. While brief interactions have been shown to provide immediate benefits, it is unclear whether repeated, daily engagement with chatbots reduces loneliness. In this pre-registered study, we tested the effectiveness of an AI chatbot versus a human peer in reducing loneliness among 296 students in their first semester of university. For two weeks, participants either interacted with a chatbot or a human peer, or simply wrote a brief journal entry (control condition). Although our chatbot “Sam” was designed to offer consistent support rooted in principles from relationship science, the psychological benefits of interacting with this chatbot were smaller in comparison to interacting with a randomly selected first-year university student. The present study provides initial evidence that texting daily with a random human peer may be more effective in alleviating loneliness than texting with a highly supportive chatbot.
The Geometry and Brittleness of Latent Correlations in Confirmatory Factor Analysis
Mahbod Mehrvarz; Jeffrey N. Rouder
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An independent cluster model in confirmatory factor analysis (ICM-CFA) is a factor model in which each variable loads on one and only one of several factors. Accordingly, variables that load on the same factor form a cluster corresponding to a specific construct. Correlations between factors represent latent correlations among these constructs. In this paper, we derive necessary and sufficient conditions on the manifest correlation matrix under which an ICM-CFA model holds. The key is that within- and between-cluster correlation submatrices must *align*, such that within-cluster correlation patterns constrain between-cluster correlations up to a multiplicative constant. This alignment condition imposes a geometric constraint on the manifest correlation matrix. Importantly, it provides a framework for studying how misspecification affects latent correlations. Misspecification can occur in two ways: variables may be assigned *a priori* to the wrong cluster (misassignment), or within-cluster correlation patterns may fail to align with those between clusters (misalignment). Using the alignment condition, we prove that misassignment necessarily leads to inflation of latent correlations. Using simulation, we show that misalignment can also inflate latent correlations. The alignment geometry also provides a new approach to understanding the relationship between ICM-CFA and bifactor models.
Gamblers Against Social Barriers: A Survival Analysis of Chile's Self-Exclusion System
Omar D. Perez; JosĂŠ Rafael Arenas Rojas; Mario Sanclemente Villegas; Steve Sharman
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Voluntary self-exclusion programs (VSEs) are widely used in responsible gambling, but we know little about how gamblers respond to the social constraints built into these programs. We study Chile's centralized self-exclusion system (2019-2025), where each self-excluded gambler nominates a representative who can block revocation. Using survival analysis, we show that revocation risk depends on the gambler-representative relationship: close family representatives are associated with lower revocation hazards, whereas partners and friends are associated with higher hazards. We also find clear evidence of behavioral adaptation to the veto mechanism. Failed revocation attempts strongly predict later success, and are associated with higher revocation risk. Representative replacement becomes more common with repeated cycling through the system, increasing from 6.7% among first-time self-excluders to 49.3% among individuals with multiple revocations. Together, these results show that the representative requirement functions as a meaningful social barrier, but also that gamblers learn to weaken it over time, with direct implications for the design of self-exclusion policies.
Evaluation of the Social Media Minimum Age on Australian Young People: A Study Protocol
Anja Stevic; Y. Anthony Chen; Angela Yuson Lee; Xun Liu; Zacariah Smith-Russack; Kathryn Cairns; Bianca Kahl; Mariesa Nicholas; Bronwyn Carlson; Munmun De Choudhury
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Australia implemented the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024 (Cth; SMMA) on December 10, 2025. This policy represents a world-first social media age-restriction, which requires age-restricted social media platforms to take reasonable steps to prevent Australians under the age of 16 from creating or keeping an account. Preliminary estimates suggest that approximately 1,194,000 young people will be affected by the deactivation of accounts. As the SMMA is enacted, we are collecting data to examine the outcomes for young people, parents, and families. This study protocol paper serves as a summary of the methodological design for the evaluation of the implementation and outcomes of the SMMA, including a) young people’s adherence, and the SMMA’s impact on b) their digital practices, c) their physical, psychological, and social wellbeing, d) their families, and e) community attitudes and dynamics. To evaluate the impact of the SMMA implementation, a mixed-methods approach is being undertaken involving 4,121 young people aged 10 to 16 years and their parents or caregivers. Data collection involves longitudinal parent-child surveys, opt-in passive smartphone tracking, administrative data, qualitative interviews, focus groups and diary studies. Findings from this evaluation will inform national policy oversight and implementation in Australia; contribute empirical evidence to international debates; and inform other countries considering similar age-based regulation of social media. Results will be disseminated through public-facing reports, peer-reviewed publications, and stakeholder engagement activities to support evidence-informed decision-making in digital safety regulation in Australia and internationally.
Psychometric Properties of the Czech Version of the Self-Objectification Beliefs and Behaviors Scale (SOBBS)
Jan PavlĂ­k; Nikol KvardovĂĄ; Petr PalĂ­ĹĄek
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The Self-Objectification Beliefs and Behaviors Scale (SOBBS) was adapted to the Czech context using multiple independent translations and subsequent cognitive interviews. A pilot analysis of a secondary dataset (N = 959) evaluated using Dynamic Fit Indices (DFI) indicated a suboptimal fit for the original structure (χ²(76) = 569.253, CFI = .903, RMSEA = .083, SRMR = .065) and a lack of scalar invariance. Subsequently, data for the main study were collected from a non-random online sample of 548 participants, including 72% women and 27% men, aged 18–75 years (M = 25.8, SD = 10.1). Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) indicated unsatisfactory fit of the original model (χ²(76) = 292.76, CFI = .930, RMSEA = .072, SRMR = .054, BIC = 18321). However, a modified model excluding Item 2 (related to clothing choices) satisfied the dynamic fit criteria (χ²(64) = 210.40, CFI = .948, RMSEA = .065, SRMR = .053, BIC = 16825). These results support SOBBS’ two-factor structure (i.e., body self-monitoring and body as a representation of the Self). The modified SOBBS (13 items) demonstrated high internal consistency (α = .87, ω = .90 for the total scale; α = .87, ω = .87 for body self-monitoring; and α = .83, ω = .83 for body as a representation of the Self), and correlations with body shame and body self-monitoring scales provided evidence for concurrent validity. In contrast to the pilot study, measurement invariance of the modified model in the main study was supported at the level of the scalar model (i.e., with constrained factor loadings and intercepts), allowing for gender-based comparisons. The main analysis revealed a statistically significant but small difference in overall self-objectification between women and men (d = 0.22). An exploratory analysis showed a higher body surveillance in women (d = 0.48), with no significant differences in the body as a self-representation dimension. The results provide evidence supporting the construct validity and reliability of the modified Czech version of the SOBBS. The scale may serve as a useful tool for further research on self-objectification in the Czech context. We conclude with suggestions for future research, mainly wording revisions and clarifications for the conceptual placement of body shame within the Objectification Theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997).
Have you tried switching it off and on again? Mechanisms and therapeutic prospects of resetting homeostatic set points in medicine and neuropsychiatry
Thomas Pollak; Michael Levin; Anjali Bhat; Matt Butler; Rok Berlot; Mark J Edwards
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Many chronic neurological, psychiatric and interface disorders can be understood as conditions where maladaptive homeostatic set points become entrenched, driving pathological states that resist spontaneous resolution. This paper proposes a novel conceptual framework, the therapeutic reset, which unifies diverse interventions that transiently disrupt pathological equilibria, thereby leveraging the intrinsic plasticity of biological systems to facilitate recalibration toward healthier set points. Drawing insights from active inference, dynamical systems theory and nested somatic collective intelligences, we illustrate how treatments such as electroconvulsive therapy, psychedelics, inflammatory perturbations and anaesthetic interventions create brief periods of heightened plasticity. We argue that the reset itself and plasticity more generally do not necessarily incline in the direction of better health and that therapeutic efficacy may depend especially on the quality of contextual elements including preparation, support and post-intervention scaffolding that guides the system towards an adaptive equilibrium. Future research should prioritise mechanistic studies to identify biomarkers of plasticity and delineate intervention-responsive signalling pathways, alongside clinical studies refining precise dosage and anatomical targeting, and identifying therapeutically salient parameters of the scaffolding around high-plasticity states. By strategically harnessing systems’ inherent capacity for correction, this framework offers transformative potential for treating otherwise intractable disorders through proactive, precision-based recalibration of maladaptive homeostatic networks.
Alcohol Reinforcers Attenuate Goal-Directed Control in Individuals with Alcohol Use Disorder and Healthy Controls
Erik Lukas Bode; Milena Philomena Maria Musial; Claudia Ebrahimi; Clarissa Grundmann; Samanda Krasniqi; Miriam Sebold; Tanja Endrass; Florian Schlagenhauf
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Background Impaired control over alcohol consumption is a core feature of alcohol use disorder (AUD), yet its mechanisms remain unclear. Habit theories posit a shift from goal-directed to habitual control with repeated alcohol use, but human evidence is mixed and often lacks translational alignment with animal models. Recent accounts therefore call for paradigms assessing contingency sensitivity with disorder-relevant reinforcers. Methods We adapted a free-operant contingency degradation task to compare goal-directed control when responding for a natural (juice) versus disorder-relevant reinforcer (alcohol). Eighty-one participants were tested, comprising 49 non-treatment-seeking individuals with AUD (31.22 Âą 8.35 years; 28 females) and 32 healthy controls (27.44 Âą 6.71 years; 22 females). We expected reduced goal-directed control in AUD, indexed by weaker response-rate and causality judgment adaption to changed contingencies, particularly for alcohol. Results Contrary to our hypothesis, goal-directed control was preserved in both groups, with behavioral responding and causality judgments remaining contingency-sensitive. Rather than a generalized deficit, a reinforcer-specific attenuation emerged: across groups, behavioral sensitivity was selectively reduced when responding for alcohol. Explicit contingency judgments remained intact and were stronger in individuals with AUD than in healthy controls. Conclusion These findings do not support a generalized deficit in goal-directed control in AUD. Instead, goal-directed control appears selectively attenuated in alcohol-related contexts across diagnostic groups, potentially reflecting reinforcement-history-dependent shifts toward cue-driven responding. Alcohol-specific reductions in goal-directed control may emerge early in alcohol use, underscoring the importance of reinforcer context.
Dialectical Behavior Coaching to Prevent Activist Burnout
Monika Neff Lind; Alexis Adams-Clark
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When political aggression toward immigrants, trans people, and disabled people in the US intensified in January 2025, we struggled with how to help. We called our representatives, donated to progressive efforts, and attended rallies. Those actions were meaningful and rewarding, and we began thinking about how to leverage our clinical training to increase our impact. We determined that adopting a support role for frontline activists was our best option. To maximize our effectiveness, we explored the fit between DBT skills and activist burnout. In this paper, we share our insights and actions.
Asymmetric Moral Metaperceptions: Consequences for Political Polarization and Paths to Correction
Yalda Daryani; Parsa Hejabi; Morteza Dehghani
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Political polarization is fueled not only by what people believe but also by what they think others believe about them. Across four studies, we investigate moral metaperceptions—beliefs about how ideological outgroups evaluate one's moral values—as a novel contributor to intergroup division. In Study 1, we analyze a large corpus of abortion-related tweets and find that pro-life users emphasize binding values when describing their own stance but shift toward individualizing values when discussing pro-choice positions, whereas pro-choice users consistently rely on individualizing values. These framing differences show how moral values structure group self-presentation versus outgroup characterization, motivating our direct tests of metaperceptions in Studies 2–4. In Studies 2 and 3, preregistered experimental studies compare perceptions and metaperceptions of moral values across ideological stances. Results reveal asymmetric inaccuracies: liberals underestimate how much conservatives think liberals uphold binding values, while conservatives overestimate how much liberals think conservatives uphold individualizing values. These metaperceptual distortions predict intergroup trust and perceived threat. In Study 4, participants were randomly assigned to one of three feedback conditions. When shown that the outgroup viewed their moral adherence more positively than expected, both liberals and conservatives reported higher trust and lower perceived threat, with effects strongest among individuals higher in empathy. These findings identify moral metaperceptions as a key psychological mechanism that sustains polarization and highlight their potential as a target for interventions aimed at fostering constructive cross-ideological engagement.
Authoritarianism in Action
Ana P. Gantman; Jordan Wylie; Wil Cunningham; Nicolette Dakin; Connie Pui Yee Chiu; Brendan Michael Fee
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We propose a state-centered, behavioral view of authoritarianism. Authoritarianism is often incompletely understood at the nation-state level, categorizing particular regimes as authoritarian, or at the individual level, as a set of tendencies or worldviews. We reposition behavior—specifically, person-state interaction—as the main unit of analysis, putting the “authority” back into authoritarianism. We argue that only behaviors that use state rules and state punishments to consolidate ruling class power should be considered authoritarian. In doing so, we achieve three main aims. First, we describe authoritarianism as a fundamentally motivational process, in which the state is used as a means to self- or group-serving ends. Second, we identify a set of behaviors that are rightly understood as authoritarian (e.g., punishing dissidents), as well as behaviors that should not be (e.g., interpersonal forms of punishment). Third, we identify previously overlooked behaviors that fit our definition of authoritarianism (e.g., administrative burden). Finally, we call for the exploration of situations where people might prefer state (to interpersonal) punishment, and prefer the enforcement of official rules (over social norms). Crucially, our view stands in sharp contrast to the prevailing understanding of punishment as cooperative, by centering the uniquely oppressive capacity of state power—with its monopoly on legitimate violence and its last word on legality in the courts. In sum, our state-centered behavioral view bridges individual- and regime-level interpretations of authoritarianism, to capture the unique opportunities available to satisfy self- or group-serving ends by use of the modern state.
Asymmetric Racial Homophily but no Gender or Age Effects on Cooperation and Reputation Formation in Public Goods Dilemmas
Waldir M. Sampaio; Ana LuĂ­sa Freitas; Lorenzo Fantazzini Reichter; Gabriel Tadashi M. dos Santos; Paulo Boggio
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Group heterogeneity is often thought to hinder cooperation and public goods provision, but it’s unclear which differences matter most or if all diversity reduces cooperation. This study examines whether two core mechanisms of cooperation—reputation and reciprocity—operate differently in groups with varying gender, race, and age compositions. Across three studies (N = 875) using the Public Goods Game, we independently assessed how group diversity affects reputation and reciprocity in cooperative settings. Contrary to expectations, group composition (heterogeneous vs. homogeneous) did not significantly alter reputation perceptions. While reciprocity differences emerged, they were due to varying leniency towards non-cooperators rather than a clear in-group bias, except in race, where White participants showed greater cooperation with similar cooperative partners over Black ones. Our findings suggest that, while similarity may influence initial group dynamics, its impact on reputation and cooperation wanes over time.
Neurodivergent Expertise in AI-Augmented Knowledge Work: Cognitive Debt, Reflective Scaffolding, and the Redesign Imperative
David Ruttenberg
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Artificial intelligence systems are rapidly embedding in knowledge work environments designed for neurotypical cognitive profiles, creating new barriers for neurodivergent professionals while simultaneously offering transformative accommodation possibilities. This article introduces cognitive debt — accumulated costs to sustained attention, learning transfer, and mental health from AI use patterns that bypass effortful cognitive engagement — and argues that autistic and neurodivergent knowledge workers possess critical expertise for understanding and preventing these dynamics. Recent experimental evidence demonstrates that unrestricted generative AI access significantly impairs learning transfer, the capacity central to expert knowledge work. A threshold transition model predicts that autistic and neurodivergent professionals, navigating narrower sensory tolerance windows and atypical precision-weighting profiles, will exhibit cognitive debt indicators at earlier timepoints than neurotypical colleagues — not as vulnerability but as expertise developed through sustained navigation of mismatched cognitive ecologies. The article reframes neurodivergent knowledge as design specification: AI systems built to support autistic and neurodivergent cognitive flourishing — sensory-aware, pacing-respectful, effort-preserving — advance cognitive sustainability for all workers. Three falsifiable predictions and institutional implications are proposed.
Misogynoir and Black Women’s Relationship Initiation
Jayda Branch; Alia Callum; Sophia Lamb; Fatima Varner; Hannah Camille Williamson
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Black Americans face persistent disparities in romantic relationship outcomes, including lower rates of marriage and higher rates of divorce and nonmarital childbearing. Existing scholarship on this topic has largely explained these patterns by emphasizing the role of systemic racism and discrimination in shaping the life chances of Black men or the functioning of established Black relationships. Comparatively less attention has been paid to how the intersecting oppressions uniquely experienced by Black women – referred to as misogynoir – shape relationship processes, particularly during the earliest stages of relationships. This review reframes relationship initiation as a process of constrained judgment under misogynoir, demonstrating how gendered racism reshapes the meanings, risks, and consequences of early relational behavior for Black women. Drawing on six enduring stereotypes and controlling images of Black womanhood, we examine how misogynoir impacts self-protection, self-presentation, and partner evaluation, thereby offering a more comprehensive account of Black relationships.
Incident cognitive impairment in young and middle-aged adults suffering from obesity: a systematic literature review
Camille Sellier; Marie-Claude Brindisi; LĂŠopold Fezeu; Cecilia Samieri; Valentina A. Andreeva; StĂŠphanie Chambaron
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Objective This systematic review synthesizes longitudinal evidence on the association between obesity and cognitive impairment in adults aged 18 to 64. Methods A comprehensive search of PubMed, PsycINFO, and Web of Science identified prospective studies comparing adults with obesity to those of normal weight, using validated cognitive tests. Results Among a total of 4,871 studies, 4 met the inclusion criteria. Three studies evaluated global cognitive function in middle-aged adults. Two studies reported impairments in individuals with midlife obesity and a more rapid decline in those who were metabolically unhealthy. One study found no association. Long-term obesity was also linked to poorer global cognition in midlife. Executive functions appeared to be impacted by obesity. Research on memory was mixed, as two studies found a negative association with obesity, while two found no association. Methodological weaknesses included imprecise exposure measurements and inadequate adjustment for confounding factors. Conclusions Despite evidence that obesity may increase the risk of cognitive impairment in midlife, evidence from a very limited number of studies is inconsistent, and an independent association remains unconfirmed. Future work should clarify which cognitive domains might be particularly vulnerable to obesity in younger adults, thereby guiding early and targeted interventions. PROSPERO registration: CRD42024573250 Keywords: Adults, Cognitive functions, Cohort studies, Executive functions, Obesity
A general adaptive deadline algorithm for calibrating cognitive task difficulty
Tim Vriens; Margherita Quercioli; fabrizio doricchi; Stefano Lasaponara; Eliana Vassena; Massimo Silvetti
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Effort-based decision-making is a highly studied topic that investigates how agents allocate resources to exert physical or mental effort to overcome task difficulty and obtain a reward. However, designing experiments investigating effort-based decision-making is complex, as the experimenter needs to ensure that all participants experience the same task difficulty, regardless of their prior proficiency in the task. While effective methods for solving this problem have been proposed for physical tasks, participant-specific calibration of task difficulty in a mental effort task remains challenging, above all if the calibration procedure needs to be implemented in a short time window to minimize the overall duration of the experiment. In this manuscript, we propose a novel and computationally lightweight method, named Fast Difficulty Calibration algorithm, that allows for the fast calibration of task difficulty by dynamically adapting the response time limit during trial execution. We test this method on a mental arithmetic task with four difficulty levels, and show that only 20 calibration trials are sufficient to make the subjective task difficulty similar for all the participants.
The role of state social service spending in moderating mental health outcomes of community violence: a spatial meta-analysis
Jordyn R. Ricard; Jennifer Richeson; Mudia Uzzi; Mikayla Barber; Madelynn Huff; Matt Larosa; Natasha Steinert; Arielle Baskin–Sommers
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Community violence is an epidemic in the United States. Studies estimate almost 30% of youth experience community violence, with higher rates in low-income, urban settings. Community violence exposure is consistently linked to adverse mental health outcomes, including post-traumatic stress, internalizing, and externalizing symptoms. In response, nationwide efforts have emphasized increased financial investment in social services as a potential means to mitigate the impact of violence exposure. Yet, gaps remain in understanding whether structural investments (i.e., social service expenditures) moderate mental health outcomes. This study aimed to: (1) provide an updated examination of the associations between community violence exposure and mental health outcomes, and (2) test whether state-level social service expenditures moderated these associations. We conducted a spatial meta-analysis using a three-level random-effects model, linking study data to publicly available Census expenditures data. A total of 155 studies representing 23 states yielded 769 effect sizes. Results indicated a significant small-to-moderate positive association between community violence and mental health (Fisher’s z = 0.22, p < .0001; 95% CI [0.20, 0.24]), with heterogeneity across studies (Q = 9524.4, df = 768, p < .0001). Hospital and veterans’ services spending weakened the positive associations with somatic and post-traumatic stress outcomes. By contrast, employment security and health spending amplified the positive associations with internalizing outcomes. Findings underscore the enduring mental health burden of community violence, the potential role of targeted policy investments, and the need for cross-disciplinary research to clarify how psychological and structural factors impact mental health outcomes among those exposed to community violence.
Attentional Dynamics Reveal Cognitive Motivation and Effort Allocation
Jing-Jing Li; Anne Collins
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How people decide whether to invest cognitive effort in demanding tasks or shift to easier alternatives is central to understanding motivation and cognitive control, yet the latent mechanisms governing these moment-to-moment decisions remain insufficiently understood. Here, we combine a novel parallel-task reinforcement learning and working memory (RLWM) paradigm with a hierarchical hidden Markov model (HMM) to track trial-level cognitive states as participants freely and dynamically allocate attention between simultaneous low-demand and high-demand learning tasks. We show that our model adequately identifies behavior as reflecting one of three latent states: engaged in the low-demand task, engaged in the high-demand task, or disengaged. Across three independent samples (N=269), including a preregistered replication, we demonstrate that: (i) subjective effort predicts model-estimated disengagement, linking perceived cognitive load to attentional lapses; (ii) intrinsic motivation for cognitive challenge (Need for Cognition) predicts voluntary selection of the demanding task; and (iii) switches into higher demand are accompanied by increased policy entropy, revealing that effort investment reflects exploratory information-seeking. Our framework unifies perspectives from cognitive control, working memory, and curiosity-driven exploration, demonstrating that trial-to-trial fluctuations in attention provide a mechanistic window into how subjective effort, intrinsic motivation, and information-seeking jointly shape the dynamic allocation of cognitive resources.
Moved by the lightest touch of meaning: Even minimal significance matters for motivation from childhood
Yilin Liu; Fan Yang
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How essential is a sense of significance, the feeling that our efforts matter beyond the trivial or momentary, for motivation? Four studies (N = 604 4-9-year-old children and 577 adults) show that no amount of significance is too small to matter, even for small actions from early in life. Children and adults strongly preferred artistic activities with minimal significance (i.e., where their work would be saved) over activities with no lasting existence. This preference held for both repetitive and one-time tasks and was specific to creating artwork, not just observing it. Anticipating even minimal significance motivated participants to engage in productive tasks rather than effortless alternatives. In the absence of significance, focusing on enjoying the process partially, but not fully, compensates for motivation. These findings illuminate the scope and sensitivity of significance as a powerful motivational force, offering insights into how to promote motivation in an increasingly fast-paced, transient world.
Rethinking Reciprocity
Sarah Mathew; Robert Boyd
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Reciprocity theory has a hallowed status in evolutionary social sciences because it provides a way to explain cooperation among un- related individuals. Theorists have created a large body of mathematical work based on the iterated prisoner’s dilemma game that explores which strategies are evolutionarily stable in a range of conditions including when there are behavioral errors. However, there is a mismatch between the vigorous pace of theoretical research and the trickle of empirical studies that have tested predictions generated by the theoretical work. Furthermore, findings from the empirical work on dyadic cooperation in humans deviate from theoretical predictions in important ways. We argue that this discrepancy suggests that the standard theoretical framework is poorly suited to account for key features of the real-world cooperation, and suggest possible avenues that the theoretical exploration of reciprocity needs to take to close the gap between theory and real-world cooperation.
Perceptual Calibration in Intersectional Race and Gender Categorization Across Development
Nikita Agarwal; Maia Mast; Stella F. Lourenco
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Black women are often argued to occupy a non-prototypical position within both their racial and gender categories, leading to slower and less accurate categorization—a pattern interpreted as intersectional invisibility, rooted in conceptual beliefs. We propose an alternative perceptual-calibration account in which early intersectional difficulty arises because children’s perceptual gender prototypes are tuned to the statistical properties of faces they most frequently encountered rather than entrenched stereotypes. U.S. children (N = 101, ages 5-10) and adults (N = 47) completed a speeded gender-categorization task with matched Black and White faces controlled for masculinity, femininity, and dominance; a separate adult sample (N = 54) completed the same task using unmatched faces. Children were reliably slower to categorize Black than White women despite high discriminability and minimal response bias, with this asymmetry emerging around age 7.3. Adults showed no intersectional difficulty with matched stimuli but renewed slowdown with unmatched stimuli. This developmental dissociation suggests that intersectional difficulty in perceptual categorization reflects experience-dependent prototype tuning rather than stable conceptual bias.
Cognitive Debt: The Cumulative Cognitive Cost of AI-Augmented Knowledge Work
David Ruttenberg
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AI systems are becoming infrastructural in knowledge work, yet their longitudinal effects on cognition remain poorly understood. This article introduces cognitive debt: the accumulated, delayed costs to attention, learning, and mental health arising from chronic reliance on AI systems that reduce active cognitive engagement. Distinct from momentary cognitive load, cognitive offloading, and automation bias, cognitive debt is inherently temporal — accruing invisibly until individual capacity thresholds are exceeded. Within predictive processing frameworks, it reflects systematic downward adjustment of precision on internal generative models in favor of external AI scaffolding. Three interacting mechanisms — attentional erosion, effort displacement, and affective depletion — are proposed, and neurodivergent knowledge workers are identified as a theoretically critical early-warning population. Three falsifiable predictions anchor the empirical program.
The Role of Alexithymia in Social Learning and Feedback-Driven Social Inferences
Mina Hosseinnezhad; Soroosh Golbabaei; Mohammadreza Bigham; Khatereh Borhani
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Dynamic social interactions and feedback are crucial for understanding others’ emotions, particularly when confronted with contradictory emotional cues. Alexithymia, a condition that co-occurs with many psychiatric disorders, is characterized by impairment in emotional processing. However, computational mechanisms by which it alters social inferences based on feedback cues remain unexplored. To examine this, 60 participants with low and high levels of alexithymia completed an emotional learning task involving contradictory social (verbal and visual) cues to infer targets’ emotions. Computational analyses, including bin-based, reinforcement learning, and drift-diffusion modeling, revealed how alexithymia alters latent parameters that govern value updating and choice. Individuals with high alexithymia demonstrated lower accuracy in learning from social feedback. Drift diffusion analysis revealed a perceptual bias toward the visual cue, higher drift rates in the visual-correct condition, and greater evidence accumulation to infer others' emotions. These findings suggest that individuals with high alexithymia exhibit impaired social learning and difficulty with decision-making in situations with conflicting social information, with computational modeling quantifying the latent processes involved and advancing mechanistic targets for computational psychiatry.
Linking Knowledge and the Readiness for Climate Action: Development and Validation of the Climate Change Knowledge Scale
Hellen Temme; Mattis Geiger; Mirjam A. Jenny; Lena Lehrer; Cornelia Betsch
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Climate change poses an existential threat to humanity, with profound ecological, social, and health consequences. Beyond policy and structural transformations, effective mitigation and adaptation require widespread behavioural change. Knowledge about the causes, impacts, and solutions of climate change is therefore a key target of climate communication. Yet, the empirical role of knowledge in fostering climate action remains unclear, partly due to varying conceptualizations and limited psychometric quality of existing measures. To address these limitations, we developed the 15-item Climate Change Knowledge (CCK) scale using a mixed-methods approach that integrates expert input and psychometric validation. The scale captures three domains: ecological mechanisms, societal impacts, and mitigation/adaptation measures, reflecting content validity grounded in both scientific literature and real-world understanding. Based on a representative German sample (N = 10,377), the CCK scale demonstrated good factorial, convergent, divergent, and criterion validity. It captures climate-specific knowledge that is distinct from general/ environmental knowledge and risk perception, and it explains unique variance in readiness for climate action, particularly individual behaviour, policy acceptance and political participation beyond these constructs. The CCK scale provides a concise, domain-specific and empirically validated instrument for assessing climate-related knowledge. By clarifying construct boundaries and enabling precise tests of how knowledge relates to engagement, it supports theory development and evaluation of climate education and communication initiatives. In doing so, it strengthens the evidence base for policies and interventions that aim to promote climate action.
Self-related core beliefs incrementally predict levels and change in life satisfaction over and above the Big Five
Patrick Mussel; Chiara Alina FĂśrster
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Life satisfaction, although relatively stable, also shows considerable variation over time, and individuals typically seek to enhance their overall levels. In this study, we investigate whether self-related core beliefs can predict levels and change in life satisfaction beyond the Big Five traits, providing evidence regarding its nomological net and regarding determinants of change. We present results from a longitudinal study involving two measurement occasions approximately 13 months apart, utilizing data from the German Personality Panel with 404 young adults (69% female; on average 24 years old). We found that self-related core beliefs explained 18 % of the variance in life satisfaction over demographic variables and the Big Five (p < .001). Significant predictors were being optimistic vs. pessimistic, content, and trusting, accounting for most of the variance previously explained by Big Five traits. Results were largely replicated when controlling for initial levels of life satisfaction, indicating that self-related core beliefs also predict trajectories across time. We conclude that self-related core beliefs provide finer insights, compared to broad personality traits, to understand levels and change in life satisfaction. Given that beliefs can be modified through intervention, they may serve as a valuable starting point for enhancing life satisfaction.
Japanese translation and cultural adaptation of the Personal Attribute Questionnaire and Gender Role Expectation of Pain Questionnaire.
Kei Matsuura; Tomoko Ikeda; Tokiko Hamasaki; Ryota Tokunaga; Mathieu PichĂŠ
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The inclusion of sex and gender in research designs and analyses is essential to allow the generalization of research findings to men, women, and gender diverse individuals. The Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ) provides an assessment of expressivity (femininity) and instrumentality (masculinity), which reflect socially and culturally defined feminine and masculine ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving. The Gender Role Expectation of Pain (GREP) questionnaire was developed to assess gender-related stereotypic attributions about pain sensitivity, pain endurance, and willingness to report pain. The aim of this study is to provide the Japanese translation and cultural adaptation of the PAQ and GREP to facilitate the inclusion of gender and gender variables in future biomedical, psychological and social research conducted in Japanese.
Description as Prescription? A Registered Report on The Effect of Evolutionary Psychology on Biological Essentialism and Rape Attributions
Sofia Persson; Tom Hostler
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[This is a Registered Report Stage 2 second submission, in response to reviewer comments. Changes from the previous version have been highlighted in red] Sexual violence against women and girls is a serious concern, and past research suggests that evolutionary theories have the potential to promote victim-blaming attitudes among laypeople. This registered report investigated whether evolutionary explanations for male aggression increase biological essentialism, and whether this, in turn, impacts attributions about an ‘ambiguous’ rape vignette. This two-part study collected data from 606 demographically representative UK participants. Science outreach videos were used as the experimental manipulation following facts about men’s sexual aggression: an evolutionary explanation presented by David Buss, a sociocultural explanation presented by Jackson Katz, and a control condition (video about nature). Then, participants completed a biological essentialism measure, read a rape vignette, and completed measures of rape attributions. Our results indicated that the evolutionary condition led to higher victim culpability as compared to the social condition, through an increase in biological essentialism. There were no effects of the experimental conditions when compared to the nature video. There were no effects on perpetrator culpability. We conclude that evolutionary psychology can increase victim-blaming attitudes through an increase in the belief that gender roles are natural and immutable, and that this can be understood through the theoretical framework “the cultural scaffolding of rape”.
The frequency and content of gambling advertising during the UEFA Euro 2024 Men’s football tournament: A comparison with previous tournaments
Theodore Piper; Jamie Torrance; Conor Heath; Stephen Sharman; Philip Newall
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Previous research has documented the frequency of gambling adverts during international football tournaments, but it is important to understand how these trends might continue to evolve. We therefore aimed to analyze the frequency and content of TV gambling adverts shown in the UK during the 2024 Men’s UEFA European Football Championship (Euro 2024), and to compare these findings with two previous major men’s tournaments: the 2021 Men’s European Football Championship (Euro 2021) and the 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup (MWC 2022). Twenty-five broadcast matches were recorded, and all commercial-break gambling advertising coded. Coded variables included the gambling operator, advertisement type, advertised product, celebrity endorsement presence, and safer gambling message inclusion. We observed 122 gambling adverts (average 4.9 per-broadcast) from 8 operators. These comprised 79 financial inducements, 37 brand awareness, and 6 ‘safer gambling’ adverts. Sports betting was the predominant gambling product advertised (88.8%), and celebrity endorsements appeared across all advertisement types. Most adverts (74.6%) appeared before the matches began. Comparative analyses showed no significant differences in gambling advertisement frequency per-match between UEFA 2024 and the two previous men’s tournaments (UEFA 2021, MWC 2022). Unlike these two previous men’s tournaments, no odds adverts were observed in this tournament. Although the overall frequency of gambling advertising might have been similar to previous men’s football tournaments, differences in content were observed, revealing the need to continue monitoring gambling advertising for both its frequency and content.
Parental ethnic-racial socialization in Europe: A scoping review
Ymke de Bruijn; Jana Vietze
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Objectives: Children in Europe grow up in societies with high ethnic-racial diversity. It is therefore imperative to understand how they learn about ethnicity and race (ethnic-racial socialization). Knowledge on parental ethnic-racial socialization, however, is very heavily based on U.S. research, and sociohistorical and -political differences limit generalizability. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to create an overview and synthesis of research on parental ethnic-racial socialization in the European context. Methods: A preregistered scoping review was conducted following the PRIMSA-ScR guidelines. Three electronic databases (PsychInfo, ERIC, Web of Science) were searched for papers published up and till 2024. After two rounds of screening, 32 out of 1431 papers were deemed eligible and included for data extraction and synthesis. Results: The findings display an overrepresentation of Northern/Western European countries, families of immigrant or minoritized backgrounds and quantitative research on adolescence. Cultural socialization by families or immigrant or minoritized backgrounds has received the most attention. Qualitative study results furthermore describe how parental ethnic-racial socialization is shaped by developmental timing, reactive and reciprocal processes, intersecting identities, and selective engagement with cultural “others. Conclusions: The findings of this scoping review underscore both the promise and current limitations of research on parental ethnic-racial socialization in Europe. To further this research agenda, we need more systematic inclusion of underrepresented populations, greater investments in qualitative and mixed-methods designs, openness to diverse and self-identified ingroup boundaries and identity meanings, and the development of conceptualizations and measures that reflect Europe’s distinctive sociohistorical trajectories, demographic diversity, and linguistic practices.
The potential of VR interventions in developing psychological preparedness for motherhood
Artem Baratiuk
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The article presents a conceptual model of using virtual reality (VR) interventions to foster psychological readiness for motherhood. Psychological readiness is understood as a dynamic integration of cognitive, affective and behavioral components that is sensitive to individual experience and sociocultural context. Against the background of significant gaps in traditional perinatal education, VR is considered as a medium that combines psychoeducation with emotionally engaging simulations and safe skills training. The paper synthesizes empirical findings on the mechanisms of presence, immersion, embodiment and behavioral simulation, showing how VR scenarios can model childcare, bodily changes, communication with medical staff and partners, and the experience of responsibility for a newborn. Within the proposed three-layer architecture, the technological layer regulates immersion and stimulus dosing, the psychological layer facilitates empathy, self-compassion and tolerance of uncertainty through narratives and guided accompaniment, and the content layer targets birth preparedness, complication readiness and core perinatal anxieties. It is assumed that VR can temporarily reduce state anxiety, open a "learning window" and support the consolidation of more realistic mental models of motherhood, stronger maternal-infant bonding and more confident behavioral patterns. The article outlines the innovative potential, limitations and directions for future randomized studies of VR-based perinatal psychoeducation.
The Relationship Between Trauma Type, Coping Style, and Posttraumatic Symptomatology in Traumatized Adults
Pauline Hartmann; Aleksandra E. Rupietta; Antonia DĂśring; Marcella Lydia Woud
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Objectives: Previous research has shown that interpersonal trauma is associated with higher rates of posttraumatic stress symptoms, with coping responses playing a vital role in individual differences in symptom presentation. The present online study examined differential associations between trauma type, coping styles, and trauma-related symptomatology to deepen understanding of variation in trauma-related symptomatology. Participants: The sample included N = 300 participants who reported a traumatic life event within the past 18 months, assessed with the Life Events Checklist for DSM-5 (LEC-5). Study Method: Events were classified into interpersonal and non-interpersonal trauma. Participants completed retrospective questions assessing posttraumatic coping strategies, current levels of posttraumatic stress symptoms, depression, anxiety, stress, and life satisfaction. Findings: The present study reports secondary analyses. Correlational analyses within both trauma groups revealed positive relationships between avoidant coping and trauma-related symptoms. Group comparisons revealed higher levels of trauma-related symptoms, lower life satisfaction, and greater use of avoidant coping strategies following interpersonal compared to non-interpersonal trauma. Furthermore, avoidant coping predicted posttraumatic stress symptoms within both trauma groups, and trauma type itself significantly predicted symptoms across the entire sample. Finally, exploratory analyses showed that avoidant coping partially mediated the relationship between trauma type and posttraumatic stress symptoms. Conclusions: These findings underscore the important role of avoidant coping in the differential associations between trauma type and trauma-related symptoms. The results highlight potential targets for intervention and prevention efforts, particularly for individuals exposed to interpersonal trauma.
“Is it a friend, or is it a robot?” Early years sector perspectives on GenAI toys designed for young children
Emily J. Goodacre; Jenny Louise Gibson
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The recent rise in Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) has led to a new wave of GenAI products, many of which are toys designed for young children. These toys could raise exciting possibilities for early years education while also posing risks to children. To understand how those working in the early years sector view GenAI toys, we conducted a three-step consultation process: a survey, a series of focus groups, and a workshop. Through descriptive and thematic analyses of both quantitative and qualita-tive data, we detail three key themes arising from our data. First, those working in the early years sector felt fearful of the unknown implications of GenAI toys, particularly when considering children’s privacy and safeguarding. Next, sector representatives felt that while GenAI toys might have a role to play in children’s language and communica-tion, they felt social roles such as friendship would not be appropriate for GenAI toys. Finally, participants were concerned with the accessibility of GenAI toys, worrying that any possible benefits may only reach those who can afford them. Our findings provide a first insight into how the rise in GenAI is impacting the early years sector and show the need for both guidance and regulation to support practitioners in navigating this change.
Evaluating Research Practices in Clinical Psychology with RESQUE: Development of a Clinical Expansion Pack
Jakob Fink-Lamotte; Christoph Heller; Kevin Hilbert; Niklas Jacobs; Anne Gärtner; Felix D. SchÜnbrodt
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Background: The Research Quality Evaluation Scheme for Psychological Research (RESQUE) provides a structured scheme for assessing research quality. Objective: This study aims to assess the reliability and feasibility of RESQUE for evaluating transparency?and reproducibility-related practices within clinical psychology. Method: Fifty-five research articles, contributed by 20 early-career researchers, were evaluated for the presence and quality of Open Data, Open Materials, Preregistration, and Reproducible Code, and Methodological Rigor. Results: RESQUE showed good reliability when scores were aggregated, with excellent agreement for the overall score in Phase 2 (ICC(1,1)=.80). The Open Materials category required refinement. Compared with “top selected papers” from Personality and Social Psychology (PSP), clinical psychology showed higher preregistration availability (but lower preregistration quality), whereas PSP showed higher data and code availability. Conclusion: The findings support RESQUE as useful for research assessment in clinical psychology but indicate the need for field-sensitive refinements—particularly to better capture FAIR/restricted data sharing and to improve currently under-specified categories.
Addressing Heterogeneity with Bayesian Meta-Analytic Mixture Modelling
Maximilian Maier
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Unexplained heterogeneity is a pervasive challenge that undermines the validity of meta-analytic inferences, often even after accounting for plausible moderators. To address this issue, this paper introduces a Bayesian meta-analytic mixture modelling approach that enables data-driven clustering of effect sizes. The resulting mixture components can subsequently be interpreted in light of study characteristics and domain knowledge, providing a principled, data-driven way to understand heterogeneity. To accommodate publication bias, I combine the mixture modelling framework with selection models. The number of mixture components and the presence and type of publication bias can be evaluated using Bayes factors. Two simulation studies validate the method and compare it to existing publication bias correction methods. Results show that wrongly assuming effect sizes follow a single normal distribution can substantially distort inferences from standard publication bias correction methods, which can be addressed by using meta-analytic mixture modelling. To facilitate application in practice, I implemented the methods in the R-package metamix.
The Roles of Academic Beliefs and Value Orientations in Threat Appraisal of Academic Anxiety
Yu Zhang; Zhilin Qu; Xuming Li
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While excessive academic anxiety significantly impairs student learning and well-being, the foundational cognitive antecedents that predict divergent threat appraisals and anxiety responses remain insufficiently theorized. Drawing on Control–Value Theory and the Transactional Model, this study proposes a Belief–Value–Appraisal (BVA) Model, which contends that academic beliefs function as the key predictors of anxiety by shaping students’ value orientations and threat appraisals. To delineate key beliefs most salient to academic anxiety, we conceptualized a framework categorized by belief referents (i.e., the specific targets of students' convictions), covering: (1) academic competition, (2) personal ability, (3) outcome uncertainty, and (4) the structural nature of competence. We empirically tested this framework using path analysis with a sample of 1,391 high school students. The results primarily support the BVA model: zero-sum competitive beliefs are associated with increased anxiety via a cascade of extrinsic value orientations and elevated threat appraisals, whereas beliefs in conformity to natural outcomes serve as protective factors by negatively predicting this maladaptive chain. By articulating the BVA Model, this research illustrates that academic beliefs represent a foundational cognitive antecedent of the appraisal processes that generate academic anxiety. This perspective offers new avenues for educational intervention, emphasizing the cultivation of adaptive academic beliefs in educational practice.
Identity leadership in a context of diverse subgroups: An ethnography of a school facing a slow-moving environmental hazard
Eerika Finell; Henna-Riikka Launonen; Jukka Lipponen; Niklas K Steffens
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Slow-moving environmental hazards create uneven stress and conflicting risk perceptions, which can weaken solidarity. Yet, how leadership and identity can manage such diversity remains unclear. We shed light on this issue through an ethnographic study of identity leadership in a school in Finland with long-standing poor indoor-air quality and health issues. We identified five components (i.e. contents) of shared social identity managed by the principal that acted to support good morale and mutual support in the group. Together these identity contents produced a system of meanings offering a shared social identity to both those whose health was impacted by the stressor and those who were largely unaffected. We conclude that leaders are not only identity entrepreneurs and impresarios who manage and craft shared identities, but they are also ‘conductors of identity’ who play a key role in stabilizing a system formed by different identity contents.
“I’m not concerned with being ‘attractive’”: A qualitative study of positive body image in asexual adults in an allonormative society.
Phaedra Longhurst; Fidan Turk; Lindsay Gillikin; Viren Swami
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Although body image scholars are increasingly centering marginalised communities in their research, individuals who identify as asexual or on the asexual spectrum remain largely invisible in this work. To overturn this, we explored understandings and experiences of positive body image in asexual adults using reflective thematic analysis. One-to-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 asexual adults (five woman-identifying, six man-identifying, four identifying as gender diverse or non-binary; aged 20 to 45 years) from the United Kingdom. Our analyses revealed four themes that illustrate the core characteristics of positive body image in our participants: Appreciating and Respecting the Body; Body Authenticity; Body and Self-Acceptance; and Countering Aesthetic Norms. Our findings suggest that, while some aspects of positive body image in asexual individuals reflect similarities with other communities, the challenges of heteronormativity and allonormativity mean that asexual individuals sometimes rely on unique processes to develop and maintain positive body image. Further research with this marginalised community is necessary to better understand how journeys towards asexual identities can foster more positive body image, and what this may mean for allonormative societies.
Increasing the Disclosure of Information from Suspects in Investigative Interviews Through Brief Training in the Shift-of-Strategy Approach
Lina Nyström; Timothy John Luke; Anders Granhag; Ana Knezevic; Paulina Engmann; Emma Neofotistos; Minna Määttä; Naiara Ferreira Vieira Castello; Bettina Buckbee; Gözde Şiir
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The Shift-of-Strategy (SoS) approach is an interviewing technique aimed at encouraging semi-cooperative suspects to disclose more information during interviews. Its efficacy has been demonstrated in semi-scripted laboratory studies but has yet to be tested in less controlled contexts. Within the current study, we developed and evaluated a 2-hour training module designed to teach novice interviewers to independently apply the SoS approach in mock interviews. Participants (N = 31) were randomly assigned to one of three training conditions: Basic, SoS, or SoS-Delay, and conducted four interviews each with mock suspects (N = 125). Participants assigned to Basic only received foundational interviewing training before conducting their interviews. Participants in the SoS and SoS-Delay conditions received the same foundational training as well as the SoS module, though SoS-Delay participants received the SoS training after completing half of their interviews. We predicted that interviews that were based on SoS training (i.e., all SoS and the latter half of SoS-Delay interviews) would outperform those that were solely based on basic training (all Basic and the former half of SoS-Delay interviews). Interviews based on SoS training involved more frequent use of SoS tactics and obtained more general information from mock suspects than those based on Basic training. However, we observed no significant training-related differences in interviewers’ ability to elicit previously unknown information. However, the use of several SoS tactics was positively associated with eliciting such information. These findings suggest that even brief SoS training improves novice interviewers’ use of tactics and ability to elicit information.
Social Functioning, Loneliness, and Psychosis Phenotype in the General Population: A Network Analysis Perspective
Valentína Cviková; Sára Majsniarová; Jakub Januška; Alexandra Strakova; Silvia Harvanová; Vladimír Ivančík; Natalia Cavojska; Adam Kurilla; Anton Heretik; Michal Hajdúk
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Purpose: Psychotic experiences (PEs) occur across a continuum from subclinical phenomena in the general population to clinical disorders and are consistently associated with impaired social functioning. The present study aimed to investigate the network structure linking PEs, social functioning, and loneliness, and to identify the central mechanisms underlying these associations. Methods: We analyzed data from a representative sample of Slovak adults (N = 1200) who completed validated measures of PEs, loneliness, social functioning, emotional distress, social motivation, and mentalizing. A regularized partial correlation network was estimated using EBICglasso, comprising 17 nodes. Centrality indices and edge weights were used to determine the most influential nodes and connections. Results: The network revealed 40 non-zero edges. Friendship approach, bizarre experiences, social withdrawal, paranoia, and avolition emerged as the most interconnected nodes. Paranoia was strongly associated with loneliness and social withdrawal, while avolition was linked to loneliness and reduced social participation. Negative affect showed associations with loneliness and diminished participation. Social withdrawal linked negative symptoms to diminished social engagement and interpersonal communication. In contrast, hallucinations and grandiosity showed no notable direct associations with social functioning or loneliness. Conclusion: These findings highlight paranoia, social withdrawal, and avolition as central mechanisms connecting PEs with social functioning and loneliness, while social approach motivation may serve as a protective factor. The results support a dimensional model of psychosis and point to early social and motivational targets for intervention.
The DRM illusion in short-term memory: Opposite effects of retention interval on true and false recognition
Guillermo Campoy; MarĂ­a Dolores Linde Melgares de Aguilar; Esteban AndrĂŠs Hidalgo-ErrĂĄez; Miriam Tortajada; Lucia Beatriz Palmero; VĂ­ctor MartĂ­nez-PĂŠrez; Luis Fuentes Melero
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A short-term memory (STM) version of the Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm was employed to investigate how true and false recognition evolved as STM contents were lost over a short time window immediately after initial encoding. Presentations of five-word DRM lists were followed by list-specific recognition tests applied either immediately or after a distractor-filled retention interval of 3, 9, or 27 s. Results showed a decrease in the probability of true recognition and an increase in the probability of false recognition as the retention interval grew longer. Based on the fuzzy-trace theory, we suggest that this pattern emerged from the different durability of item-specific phonological representations, which would play the dual role of supporting true memory and preventing false recognition, and integrative semantic representations, whose overlap with the critical items would give rise to the DRM illusion. As a further contribution, our study helps establish the DRM illusion in STM as a genuine and robust phenomenon by showing that it can be observed even with no delay and no intervening distraction between study and test, and that it occurs when participants are explicitly warned about the presence of semantically related distractors and instructed not to be misled by them.
Bilingual Experience Modulates Brain–Cognition Relationships in Aging: Evidence from the HABS-HD Cohort
Lihua Xia; Didac Vidal Pineiro; Karin Meeker; Richard Henson
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Bilingualism has been proposed to confer advantages in cognitive aging, yet the neural mechanisms underlying any such advantages remain debated. In a pre-registered analysis of cross-sectional and longitudinal data from elders in the HABS-HD cohort, we asked whether bilingualism affects three measures of brain structure (total brain volume, hippocampal volume and white-matter lesions) and/or moderates the relationship between brain structure and two measures of cognition (executive function and episodic memory). Overall, we found no significant differences between bilinguals and monolinguals in their baseline brain structure or subsequent change in brain structure, suggesting that a life of bilingualism does not affect Brain Reserve or Brain Maintenance in old age. However, bilingualism did moderate the baseline relationship between total brain volume and executive function, and between hippocampal volume and episodic memory, such that these cognitive functions were less dependent on these brain measures in bilinguals. This suggests that bilingualism functions as a form of Cognitive Reserve. Further, exploratory analyses showed that the effects of bilingualism on hippocampal volume, and on its relationship with episodic memory, might differ according to clinical dementia status. In summary, our findings suggest that bilingualism is associated with altered brain–cognition relationships, rather than with preservation of brain structure.
Prospective associations between dietary risk factors and depressive symptoms: results from the NutriNet-Brasil cohort
Evelyn Frade; André O. Werneck; Gabriel Durigan Segala; Deborah Ashtree; Felice N Jacka; Adrienne O’ Neil; Rebecca Orr; Maria Laura Louzada; Renata Bertazzi Levy
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Background: Depressive disorders affect over 280 million people worldwide and are a leading cause of disability. The Global Burden of Disease study identified key dietary exposures linked to health outcomes, but dietary exposures are not yet linked to mental disorders in the Global Burden of Disease, which led to the establishment of the Global burden of disease Lifestyle And Mental Disorder Taskforce to investigate diet–mental health associations, including the role of ultra-processed foods Aim: To assess the prospective associations between dietary exposures and the incidence of depressive symptoms among Brazilian adults participating in the NutriNet Brasil Cohort Methods: Data from 18,033 adults free of depression at baseline were analyzed. Dietary intake was assessed using two web-based 24-hour recalls (Nova24h). Exposures included food groups and nutrients defined by the GLAD project. Incident depressive symptoms were identified using the PHQ-9 scale (score ≥9) during a 31-month follow-up. Cox proportional hazard models were applied, and the models were adjusted for potential confounders. Results: During follow-up, 3,590 participants developed depressive symptoms. Higher intakes of fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, nuts and seeds, unprocessed/minimally processed whole plant foods, fiber, and calcium were inversely associated with depressive symptoms (varying from 4% to 8% lower risk). Conversely, higher consumption of processed meats, sugar-sweetened beverages, ultra-processed foods, sodium, and trans fatty acids was associated with an increased risk (varying from 6% to 21% higher risk). Results were consistent across sensitivity analyses. Conclusions: Healthy dietary patterns rich in unprocessed and minimally processed foods and low in ultra-processed products were associated with a lower risk of depressive symptoms. Findings reinforce diet as a modifiable determinant of mental health and support policies promoting unprocessed and minimally processed foods and regulating ultra-processed products.
The Psychology of Trust: Can Conceptualizing Trust as an Attitude Bridge Divergent Traditions and Move Trust Research Forward?
Nicole Methner; Melanie C. Steffens; Susanne BruckmĂźller
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Trust is key to social relations among individuals, groups, and society at large. Yet, the vast body of trust research remains highly fragmented. One example are the apparently opposing conceptualizations of trust as a inner state versus as behavior and surprisingly weak correlations between them. We propose to integrate disparate research traditions by conceptualizing trust as a favorable attitude towards accepting vulnerability towards a trustee—the Trust-as-Attitude Perspective (TAP). By drawing parallels between trust and attitudes, TAP leverages decades of attitude research to systematize core trust phenomena and resolve critical puzzles. For instance, implications from the attitude-behavior-consistency debate can resolve the inconsistent findings between self-reported trust and trust behavior; research on affect, self-perception, and implicit processes reveals often overlooked drivers of trust (behavior) beyond cognitive deliberation.
Validation of the Turkish Version of the YFAS 2.0 and Item-Level Insights for Short-Form Development
Burak kemal Ateş; Meltem Anafarta-Şendağ
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This study presents the first comprehensive Turkish adaptation and psychometric evaluation of the Yale Food Addiction Scale 2.0 (YFAS 2.0). A total of 346 adults completed an online survey including the YFAS 2.0, measures of maladaptive eating, impulsivity, depressive and anxiety symptoms, and social desirability. Translation followed established cross-cultural adaptation procedures, and psychometric analyses examined factorial structure, internal consistency, test–retest reliability, and convergent and discriminant validity. Food addiction (FA) prevalence was 9.3%. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the original unidimensional structure of the 11 diagnostic criteria, with strong factor loadings (.73–.94) and good model fit. Internal consistency (KR-20 = .86) and test–retest reliability (ICC = .70) were adequate. FA symptoms were found correlated with related constructs, including BMI, depressive and anxiety symptoms, emotional and uncontrolled eating, and impulsivity— particularly urgency—demonstrating convergent validity. Weak but significant correlations emerged with cognitive restraint and (lack of) perseverance, whereas no meaningful associations were observed with sensation seeking or social desirability, providing evidence for discriminant validity. Item-level analysis of the short-form item set indicated largely comparable but partially shifted highest-loading items relative to the original mYFAS 2.0 configuration, suggesting possible cultural or linguistic influences on item functioning. Overall, findings indicate that the Turkish YFAS 2.0 is a valid and reliable measure for assessing addictive-like eating in non-clinical adult populations. The scale performs similarly to previously validated international versions and provides a robust instrument for future research on food addiction, emotion-related eating, and associated psychological correlates among Turkish-speaking individuals.
Personality Recognition Models Based on Visual Cues: Exploring the Intrinsic Links between PAD Dynamics and Personality Traits
Wenxi Chen; Liming Wang; Jing Yang; Rui Su; Ruotong Fang; Xing Huang
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Understanding human personality from nonverbal behavior is a longstanding challenge in psychology and artificial intelligence. This study presents a video-based, automated framework for personality recognition that integrates dynamic visual cues with the PAD (Pleasure-Arousal-Dominance) emotional state model. We introduce the Cross-Modal Attention Vision Transformer (CMA-ViT), a dual-stream, multi-task learning model that fuses raw video frames with pre-extracted features, including facial action units, head motion, gaze, and frame-by-frame PAD values. The model captures temporal dynamics in emotional expression, head motion, and gaze patterns to infer the Big Five personality traits. Experiments on the MDPE dataset demonstrate robust performance, with an average classification accuracy of 71.7%, highest for Neuroticism (90.1%) and lowest for Openness (57.4%), suggesting that not all of the personality traits are explicitly expressed in observable behaviors. Gradient-weighted feature importance analysis revealed that PAD emotional features, gaze patterns, and head-related cues are the primary contributors, while facial action units introduced noise in this dataset. Temporal analysis of PAD fluctuations further indicated that indices such as variability, frequency, intensity, and transition rate provide trait-relevant signals, supporting the notion that personality is reflected not only in average states but also in dynamic patterns of emotional change. These findings have methodological and theoretical implications: they highlight the value of integrating multi-dimensional information---such as temporal emotional dynamics, head motion, and gaze---for accurate personality recognition, challenge assumptions about the predictive role of facial actions, and empirically support dynamic models of personality such as Fleeson's Density Distribution Theory. This work provides a novel, interpretable framework for video-based personality computing, advancing both the accuracy and theoretical grounding of automated trait inference.
Field reflections from training Finnish asylum officials
Jenny Skrifvars; Julia Korkman
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Evaluating asylum claims has been described as one of the most challenging forms of decision-making in the modern state. Recent research has highlighted concerns both with how asylum seekers are heard and how their accounts are assessed. Recently, we developed a novel training program in investigative interviewing and legal psychology for asylum officials in Finland. During the training, the officials reported several organizational constraints and everyday challenges that they face in their daily work of interviewing asylum seekers. These concerns can have a considerable negative effect on interview quality and the work-related stress experienced by officials, with potential negative effects on their work. This aspect has largely been unexplored in research until now. In this field reflection, we aim to describe the key challenges that we observed, and which were formulated by the practitioners, discuss them in relation to empirical research and propose recommendations for future research and practice.
SocialPulse: On-Device Detection of Social Interactions in Naturalistic Settings Using Smartwatch Multimodal Sensing
Md. Sabbir Ahmed; Kaitlyn D Petz; Noah J French; Tanvi Lakhtakia; Aayushi N Sangani; Mark Rucker; Xinyu Chen; Bethany Teachman; Laura Barnes
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Social interactions are fundamental to well-being, yet automatically detecting them in daily life—particularly using wearables—remains underexplored. Most existing systems are evaluated in controlled settings, focus primarily on in-person interactions, or rely on restrictive assumptions (e.g., requiring multiple speakers within fixed temporal windows), limiting generalizability to real-world use. We present an on-watch interaction detection system designed to capture diverse interactions in naturalistic settings. A core component is a foreground speech detector trained on a public dataset. Evaluated on over 100,000 labeled foreground speech and background sound instances, the detector achieves a balanced accuracy of 85.51%, outperforming prior work by 5.11%. We evaluated the system in a real-world deployment (N=38), with over 900 hours of total smartwatch wear time. The system detected 1,691 interactions, 77.28% were confirmed via participant self-report, with durations ranging from under one minute to over one hour. Among correct detections, 81.45% were in-person, 15.7% virtual, and 1.85% hybrid. Leveraging participant-labeled data, we further developed a multimodal model achieving a balanced accuracy of 90.36% and a sensitivity of 91.17% on 33,698 labeled 15-second windows. These results demonstrate the feasibility of real-world interaction sensing and open the door to adaptive, context-aware systems responding to users’ dynamic social environments.
Is Neurodiversity-Affirming, Socially-Valid Applied Behaviour Analysis “Unscientific”?
Patrick Dwyer; Rachel Schuck; Kaitlynn MP Baiden; Zachary J Williams; Mian Wang
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Considerable disagreement surrounds the field of applied behaviour analysis (ABA), particularly in relation to autism. Some scholars, practitioners, and advocates – often aligned with the neurodiversity approach – argue ABA can be harmful and must be substantially reformed or even abolished. Others dispute claims of harmfulness and defend various aspects of traditional ABA scholarship and practice. This paper is a conceptual analysis of arguments and evidentiary standards in recent commentaries regarding ABA practices towards autistic individuals. We aim to identify where misunderstandings and mismatched evidentiary expectations may exacerbate polarization and to outline constructive directions for dialogue and research. Defenders of traditional ABA sometimes frame their positions as being largely objective, value-free, and evidence-based, while suggesting that criticisms are inaccurate or unscientific. We suggest the situation is more complex, with subjective biases, misinformation, oversimplifications, and fallacious arguments sometimes being apparent on both “sides.” For example, we argue that defenders of traditional ABA can mischaracterise the neurodiversity approach and key concerns about ABA. Furthermore, we suggest arguments in favour of traditional ABA and against reform efforts can sometimes raise crucial logical, scientific, and evidentiary issues. Moreover, we highlight the importance of emerging research regarding autistic people’s perspectives on the social validity of behavioural intervention. Ultimately, we propose that if researchers and practitioners actively seek to understand and engage with alternative points of view, and critically reflect on their own views to ensure they rest on solid logical and evidentiary foundations, ongoing progress towards more scientifically rigorous, socially-valid, and meaningfully effective intervention will accelerate.
Classifying Child-Directed Speech and Shared Book Reading from LENA: Language-Specific Modeling and Temporal Resolution Effects
Sukhwan Jung; Jun Ho Chai; Ioana Buhnila; Eon-Suk Ko
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Language directed to children predicts early language development, motivating efforts to automate annotation in large-scale naturalistic corpora. Prior validation has focused on Western languages, underexploring typologically distinct systems such as Korean. This study evaluated machine learning–based classification of caregiver–child interactional contexts in daylong Korean recordings, addressing three research objectives: examining the relative performance of cross-linguistic transfer versus language-specific training; evaluating the impact of 1-minute versus 5-minute temporal resolution in training; and exploring the automatic detection of shared book reading (BR), a low-frequency but developmentally important subtype of child-directed speech. The model pretrained on English and Spanish recordings generalize poorly to Korean data, while training the same model architecture on Korean recordings substantially improved performance. This indicates that patterns captured in LENA-derived acoustic and conversational features may not be readily portable across languages without adaptation. Automated detection of shared book reading showed moderate reliability, likely reflecting its sparse distribution in naturalistic data, though classification performance showed strong discriminative ability. These findings support the feasibility of scalable, automated analysis of early language environments in a non-Western context, and highlight the importance of language-specific training for extending automated approaches across diverse linguistic and cultural contexts.
Recovery as a Viability Kernel: A Recursive Framework for Addiction Recovery
Wayne Kepner
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Current frameworks for understanding addiction recovery rely on linear outcome metrics, stage models, or additive resource inventories that inadequately capture what is distinctive about the recovery process. Meanwhile, dynamical systems approaches to addiction, while capturing nonlinearity, are missing what may be recovery’s most defining feature: that the system is continuously rewritten, not only by each recovery attempt but by the passage of time itself. This paper introduces viability theory, a branch of mathematics developed to study constrained dynamical systems, as a formal framework for addiction recovery, and extends it to account for the recursive, self-modifying character of the recovery process. We propose that recovery constitutes a viability kernel (i.e., safe zone): the set of states from which a person can maintain functioning within livable constraints over time, given the choices and strategies available to them. Recovery capital serves as the underlying resource base that determines both the shape of the viable safe zone and the menu of options available to the individual. Three features distinguish this framework from existing models. First, recovery is reconceptualized as a process of recursive self-modification, not a dynamic one. The way the person’s life evolves, the limits of what they can endure, and the choices they can actually make are continuously reshaped both by prior recovery experience and by the temporal evolution of the person’s physiological, social, and structural circumstances, thereby rewriting the viability safe zone itself. Second, the viability boundary (i.e., danger zone) is functionally unknown to the person operating within it, creating a condition of high epistemic uncertainty. Third, boundary violation produces catastrophic collapse rather than gradual degradation, consistent with the phase-transition dynamics observed in relapse. This framework unifies recovery capital theory, dynamical systems approaches to return to use, and the lived phenomenology of recovery under a single formal apparatus, while making explicit that recovery operates by a different principle than the linear and dynamical systems models that precede it.
Higher education predicts global cultural similarity to WEIRD countries
Cindel J. M. White; Michael Muthukrishna
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Behavioral scientists increasingly recruit participants from less-WEIRD societies, but continue to oversample highly educated people, such as university students and online workers. Here we test how representative highly educated individuals are of the world’s cultural diversity. We used the cultural fixation index (CFST) to measure cultural distance between people with high and low education in 95 countries (N=268,992), across beliefs, values, and behaviors assessed by the World Values Survey (2005–2022). We find that more highly educated people are significantly more culturally similar to WEIRD countries, such as the Anglosphere and Western Europe. Contrary to a general account of cultural transmission, education did not predict cultural similarities to other large, culturally and politically influential countries, such as China, Russia, and India. Contrary to modernization theories, income and self-reported subjective status did not show the same pattern of WEIRD cultural similarity. Our results suggest that cross-cultural samples of students or university-educated individuals over-represent cultural values that are typical of WEIRD countries.
A longitudinal, sibling-comparison study of trauma exposure during adolescence and trajectories of externalizing problems through young adulthood.
Sydney Domagala; Chloe Page; Connor McCabe; Daniel E. Gustavson; Michael Stallings; Tamara Wall; christian hopfer; Jarrod M Ellingson
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Childhood maltreatment has been implicated in adulthood externalizing behaviors. However, this relationship could be explained by confounding factors (e.g., externalizing risk factors that co-occur with childhood maltreatment), rather than a direct effect of maltreatment on externalizing behavior. The current study extends this research using a longitudinal sibling study. Specifically, we leveraged the sibling-comparison design, which compares siblings from the same family to each other to examine whether greater maltreatment exposure at baseline (M age = 16.9) is associated with greater increases in externalizing behavior through young adulthood (M age = 29.1). Thus, this approach controls for familial risk factors shared by siblings. Participants included 365 probands and 376 siblings who were followed across three assessment waves. Participants were administered clinical interviews at each wave to assess alcohol use disorder (AUD), illicit substance use disorder (SUD), and antisocial behavior (ASB), and a self-report survey of exposure to physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect. Greater adolescent exposure to neglect and physical abuse were both associated with greater adolescent levels of AUD and ASB. Adolescent physical abuse, but not neglect, was also associated with greater illicit SUD symptoms. Additionally, greater emotional abuse was associated with steeper increases in AUD and illicit SUD symptoms through young adulthood. Importantly, none of these effects were explained by familial confounds. These findings provide strong evidence for adolescent emotional abuse playing a causal role in later AUD/SUD, suggesting that preventing such abuse and mitigating its effects may have downstream effects on reducing AUD/SUD.
Internal and External Forces Shape Human Emotion
Charles Prince; Heath Demaree; Kyle J. LaFollette
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Emotions change through internal momentum and reactions to events. However, the literatures examining these forces have proceeded separately, emphasizing either endogenous regulation such as baseline attraction or exogenous value signals such as reward prediction errors. This separation obscures a convergent account in which both influences jointly shape momentary affect. We address this gap by applying sparse equation discovery (SINDy) to a large happiness dataset from a mobile app gambling task (N = 16,337) and introduce DynAffect-C, a unified model that separates and quantifies endogenous and exogenous influences through inertial dynamics. DynAffect-C recovers known value-signaling effects and, with regulatory baseline-attraction terms, explains substantially more moment-to-moment variation than value-only models. The model reveals nonlinear pull toward baseline affect, alternating mood states in a subset of participants, and a trade-off between stronger internal momentum and transient impacts of external events. We reassess and validate these findings in an extended, laboratory-controlled version of the gambling task (N = 50). DynAffect-C thus integrates two literatures and yields a unified theory and testable equation for affect.
Interoception and Affective Processes: Network-Based Overlap and Relationships with Psychopathology
Emma Herms; Krista Wisner
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Interoception is increasingly recognized as an important factor in mental health, partly due to its central role in affective processes. However, it remains unclear what components are captured by self-reported interoception and whether they overlap with affective processes, like emotional awareness and regulation, hindering interpretation of relationships with psychopathology. The current study addresses this by situating the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness–2 (MAIA-2) relative to established affective measures to clarify its components and relationships with psychopathology. In a community sample (N=658), network analysis investigated whether subscales from the MAIA-2, the Toronto Alexithymia Scale – 20, and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire form cross-measure communities, reflecting divergent components. Structural equation modeling (SEM) further assessed coherence of the communities and associations with dimensional psychopathology (Personality Inventory for DSM-5-Brief Form). Network analyses identified a robust three-community structure: Primary Interoception (noticing body signals), Secondary Interoception (responses to body signals), and Affective Distance (poor awareness and acceptance of affect). SEM supported these as coherent components with unique patterns of relationships with dimensional psychopathology. Secondary Interoception and Affective Distance components were particularly associated with psychopathology. Notably, MAIA-2 subscales participated in all three communities and replicated community-level psychopathology relationships. By clarifying the complex structure of the interoceptive–affective construct space, particularly in relation to the MAIA-2, this work improves interpretation of self-report findings and highlights where interoception aligns with or diverges from affective processes. Furthermore, it provides a foundation for more precise hypotheses, clearer characterization of interoceptive components relevant to psychopathology, and ultimately, better identification of intervention targets.
A Small-World Mind: Towards a General Computational Principle of Social Cognition across Contexts
Junsong Lu; Chujun Lin
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People describe social inferences using hundreds of words. How do people mentally represent these inferences? A long-standing tradition suggests that social inferences are underpinned by a small number of dimensions (e.g., warmth, competence). Another long-standing perspective argues they are more complex and require many dimensions to capture – an idea that has regained support by recent work using naturalistic designs. Motivated by this debate, we propose a network theory explaining how social inferences are mentally structured and generated in response to social information. Specifically, we propose that mental representations of social inferences form a small-world network with two principles: growth – the network expands by adding inference concepts, and preferential attachment – new concepts preferentially connect to well-connected ones. This representation is scalable while remaining cognitively parsimonious. We discuss the plausibility of this account based on existing social, developmental, and neurological findings. Our network theory accounts for classic phenomena—halo effects and psychological dimensions—as emergent network dynamics. Specifically, in small-world networks, nodes (social inferences) are connected with only a few steps from one another, so initial activation in a small set of nodes from constrained stimuli propagates broadly, producing synchronous covariation that mimics halo effects or low-dimensional structures. Dimensionality of activation gradually increases with input complexity. This network account reveals that established psychological phenomena may emerge from computations performed on mental representations in response to specific contextual inputs. By reconciling seemingly contradictory findings, our theory advances understanding of how the mind efficiently organizes vast social knowledge while adapting to environmental complexity.
Overestimating the Social Costs of Political Belief Change
Trevor Spelman; Abdo Elnakouri; Nour Sami Kteily; Eli Finkel
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How do U.S. partisans expect members of their political ingroup to react when they diverge from the typical view of their party on a partisan issue (e.g., a Democrat adopting a more conservative stance on private gun ownership)? How accurate are these expectations, and how do they influence whether people choose to speak up or stay silent? Five main studies and five supplemental studies (N = 4,535) employing diverse research methods—including surveys, behavioral outcomes, live participant interactions, and coded open-ended responses—revealed that partisans consistently overestimate the social sanctions they will face for changing their minds (average weighted effect size (d) of .87). These inflated expectations, which are associated with a greater likelihood of self-censoring dissenting views, may reflect a concern that dissent will signal greater group disloyalty than it actually does. Indeed, a brief intervention prompting individuals to reflect on their past loyalty to the group reduced this concern and was associated with more accurate expectations about ingroup reactions to their dissenting belief change. By examining the social forces that suppress dissent within political groups, this work offers insight into how to reduce conformity pressures and promote more open political discourse.
The Deliberation Taboo
Jake Quilty-Dunn; John W. Krakauer
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Cognitive science is the scientific study of thinking. However, thinking in the colloquial sense of the term is conscious, attentive deliberation, and the vast majority of cognitive science is concerned with automatizable operations such as detecting stimuli, storing and retrieving information, and parsing sentences. This paper argues that cognitive science has lost sight of deliberative thought as a distinctive, core feature of human cognition. We survey areas of the literature that attempt to characterize deliberation and argue that they generally fail for one of two reasons: either they attempt to deflate deliberation by reducing it to cognitive states and processes that admit of automation and thereby fail to capture what is unique about deliberative thought, or they simply restate the non-automatic character of deliberation in other terms (“executive function” or “loading on working memory”) without providing a deeper understanding. We then point to some threads that offer hope for a theory of deliberation, including the potential role of consciousness as a driver of cognitive operations rather than a passive monitor of otherwise-implicit processing.
Attentional Dynamics Reveal Cognitive Motivation and Effort Allocation
Jing-Jing Li; Anne Collins
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How people decide whether to invest cognitive effort in demanding tasks or shift to easier alternatives is central to understanding motivation and cognitive control, yet the latent mechanisms governing these moment-to-moment decisions remain insufficiently understood. Here, we combine a novel parallel-task reinforcement learning and working memory (RLWM) paradigm with a hierarchical hidden Markov model (HMM) to track trial-level cognitive states as participants freely and dynamically allocate attention between simultaneous low-demand and high-demand learning tasks. We show that our model adequately identifies behavior as reflecting one of three latent states: engaged in the low-demand task, engaged in the high-demand task, or disengaged. Across three independent samples (N=269), including a preregistered replication, we demonstrate that: (i) subjective effort predicts model-estimated disengagement, linking perceived cognitive load to attentional lapses; (ii) intrinsic motivation for cognitive challenge (Need for Cognition) predicts voluntary selection of the demanding task; and (iii) switches into higher demand are accompanied by increased policy entropy, revealing that effort investment reflects exploratory information-seeking. Our framework unifies perspectives from cognitive control, working memory, and curiosity-driven exploration, demonstrating that trial-to-trial fluctuations in attention provide a mechanistic window into how subjective effort, intrinsic motivation, and information-seeking jointly shape the dynamic allocation of cognitive resources.
Japanese translation and cultural adaptation of the Personal Attribute Questionnaire and Gender Role Expectation of Pain Questionnaire.
Kei Matsuura; Tomoko Ikeda; Tokiko Hamasaki; Ryota Tokunaga; Mathieu PichĂŠ
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The inclusion of sex and gender in research designs and analyses is essential to allow the generalization of research findings to men, women, and gender diverse individuals. The Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ) provides an assessment of expressivity (femininity) and instrumentality (masculinity), which reflect socially and culturally defined feminine and masculine ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving. The Gender Role Expectation of Pain (GREP) questionnaire was developed to assess gender-related stereotypic attributions about pain sensitivity, pain endurance, and willingness to report pain. The aim of this study is to provide the Japanese translation and cultural adaptation of the PAQ and GREP to facilitate the inclusion of gender and gender variables in future biomedical, psychological and social research conducted in Japanese.
“They’re Eating Our Pets!”: When Disgust and Perceived Cruelty Combine to Heighten Prejudice
Sasha Kimel; Jonas R. Kunst; Fatih Uenal; Viridiana Kim
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Accusations that foreigners are “eating pets” tap into deep fears of impurity and cruelty. Despite the dark history of such moralized disgust and evidence that purity- and harm-based emotions can intensify bias, little experimental work has directly tested how these processes jointly shape prejudice. Across two main-text experiments and one supplemental replication (N = 2,710, U.S.), we tested whether hostility is greatest when cultural outgroups are portrayed as consuming meat that elicits both visceral (purity-related) disgust and moral concern. A pretest confirmed that dog meat evoked the highest moral concern, rat the highest contamination-related appraisals, and cow was neutral, while Study 2 substituted monkey to test generalization. Prejudice and punitive intent were strongest for morally protected animals (dog, monkey), moderate for rat, and lowest for cow. Visceral disgust showed more consistent association with bias, whereas compassion played a more limited role. Invoking disgust and perceived cruelty can become a potent trigger of hostility toward cultural outgroups.
Strategy and structure in Codenames: Comparing human and GPT-4 gameplay
Noah Prescott; Tracey Mills; Jonathan Scott Phillips
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In Codenames, a "spymaster" must solve an open-ended task of generating a one-word clue that will get their teammates--the "guessers"--to select the intended subset of conceptually related words, while avoiding the other unintended words on the board (ChvĂĄtil, 2015). This particular combination of conceptual understanding and strategic coordination with other players makes Codenames a particularly useful target for comparing high-level cognition in human participants and in contemporary LLMs.
Cross-Domain Evaluation and Fine-Tuned Adaptation of iCatcher+ for Korean Infant Gaze Data
Rajalakshmi Madhavan; Jiho Lee; Dongjin Lee; Jae-Hun Jung; Eon-Suk Ko
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This study evaluates the cross-domain generalisability of three iCatcher+ gaze classification models on a dataset of Korean infants. Applying the pretrained models to the Korean dataset resulted in a substantial decline in accuracy across all models. Performance was systematically modulated by developmental mismatch: accuracy declined as the age distribution of the target dataset diverged from that of the training data. In contrast, experiment-level factors such as stimulus type and temporal progression had limited effects. Fine-tuning the Lookit model on Korean data improved target-domain performance, but at the cost of reduced accuracy on the original source dataset, consistent with catastrophic forgetting. Our findings highlight that deep learning-based gaze classifiers remain sensitive to domain shift. Although fine-tuning can partially mitigate performance loss, robust generalisation requires closer alignment between training and deployment contexts.
Building a Corpus to Analyze Stuttering according to a Dynamic Model of Speech Rhythm Production
Sandra Merlo; Luciana Lucente
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This article presents the design and theoretical motivation for the construction of a corpus of stuttered Brazilian Portuguese (BP) speech, to be analyzed within the framework of the Dynamic Model of Speech Rhythm (Barbosa, 2006). Stuttering is a fluency disorder characterized by recurrent disruptions in the temporal organization of speech, such as part-word repetitions, sound prolongations, and blocks. Despite the relevance of temporal aspects for the characterization of stuttering, there is currently no corpus in BP specifically designed to support rhythmic and prosodic analyses of stuttered speech. The proposed corpus aims to fill this gap through the systematic collection, acoustic analysis, and annotation of data from children, adolescents, and adults who stutter, encompassing a wide range of stuttering profiles. These profiles include different stuttering types and degrees of severity, co-occurrence with cluttering, covert stuttering, acquired stuttering, and speech produced before and after behavioral treatment. Within this phonetic model, stuttering is analyzed as part of a continuous rhythmic process rather than as a set of isolated disfluent events, allowing stuttered and non-stuttered intervals to be examined in terms of vowel-to-vowel (V–V) unit duration, rhythmic variability, and the organization of stress groups within a coupled-oscillator framework. The corpus design integrates clinical and acoustic variables, enabling a detailed investigation of how stuttering affects speech rhythm in BP.
Why Conventional Practices in Construct Validation Provide Limited Evidence of Construct Validity
Leon Patrick Wendt; Steffen MĂźller
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The construct validity of psychometric instruments is a foundation of psychological science, ensuring that they measure their intended constructs rather than unintended ones. Yet some conventional construct validation practices produce weak, uninformative evidence and fall short of the strong, risk-bearing tests emphasized by validity theorists. As a result, the available evidence is often insufficient to support meaningful claims about construct validity. To address this issue, we introduce a framework based on Meehl’s logic of hypothesis testing that can be used to evaluate the evidential value (or quality) of construct validation efforts. We define evidential value as the extent to which conducting a test of construct validity can shift confidence in the proposed construct interpretation over plausible alternative interpretations. Using this framework, we identify three conventional practices that contribute to low evidential value in construct validation: (a) treating constructs as conceptual placeholders, (b) overrelying on generic psychometric methods, and (c) performing post hoc revisions to the nomological network (i.e., the Lakatosian defense). This article demonstrates how using these practices allows virtually any psychometric measure to be portrayed as “validated”, while providing only nominal evidence of construct validity. We offer recommendations to guide researchers in achieving construct validation of high evidential value.
When to Quit: Calibration of Voluntary Persistence and Attempted Suicide in Depression
Aliona Tsypes; Joseph T. McGuire; Alexandre Dombrovski
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Background. People in a suicidal crisis feel forced to choose among coping, waiting passively, or attempting suicide. They must continually decide whether to persist in their efforts to cope or quit. One hypothesis is that suicidal behavior reflects a preference for immediate escape over longer-term prospects, but findings from delay discounting studies have been mixed. Importantly, these studies relied on hypothetical choices without real waiting and did not require people to re‑evaluate ongoing actions as events unfolded. We examined (1) quitting vs. re‑engagement after setbacks and (2) calibration of persistence in depression and attempted suicide. Methods. Adults from a mid‑ to late‑life depression cohort (N=277; 87 attempters, 59 ideators, 63 depressed, 68 controls) completed the Willingness‑to‑Wait task, in which brief persistence (~3 s) maximized reward, whereas longer waits were counterproductive. Immediate quitting was modeled with multilevel logistic regression; quitting latency with Cox mixed‑effects models. Exploratory analyses examined attempt lethality and age of first attempt. Sensitivity analyses accounted for impulsivity, cognition, and personality. Results. Suicide attempters were more prone to quit immediately after a prior-trial failure than other groups. Once a wait began, attempters and depressed non-suicidal participants over-persisted relative to controls. Earlier age of first attempt, but not attempt lethality, was linked with stronger loss-triggered quitting and overpersistence. Findings were robust to confounds. Conclusions. Depression was associated with maladaptive overpersistence, whereas suicide attempts were additionally predicted by loss-triggered disengagement. Behavioral intervention targets aimed at improving re-engagement after failures may help people problem-solve more effectively in a suicidal crisis.
Applications of Emerging Digital Technologies to Address Health Needs of People with Intellectual Disability: A Scoping Review of the Past Decade
Stefan C. Michalski; Tobias Loetscher; Rachael Cvejic; Julian N Trollor
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Background: People with intellectual disability experience higher rates of multi-morbidity, preventable deaths, and barriers to healthcare access compared to the general population. Emerging digital technologies have been identified as potential tools to address these healthcare disparities, but evidence examining their application, effectiveness, and feasibility for people with intellectual disability remains fragmented across multiple disciplines. Objective: To examine applications of emerging digital technologies for health outcomes in people with intellectual disability and evaluate evidence for their effectiveness and feasibility across health domains. Design: Scoping review conducted following Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines. Method: Systematic searches were conducted across PsycINFO, PubMed, and IEEE Xplore databases in June 2025. Studies were included if they reported on emerging digital technologies (excluding telehealth) used to support health outcomes for people with intellectual disability, presented quantitative or qualitative data, and were published from 2015-2025. Results: Thirty-six studies were included, spanning seven health domains. Physical activity and motor skills were the most frequently addressed domains, whilst healthcare access and mental health remained underexplored. Technologies included gaming consoles, head-mounted displays, mobile applications, and augmented and mixed reality technology. Most interventions reported improvements on primary outcome measures including physical fitness, balance, anxiety reduction, and skill acquisition. Minor adverse effects including motion sickness and equipment discomfort were noted in some studies. Most interventions required continuous support during use and were delivered in institutional settings rather than home or community contexts. Only eight studies involved people with intellectual disability in intervention development. Conclusion: Emerging digital technologies demonstrate feasibility and safety for people with intellectual disability across multiple health domains. Research to date has focused on physical health applications using readily available consumer technologies. Future research should expand to healthcare access and mental health interventions, involve people with intellectual disability as partners in co-design processes, and demonstrate pathways to independent use in home and community settings to address documented health disparities.
Psychometric evaluation of ecological momentary assessment items for mood in a non-clinical sample
Judith Rohde; Stephanie Homan; Marta Anna Marciniak; Steffi Weidt; Erich Seifritz; Stephan T. Egger
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Background. Smartphone-based Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) enables the real-time measurement of emotional states in daily life, reducing recall bias and capturing clinically meaningful fluctuations. However, evidence regarding the reliability and validity of EMA measures remains limited, and validated instruments are scarce, highlighting the need for EMA-specific psychometric evaluation. Objective. To assess the reliability, validity, and structural characteristics of a brief 11-item smartphone-based EMA of mood in a non-clinical sample. Methods. We used data from a randomized controlled trial evaluating a one-week digital self-efficacy training in 93 stressed Swiss university students. Baseline psychometric assessments included the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI II), the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE), the State and Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). The EMA assessment included moods such as cheerful, irritated, anxious, happy, insecure, lonely, relaxed, sad, thoughtful, focused, and stressed. Analyses included descriptive statistics, internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha), and external validity (correlations between baseline questionnaires and participant-level aggregated EMA ratings from the first 24 hours). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and network analyses assessed the structure. Results. We considered the data of all 93 participants for the analysis. Participants (78.5% female) were on average 23.27 years of age (SD = 3.49). EMA items showed normal distribution, good internal consistency (α = 0.88), and low correlations (0.19-0.39) with the BDI II, the PANAS (positive affect subscale), and the GSE. Moderate correlations (0.40–0.48) were found with the PANAS negative affect subscale, the STAI, and the PSS. An exploratory factor analysis indicated two or three factors, while network analysis revealed positive and negative affect communities. Confirmatory analysis supported the network model as best fit (CFI = 0.99; TLI = 0.99; RMSEA = 0.01). Conclusion. Smartphone-based EMA of mood item set showed strong psychometric properties and distinguished positive from negative affect as well as depressive from anxious factors, supporting its use as a scalable tool for monitoring transient mood states in non-clinical samples.
Self-Critical Biases in Meta-Perceptions Distort How People Approach Potential Friends
Caimiao Liu; Adrienne Wood
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Americans today report fewer friendships than ever before despite many opportunities for social connection. What prevents people from leveraging these opportunities? Prior work documents a “liking gap,” whereby people underestimate how positively others evaluate them, but this research has focused largely on first encounters with strangers. It remains unclear whether similar biases persist when people consider reaching out to potential friends and what their consequences are. Across four preregistered studies (N = 1,211) with college and community samples, we consistently show that people believe others will judge their invitation attempts more harshly (meta-perception) than they judge others extending identical invitations (other-perception). Notably, we identified a novel three-dimensional structure underlying these perceptions: positive attributes (e.g., friendly, warm) operate as relative, comparison-based biases, whereas negative attributes function as absolute biases comprising two subdimensions—hesitant-negative (e.g., anxious, socially awkward) and assertive-negative (e.g., desperate, creepy). These biased meta-perceptions were stable individual differences, though the magnitude of bias decreased with age. Lastly, people’s meta- and other-perceptions of friendship initiation differentially predicted both short-term social judgments, such as likelihood of initiation and acceptance, and real-world outcomes, such as proactiveness in recent friendships and social network size. Together, these findings challenge the assumption of a unidimensional negative self-bias and demonstrate that biased meta-perceptions in friendship initiation reflect a broader socio-cognitive construal style with important implications for relationship formation across the lifespan.
Hardship and Obesity: A Cross-Sectional Ecological Analysis in Chicagoland Adults
Eddie Silber; Caitlyn Zon
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Obesity remains a major public health concern in the United States, with disproportionately high prevalence in low socioeconomic status communities. Chicago communities experience elevated rates of both economic hardship and obesity. The present study used a cross-sectional ecological design to examine the relationship between socioeconomic hardship and adult obesity rates in Chicago, and evaluated physical inactivity as a mediator. Using publicly available data from the Chicago Health Atlas, analyses were conducted across 75 Chicago community areas (N = 75). Community-level hardship was operationalized using the Chicago Hardship Index, obesity was measured as the percentage of adults with a body mass index of 30 or greater, and physical inactivity was defined as the percentage of adults reporting no physical activity in the past month. Bivariate correlations and a mediation model were tested using Hayes’ PROCESS Macro. Results indicated that hardship was positively associated with obesity and physical inactivity. Physical inactivity significantly mediated the relationship between hardship and obesity, accounting for a substantial proportion of the association while retaining a significant direct effect. Correlational analyses revealed higher obesity rates amongst Black residents and females. Findings suggest that unmet basic needs in economically disadvantaged communities may impede engagement in health-promoting behaviors such as physical activity. These results highlight the importance of addressing structural and environmental barriers to physical activity when designing obesity prevention strategies. Policy and community-level interventions that target economic hardship and promote accessible opportunities for physical activity may be critical for reducing obesity-related health disparities in urban populations.
Future Directions in Racial Trauma Research Among Ethnoracially Minoritized Youth
​Chardée CA Galán; Donte Bernard
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Racial discrimination is one of the most disruptive and psychologically damaging experiences that ethnoracially minoritized youth encounter. Research resoundly indicates that such discriminatory experiences can evoke trauma-like responses that can endure across development. However, literature documenting the traumatic implications of racial discrimination among youth remains limited by significant gaps that constrain understanding of the developmental significance and impact of this association. To this end, the current article aims to provide perspectives on avenues of future research needed to address these gaps and advance the developmental science of racial trauma. We first review recent developments and innovations that clarify the connection between racial discrimination and traumatic stress symptoms. We then provide six recommendations spanning conceptual and methodological domains that can guide the next generation of research. By highlighting these directions, we aim to support the development of a more robust evidence base needed to accurately conceptualize, assess, and intervene on the traumatic impact of racism-related experiences among ethnoracially minoritized youth.
The Reading Brain from Womb to Classroom: Typical and Atypical Development and Implications for a Preventative Education Model
Nadine Gaab; Ted Turesky
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Learning to read is a process and milestone with far‑reaching implications for education, vocation, and health. Most models and empirical studies of reading development, however, focus on school entry and often limit potential influences to children’s oral language and print-based skills. In contrast, a smaller corpus of behavioral, genetic, environmental, and neuroimaging research strongly suggests that reading development begins far earlier, in utero. This article first reviews major theoretical frameworks of reading development and synthesizes studies demonstrating that lower-order oral language and cognitive skills necessary for higher-order reading skills (e.g., reading comprehension) begin emerging during the perinatal period. It then characterizes the development of the “reading brain,” starting with regions involved in proficient reading and proceeding to neuroimaging work suggesting that the perinatal brain may already be equipped with a neural scaffold that supports reading development. Although brain scans are not suitable for identifying individual children at risk, they can inform accurate developmental, multifactorial models of reading that, in turn, can better guide preventive educational practices.
Psychometric Properties of the Czech Version of the Self-Objectification Beliefs and Behaviors Scale (SOBBS)
Jan PavlĂ­k; Nikol KvardovĂĄ; Petr PalĂ­ĹĄek
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The Self-Objectification Beliefs and Behaviors Scale (SOBBS) was adapted to the Czech context using multiple independent translations and subsequent cognitive interviews. A pilot analysis of a secondary dataset (N = 959) evaluated using Dynamic Fit Indices (DFI) indicated a suboptimal fit for the original structure (χ²(76) = 569.253, CFI = .903, RMSEA = .083, SRMR = .065) and a lack of scalar invariance. Subsequently, data for the main study were collected from a non-random online sample of 548 participants, including 72% women and 27% men, aged 18–75 years (M = 25.8, SD = 10.1). Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) indicated unsatisfactory fit of the original model (χ²(76) = 292.76, CFI = .930, RMSEA = .072, SRMR = .054, BIC = 18321). However, a modified model excluding Item 2 (related to clothing choices) satisfied the dynamic fit criteria (χ²(64) = 210.40, CFI = .948, RMSEA = .065, SRMR = .053, BIC = 16825). These results support SOBBS’ two-factor structure (i.e., body self-monitoring and body as a representation of the Self). The modified SOBBS (13 items) demonstrated high internal consistency (α = .87, ω = .90 for the total scale; α = .87, ω = .87 for body self-monitoring; and α = .83, ω = .83 for body as a representation of the Self), and correlations with body shame and body self-monitoring scales provided evidence for concurrent validity. In contrast to the pilot study, measurement invariance of the modified model in the main study was supported at the level of the scalar model (i.e., with constrained factor loadings and intercepts), allowing for gender-based comparisons. The main analysis revealed a statistically significant but small difference in overall self-objectification between women and men (d = 0.22). An exploratory analysis showed a higher body surveillance in women (d = 0.48), with no significant differences in the body as a self-representation dimension. The results provide evidence supporting the construct validity and reliability of the modified Czech version of the SOBBS. The scale may serve as a useful tool for further research on self-objectification in the Czech context. We conclude with suggestions for future research, mainly wording revisions and clarifications for the conceptual placement of body shame within the Objectification Theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997).
Neural representations of reward-related memories shift across development
Alexandra O. Cohen; Susan L. Benear; Camille Phaneuf-Hadd; Lila Davachi; Catherine A. Hartley
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Rewards signal information in the environment that is valuable and thus useful to remember. Rewards benefit memory across development, but how reward-associated memories are represented in the brain has not been well characterized. Here we conducted pattern similarity analyses of fMRI data in participants aged 8-25 to elucidate how neural representations in key memory-related brain areas are influenced by reward, and how these relationships change across childhood and adolescence. We found that reward information was reflected in pattern similarity during encoding in ventral temporal cortex and in changes in similarity from encoding to retrieval in anterior hippocampus (aHC). Strikingly, aHC reward-sensitive representations also varied with age such that adults’ memory benefitted from stability of hippocampal representations, whereas younger participants’ memory improvements were associated with greater drift in representations over time. Moreover, across all participants, reward-related univariate activation in the ventral tegmental area was associated with a greater tendency toward representational drift in aHC. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that reward modulates neural memory representations, and that the representational patterns supporting reward-motivated memory shift with age.
The gender gap in math anxiety (and in the link between math anxiety and math achievement) is not so salient when other anxieties are controlled for
Monika Szczygieł; Mateusz Hohol
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Background and Objectives: Math anxiety (MA) is considered to affect math achievement and the choice of math-related educational paths, thus contributing to the gender gap in STEM careers. However, despite decades of research, the mechanisms underlying the relationships between gender, MA, and math achievement remain largely unclear. One of the reasons is that different types of anxiety and math achievement levels are rarely controlled for. Design and methods: We tested the associations between gender, MA, spatial anxiety, test anxiety, neuroticism, and math achievement in a sample of 269 adults. Results: We replicated previous findings that spatial anxiety in areas of navigation and mental manipulation, but not imagery, mediates the relationship between gender and MA. Importantly, in light of previous contradictory findings, we found that math achievement significantly mediated this relationship. Crucially, we found that gender, spatial anxiety, test anxiety, neuroticism, and math achievement together accounted for 66% of the variance in MA, with gender uniquely accounting for only 5%. Conclusions: The commonly reported gender gap in MA is less pronounced when other anxieties are controlled for, especially given that we did not observe gender differences in the strength of the relationship between MA and math achievement.
Flexible statistical learning across modalities: Online and offline measures reveal different aspects of adaptation to changing regularities
Brent Vernaillen; Louisa Bogaerts
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The ability to discern the statistical regularities in our environments has been shown to support key cognitive functions, including attention, prediction and language learning. While most research has focused on stable regularities, real-world patterns often change over time, requiring adaptation. In the context of embedded pattern learning, where continuous input consists of hidden pairs or triplets, prior work showed that learning of an initial structure can hinder learning of an updated one. Alongside post-exposure (offline) learning measures, the current study incorporated online target detection during exposure to gauge real-time learning and adaptation to novel patterns more directly. In three separate blocks, participants were exposed to a stream of embedded pairs that were reshuffled into new pairs halfway through the stream. We administered the same task in both the visual and auditory modality, allowing us to explore modality differences. In the auditory modality, the online target detection measure revealed that participants learned both the initial and updated regularities, but with an advantage for learning the former. In contrast, the offline measure only evidenced recognition of the initial patterns, echoing previously reported primacy effects. In the visual modality, learning was not observed online but was revealed in sensitivity to both sets of regularities in the offline test. Our results provide evidence for flexible statistical learning of different types of sensory regularities under incidental learning conditions, which is important for the challenge of learning in dynamic environments. They also underscore the non-overlapping information that is provided by on- and offline measures.
p-hacking inflates Type I error rates in the error statistical approach but not in the formal inference approach
Mark Rubin
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p-hacking occurs when researchers conduct multiple significance tests (e.g., p1;H0,1 and p2;H0,2) and then selectively report tests that yield desirable (usually significant) results (e.g., p2 ≤ 0.05;H0,2) without correcting for multiple testing (e.g., 0.05/2 = 0.025). In the present article, I consider p-hacking in the context of two philosophies of significance testing — the error statistical approach and the formal inference approach. I argue that although p-hacking inflates Type I error rates in the error statistical approach, it does not inflate them in the formal inference approach. Specifically, in the error statistical approach, the “actual” familywise error rate (e.g., 1 − [1 − 0.05]2 = 0.098 for two tests) is relevant because it covers both the selectively reported and unreported tests in the “actual” test procedure (i.e., p1;H0,1 and p2;H0,2). In this approach, Type I error rate inflation occurs because the “actual” error rate (0.098) is higher than the nominal error rate (0.05). In contrast, in the formal inference approach, the “actual” familywise error rate is irrelevant because (a) the researcher does not report a statistical inference about the corresponding intersection null hypothesis (i.e., H0,1 ∩ H0,2), and (b) the “actual” familywise error rate does not license inferences about the reported individual hypotheses (i.e., H0,2). Instead, in the formal inference approach, only the nominal error rate is relevant, and a comparison with the “actual” error rate is inappropriate. Implications for conceptualizing, demonstrating, and reducing p-hacking are discussed.
Effectiveness and Mechanisms of Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy for Treatment-Resistant Depression: A Reanalysis of a Randomized Controlled Trial
Robert Johansson; Peter Lilliengren
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Introduction: Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy has shown promising effects for treatment-resistant depression, but it remains unclear whether its proposed mechanisms --- reducing emotional repression, negative affect, and psychological distress --- actually mediate treatment outcomes. Methods: We reanalyzed publicly available data from a randomized controlled trial N = 86) comparing 20 sessions of Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy to waitlist control for treatment-resistant depression. Depression and process measures were assessed at baseline, post-treatment, and 3-month follow-up. Linear mixed-effects models analyzed trajectories; bootstrap mediation and cross-lagged panel analyses examined mechanisms. Results: Treatment produced large effects on depression at post-treatment (Cohen's d = 1.68) that continued to increase through 3-month follow-up (d = 2.50, 95% CI [1.88, 3.11]). All proposed process measures also showed very large effects (d = 1.96--2.95). However, neither emotional repression nor negative affect significantly mediated depression improvement. Distress showed apparent mediation, but a sensitivity analysis removing the overlapping depression subscale eliminated this effect entirely, confirming it reflected construct overlap rather than a genuine mechanism. Cross-lagged analyses revealed no temporal precedence for any process measure, indicating concurrent rather than sequential change. Discussion: These findings confirm that this psychotherapy produces large, durable effects on treatment-resistant depression. However, the theorized sequential mechanisms --- whereby reducing defensive functioning leads to improved affect regulation, which in turn alleviates depression --- were not supported. Instead, the treatment appears to produce broad, simultaneous therapeutic change across multiple psychological domains. Understanding how psychotherapy works may require finer temporal measurement and observational methods that capture in-session processes.
Will you share the results?” Perspectives on biosocial research participation within Black and Latinx communities
Fanita A Tyrell; Arianna M Gard; Collin Mueller; Ximena Diaz Diaz Juarez; Anyela Jacome Ceron; Simon Wright; Bunmi Odubayo
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Despite the power of biosocial research to reveal the dynamic interplay between biological phenomena and the social context, Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) are underrepresented in this research. Low population generalizability has serious implications for the ability to translate scientific research into solving real world problems equitably. This study used semi-structured interviews and focus groups with 65 Black and Latinx/a/o/e adults to understand the perspectives, experiences, and concerns that BIPOC individuals have in participating in biosocial research studies. There was consistency in participants’ concerns and motivations for participating in research, regardless of whether biological data was part of the study protocol. In addition to transparency, confidentiality, and accessibility, participants emphasized the importance of a study to have a social impact on communities, be consistent with community values, and for research to be built on a foundation of trust between researchers, institutions, and communities. Conversations also revealed a clear demand for sharing results that are personally relevant or relevant to local communities. The results from this study have implications for all fields of psychological science and allied disciplines. Concrete recommendations are offered, including a call for more training and resources to conduct Community Based Participatory Research.
Factive mindreading reflects the optimal use of limited cognitive resources
Tadeg Quillien; Max Taylor-Davies
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Predicting what other individuals will do is an important adaptive challenge for many organisms. Social prediction can be achieved by constructing a detailed model of the mental states of other agents, but this is computationally expensive. We argue that mindreaders can often bypass the need for constructing such a detailed model: they can keep track of the facts in their own world model that another agent also knows, instead of explicitly representing the content of the agent's world model. Using a simple computational approach, we find that this 'factive' mindreading strategy emerges as the optimal social prediction strategy for organisms with limited cognitive resources across a range of social ecologies. Factive mindreaders in our model behave like young human children and non-human primates: they successfully predict the behavior of knowledgable and ignorant agents, but fail to predict the behavior of agents with false and even accidentally true beliefs. Our results elucidate the computational principles underlying efficient social prediction, and provide a first-principles account for a range of empirical findings about human and non-human mindreading.
Relating smartphone ‘App-journeys’ to mental health: A novel network analysis approach
Georgia Turner; Maria Concepcion Valdez Gastelum; Ian Axel Anderson; Zelda Brufal; Steven Dillmann; Luisa Fassi; Lukas J. Gunschera; Ivonne Monarca; Oscar PeĂąa Ramirez; Monica Tentori
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As debates over the impact of smartphones on young people intensify, we urgently need ways to identify which smartphone behaviours are related to poorer mental health. While many approaches focus on specific harmful or beneficial smartphone activities, here we instead suggest that the relationship between smartphones and mental health may partly depend on how users transition between activities. To test this, we develop a novel network analysis method to analyze objective smartphone data. We construct networks capturing how each user journeys across mobile Apps within a smartphone usage session, which we term ‘App-journey’ networks. Across a dataset of participants aged 18-22 (n = 82), exploratory statistical analyses show that features of ‘App-journey’ networks correlate with user mental health and attentional control. For example, users with higher depressive symptoms typically transition to a wider variety of Apps within each phone session (higher network density) and are less likely to confine each phone session to repeated groups of Apps (lower network modularity). Additionally, specific Apps which users report using more automatically are more central in App-journey networks than Apps users report using less automatically. In contrast to features of App-journey networks, time spent on one’s phone is not significantly related to mental health. In summary, this novel method to study smartphone use abstracts away from activities themselves and instead quantifies patterns of activity transitions. We show such transition patterns are related to user mental health and subjective experiences of automatic use, thus representing targets for future research and interventions.
Unconscious mental content in implicit evaluation: Evidence from misprediction
Benedek Kurdi; David Melnikoff; Adam Morris
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The tide is turning against a major idea in social psychology: that implicit evaluations reflect mental content that lies beyond conscious awareness. This view is being reconsidered in light of mounting evidence that people can predict their own implicit evaluations with high accuracy. However, there are reasons to question whether such predictive accuracy reflects introspective access. First, prior studies have relied almost exclusively on familiar targets (e.g., racial groups), allowing predictions to be informed by background knowledge (e.g., knowing that a group is stigmatized) rather than introspection. Second, implicit and explicit evaluations have been highly correlated in prior work, enabling accurate predictions simply by assuming that implicit evaluations mirror explicit ones. Here we report eight experiments (five preregistered; N = 6,794) designed to minimize these non-introspective routes to predictive accuracy. We introduced participants to novel targets and shifted implicit and explicit evaluations of these targets in opposite directions, rendering explicit evaluations an unreliable cue. Under these conditions, predictive accuracy ranged from low to non-existent: participants frequently anticipated shifts in their implicit evaluations in the opposite direction of the actual chance. These results generalized across two learning paradigms (impression formation and attribute conditioning), two implicit evaluation measures (IAT and EPT), and between-participant and within-participant designs. We consider multiple interpretations of these findings, including the possibility that implicit evaluations reflect mental content that is largely inaccessible to conscious awareness.
Pesquisa participativa e a importância da inclusão de experts por experiência na pesquisa em saúde - Possibilidades e desafios para o contexto brasileiro
Tally L. Tafla; Anna Viduani; Daniel Luccas Arenas; Elizabeth Shephard
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A produção científica, especialmente na årea da saúde, tem sido criticada por seu distanciamento das necessidades e prioridades das pessoas diretamente afetadas pelos fenômenos investigados. Este artigo tem como objetivo discutir a pesquisa participativa como uma abordagem metodológica e epistemológica capaz de reduzir esse desalinhamento, com ênfase na inclusão de experts por experiência na produção do conhecimento, particularmente no campo da saúde mental. Trata-se de um artigo teórico, baseado em anålise crítica da literatura internacional sobre pesquisa participativa, experiência vivida, experts por experiência e coprodução do conhecimento. São discutidos os fundamentos da pesquisa participativa, seus diferentes níveis de participação e suas implicaçþes Êticas, clínicas e epistemológicas. Argumenta-se que a articulação entre conhecimento acadêmico e experiência vivida contribui para pesquisas mais relevantes, acessíveis e alinhadas aos contextos reais de vida, alÊm de favorecer intervençþes mais viåveis e eticamente responsåveis. O artigo tambÊm identifica riscos associados à instrumentalização de experts por experiência, especialmente quando a participação ocorre de forma pontual ou desvinculada de espaços decisórios, bem como desafios estruturais para a consolidação dessas pråticas no contexto brasileiro, incluindo limitaçþes institucionais, regulatórias e formativas. Conclui-se que a integração da pesquisa participativa e de experts por experiência fortalece a qualidade, a legitimidade social e o compromisso Êtico da pesquisa em saúde, ao promover uma produção científica mais democråtica, reflexiva e responsiva às realidades que busca compreender e transformar.
Setting digital psychiatry in motion: Towards dynamic digital markers for digital phenotyping
Axel Constant; C. Emre Koksal; Lena Palaniyappan
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Digital phenotyping uses data from smartphones and wearables to extract behavioural and biosocial markers of psychopathology in situ. Traditional entropy-based measures capture static system properties that neglect temporal dependencies critical to psychiatric phenomena. We propose a “dynamic” approach to the modelling of digital data capturing the time-varying aspects of processes of mental disorders. We defend that the resulting dynamic digital markers better capture variability in regulatory mechanisms of psychopathology.
Nonlinear dynamics of parent–child cardiac coupling during play in autism: A multimodal investigation of sociobehavioral correlates
Natasha Yamane; Matthew Goodwin
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Dyadic coordination, the temporal organization of behavioral and physiological processes in two interacting partners, plays a vital role in social development and may reveal biobehavioral mechanisms underlying social differences in autism. However, little is known about how dyadic physiological processes such as cardiac coupling vary across social engagement contexts in autism. This exploratory study examines cardiac coupling patterns among 18 parent--child dyads during play and compares autistic dyads to neurotypical dyads with respect to time-varying joint engagement, vocal turn-taking, and child social communication ability. Using cross-wavelet analysis to measure ambulatory cardiac interbeat interval (IBI) coherence and phase relationships (alignment and directionality), and cross-recurrence quantification analysis to measure vocal turn-taking dynamics, our results suggest that cardiac coupling varies systematically across joint engagement contexts and that these associations are stronger and more differentiated in dyads with autistic children than in neurotypical dyads. Greater high-frequency cardiac coupling in the autism group was associated with periods of mutual disengagement and with fewer, shorter, and less predictable vocal exchanges. Average IBI coherence also accounted for a substantial proportion of variance in children's social communication scores in the autism group, but only a small proportion in the neurotypical group, suggesting that cardiac coupling is particularly sensitive to individual differences in social communication among autistic children. Together, our findings underscore the potential utility of examining physiological coupling to better understand social engagement processes and suggest that cardiac coupling may serve as a marker of both moment-to-moment engagement dynamics and broader social communication heterogeneity in autism.
Assessing the Scaling Properties of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ-SF) among Brazilian Adolescents
Michael Eduardo Reichenheim; Antonio Piolanti; Claudia Leite de Moraes
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Background: The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire - Short Form (CTQ-SF) is widely used to assess childhood abuse and neglect in adolescents, but its scaling properties, meaning the ability of its subscales to form coherent and progressively ordered severity structures, have not yet been investigated. Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the scaling properties, namely scalability and monotonicity, of the CTQ-SF among adolescents. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with a probabilistic, stratified sample of 721 adolescents from public and private schools in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Brazilian Portuguese version of the CTQ-SF was administered to assess five trauma dimensions: physical neglect (PN), emotional neglect (EN), physical abuse (PA), sexual abuse (SA), and emotional abuse (EA). Mokken Scale Analysis was applied to assess scalability, using Loevinger’s coefficients, as well as latent and double monotonicity. Gradient maps were generated to visualize the scalability of the items and subscales. Results: PA and SA exhibited strong scalability and met both latent and double monotonicity assumptions, supporting their utility in severity-based assessments. EN and EA also demonstrated strong scalability, though some items showed violations of latent and double monotonicity. PN displayed very weak scalability and serious violations of monotonicity, indicating poor alignment with a unidimensional, progressively increasing construct of physical neglect. Conclusion: Overall, the findings support the use of the PA, SA, EN, and EA subscales in adolescent populations, while highlighting the need for conceptual and operational revision of the PN subscale. As the first study to examine the scaling properties of the CTQ-SF, replication in diverse cultural and developmental contexts is recommended.
Validating the Academic Learning Experiences Questionnaire: Microtransitions, Sensory Reactivity and Cognitive-Attentional Dimensions in Autistic University Students
Sophie Anns; Clare Davis; Jess Millington; Jenny Terry
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Background: The number of autistic students entering higher education (HE) has increased, yet many continue to face systemic barriers that can hinder their academic success. Despite their unique cognitive strengths, such as hyperfocus, attention to detail, and strong analytical skills, many autistic students report challenges with academic learning experiences. This study aimed to develop and validate the Academic Learning Experiences Questionnaire (ALEQ), a tool designed to assess specific learning experiences and inform autism-inclusive educational practices. Methods: We co-created the ALEQ with autistic and non-autistic students to assess learning experiences across five academic contexts: small and large group teaching, self-directed study, examinations, and coursework. A total of 829 university students (formally-diagnosed autistic: n = 106; self-diagnosed autistic: n = 112; non-autistic: n = 611) completed an online survey comprising the ALEQ and an autism screening measure (SRS-2). To establish the ALEQ’s psychometric properties, we conducted exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and tested for measurement invariance between the autistic and non-autistic groups. Results: The ALEQ produced seven theoretically relevant factors with good local and global fit: Microtransitions’, Social Anxiety, Sensory Reactivity, Planning and Prioritising, Monotropic Focus, Group Work and Global Comprehension). Configural and metric invariance were supported for this factor solution, demonstrating equivalence of the factor loadings across groups and warranting examination of group differences in ALEQ scores. Using this final, 34-item version of the ALEQ, autistic students reported significantly more challenges than non-autistic students across all five subscales, with the greatest disparities in Sensory Reactivity and Microtransitions. Conclusion: The ALEQ provides a structured way to understand the academic challenges that autistic students face in different learning contexts. By identifying key learning experiences, it offers both a practical tool for educators and a measurement instrument for researchers that can identify adjustment needs and, ultimately, enhance accessibility and inclusion in HE.
Evaluating Local Structural-After-Measurement (LSAM) and Traditional Approaches for the Estimation of Complex Nonlinear Effects Among Latent Variables
Felipe Fontana Vieira; KJell Slupphaug; Yves Rosseel
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Various methods exist to include quadratic or interaction terms involving latent variables in structural equation models (SEM). Most use system-wide estimation, where all parameters are estimated simultaneously, and have been investigated in models with few nonlinear effects. Recently, structural-after-measurement (SAM) approaches have been proposed, where estimation proceeds in two stages: measurement model first, then structural model. Rosseel et al. (2025) extended local SAM (LSAM) to handle second-order nonlinear effects among latent variables. In this article, we present a formula for two-step standard errors (SEs) not previously available for LSAM. We also conducted two simulation studies varying latent exogenous predictor distributions (normal, right-skewed, uniform), reliabilities (0.4, 0.6, 0.8), sample sizes (400, 1000), and measurement error and structural disturbance distributions (normal, right-skewed). The first study examined a model with three nonlinear effects. LSAM produced largely unbiased estimates with stable coverage, SEs, and Type I error rates, though power fluctuated and performance was adversely affected under low reliability, particularly with uniform latent exogenous distributions. Larger sample sizes mitigated these issues. Traditional methods (LMS, QML, UPI) showed results consistent with prior literature. The second study, excluding LMS, tested a more complex model with eight nonlinear effects. LSAM maintained adequate performance despite greater complexity, though similar limitations emerged and power decreased under certain conditions. Traditional methods yielded more variable results, with generally poorer performance relative to Simulation 1 and LSAM. Right-skewed measurement errors affected the abovementioned results more than right-skewed structural disturbances, particularly under low and medium reliability.
Development and Validation of the Mental Health Screening Tool for Children and Adolescents (MHST-CA)
Diana Vasile; Șerban Andrei Zanfirescu; Ana Cosmoiu; Teodora Georgescu; Marina Badea; Monica Senchiu; Dragos Iliescu; Alina Aldea
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Existing adolescent mental health screening instruments are predominantly symptom-focused, lack integration of biological, psychological, and social dimensions, and have limited validation evidence in Eastern European populations. This study describes the development and validation of the Mental Health Screening Tool for Children and Adolescents (MHST-CA), a brief self-report instrument grounded in the biopsychosocial model. Item generation drew on 22 focus groups (N > 200 participants) and interviews with 31 specialists. An initial 132-item pool was reduced through exploratory factor analysis in a pilot sample (N = 237, ages 10-20) and confirmatory factor analysis in a validation sample (N = 496, ages 10-20, 58.1% female). The final 27-item, three-factor model (Psychological, Biological, Social) demonstrated acceptable fit (CFI = .88, TLI = .87, RMSEA = .07, SRMR = .05) and high internal consistency (total Îą = .94; subscale Îą = .82-.90). Concurrent validity was supported by positive correlations with the DASS-Y (r = .71-.82) and CPSS (r = .73), and negative correlations with the WEMWBS (r = -.53 to -.69). Moderate inter-factor correlations (r = .67-.77) provided preliminary discriminant validity evidence. The MHST-CA offers a psychometrically sound, culturally grounded screening tool for Romanian adolescents. Limitations include reliance on self-report and a geographically restricted sample.
How experience affects sustainable behavior when sharing a common pool resource with conditional cooperators
Arlen McKinnon; Gerda Kabailaitė; Robert D Rogers; Paul Rauwolf
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Objective: Many of humanity’s largest challenges, such as managing our shared resources, are long-term collective action problems, where we must learn to cooperate with others over time. However, research has found that participants play repeated resource dilemma games less sustainably over time. Improving our understanding of this is vital to inform policy advocating long-term cooperation. One hypothesis is that increasingly uncooperative behavior is driven by other uncooperative actors – if others act unsustainably then other individuals reciprocate. Alternatively, given the environmental and social uncertainty often found in collective action problems, individuals might struggle to learn to find cooperative, sustainable solutions even if other uncooperative actors are removed. Here, we experimentally juxtapose these hypotheses. Method: Over two incentive-compatible experiments involving monetary payments (Experiment 1) and raffle tickets (Experiment 2), 351 participants played three consecutive resource dilemma games with three computer partners who collectively deployed a conditionally cooperative ('tit-for-tat') strategy (i.e., where one cooperates if others cooperate, but defects if others defect). The best strategy for the participant was to learn to sustain the resource, maximizing long-term gains. Results: By the third game, most improved their outcomes, but only 9.12% of participants found long-term sustainable strategies which outperformed short-term unsustainable strategies. We demonstrate that this failure is partially due to difficulty learning the social and environmental dynamics at play. Conclusions: These results suggest that most struggle to learn to act sustainably even when interacting with partners who are willing to cooperate, illuminating a systemic difficulty with learning to act sustainably over time.
The longitudinal association between adverse childhood experiences and persistence of psychotic-like experiences in young people: evidence from the ALSPAC birth cohort
Georgie Hudson; Jessie Baldwin; Katharine Sykes; Craig S. Mackie; Rachel Hiller; Claire Powell; James Bowes Kirkbride
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Background: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with increased risk of psychotic-like experiences (PLEs), but the relationship between specific adversities and the persistence of PLEs in young people remains unclear. This study examined associations between distinct ACE types and the persistence of PLEs until 24 years old. Methods: Using longitudinal data from participants in the ALSPAC cohort with at least one PLE datapoint, we used group-based trajectory modelling to estimate longitudinal trajectories of PLEs from age 12-24. We examined their associations with bullying victimisation, maltreatment, parental mental health problems, parental substance abuse, parental separation, and parental intimate partner violence in infancy and childhood prior to first PLE experiences. Results: Amongst 4,448 participants, a three-group trajectory model provided the best fit, revealing low, increasing and persistent PLEs groups from ages 12-24. In fully adjusted multinomial logistic regression models, those exposed to bullying were more likely to belong to either the increasing (relative risk ratio [RRR]: 1.83, 95%CIs: 1.26 – 2.66) or high (RRR: 1.78, 95%CIs: 1.07 – 2.93) PLEs group than the low PLE group; those exposed to maltreatment were more likely to be in the increasing PLE group (RRR: 1.47, 95%CIs: 1.03 – 2.10). No other ACEs were associated with PLE trajectories. Conclusions: Bullying was associated with persistent PLEs up to 24 years old, independent of other forms of childhood adversity, with timing-specific effects of maltreatment on increasing symptoms emerging later in adolescence. Findings provide further evidence for the importance of prioritising bullying and maltreatment reduction as salient public health targets.
The influence of experiential learning with digital flashcards on study strategies in secondary schools
Erik Mauro Bruno Gustafsson
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Retrieval practice is widely recognized as one of the most effective learning strategies, yet its adoption in everyday classrooms remains limited. The present study investigated the use of digital flashcard applications among 245 French secondary school students (Grades 8–9) within a Research–Practice Partnership framework. We examined (a) whether academic level, self-efficacy, and growth mindset predicted voluntary adoption of the app, (b) whether study frequency predicted exam performance, and (c) whether a brief supervised group intervention increased subsequent usage. Usage data were collected automatically from 37 classroom flashcard sets across five subjects, and analyzed using regression and mixed-effects models. Prior academic level was the strongest predictor of spontaneous adoption: higher-performing students were more likely to use the application. However, growth mindset was positively associated with adoption among students with lower self-efficacy. The intervention increased the likelihood of adoption among low-performing students, reducing the gap with medium-level peers, although high-level students remained the most consistent users. Among users, study frequency predicted higher exam grades for low- and medium-level students, but not for high-level students. Overall, digital flashcards appear particularly beneficial for students with greater room for improvement. However, structured exposure may be necessary to promote long-term adoption of retrieval practice among those who could benefit most from it.
Verbal and non-verbal teaching behaviours jointly shape adult learning in naturalistic conversation
Christopher Edwards; Francesco Cabiddu; Harriet Hill-Payne; Gabriella Vigliocco
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Which verbal and non-verbal behaviours used by ‘teachers’ support adults’ learning of new information during everyday conversations? While we know a lot about how caregivers’ behaviours impact children’s learning, no previous research has addressed this question with adult learners in naturalistic contexts, despite its scientific and practical importance. We analysed 22 hours of naturalistic dyadic audiovisual conversation between teachers and learners, assessing which of the teachers’ verbal and non-verbal behaviours, and their combinations, impacted learning of unfamiliar objects’ names and semantic properties. We found that both verbal and non-verbal behaviours impacted learning, modulated by learner’s individual differences. While learning of names and semantic features was supported by different verbal factors, only meaningful gestures showed robust effects across the two outcome measures, underscoring the importance of these gestures in adult, in addition to child, learning. We thus provide the first snapshot of real-world adult learning, with implications for educational practice.
Human Exploration Strategically Balances Approaching and Avoiding Uncertainty
Yaniv Abir; Michael Shadlen; Daphna Shohamy
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A central purpose of exploration is to reduce goal-relevant uncertainty. Consequentially, individuals often explore by focusing on areas of uncertainty in the environment. However, people sometimes adopt the opposite strategy, one of avoiding uncertainty. How are the conflicting tendencies to approach and avoid uncertainty reconciled in human exploration? We hypothesized that the balance between avoiding and approaching uncertainty can be understood by considering capacity constraints. Accordingly, people are expected to approach uncertainty in most cases, but to avoid it when overall uncertainty is highest. To test this, we developed a new task and used modeling to compare human choices to a range of plausible policies. The task required participants to learn the statistics of a simulated environment by active exploration. On each trial, participants chose to explore a better-known or lesser-known option. Participants generally chose to approach uncertainty, however, when overall uncertainty about the choice options was highest, they instead avoided uncertainty and chose to sample better-known objects. This strategy was associated with faster decisions and, despite reducing the rate of observed information, it did not impair learning. We suggest that balancing approaching and avoiding uncertainty reduces the cognitive costs of exploration in a resource-rational manner.
The reluctant allure of neurotechnologies across cultures
Louis Longin; Ophelia Deroy
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Wearable neurotechnologies collect brain data outside clinical settings, raising increasing concerns about privacy and data sharing among academics and policymakers. But are these concerns shared by the public? And if so, do they reflect the novelty of the technologies, the perceived accuracy of brain-derived inferences, or the special symbolic status people attach to the brain itself? We tested these possible explanations in four preregistered experiments (N = 627) conducted in the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, and the United States. Participants evaluated scenarios in which emotional states were inferred using one of three data sources: brain activity (EEG), heart rate, or pupil size. The scenarios varied in data recipient (public or private institutions) and data sharing purpose (personal or collective). Participants rated the acceptability of sharing each data type, as well as the perceived reliability of and familiarity with each method. Across countries and contexts, participants were consistently more reluctant towards sharing brain than heart data. This effect did not track perceived reliability: heart data were often judged as equally or more reliable than brain data. Familiarity with the technologies increased overall acceptance but did not explain the specific reluctance to share brain data. For the U.S., lower willingness to share brain data was specifically associated with viewing the brain as central to personal identity. These findings show that neurotechnologies are treated as uniquely sensitive not because they are seen as more informative, but because the brain is perceived as closely tied to the self.
Discrete episodes of conscious access revealed by the psychological refractory period
Alex Lepauvre; Micha Engeser; Stanislas Dehaene; Lucia Melloni
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When does conscious access occur relative to sensory stimulation? Although perceptual experience is often assumed to track the continuous presence of sensory input, recent neurophysiological findings challenge this assumption by showing that prefrontal activity does not scale with stimulus duration. Interpreting these findings has been difficult because prior studies did not directly probe the temporal profile of conscious access itself. Here, we address this gap using the psychological refractory period (PRP) effect as a report-free, time-resolved marker of central-stage processing associated with conscious access. Across two dual-task experiments, we measured delays in auditory responses induced by visual stimuli of varying duration and task relevance, with auditory probes time-locked to stimulus onset and offset. Visual stimulus onset reliably induced a PRP effect, even for task-irrelevant stimuli that did not elicit overt responses, indicating transient conscious access independent of stimulus duration. Task relevance prolonged this access, whereas stimulus disappearance elicited a markedly weaker and less consistent PRP effect, contingent on stimulus duration. Participants showed limited introspective awareness of these delays. Reanalysis of intracranial EEG data revealed that prefrontal decoding dynamics mirrored the behavioral modulation of the PRP. Together, these findings show that conscious access is transient and context-dependent, rather than a continuous reflection of sensory input, establishing the PRP as a precise, report-free chronometric tool for studying the timing of conscious access.
Between the Spectrum and Mental Health: A Narrative Review of the Relationship between Autism Spectrum Disorder and Neuropsychiatric Comorbidities
Beatriz Cruz de Paula; Gabriel dos Santos FĂŠlix; Bruna Rabelo Ribeiro Domingues; JosĂŠ Aparecido da Silva; Priscila de Medeiros; Renato Leonardo de Freitas
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Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) present a high prevalence of neuropsychiatric comorbidities, particularly anxiety disorders, depression, and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). These conditions substantially intensify the clinical, functional, and psychosocial challenges associated with the autism spectrum across the lifespan. This study aimed to analyze, through a narrative review of the literature, the association between ASD and these comorbidities, as well as their impacts on mental health, daily functioning, and overall quality of life. The literature search was conducted in the PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases, prioritizing recent and methodologically relevant studies addressing this topic. The findings indicate that symptomatic overlap between core ASD features and co-occurring psychiatric disorders complicates early identification, differential diagnosis, and clinical management. This overlap often leads to delayed treatment and suboptimal outcomes, underscoring the need for integrated, developmentally sensitive, and personalized diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. In addition, the literature highlights significant structural barriers, including a shortage of trained specialists, limited access to multidisciplinary services, and the lack of targeted public policies, all of which hinder the provision of adequate care for this population. In conclusion, multidisciplinary interventions, combined with social inclusion strategies, community-based support, family and caregiver guidance, and the promotion of neurodiversity, are essential to improve emotional well-being, functional autonomy, and quality of life for individuals with ASD. Such efforts also have a positive impact on families and caregivers, contributing to more equitable and effective mental health care.
Scientists as Activists: An Ethnography of the 'Critical Moments' in Scientists' Transition to Climate Activism
Samuel Finnerty
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Policy responses to the climate crisis have lagged behind the scientific consensus on its seriousness, prompting a growing number of scientists to engage in activism, including civil disobedience. This shift challenges traditional norms of neutrality and objectivity, raising questions about how scientists reconcile their professional identity with activism and sustain engagement. Drawing on two years of immersive ethnography (participant observation and autoethnography) with Scientists for Extinction Rebellion (S4XR) in the UK, this study traces the lived processes through which scientists enter activism, manage identity tensions, and decide how far to go. Findings show that identity-aligned spaces legitimise first steps and foster belonging. Scientists strategically draw on professional expertise and scientific symbols (e.g., lab-coats, peer-reviewed papers) to legitimise action and unify scientist-activists; at the same time, these symbols present challenges, as not all scientists identify with them, and they may invite audience expectations about universal expertise. Over time, activism reshapes professional identity, reinforcing a moral duty to act and producing a hybrid scientist-activist identity. Sustained commitment depends on collective efficacy, peer affirmation, and care practices that enable self-determined roles and buffer burnout. Escalation is non-linear: risk thresholds often rise with experience, yet professional, personal, and ethical considerations continue to influence decisions. Structured around a process-oriented framework, the analysis identifies critical moments in scientists’ activist trajectories, from initial hesitation to sustained participation, offering insights for social psychological models of collective action and for strategies to engage scientists in effective, sustained climate action.
Corrections Not Found: Post-Publication Integrity in Usable Security and Privacy Research
Nele Borgert; Luisa Jansen; Lukas Jung; Theresa Halbritter; Malte Elson
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This position paper argues that Usable Security and Privacy (USP) research can only be as cumulative and trustworthy as its record of issuing and finding post-publication corrections, yet current infrastructure and norms make such corrections difficult to observe, evaluate, and act on. Errors are a normal by-product of complex empirical work, but when they persist silently in the publication record, they can compromise replication efforts, undermine evidence synthesis, and misdirect theory, practice, and policy. Drawing on a case study of major USP publishing platforms, we show that post-publication policies vary in clarity and scope, that basic descriptive statistics on corrections and retractions are not publicly reported, and that even when corrections exist, they can be hard to discover and may disappear when records propagate across platforms. We contend that these gaps are reinforced by a research culture that rewards novelty over correctness, limiting incentives to detect and publicly document errors. We therefore propose a coordinated agenda for post-publication integrity in USP: clearer and more coherent correction policies, systematic collection of correction and retraction cases in a public database, and point-of-use visibility via integration with existing meta-scientific services and researcher workflows.
Does Trial Selection Improve the Reliability and Validity of Attentional-Control Measures? A Simulation and Systematic Reanalysis of Existing Datasets [Stage 1 Registered Report]
Niels Oliver Kempkens; Julia M. Haaf; Anna-Lena Schubert; Alodie Rey-Mermet
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Attentional control refers to the ability to maintain a goal and goal-relevant information in the face of distraction. Typically, measures of this ability compare performance on incongruent trials that induce response conflict with congruent trials that do not. Previous research has highlighted the difficulty of obtaining attentional-control measures that have good reliability and that correlate across different tasks. To address this difficulty, Moretti et al. (2025, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition) have selected and analyzed only those trials with the highest response conflict. That is, in two tasks, they selected and analyzed the trials following congruent trials and the trials with a fast response. They concluded that their approach resulted in increased reliability and correlation estimates. While promising, the results raise several questions. Why was the increase in reliability and correlation estimates observed not only for fast but also for slow trials? Do the results stem from the corrections applied to compensate for the trial reduction inherent in the selection? Do the results generalize to other tasks and designs? The purpose of the present study is to address these questions. To answer the first question, we conducted a simulation. For the second and third questions, we plan to compute reliability and correlations on several existing datasets using hierarchical models. These models have the advantage of accounting for the trial reduction without corrections. Overall, the present study should clarify whether selecting trials improves the measurement of attentional control.
Perceptual learning of speaker-specific gesture-speech temporal alignment: Effects on word recognition
Chengjia Ye; James McQueen; Hans Rutger Bosker
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Perceptual learning helps listeners cope with the lack of invariance in speech perception. Exposure to a nontypical phoneme in disambiguating contexts can bias subsequent perception. Such learning is driven not only by lexical context but also by visual cues. One such visual cue is the beat gesture, a simple up-and-down hand movement that usually co-occurs with stressed syllables in everyday conversation. Beat gestures can influence stress perception and thus bias word recognition. However, gesture-speech temporal alignment varies substantially across speakers. The current study examined whether listeners can learn about speaker-specific gesture-speech alignment patterns from disambiguating auditory stress cues. Across three experiments, participants were exposed to a speaker consistently gesturing earlier than stressed syllables in one group, and later in the other. After exposure, both groups categorized minimal stress pairs (e.g., VOORnaam–voorNAAM) with ambiguous auditory stress cues and a beat midway between two target syllables. A reliable group difference emerged when the test stimuli were sufficiently ambiguous: word recognition was biased by the gesture-speech alignment learnt during exposure. However, this learning appeared not to generalize to novel words. Our results demonstrate that the learnt gesture-speech alignment can be applied to word recognition for the same speaker, optimizing face-to-face interaction.
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Ethiopian-Israeli Young Adults: Coping with Stress, Exclusion, and Racism
Shiran Israel; Raghda Alnabilsy; Michael Zaitchik; Yafit Wuvit Tadela; Jossef Loss; Nava Levit-Binnun
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Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) are increasingly used to promote mental health and resilience, yet their applicability within racially marginalized communities remains underexplored. Ethiopian-Israeli young adults face chronic stressors related to socioeconomic disadvantage, racialized discrimination, and complex identity negotiations, creating a distinctive context in which mindfulness practices may function differently. The present qualitative study examines how Ethiopian-Israeli young adults experienced participation in a standard Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program and identifies cultural and structural factors shaping its relevance, acceptability, and impact. Twenty-five Ethiopian-Israeli young adults completed an eight-week MBSR course and took part in semi-structured in-depth interviews. Data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Findings revealed four central themes: (1) layered stress arising from identity tensions, community responsibility, and experiences of racism; (2) transformative processes of mindfulness practice, including enhanced emotion regulation, embodied awareness, and coping with discrimination; (3) cultural and practical barriers to engagement, such as norms discouraging emotional vulnerability, emphasis on productivity, and competing life demands; and (4) conditions for safety and belonging, highlighting the importance of group composition, facilitator qualities, delivery format, and the implicit presence of racism as an unspoken concern. Participants described mindfulness as a meaningful resource for coping with stress and discrimination, yet emphasized that its effectiveness depends on cultural resonance, practical framing, and relational safety. The findings underscore that mindfulness should not be assumed culturally neutral and point to the need for contextually grounded adaptations. This study contributes to growing efforts to develop culturally responsive MBIs that address minority stress and support well-being within marginalized communities.
Beyond Arousal: Pupil Fluctuations, Neural Activity, and Behavior
Veera Ruuskanen; Sebastiaan Mathot
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Spontaneous fluctuations in pupil size are often interpreted as a direct readout of arousal-related neural activity. When pupil size correlates with behavior, this is therefore assumed to reflect arousal. However, pupil fluctuations also have optical consequences: larger pupils allow more light in the eye, whereas smaller pupils improve focus. These effects are rarely considered. Generally, the relationships between pupil fluctuations, neural activity, and behavior are complex and context-dependent. We propose four mechanisms to better understand these relationships. The first is mediated by arousal. The second relates to the optical effects of pupil fluctuations. The third relates to visual stimulation, which both constricts the pupil and activates visual brain areas. The fourth relates to brightness constancy with respect to pupil size.
Romantic Love and Sexual Frequency
Adam Bode; Severi Luoto; Marta Kowal; Fabio Cannas Aghedu
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Purpose of Review: The purpose of this review was to summarize the evidence about the association between romantic love and sexual frequency. We outlined what has historically been thought about romantic love and sexual frequency as well as the latest theoretical and empirical contributions to this area of research. Recent Findings: There have been three published articles that consider sexual frequency in a sample of participants experiencing romantic love. All are drawn from the same international sample: the Romantic Love Survey 2022. A number of publicly available studies not yet published also exist using this sample. Summary: It appears that young adults in love report having sex 3.5 times per week on average, but there was substantial variation in sexual frequency in this sample. This is meaningfully higher than sexual frequency found in the married/cohabiting American population.
p-hacking inflates Type I error rates in the error statistical approach but not in the formal inference approach
Mark Rubin
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p-hacking occurs when researchers conduct multiple significance tests (e.g., p1;H0,1 and p2;H0,2) and then selectively report tests that yield desirable (usually significant) results (e.g., p2 ≤ 0.05;H0,2) without correcting for multiple testing (e.g., 0.05/2 = 0.025). In the present article, I consider p-hacking in the context of two philosophies of significance testing — the error statistical approach and the formal inference approach. I argue that although p-hacking inflates Type I error rates in the error statistical approach, it does not inflate them in the formal inference approach. Specifically, in the error statistical approach, the “actual” familywise error rate (e.g., 1 − [1 − 0.05]2 = 0.098 for two tests) is relevant because it covers both the selectively reported and unreported tests in the “actual” test procedure (i.e., p1;H0,1 and p2;H0,2). In this approach, Type I error rate inflation occurs because the “actual” error rate (0.098) is higher than the nominal error rate (0.05). In contrast, in the formal inference approach, the “actual” familywise error rate is irrelevant because (a) the researcher does not report a statistical inference about the corresponding intersection null hypothesis (i.e., H0,1 ∩ H0,2), and (b) the “actual” familywise error rate does not license inferences about the reported individual hypotheses (i.e., H0,2). Instead, in the formal inference approach, only the nominal error rate is relevant, and a comparison with the “actual” error rate is inappropriate. Implications for conceptualizing, demonstrating, and reducing p-hacking are discussed.
Predicting probable eating disorders in Chinese adolescents using longitudinal data: A comparison between traditional machine learning and modern deep learning approaches
Feng Ji; Yuchen Zhang; Nanyu Luo; Tianqiang Yan; Wesley R. Barnhart; Shuqi Cui; Jihong Zhang; Chen Gui; Jianjun Zhou; Jason Nagata
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Eating disorders (EDs) are serious psychiatric conditions, and earlier prediction of ED risk may reduce untreated illness and complications. We compared traditional machine learning (ML) models, including logistic regression, decision trees, support vector machines, and Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), with two deep learning (DL) models (i.e., xDeepFM, FGCNN+xDeepFM) for predicting probable EDs among Chinese adolescents. Using a four-wave (18-month) longitudinal dataset, we predicted probable ED status at follow-up (T4) from risk factors assessed at T1–T3, with models trained and evaluated separately for females and males. Performance was assessed with accuracy, AUC, and F1-score. XGBoost achieved the best overall performance across sexes (accuracy = .9099, AUC = .9472, F1 = .6314) and outperformed the evaluated DL models. The hybrid DL model (FGCNN+xDeepFM) showed the second-highest performance. Feature-importance analyses indicated that prior eating disturbance was the strongest predictor for both sexes. Among females, the next highest-ranked predictors were body shame, peer appearance pressure, and weight bias internalization; among males, they were weight bias internalization, psychological distress, and family appearance pressure. Thus, traditional machine learning, particularly XGBoost, may support early detection of probable ED risks, while DL approaches were competitive but not consistently superior. Sex-specific profiles may inform tailored prevention.
Sensor-based measurement of fear avoidance and movement patterns of healthy individuals with mechanically induced lower back pain during movement tasks: study protocol for an experimental non-interventional study
Annika Heuler; Isabella Hebel; Robert Richer; Nicolas Rohleder; BjĂśrn Eskofier; Annika Genenger; Antonia Barke; Cornelia Weise
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Background: Chronic primary low back pain (CPLBP) is highly prevalent and associated with physical impairment and psychological distress. Fear avoidance (FA) is one contributing factor in the development and persistence of CPLBP. Previous studies proved existing connections between pain, physical activity, stress, and FA, which is also present in pain-free individuals. However, the roles of FA and psychophysiological stress responses have not been systematically disentangled and related to movement patterns combined in one standardized experiment involving pain induction. Methods: To address this gap, 76 pain-free participants (20: phase 1; 56: phase 2) will perform standardized movement tasks (Back Performance Scale, Sit-To-Stand-Test) with and without wearing a back pain simulator in a within-subject design. Movement will be recorded with wearable sensor-based and novel radar-based motion capture technology. Additionally, psychophysiological stress parameters (e.g. salivary cortisol, heart rate variability), and self-reports on stress, pain, and FA will be assessed. This will be followed by a qualitative feasibility and acceptability interview in phase 1. In this phase, we will evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of a novel back pain simulator enabling a standardized simulation of low back pain, and the motion capture technology. Phase 2 will investigate the effects of pain induction on self-reported pain, back pain-related movement parameters, and stress responses. Associations of these factors with FA will be analyzed. We anticipate high feasibility and acceptability. We expect higher pain ratings, lower mobility, and higher stress responses in the pain condition compared to the control condition. We expect FA to moderate mobility and stress responses in the pain condition. Discussion: This study protocol establishes an experimental paradigm to investigate the association of pain, FA, movement, and stress in healthy samples under controlled pain conditions. This paradigm aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the interplay of psychological and physiological mechanisms in CPLBP.
Questionable necessity effects of positive affect on life satisfaction: A comment on Yang et al. (2026)
Kimmo Sorjonen; Bo Melin; Marika Melin
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Yang et al. conducted analyses with necessary condition analysis (NCA) and concluded that positive affect is a necessary condition for life satisfaction. However, it has been established that necessity effects in NCA may be spurious due to correlations between the variables. Here, we found that necessity effects reported by Yang et al. fell within “ranges of spuriousness”, meaning that they could be accounted for by correlations between the variables. Hence, the findings by Yang et al. may have been spurious and their conclusion of positive affect being necessary for life satisfaction premature. It is important for users of NCA to be aware that necessity effects in NCA do not prove necessity any more than correlations prove causality. For increased rigor, we recommend users of NCA to estimate, as we did here, ranges of spuriousness and to require that estimated necessity effects are above the range before concluding necessity.
Difficulties in the learning of same-different discrimination using multiple-item displays in pigeons (Columba livia)
Kiwako Shimada; Midori Ohkita; Arii Watanabe; Tomokazu Ushitani
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The biological origin of the same-different concept has been extensively studied especially with pigeons, and attention and memory may be key factors in further understanding the mechanisms supporting the same-different concept formation. The primary goal of the present study was to investigate how the location of changed items affected pigeons’ performance on same-different discrimination between two successively presented multiple-item displays using the same training procedure as Gibson et al. (2011). However, after encountering pigeons’ difficulty in learning the discrimination (Experiment 1), we shifted our focus to discrimination training itself. The poor performance during training and the resulting pattern in the simplified test suggested that entropy, or degree of heterogeneity, of each display may have been more salient to the pigeons than the abstract same-different relationship between them. In Experiment 2, we switched to the training procedure based on Katz & Wright (2006). This procedure, in which two displays were presented simultaneously, may facilitate learning by allowing pigeons to compare overall perceptual properties rather than relying solely on abstract relational concepts. In this revised task, one display was presented above the other, enabling perceptual comparison between the two displays. Although we observed slight accuracy improvement when single-item displays were used, it remained highly improbable that pigeons would achieve same-different discrimination between multiple-item displays under the current methodology. We discuss our task manipulations and the corresponding changes in pigeons’ performance, which may provide useful insights for developing robust training methods that enhance same-different discrimination learning in multiple-item displays.
Guess what's on your plate: Testing potential correlates of nutrient (mis-)estimation
Theresa J. S. Koch; Laura M KĂśnig
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Fostering healthy dietary choices might be facilitated by a deeper understanding of nutrients, which also includes the ability to estimate energy and nutrient content accurately. In this study, we examined how accurate people were at estimating energy, carbohydrate, and sugar content of four different meals (i.e., typical, healthy, low-carb, low-sugar meal) self-served from a Fake Food buffet. Adding to and going beyond previous literature, we additionally focused on the relationship between people’s estimation abilities and personal (i.e., habitual eating behaviour, general nutrition knowledge) as well as meal-related characteristics (i.e., meal size) as potential correlates. Data from 95 participants revealed that they were relatively accurate in estimating energy content, while they overestimated carbohydrates significantly across meals. Moreover, the data suggest that participants perceive overlaps in low-calorie and low-carb diets, as well as in low-carb and low-sugar diets. Yet, more research is needed to draw precise conclusions about perceived overlaps and to shed light on underlying mechanisms of overestimations. Interestingly, we did not find any clear pattern regarding personal characteristics as correlates of misestimations, but we found energy content misestimations to be more pronounced with increasing meal size. Overall, our study underlines once more that nutrition education is likely insufficient to foster healthy and balanced diets, and structural interventions are needed.
An Illustrative Guide to Expressing Cognitive Theories using Evidence Accumulation Modeling
Luke Joseph Gough Strickland; Russell James Boag; Niek Stevenson; Andrew Heathcote
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Evidence accumulation models (EAMs) explain and predict human choices and response times in a way that maps more directly to cognitive processes than traditional analyses. For example, EAMs can separate the speed-accuracy trade-off from processing capacity. However, little guidance is available regarding how to use EAMs to instantiate cognitive process theories, which often involve complex mappings of parameters to experimental designs. This tutorial illustrates how to embed such theories using the R package EMC2. We show how the effects of cognitive processes can be estimated by mapping EAM parameters to experimental designs using an augmented linear model language. We demonstrate with two examples. The first instantiates a theory of prospective memory. The second instantiates a theory of how humans integrate advice from automated decision aids into their choices. We then show how to combine these two different theories in a unified framework. We conclude by discussing further directions for theory embedding, including non-linear mappings from stimulus values to EAM parameters and the incorporation of trial-by-trial dynamics.
Before There Is a Tool: Using Early-Stage Co-Design to Examine the Legitimacy of Digital Pathways for Youth Social Prescribing
Simone Minett; Nikki Rickard
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Introduction Young people experience high levels of loneliness and social disconnection, yet they often make limited use of formal mental health services. Social prescribing aims to support wellbeing through connection to community-based activities, including arts and cultural participation. In practice, however, prevailing social prescribing models are commonly organised around practitioner–mediated pathways that remain poorly aligned with how many young people seek and negotiate support. This commentary reflects on an early-stage youth social prescribing project that explored the possibility of a youth-facing digital pathway as a potential complement to existing models, and examined its contextual appropriateness and legitimacy. Method Using exploratory co design grounded on participatory action research principles, we examined how youth co researchers and community stakeholders collaboratively evaluated the role and boundaries of a proposed digital pathway. Evaluation was informed by an early prototype of an AI enabled digital connector, prior to any design commitment or implementation. Results The inquiry identified a set of pre-engagement conditions shaping whether participation in community-based social opportunities feels possible in practice, including discovery, identity and social fit, feasibility, readiness, and trust. Participants also raised system-level considerations relevant to youth social prescribing. Discussion Eight practice-oriented recommendations are presented that position early-stage co-design as a means to support informed judgement about whether, how, and under what conditions youth-facing digital pathways to offline social connection should proceed within health and community systems, before tools are built.
Co-design and Feasibility Testing of an AI-Based Virtual Reality Application to Prepare People with Intellectual Disability for Healthcare Visits
Stefan C. Michalski; Jane Adams; Ali Darejeh; Rachael Cvejic; Sylvia Gustin; Julian N Trollor
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Background: People with intellectual disability experience barriers in accessing healthcare. Virtual reality (VR) with artificial intelligence (AI) may support healthcare preparation for this population. Objective: To co-design, develop and evaluate the feasibility and usability of an AI-based VR application to improve healthcare preparedness for people with intellectual disability. Methods: Ten adults with intellectual disability completed the AI-VR experience simulating a general practitioner visit across three sequential scenes: checking in with a receptionist, waiting in a clinic waiting room, and consulting with a doctor. Participants interacted verbally with AI avatars. Semi-structured interviews followed each scene. Results: Participants valued the avatars' clear, patient communication and described the system as supportive for learning healthcare content and practising communication and self-advocacy skills. Usability issues were identified. Conclusion: AI-VR appears feasible and acceptable for healthcare preparation in people with intellectual disability. Refinements to system usability are needed to support independent use and broader implementation.
Individual Differences in Risk Preference: Selection and Socialization Effects
Yunrui Liu; David Richter; Rui Mata
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Risk preference varies considerably across individuals, but the consequences and causes of this heterogeneity remain insufficiently understood. This study examines the predictive validity of risk preference for various life events (i.e., selection effects) and the role of life events in shaping risk preference (i.e., socialization effects). Using a large representative sample from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP; N = 14,558), we employed propensity score matching to construct synthetic treatment and control groups—individuals experiencing (or not experiencing) a life event—while controlling for various confounding variables. We then evaluated the extent to which general and domain-specific measures of risk preference predict the occurrence of 12 life events related to family transitions (e.g., marriage) and professional development (e.g., self-employment), as well as how these life events shape risk preference. Our findings provide evidence for selection effects by demonstrating that risk preference significantly predicts the occurrence of various life events. Furthermore, the predictive utility of risk preference generalizes across domains, with general or composite measures demonstrating somewhat superior predictive power relative to domain-specific ones. In turn, after adjusting for selection bias, socialization effects were negligible, with most life events showing no significant association with changes in risk preference. Overall, our results suggest that while risk preference has broad predictive power across various life areas, life events have a limited influence on shaping it. These findings reinforce the predominance of selection effects and underscore the importance of carefully distinguishing between selection and socialization processes.
Why we dive deep: A momentum-based account of depth-first persistence in hierarchically organized goals
Sneha Aenugu; John O'Doherty
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Humans can flexibly organize their behavior to pursue hierarchically structured goals, dynamically updating their commitment to goals and their concomitant subgoals in response to changes in environmental contingencies. Through a novel hierarchical goal selection paradigm, we investigate human persistence patterns in goal and subgoal pursuit, especially in the presence of varying subgoal prospects. We observe that humans exhibit a depth-first commitment to hierarchical goals, preferring to persist on a goal--subgoal pair until termination rather than the breadth-first approach of alternating between subgoals within a goal. We also show that this depth-first persistence in goals and subgoals is modulated by goal and subgoal progress, respectively. We further demonstrate that a momentum-based account that parsimoniously estimates the values of ongoing goals explains depth-first patterns of persistence in hierarchically organized goals. We explicitly dissociate the effects of momentum computations from switching costs on goal persistence, and show that momentum computations drive persistence choices above and beyond dynamic costs imposed by switching goals and subgoals.
Scaffolding and engagement are coupled during shared book reading’s word-learning moments
Laura Diprossimo; Kate Cain
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This study tested the assumption that caregiver scaffolding and child engagement are tightly coupled during shared book reading’s word-learning moments. It also examined whether this coupling is consistent or variable across print and digital reading media. Word-learning episodes were coded from a corpus of videorecorded shared-reading interactions between caregiver-child dyads (N = 78, children’s age range = 4;0 – 5;11). Results support the prediction that scaffolding and engagement are coupled during word-learning moments. This coupling was robust across reading media. Further, child age was a significant predictor of engagement. These findings confirm that engagement is a critical social interaction mechanism involved in the scaffolding process that supports word learning.
Sex differences in inpatients with obsessive–compulsive disorder
Adrian Meule; Ulrich Voderholzer
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Background: Sex differences in obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) have been observed across several domains, including epidemiology and clinical presentation (e.g., age of disorder onset, comorbid mental disorders, OCD symptom dimensions). However, findings have been mixed, particularly with regard to possible sex differences in treatment outcome. Method: Data of 2540 adolescents (16%, n = 417) and adults (84%, n = 2123) with OCD (59% female, n = 1508) who received inpatient treatment at the Schoen Clinic Roseneck (Prien am Chiemsee, Germany) between January 2015 and April 2024 were analyzed. Results: Female patients were younger, had a longer length of stay, were more likely to have OCD subtype with predominantly compulsive acts and comorbid anxiety-related and eating disorders and were less likely to have behavioral and emotional disorders with onset usually occurring in childhood and adolescence than male patients. When examining self-report questionnaires, female patients had higher scores for compulsions in general and compulsive washing in particular, and for depressive, somatic, and anxiety symptoms. There were no sex differences in changes in OCD-specific and other symptoms from admission to discharge based on both self-reports and therapist ratings. Conclusion: Despite sex differences in OCD symptom dimensions and comorbid symptoms, treatment response was comparable for female and male patients. These findings suggest that while sex may shape how OCD manifests, it does not appear to influence the degree of symptom improvement achieved during inpatient treatment.
Pro-Environmental Attitudes Correlate with Personality Traits More Strongly Than Typical Single-Method Studies Suggest: A Large Multi-Rater, Multi-Trait, Multi-Sample Study
Katarina Kliit; Uku Vainik; RenĂŠ MĂľttus
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Relatively stable personality traits shape people’s motivations and attitudes, and their potential effect on pro-environmental attitudes and resulting behaviours can accumulate over time. However, narrow personality traits—nuances that tend to provide stronger and more refined associations with various outcomes—have received little attention in relation to pro-environmental attitudes. Furthermore, research has almost exclusively focused on self-reports that are prone to biases. This suggests that the associations between personality traits and pro-environmental attitudes have likely been underestimated. We collected participants' self- and informant-reports of narrow personality nuances and broad Big Five domains from three samples (Estonian, N = 20,926; Russian, N = 762; English, N = 600). This allowed us to estimate their true correlation (rtrue) with and predictive accuracy (rtruepred) for pro-environmental attitudes, while controlling for single-method, occasion-specific, and random errors and estimating the findings’ generalizability. The rtrues were higher than self-reports-based correlations, and nuances had larger effect sizes than domains. In the largest sample, the Openness (rtrue = .35) and Agreeableness domains (rtrue = .27) had the highest rtrues with pro-environmental attitudes. However, a range of nuances had even stronger rtrues , primarily those reflecting progressive views, care for other people, and appreciation of art. The combined predictive accuracy of nuances for pro-environmental attitudes reached nearly rtruepred = .60, even with only three “top” nuances; the domains’ predictive accuracy was lower (rtruepred = .50). The findings replicated well across samples and suggest that pro-environmental attitudes are linked with personality traits more strongly and in more nuanced ways than previously thought.
Situations Meet Mobile Sensing Methods: Prospects for Research on Person-Situation Relations
Niclas Kuper; Larissa Sust; John F. Rauthmann; Ramona Schoedel
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Understanding the dynamic interplay of persons and situations is central to explaining human behavior and experience. Although personality psychology has made substantial progress in conceptualizing and studying situations over the past decade, current approaches remain limited by their reliance on self-reports, which constrains the assessment of objective and temporally fine-grained situational information in everyday life. New technologies, such as mobile sensing methods, have been proposed to overcome these limitations by providing continuously collected data. Yet despite this potential, mobile sensing has not been fully integrated into situational assessment. To address this gap from a conceptual point of view, we identify three key challenges in situation research that hinder the investigation of person-situation relations and where mobile sensing can have great impact: (1) the neglect of objective situation cues and situation classes, (2) insufficient differentiation between person and situation measures, and (3) limited attention to within-situation dynamics. For each challenge, we outline next steps for integrating mobile sensing, discuss potential hurdles, and suggest possible solutions. We conclude by highlighting how aligning current challenges in situation research with mobile sensing methods can advance the study of person-situation relations with unprecedented ecological validity and temporal resolution.
Decline effects, statistical artifacts, and a meta-analytic paradox
Richard Donald Morey
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The decline effect (Protzko & Schooler, 2017) is an observed phenomenon where effect sizes in experiments apparently diminish in size from the first paper demonstrating the effect to later replications. This has been taken as a symptom of an unhealthy scientific ecosystem, possibly caused by the "winner's curse" (selection on significance and regression to the mean), publication bias or opportunistic analyses. I show that decline effects can arise as an artifact from a much simpler source: the original article determining the sign of the effect in a meta-analysis. Moreover, such artifactual decline effects will show correlations with some of the same experimental properties that one would expect from biases from poor behavior, such as the sample size of the original study.
What predicts faith development? A longitudinal analysis with faith development interviews
Zhuo Job Chen; Heinz Streib
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This study investigates predictors and outcomes of faith development, drawing on Fowler’s broad definition of faith as the search for meaning in life and the hierarchical typology of faith styles assessed through the Faith Development Interview (FDI). The sample comprised 324 two-wave longitudinal cases collected over two decades of mixed-method research in the USA and Germany, with an average interval of 7.39 years (SD = 4.34) between assessments. Robust predictors of faith development included low agreement with the truth of texts and teachings subscale of the Religious Schema Scale (RSS), low frequency of prayer, and high openness to experience (NEO-FFI), while xenosophia/inter-religious dialog emerged as a moderately significant predictor. Predictive validity of FDI was demonstrated, though with limited strength. The findings further suggest that faith development and religiosity may follow different pathways, underscoring the need for future qualitative inquiry into the diverse biographical trajectories of faith development.
In the Shadow of Judgment: Mapping Out the Landscape of Human-AI Decision-Making Through a Systematic Review
Yixin Bai; Taehyun Yang; Zhongzheng Xu; Dayeon Ki; Ziyi Wang; Yu Hou; Fumeng Yang
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Research on human–AI decision-making (HAID) has grown rapidly across domains, yet the literature remains fragmented with conceptual ambiguities hindering systematic synthesis. We present a systematic review of HAID publications from 2016 to 2024, analyzing 1,493 articles from 20 publishers and databases. Our work contributes: (1) a systematic categorization including 6 contribution types, 13 domains of application, and 4 decision levels; (2) taxonomies of 8 AI roles and 6 human roles, their inputs to decision-making, and their influences on each other; and (3) the identification of 4 research gaps and pathways forward. This interactive interface provides access to our complete corpus, enabling exploration through semantic visualization, filtering, and search capabilities.
The Perils of Partialing Optimism: Relationships with Personality and Health
Suzanne Carrie Segerstrom; Donald R Lynam
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The question of whether optimistic or pessimistic items in the Life Orientation Test-Revised better predict psychological and physical outcomes is often addressed by entering both subscales in the same model. This approach risks the “perils of partialing” in which partial constructs have lower reliability and different nomological nets than their unpartialed counterparts. The present studies tested the effects of partialing optimism and pessimism using structural equation modeling to test differences in external validity and intraclass correlations (ICC) to test similarity of profiles. In Study 1 (N = 2,281 older adults), the optimism-pessimism correlation was modest (r = -0.32), but nomological nets for unpartialed and partialed constructs with personality and health were significantly different (all p < .00001). In Study 2 (N = 739 younger and midlife adults), the optimism-pessimism correlation was higher (r = -0.61). Nomological nets were significantly different (all p < .00001). Examination of item correlations indicated that partialed constructs may have lost convergent validity with key theoretical elements of trait optimism. Differences between optimism and pessimism were fewer than those between each and its partialed counterpart, and results with partialed optimism and pessimism constructs should be viewed with caution.
Go Cry to GPT: People Offload Empathy to AI
Madhulika Shastry; Kurt Gray
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Empathic Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be helpful—making people feel supported—but it has a dark side. When AI can provide emotional support, people become less willing to empathize with the suffering of others. Four studies reveal “empathy offloading:” when people see AI as capable of empathy, people save themselves the emotional labor of emotionally connecting with others. Higher perceptions of AI’s capacity for empathy both correlationally (Study 1) and causally (Study 2) increase empathy offloading. When people learn that someone has received emotional support from large language models (LLMs), they become less willing to empathize with them (Studies 3 and 4). Empathy offloading extends beyond simple scale ratings and includes reduced perspective-taking (Study 3) and offering fewer empathic responses (Study 4). Empathic AI might provide low-cost, easily accessible emotional support, but it risks fraying the ethical and emotional commitments to other human beings.
The Underlying Dimensionality of Spoken Word Recognition: Continuous development through the school-age years
Hyoju Kim; Jamie Klein-Packard; Keith Baxelbaum; Bruce Tomblin; Bob McMurray
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Spoken word recognition relies on rapid, real-time competition among lexical candidates, yet it remains unclear which aspects of this competition change across later childhood and how they relate to individual differences in language and reading development. We tracked 263 children for three years (starting in grades 1-3) and measured spoken word recognition annually using the Visual World Paradigm alongside standardized language and reading assessments. Principal component analysis of fixation dynamics identified five orthogonal dimensions explaining 80% of the variance, revealing a multidimensional architecture. Growth-curve analyses showed that the second dimension—activation rate—showed robust developmental change and uniquely covaried with language ability, independent of non-linguistic processing and cognitive regulation. A third dimension—competitor suppression—was also linked to language ability, particularly among children with weaker language skills. Together, these findings demonstrate continued reorganization of spoken word recognition across later childhood, with distinct competition mechanisms differentially linked to language development.
How US Youth Use AI Chatbots: Conversation Patterns from Naturalistic Keystroke Data
Anne J. Maheux; Debra Boeldt; Samir Akre-Bhide; Jessica E. Flannery; Allison Paige; Giavanna Villella; Kaitlyn Burnell; Eva H. Telzer; Scott Kollins
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Youth are increasingly engaging with generative artificial intelligence (genAI) chatbots, yet little is known about the nature of their interactions. This study used naturalistic behavioral observations of keystrokes typed into genAI mobile apps to characterize the topics youth discuss with chatbots. Participants were 3,363 U.S. youth ages ≤9–17 years using the Aura parental monitoring app who engaged in some degree of genAI use. Text input was coded using a large language model with human review. Most youth used genAI as a functional tool for problem-solving and information seeking. However, a substantial minority engaged in conversations involving violence, romantic and sexual role-play, and friendship. Younger users showed higher rates of potentially inappropriate content than older teens. Although general-purpose applications (e.g., ChatGPT) were mostly used for task assistance, they were also popular for socioemotional purposes. More research is needed examining psychosocial impacts of AI interactions and safety-focused design features.
Quand les fausses informations liées au cancer s’invitent dans le monde scientifique : étude de cas d’un texte académique [When false information about cancer enters the scientific world: a case study of an academic text]
Florent Varet; Valentyn Fournier; Toussard; Katell Maguet; François Cherifi
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[English translation of the French abstract] Introduction: Better understanding the determinants, consequences, and mechanisms associated with misinformation in oncology is an important issue in order to prevent and correct its effects. These may include a loss of trust in research and healthcare actors in oncology and a rejection of their recommendations, sometimes in favor of risky alternative practices. Research on this topic has most often focused on analyzing factors related to the victims of misinformation. However, the producers and vectors of misinformation remain understudied. Methods: Within this framework, the authors of the present manuscript propose a critical analysis of an article in which they, as well as other individuals and institutions, are subjected to personal attacks. The article also contributes to the production and dissemination of misinformation related to oncology. The authors conducted an analysis of the rhetorical devices and fallacious arguments contained in the article, drawing on established academic approaches, typologies, and reference works. In addition, an analysis of potential breaches of editorial and ethical standards was carried out in comparison with several sets of widely recognized guidelines. Results and discussion: The analysis of the article reveals the use of numerous non-scientific persuasive argumentative strategies (e.g., logical distortions, emotional appeals, diversionary tactics, and discrediting of opponents), as well as several potential shortcomings on the part of both the author and the editorial process with regard to ethical and integrity standards. In particular, the similarities between the analyzed article and misinformation discourse are discussed, along with the potential harmful effects on the credibility of research and healthcare in oncology, and the resulting perspectives for research and for combating misinformation.
The Missing Link: Validating the Working Memory Adaptive Fatigue with N-Back Difficulty Protocol for Active Cognitive Fatigue Induction
Brodie Edward Mangan; Simone Tomaz; Dimitrios Kourtis
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Cognitive fatigue is widely invoked to explain performance breakdowns, yet many laboratory inductions are repurposed tasks that may inadvertently confound fatigue with learning, monotony, or disengagement. We present WAND (Working-memory Adaptive-fatigue with N-back Difficulty), a purpose-built, open-source protocol designed to induce active cognitive fatigue (ACF) under controlled conditions. WAND combines (a) structured practice and a performance-plateau phase to minimise learning effects, (b) tiering of task performance, and (c) adaptive difficulty and time compression in interleaved tasks to sustain high cognitive load of appropriate difficulty while limiting boredom. In a behavioural validation study (N = 27), after completing a comprehensive practice phase, participants completed a 65–70-minute induction comprising fixed “probe” Sequential N-back blocks interleaved with adaptive Spatial and Dual N-back blocks. Confirmatory mixed-effects modelling showed a robust decline in working-memory sensitivity from the first to the final block, representing a medium-to-large effect size (Cohen's d = −0.71). This impairment was accompanied by a modest speeding of responses rather than the compensatory slowing typically expected in passive fatigue contexts. A brief visual mini-distractor embedded within the probe task did not show an increased post-distractor cost with fatigue. Subjective ratings of mental fatigue, effort, mind wandering, and feeling overwhelmed increased monotonically across five assessment points. Together, these results validate WAND as a practical and methodologically precise tool for inducing a behavioural profile consistent with ACF, while providing a transparent framework for reproducible fatigue induction and measurement in behavioural and neurophysiological studies.
Gender Stereotypes and Employees' Job Satisfaction
Nandinee Vaghela; Vidisha Pimple
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This working paper examines the relationship between gender stereotype endorsement and job satisfaction among 71 urban employees in India. It was hypothesized that stronger stereotype perceptions would be associated with lower job satisfaction. However, results revealed a statistically significant positive correlation (r = .32, p = .01), suggesting that alignment between internalized gender-role expectations and organizational norms may contribute to professional satisfaction. The study employs a newly developed Gender Stereotype Scale currently undergoing psychometric validation. As an exploratory preprint, these findings provide a preliminary foundation for future research on gender-role internalization and workplace well-being in the Indian context.
Analysis Report: The Effects of AI Highlighting Methods and Display Color Coding in Visual Search Tasks
Marthe Gruner; Toni Schumacher; Angelina Grauerholz; Jan Erik Hannig; Christoph SchĂśnicke; AndrĂŠ Sergej Calero Valdez
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This document reports the preregistered confirmatory analysis of a 2 × 3 between-subjects experiment (N = 120) examining AI cueing methods across color and monochrome dis- plays in simulated maritime visual search. Monochrome imagery remains common in legacy surveillance and sensor systems, yet little is known about how AI-based cueing methods per- form under these constraints. We compared indirect cueing (textual alerts), additive cueing (bounding boxes), and subtractive cueing (contextual blur) on detection performance, signal detection measures, and behavioral trust. An exploratory temporal analysis assessed return- to-manual costs and skill transfer across five experimental blocks (pre-support, support, post-support). This preprint provides the complete statistical results for the preregistered study design.
Motor Imagery ability in adults with neurological conditions compared to healthy individuals: A systematic review
Imaann Adebo; Audrey Avocegamou; Robert Hardwick; Marcos Moreno-VerdĂş
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Objective: Growing evidence suggests effects of motor imagery interventions in neurorehabilitation. However, neurological impairment may be related to deficits in motor imagery ability. We summarized the evidence on differences across motor imagery ability components following Stroke, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), Parkinson’s disease (PD), or Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Data sources: Six databases were searched up to February 2024. Review methods: Studies comparing adults with these conditions to healthy individuals were included. Two reviewers independently selected studies and assessed Risk of Bias. Qualitative analyses were applied. Outcomes were motor imagery generation, maintenance, and manipulation, assessed through questionnaires, mental chronometry, and mental rotation tasks. Results: Fifty-two studies with low or moderate bias were included (Stroke: n=26; TBI: n=1; PD: n=14; MS: n=11). Qualitative analyses suggested possible differences in Stroke and MS for manipulation of MI, while for PD the evidence was contradictory. For imagery generation and maintenance, contradictory evidence for Stroke and MS (stronger towards a difference) was found, while for PD moderate evidence for a difference was found. For TBI, a limited number of studies impeded performing formal syntheses of the evidence. Conclusion: Differences in specific motor imagery ability domains may be present in people with neurological conditions of different aetiologies. Clinicians should consider assessing all three components before applying motor imagery interventions.
Measuring audience experience across 20 showings of the same theatre performance using customer feedback kiosks and a questionnaire
Mikko Sams; Einat Amir; Enrico Glerean; Sirpa KähkÜnen; Taru Mäkelä; Reetta Ristimäki; Antti Ruotoistenmäki; Veli-Matti Saarinen
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We examined audience experience across twenty live performances of the same music theatre production, offering an opportunity to analyze variation in collective audience response under constant artistic conditions. We combined two complementary methods: immediate audience ratings collected through customer feedback kiosks and more detailed post-performance questionnaires. A total of 1887 (67%) audience members provided kiosk feedback, and 458 (24%) completed questionnaires. Overall, the reception was positive, but kiosk ratings varied significantly across performances, indicating that the collective live audience experience fluctuates from one showing to another. The distributions of kiosk ratings and questionnaire responses to the same question were almost identical, showing that brief kiosk feedback provides a valid and efficient measure of audience experience, yielding high participation with minimal effort from spectators. Cluster analysis of questionnaire data identified three distinct audience profiles that differed primarily in overall engagement and appreciation of artistic quality. These results demonstrate that audiences of a single production form experientially diverse groups. Qualitative responses, obtained from participants whose quantitative ratings were most representative of each cluster, provided short written accounts of their experiences. These narratives enriched the interpretation of the data by clarifying how similar numerical profiles could correspond to distinct emotional tones, interpretive emphases, and personal connections to the performance. Interviews with the director, artistic director, and an external playwright highlighted both enthusiasm and hesitation toward incorporating audience data into creative work. While all acknowledged the potential of empirical insight to support artistic reflection, they emphasized the need for sensitivity in how feedback is framed and shared within production teams.
Interpersonal Adjustment as An Account for Communication Challenges Among Individuals with High and Low Autistic Traits
Rui Liu; Jan R. Wiersema; Lara Bardi
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Double Empathy Problem (DEP) proposes that communication breakdowns across different neurotypes arise from reciprocal mismatches, challenging the traditional pathological model of social difficulties in autism. Despite its conceptual appeal, DEP lacks formalization for empirical testing. Drawing on a constructivist view of communication, we operationalized DEP by distinguishing between global interpersonal autistic-trait differences and local dynamic interpersonal adjustment. 152 participants formed low-low, low-high, and high-high autistic-trait dyads. In a real-time conceptual coordination task, dyads developed novel signaling systems to coordinate target choices. Mixed-trait dyads exhibited reduced interpersonal adjustment, greater signaling variability, and more heterogeneous adjustment dynamics than matched-trait dyads. Interpersonal adjustment promoted communication outcomes and mediated the relationship between autistic-trait disparity and communicative outcomes. These findings suggest that autistic-trait differences may initially hinder coordination but can be attenuated through accommodate mental states towards each other. Integrating global and local processes advances theoretical precision of DEP and provides a foundation for future mechanistic investigation of neurodiverse communication and inclusive social practices.
Why addressing HIV stigma should be our number one priority in the HIV response
Sarah E. Stutterheim
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If we are to achieve the UNAIDS 95-95-95 goals, and eventually eradicate HIV, we need to prioritize stigma reduction, and we need to be smart about how we do it. This position paper gives an overview of the ways in which HIV stigma impacts cascade of care outcomes, provides guidance for effective stigma reductions interventions, and delineates priorities for understanding and addressing stigma in the HIV response. It makes clear that various forms of stigma deleteriously impact prevention and testing, linkage to care, initiation and adherence to antiretroviral treatment, and viral suppression, and describes stigma reduction methods for public stigma, self-stigma, and structural stigma. It furthermore argues that stigma interventions should be systematically developed, theory- and evidence-based, tailored to context, and codesigned and co-implemented with recipient populations. Lastly, this paper argues for better measurement of stigma, not by seeking consensus on construct definitions and corresponding measures but rather through the transparent reporting of definitions and their operationalizations.
Voice perception across languages: Reduced similarity between speakers, stable identity within speakers
Tianze Xu; Xiaoming Jiang
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Purpose: Despite the central role of voice perception in social interaction, the mechanisms underlying cross-linguistic voice similarity judgments remain underexplored. This study examined how voice similarity is perceived within and across languages, using bilingual speech as a means to isolate language-driven effects while controlling for anatomical variation. Method: English-speaking listeners with and without Cantonese proficiency completed a perceptual similarity rating task involving Cantonese–English bilingual speakers. Listeners rated the similarity of voice pairs on a nine-point scale, including both within-language and cross-language comparisons. Multidimensional scaling (MDS) was applied to the dissimilarity ratings to model perceptual voice space, and acoustic–perceptual correlations were used to relate perceptual dimensions to acoustic properties of the speech signal. Results: Cross-language voice pairs were perceived as significantly more dissimilar than within-language pairs, particularly for same-speaker items, indicating a language mismatch effect. No robust language familiarity effect was observed between listener groups. Importantly, same-speaker pairs were consistently judged as more similar than different-speaker pairs even across languages—a finding further supported by MDS, which revealed a stable underlying perceptual structure in which speakers generally clustered with themselves across languages. Perceptual dimensions were primarily associated with pitch, vocal tract size, and harmonic-to-noise spectral characteristics, with their relative weighting modulated by language context. Conclusions: The findings indicate that while language mismatch reduces perceived similarity between speakers, the vocal identity of a speaker remains perceptually stable across languages. These results refine the prototype model of voice perception by demonstrating dynamic, context-sensitive weighting of acoustic cues in bilingual voice processing.
Green–green conflict as the next frontier in energy transition challenges
Boryana Todorova; Matthew Hornsey
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The global shift to renewable energy is gaining momentum but it is also driving an unexpected rift within the environmental movement itself. Expanding wind, solar, hydro, and mining projects for critical minerals is essential to meet net-zero targets, yet these same projects can fragment habitats, threaten species, and disrupt culturally valued landscapes.
Childhood First: Prolonged Development Before Big Brains in Human Evolution
Tobias Grossmann
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The prevailing account of human life-history evolution holds that selection for larger brains drove the prolongation of childhood: because neural tissue is metabolically costly, encephalization necessarily slowed developmental pace. Recent fossil evidence calls this causal sequence into question. Across multiple hominin lineages spanning over three million years (including Australopithecus afarensis, early Homo at Dmanisi, and Homo naledi), prolonged developmental timing appears in species with chimpanzee-sized brains. Moreover, Neanderthals exhibited faster dental development than Homo sapiens despite comparable or larger brain volumes, and the prolongation of childhood in our lineage, including a distinctive phase of postnatal brain globularization, continued after maximum brain size had been attained. Together, these patterns indicate that brain size and developmental pace are decoupled and that the extension of human childhood was not a passive consequence of encephalization. I propose the Childhood-First Hypothesis, which reverses the conventional causal arrow: the emergence of a cooperative childcare niche, in which allomaternal provisioning and early weaning extended juvenile dependency, may have preceded and facilitated brain expansion rather than resulting from it. Drawing on fossil geochemistry, comparative primatology, computational modeling, and developmental neuroscience, I argue that the evolutionary foundations of human cognition were social before they were neural. If this cooperative childcare niche (a self-reinforcing caregiving ecology, continuously reconstructed across generations) created the conditions under which encephalization became viable, then current theoretical frameworks may overstate the causal primacy of brain size and understate the role of social organization in shaping human developmental trajectories.
The Reading Brain from Womb to Classroom: Typical and Atypical Development and Implications for a Preventative Educational Model
Nadine Gaab; Ted Turesky
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Learning to read is a process and milestone with far‑reaching implications for education, vocation, and health. Most models and empirical studies of reading development, however, focus on school entry and often limit potential influences to children’s oral language and print-based skills. In contrast, a smaller corpus of behavioral, genetic, environmental, and neuroimaging research strongly suggests that reading development begins far earlier, in utero. This article first reviews major theoretical frameworks of reading development and synthesizes studies demonstrating that lower-order oral language and cognitive skills necessary for higher-order reading skills (e.g., reading comprehension) begin emerging during the perinatal period. It then characterizes the development of the “reading brain,” starting with regions involved in proficient reading and proceeding to neuroimaging work suggesting that the perinatal brain may already be equipped with a neural scaffold that supports reading development. Although brain scans are not suitable for identifying individual children at risk, they can inform accurate developmental, multifactorial models of reading that, in turn, can better guide preventive educational practices.

SocArxiv

Can A New Name Open Closed Doors? Foreign-Sounding Names and Immigrant Earnings
Janis Umblijs; Are Skeie Hermansen
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Personal names are visible markers of ethnic identity that can shape access to economic opportunity. While field experiments provide ample evidence that foreign-sounding names limit immigrants’ access to employment, far less is known about how names shape career trajectories beyond the point of hire in naturally unfolding labor market settings. Using administrative data with longitudinal information on personal names, we investigate how changing from a foreign-sounding to a name more typical in the native-born majority improves the labor market outcomes of male immigrants. Covering the entire population in Norway, these data allow us to calculate names’ ethnic distinctiveness and observe when individuals pursue a name assimilation strategy. We find that adopting a mainstream name increases non-Western immigrants’ earnings by approximately 20 percent on average over the subsequent five years, and raises the probability of stable employment by around 4–6 percentage points. The earnings gains stem primarily from movement into stable employment and higher-paying jobs rather than within-workplace earnings growth, indicating that name assimilation reduces barriers to job entry rather than influencing advancement within organizations. These findings provide rare causal evidence on the economic payoff of symbolic assimilation and show how ethnic signals continue to structure opportunity in contemporary labor markets.
Birthplaces That Don't Matter? How Early-Life Exposure to Local Unemployment Shapes Immigration Attitudes
Franziska Maria Veit
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Theories of globalization and labor market risk portray economic insecurity as a key driver of nativism. Yet individuals’ current economic conditions only weakly predict their immigration attitudes. I argue that the missing link is formative exposure to economic insecurity, which fosters a persistent sensitivity to economic risk and makes individuals more susceptible to threat-based immigration narratives. Building on political socialization research that identifies adolescence as a critical period for attitude formation, I test this argument using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (1993–2023) linked to district-level historical employment data. The results show that individuals who grew up in districts with higher unemployment express stronger concern about immigration in adulthood. By linking formative economic experiences to adult political outcomes, this study identifies a novel economic-socialization pathway to explain immigration attitudes. It contributes to understanding how economic uncertainty is transmitted across generations and how formative experiences shape the foundations of democratic politics.
Bridging Resource Availability Gaps in Community Mental Health: A Feasibility Study of a Self-Guided Digital Support Tool
Ignatius Quek
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Background: Emotion regulation is a central process in psychological well-being and is increasingly supported through digital mental health tools designed to expand access to care. In community mental health set-tings where demand exceeds available human resources, self-guided web-based immersive approaches may enhance service availability gaps and increase engagement while providing short-term emotional regulation support, although real-world evidence remains limited. Objective: This study evaluated the feasibility and acceptability of deploying a web-based immersive digital sup-port tool for emotional regulation within a community mental health organization (Over The Rainbow Singapore), based on voluntarily submitted post-session feedback, and explored preliminary short-term affective signals following tool use. The pilot sought to determine if such tools could function as low-threshold, on-demand resources to support users when faced with limited or unavailable intervention resources. Methods: A single-arm pilot feasibility study used voluntarily submitted anonymous post-session feedback forms collected during routine use of Zen3D between February and October 2023. Zen3D is a self-guided web-based immersive support tool incorporating audiovisual environments, guided breathing cues, and attentional redirection. Feasibility indicators were derived from submission patterns and completion of feedback items. Short-term affective signals were assessed using retrospective self-reported emotional state ratings and a categorical post-session response item. Analyses were descriptive. Results: A total of 84 feedback submissions were recorded. Among these, 58.3% indicated perceived short-term emotional improvement. In submissions with complete paired retrospective ratings (n = 15), 73.3% showed a positive directional change, with mean emotional state ratings increasing from 3.07 to 3.93 (mean change +0.87). Notably, 41.7% of respondents expressed a continued desire for live volunteer support, highlighting the tool's role as a supplementary rather than a replacement resource. Conclusions: The findings support the feasibility of deploying a web-based immersive digital support tool in a com-munity mental health context. Observed affective changes were modest and exploratory, and while clinical efficacy cannot be inferred, the results suggest that low-threshold digital interventions can be integrated into existing community health operations to provide immediate access to emotional regulation strategies.
Is the pursuit of pleasure on vacation a barrier to environmentally sustainable behaviour?
Sarah MacInnes; Csilla Demeter; Sara Dolnicar
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Two types of happiness (eudaimonia and hedonia) could potentially be leveraged to trigger pro-environmental tourist behaviour while preserving or even enhancing guest satisfaction. Hedonia (sensory/immediate pleasure) is commonly considered a barrier to pro-environmental behaviour on vacation, while eudaimonia (fulfilment/growth) is generally thought to prompt pro-environmental behaviour. Whether, and in what way, hedonia and eudaimonia are associated with pro-environmental behaviour in tourism, remains empirically untested. This study assesses—for the first time—the empirical relationship of hedonia and eudaimonia with stated pro-environmental behaviour in both an imagined home and vacation context to determine tourism-specific context dependence. Eudaimonia emerges as being highly related to tourist pro-environmental behaviour, suggesting a promising leverage point for pro-environmental behaviour change interventions. Contrary to popular belief, there is no empirical evidence of hedonia being associated with tourist pro-environmental behaviour, suggesting it may not represent a barrier to such behaviour.
Changing Opportunity: Rising Local Wealth Inequality and Growing Class Gaps in Income Mobility
Manuel Schechtl; Florencia Torche
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Recent research documents widening class gaps in intergenerational income mobility. Children from low-income families in more recent cohorts attain lower incomes than their counterparts in earlier cohorts, while no comparable decline is observed among children from high-income families. This study examines whether rising local wealth inequality contributes to the growing class divide in income mobility. To do so, it combines newly published estimates of local wealth inequality (GEOWEALTH-US) with cohort-based measures of upward mobility from Opportunity Insights. First-difference models reveal a consistent, negative association between rising local wealth inequality and declining upward income mobility for low-income children, but no such relationship for their high-income peers. Rising local wealth inequality explains about one-fifth of the increase in class gaps in economic mobility.
When co-creation meets the pluriverse: engaging diverse worlds in low-carbon transitions
Jose Antonio Ballesteros Figueroa; Pablo Ayala Villalobos; Vanessa Jimenez Machuca
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This paper brings science and technology studies into dialogue with Latin-American and decolonial scholarship to reconceptualise co-creation in low-carbon transitions as a pluriversal practice. Drawing on improved ecological cookstove programmes in rural Mexico, it extends Thomas’s concept of ‘socio-technical adequacy’ through a Fit-Belong- Sustain framework for assessing how technologies align with diverse social worlds. Based on documentary analysis and interviews with diverse stakeholders (from indigenous cooks to government officials), this paper examines several decades of efficient stove initiatives and their uneven outcomes. It demonstrates that top-down efforts to disseminate a singular ‘optimal’ stove frequently failed to replace the traditional hearth. Meanwhile, many households continued to practice fuel stacking, combining open fires with newly introduced stoves that were often redesigned in use, thereby undermining the anticipated health and carbon benefits. In response, locally grounded co-creation practices have emerged in which artisans, universities, non-governmental organisations and users collaboratively adapt stove designs to better fit everyday cooking practices and sustain themselves through community-based maintenance arrangements. Despite renewed interest from governments, the stove sector remains dominated by one-off programmes and fragmented maintenance efforts, with little guidance on how to consolidate pluralistic, self- sustaining design and production ecosystems attuned to local socio-economic conditions. Therefore, we argue for the diffusion of dialogical frameworks rather than the pursuit of ‘inclusive’ but stabilised artefacts. Rather than treating traditional material cultures as barriers to innovation, culturally sensitive co-creative design can better align low-carbon technologies with plural ontologies and position communities as active agents in shaping their socio-material worlds.
Trapped by a picture? Tracing video media as a substitute for social life and leisure in North America and the UK
Ben Harvey; Naomi Davies
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In this article, we reevaluate the social legacy of edited video media as a technology. We employ Winner’s (2020) concept of technologies as forms of life and apply it to what we term TV+. TV+ describes a continuity of media form from the earliest cinema to contemporary TikTok reels. In particular, we trace the history of TV+ and leisure as they have co-evolved over the last century in North America and the UK. We explore the capacity of TV+ to substitute for social interaction and capture attention involuntarily. We then contextualize TV+ within the development of mass leisure and recreation culture in the twentieth century, which TV+ then began to replace. Integrating these findings with Putnam’s Bowling Alone, we extend his arguments on television to capture contemporary media habits and contemporary forms of social isolation. We argue that TV+ may be socially corrosive not merely because it deskills individuals, but because it produces a larger structural effect, lowering the available opportunities for recreation and leisure outside of TV+.
Personal Health Budgets for children with complex medical needs: a rapid scoping review
Lisa Franks
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Background Children and young people with complex medical needs are increasingly supported at home by family carers, often with statutory healthcare funding. In England, Personal Health Budgets (PHBs) are promoted as mechanisms to increase choice and control in how healthcare funding is used, yet evidence on their use in children’s complex care remains limited. Aim To map and synthesise existing evidence on the experiences and outcomes of children and young people with complex medical needs and their families accessing PHBs or comparable self-directed health funding schemes. Methods A rapid scoping review was conducted following PRISMA-ScR guidance. Eight academic databases were searched alongside targeted grey literature sources, including national bodies, third-sector organisations, and all 42 Integrated Care Boards in England. Sources published between 2010 and January 2026 were screened and charted. Eligible sources addressed children/young people with complex medical needs (and/or families) and examined experiences or outcomes of accessing PHBs in England or comparable health-funded self-directed schemes internationally; social care-only budgets were excluded. Data were synthesised thematically across academic and grey literature. Results Twenty-six sources were included (10 peer-reviewed studies and 16 UK grey literature sources). Three higher-order themes were identified: (1) the promise of choice and control alongside burden transfer to family carers; (2) system conditions shaping PHB viability, including workforce stability, information infrastructure, governance, and transitions; and (3) uneven distribution of benefits and outcomes, with a clear equity gradient linked to family resources and local system context. Conclusions PHBs and comparable schemes can enable continuity and relational care for families of children with complex medical needs, but often do so by redistributing labour and risk onto family carers. Without adequate system support, PHBs risk amplifying inequities rather than delivering equitable personalised care. Substantial gaps remain in UK empirical evidence, highlighting the need for further research to inform the design of sustainable, joined-up models of care.
Synthetic personas distort the structure of human belief systems
Christopher Barrie; Roberto Cerina
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Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly used as synthetic survey respondents, yet it is unclear whether their belief-system structure matches that of real publics. We compare 28 LLMs to the 2024 General Social Survey (GSS) using 52 attitude items and demographic persona traits. We estimate polychoric correlation matrices and propagate uncertainty in the GSS via bootstrap resampling with multiple imputation. Constraint is measured by the variance share explained by the first principal component and by effective dependence, a determinant-based measure of global linear dependence. Across models, LLM personas exhibit substantially higher constraint than humans; conditioning on persona traits reduces constraint far more for LLMs, indicating greater demographic mediation. Projection onto a shared GSS basis further shows overemphasis of the leading dimension and missing secondary structure. These results caution against treating LLM personas as a reliable foundation for synthetic survey data generation.
Can Biodiversity Markets Deliver Inclusive and Collaborative Nature Recovery? Lessons from different habitat banking models in England.
Mattia Troiano; Sophus zu Ermgassen; Natalie Duffus; Isobel Hawkins; Sarah Gall; Raphaella Mascia; Matt Whitney; Huw Thomas; Mark Hirons
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Biodiversity markets are increasingly promoted as instruments to close the biodiversity finance gap, yet their implications for social inclusivity and collaborative governance remain poorly understood. England’s new Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) policy provides a critical case. While previous studies have examined its ecological outcomes, few have explored how different institutional models of habitat banking shape who participates in the market and how collaboration unfolds at the landscape scale. Drawing on participatory institutional mapping and 29 interviews with landowners, conservation organisations, planning authorities, and investors in Oxfordshire, we identify and compare three models of habitat banking: (1) for-profit providers leasing land under conservation covenants; (2) institutional not-for-profits managing land; and (3) individual landowners supported by not-for-profit facilitators under legal agreement with planning authorities. We show that for-profit providers tend to foster inclusive participation through risk-sharing finance but limited local collaboration, while not-for- profits enable collaborative governance that advances strategic, landscape-scale nature recovery yet restricts participation to a narrower set of landowners. These findings demonstrate how institutional design and operational models shape both inclusivity and collaboration, with implications for reconciling individual participation and collective ecological goals in the implementation of biodiversity markets.
Family Ownership, ESG Strategies, and Corporate Risk-Taking: Econometric and Machine Learning Evidence
Angelo Leogrande; Marco Savorgnan; Alberto Costantiello; Carlo Drago; Massimo Arnone
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The present study aims to contribute to the exploration of the combined effect of sustainability strategies and family governance on corporate risk-taking, with a focus on the temporal dimension of ESG engagement and the multidimensional nature of family involvement. Although a number of research papers have attempted to investigate the interrelations between ESG performance, corporate risk, and ownership structure, the existing research is fragmented, static, and limited in terms of its research methodology. Therefore, this article aims to provide a framework that (a) distinguishes between long-term and short-term ESG performance and (b) distinguishes between ownership incentives and management control in family firms. The present study uses a sample of listed corporations and combines three different research methods: fixed effects panel regressions, cluster analysis, and machine learning regression methods. The results of this study suggest that long-term ESG performance is negatively related to corporate risk, as proxied by the volatility of operating performance. The effect of short-term ESG performance on corporate risk is less robust and less consistent. Furthermore, this study finds that family cash-flow rights and family CEOs are negatively related to corporate risk, in accordance with the SEW hypothesis. Finally, this study reveals that the positive interaction effect of long-term ESG performance and family cash-flow rights mitigates the negative effect of sustainability on corporate risk in family-controlled corporations. The results of this study show that cluster analysis reveals a high degree of heterogeneity in corporate strategic profiles, with different clusters characterized by specific configurations of ESG orientation, family involvement, corporate governance structure, firm size, and corporate risk. The results of this study also show that the proposed model has a high predictive power in relation to corporate risk levels, as indicated by the results of the random forest regression analysis. Finally, this study reveals that financial fundamentals are more important in determining corporate risk than ESG engagement and family control; however, ESG engagement and family control are secondary but significant and nonlinear determinants of corporate risk.
When Do Autocratizing Incumbents Lose Elections?
Erin Hern; Marc S. Jacob
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When do electorates remove incumbents who undermine democracy? Existing research explains why voters tolerate autocratizing leaders, but we know less about when they hold them accountable. We develop a framework of electoral accountability under autocratization to evaluate when attacks on democracy trigger electoral backlash, considering the scope of autocratization (i.e., the breadth of institutional erosion) and its visibility (i.e., the extent to which these actions are clearly legible as undemocratic to voters), while situating these features alongside preexisting institutional strength, economic performance, and political culture. Drawing on experimental evidence, an original dataset of 105 elections since 1990 in which autocratizing incumbents sought reelection, hand-coded measures of autocratization scope and visibility in recent electoral contests, and comparative analyses of Poland and Zambia, we find that visibility, but not scope, is systematically linked to incumbent defeat. Our findings have implications for the conditions under which citizens can disrupt episodes of autocratization through electoral channels.
From Job Titles to ISCO Codes: Enhancing Occupational Classification With RAG-based LLMs
Ruben L. Bach; Christopher Klamm; Stefanie Heyne; Irena Kogan; Olga Kononykhina; Jana Jarck
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Accurate occupational classification from open-ended survey responses is vital for research in sociology, economics, and political science, yet manual coding remains resource-intensive and difficult to scale. We propose a novel pipeline that leverages large language models (LLMs) augmented with retrieval (RAG) to automate the assignment of International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) codes. Drawing on survey data from a sample of recently arrived Afghan and Syrian refugees in Germany, we preprocess noisy occupational descriptions using LLMs and apply vector-based similarity search to retrieve candidate ISCO codes. The final classification is selected by LLMs, constrained to the retrieved candidates and accompanied by interpretable justifications. We evaluate the system’s performance against expert-coded labels, demonstrating high agreement and robustness across languages. Our findings suggest that RAG-powered LLMs can substantially improve the accuracy, scalability, and accessibility of occupational classification, with particular benefits for multilingual and resource-constrained research settings. In addition, we describe a prototypical pipeline that other researchers can readily adapt for applying LLMs to similar classification tasks, facilitating transparency, reproducibility, and broader adoption.
Symbolic Capital and Inequality in Scholarly Communication: A Bibliometric Study of Editorial Boards
Marco Schirone
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Editorial boards function as gatekeepers in academic publishing, yet systematic frameworks for quantifying how symbolic capital concentrates within editorial networks remain absent. This study operationalizes Bourdieu’s symbolic capital theory through network analysis of 2,135 editorial positions across 30 sustainability science journals. Eigenvector centrality measures symbolic capital as prestige derived from connections to other prestigious positions, while Gini coefficients assess distributional inequality. Among 71 interlocking editors (those holding multiple board positions), women comprise only 22.5%, and scholars from Western Europe and North America dominate both numerically and structurally: editors with the highest eigenvector centrality are concentrated almost exclusively in these regions, while Latin America and Africa contribute only two interlocking editors each. A two-dimensional typology combining median eigenvector centrality with Gini coefficients distinguishes four configurations of symbolic capital across journals: concentrated core, dispersed core, concentrated periphery, and dispersed periphery. Critically, journals’ positions in editorial interlock networks align only partially with their citation-based intellectual centrality, demonstrating that governance structures and knowledge networks represent distinct dimensions of academic power. This reproducible analytical framework enables systematic comparison of editorial governance structures across fields.
The Credibility Revolution in Political Science
Carolina Torreblanca; William Dinneen; Guy Grossman; Yiqing Xu
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How has the credibility revolution shaped political science? We address this question by classifying 91,632 articles published between 2003 and 2023 across 156 political science journals using large language models, focusing on research design, credibility-enhancing practices, and citation patterns. We find that design-based studies—those leveraging plausibly exogenous variation to justify causal claims—have become increasingly common and receive a citation premium. In contrast, model-based approaches that rely on strong modeling assumptions have declined. Yet the rise of design-based work is uneven: it is concentrated in top journals and among authors at highly ranked institutions, and it is driven primarily by the growth of survey experiments. Other credibility-enhancing practices that help reduce false positives and false negatives, such as placebo tests and power calculations, remain rare. Taken together, our findings point to substantial but selective change—more consistent with a partial reform than a revolution.
The Hidden Decline of Trust in Science
Joseph Bulbulia; John R Kerr; Carla Houkamau; Danny Osborne; Marc Wilson; Kumar Yogeeswaran; Chris G Sibley
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Surveys of trust in science are conducted by scientists, creating a structural selection problem: those who distrust science participate at lower rates. In cross-sectional designs this bias is invisible; in panel studies it appears as differential attrition that inflates apparent trust over time. Using five waves (2019–2024) of longitudinal data from a national probability panel in New Zealand (N = 42,681) and multiple imputation to correct attrition bias, we find distributional divergence in trust: after correction, low trust in scientists grows and high trust contracts from 2019 to 2024, a pattern uncorrected data conceal. By tracking who leaves and why, longitudinal designs can expose and bound this bias, a correction cross-sectional surveys cannot attempt. The true extent of scientific scepticism may be systematically underestimated.
Beyond age gates: a brief behavioral validity screen as a risk-tiering layer for social AI companions
Pawel Szczesny
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Current safety protocols for social AI companions rely on binary age thresholds (e.g., "18+") or self-reported declarations of maturity. However, chronological age poorly predicts psychosocial capacity to navigate high-intimacy AI systems, and self-report is easily gamed by users seeking unrestricted access. Adolescence is characterized by significant heterogeneity in social cognition and regulatory capacity; a 16-year-old and an 18-year-old may possess comparable capabilities regarding impulse control, rejection tolerance, and boundary reasoning. This paper argues that high-intimacy AI affordances require a safety layer beyond age verification: a brief, validity-informed behavioral screening battery. This screening tiers access to high-risk features (e.g., erotic roleplay, exclusivity cues) based on vulnerability-relevant metrics, such as inhibitory control or mentalization. Performance validity testing (PVT) informed checks help detect invalid responding/gaming, while task performance provides probabilistic vulnerability signals. An operational framework for risk-tiering is presented, alongside evaluation metrics, privacy safeguards to prevent discriminatory deployment and example implementation as a Chrome browser extension.
When Do Autocratizing Incumbents Lose Elections?
Erin Hern; Marc S. Jacob
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When do electorates remove incumbents who undermine democracy? Existing research explains why voters tolerate autocratizing leaders, but we know less about when they hold them accountable. We develop a framework of electoral accountability under autocratization to evaluate when attacks on democracy trigger electoral backlash, considering the scope of autocratization (i.e., the breadth of institutional erosion) and its visibility (i.e., the extent to which these actions are clearly legible as undemocratic to voters), while situating these features alongside preexisting institutional strength, economic performance, and political culture. Drawing on experimental evidence, an original dataset of 105 elections since 1990 in which autocratizing incumbents sought reelection, hand-coded measures of autocratization scope and visibility in recent electoral contests, and comparative analyses of Poland and Zambia, we find that visibility, but not scope, is systematically linked to incumbent defeat. Our findings have implications for the conditions under which citizens can disrupt episodes of autocratization through electoral channels.
Academic Collaboration as a Strategy for Equity: Can Collaboration Mitigate Gender Bias in Research Evaluation? Evidence from a UK Case Study
Francesca Soldati; Susan Halfpenny; Emma Francis; Cameron Neylon; Chun-Kai Huang
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This study investigates whether the diversity of researchers’ collaboration influences research visibility and whether its benefits differ by gender. Using bibliometric data from 881 academics at the University of Aberdeen (UK), we measured collaboration diversity through Gini indexes based on co-authors’ institutional and country affiliations and assessed research visibility using field-normalised citation percentiles. Regression analyses revealed that collaboration diversity strongly predicts citation impact: researchers with broader institutional and international networks achieve higher citation percentiles. However, contrary to widely reported patterns of gender disadvantage, we found no systematic gender differences in collaboration diversity or citation impact. Women and men engaged in similarly diverse collaborations and derived comparable visibility benefits. An exploratory model suggested that women may gain slightly more from collaborating with different institutions than men, though this effect was not significant after controlling for disciplinary differences. These findings challenge assumptions of universal gender gaps in collaborative practices and highlight the role of inclusive institutional environments in promoting equitable research outcomes. They also suggest that structural factors beyond publication metrics likely drive persistent gender disparities in academic career progression.
Identity, Educational Prestige, and South Korean Students’ Decision-Making in Pursuing U.S. Higher Education
Benhee Lee
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Research on international student mobility has predominantly emphasized economic, academic, and structural determinants of study-abroad decisions. While these approaches illuminate macro-level patterns, they offer limited insight into the psychological and sociocultural meanings students attach to prestigious foreign institutions. This qualitative study examines how Korean undergraduate and graduate students perceive their decision to study in the United States, focusing on identity development and future goals. The study employs identity-based motivation theory, possible selves, and consumer identity theory to frame U.S. higher education as a symbol of status and social recognition. In-depth interviews with Korean students at U.S. universities identified seven key themes shaping their decisions: relational self-concept, family expectations, prior academic experiences, job security goals, the desire for independence, cost considerations, and the reputation of U.S. schools as markers of global competence. The results show that studying abroad involves more than acquiring skills for employment; it helps students develop their identities, compare themselves socially, and navigate social and academic hierarchies. By integrating psychological and sociological perspectives, the study explains how motivation, identity, and the symbolic meaning of education influence students’ decisions to study abroad.
Rails, Risks, and Resilience: A Dynamic Spatial Equilibrium Analysis with Natural Disaster Risks
Daisuke Adachi
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We present a dynamic, stochastic, and spatial model that incorporates disaster risk to study the role of local aggregate risks and moving frictions in the spatial economy. A disaster temporarily reduces regional productivity and suspends transportation networks. The model is applied to the analysis of Japan’s Tokai Trough Earthquake (TTE) and maglev train project. Estimation is based on sufficient statistics of future expected values by future migration flows and novel data on rail network disruption from the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. The TTE risk reduces welfare not only in vulnerable regions close to the expected epicenter but also in more distant regions, revealing the regional spillover effects of the disaster risk. The maglev train project increases welfare by 1.6\% on average, with effects that are larger in the north-east regions under the economy with TTE risk, highlighting the distributional effect under the disaster risk.
Evaluating Education for Biodiversity: A Scoping Review of Practices and Frameworks
Alix Cosquer; Olivier Gimenez; ValĂŠrie De-Saint-Vaulry; Charlotte Francesiaz
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Education and public engagement are increasingly recognized as essential levers for biodiversity conservation. Over the past decade, biodiversity-related education and engagement initiatives have expanded considerably, yet their evaluation remains fragmented and methodologically uneven. This diversity complicates assessments of effectiveness, comparability, and long-term conservation relevance. We conducted a scoping review of peer-reviewed empirical studies published between 2015 and 2025 to examine how evaluation practices are designed, implemented, and reported in biodiversity-related education and engagement initiatives. Following PRISMA-ScR guidelines, 74 articles were selected from the Web of Science Core Collection and analyzed in terms of implementation contexts, target publics, educational practices, evaluation objectives, methodologies, temporalities, reported outcomes, limitations, and levers. The review reveals a strong concentration of evaluations in formal education settings, primarily targeting children and young people. Objectives are largely structured around the knowledge–attitudes–behaviors (KAB) framework, with limited attention to competencies, empowerment, collective processes, or ecological outcomes. Most studies rely on short-term, self-reported quantitative measures, while longitudinal, qualitative, participatory, and process-oriented approaches remain underrepresented. Although experiential, place-based, creative, and participatory practices are identified as promising levers, their impacts are rarely assessed beyond immediate individual-level outcomes. Overall, the findings expose a structural tension between the diversity of biodiversity education practices and the absence of shared, integrative evaluation frameworks. Advancing evaluation in this field requires systemic, reflexive, and multi-scalar approaches linking individual learning, collective action, institutional change, and conservation outcomes. Such a shift is essential to strengthen the contribution of education to conservation and to support more robust, cumulative, and policy-relevant evidence.
After the Chains Broke
M. K.S. Amenyeanu
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After the Chains Broke examines how contemporary wealth, status, and livelihoods among Ghana’s elite and middle classes are rooted in intergenerational inheritances forged during Atlantic slavery and its colonial afterlives. Drawing on linked genealogies, colonial administrative records, household surveys, and digital archives from coastal West Africa, the study reconstructs elite lineages that descend from precolonial slaveholders, including traditional rulers, missionaries, coastal Euro-Africans, and powerful caboceers. Using Markov chain models of social mobility, the analysis estimates how advantage is transmitted across generations and shows that a substantial share of professional attainment, property ownership, and institutional access is inherited rather than newly earned. The findings reveal how capital accumulated through slavery and colonial mediation was converted into education, credentials, and political influence, reproducing privilege long after formal abolition. By quantifying these pathways, the paper offers a novel framework for understanding how historical violence becomes durable inequality, with implications for debates on mobility, development, and reparative justice.
Event-level modelling of showering behaviour in German households: Triangulating smart-meter, in-situ survey and contextual public data
David Morizet; Pablo Pereira-Doel; Xavier Font; Caroline Bastide; Juliette Brun; ValĂŠrie Drey
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Residential water demand is strongly shaped by showering behaviour, yet quantifying drivers at the event level remains rare. We first explored and identified key patterns across 8,550 sensor-logged showering events from 319 German households. We then combined this high-resolution smart-meter data with time-stamped post-shower surveys to analyse shampoo-shower duration. The Gamma mixed model (14 predictors spanning demographics, context, in-shower behaviour and hair characteristics) explained 68.4% of deviance (AIC = 4281.6). Behavioural predictors showed the clearest associations: showers with two or more shampoo applications were 27% longer than those with one, while showers with three or more water pauses were 28% longer than those with one. Some contextual and demographic predictors also mattered: soft water areas were linked to 23% longer durations, and younger/mid-age adults had durations up to 31% longer than adults 50+. Other factors (gender, employment, household composition/size, home type, bills responsibility and most hair characteristics) showed small or uncertain effects after adjustment. Findings demonstrate how smart metering, event-level behavioural data and robust modelling can reveal actionable levers for demand-side management, behavioural interventions and product design.
Towards a New Ethos of Science or a Reform of the Institution of Science?
Rene Von Schomberg
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This paper proposes a science governance framework based on the research values of openness and mutual responsiveness. It reviews the efforts made since Merton and addresses the current shortcomings and misleading open science practices
How did the minimum wage implementation impact mothers’ and childless women’s employment? Evidence for West Germany.
Emanuela Struffolino; Sophia Fauser; Anette Eva Fasang
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Women, and especially mothers, are overrepresented in part-time and low-wage jobs in Germany. Yet, little is known about how minimum wage floors affect the employment of childless women and mothers. We use a difference-in-differences design based on county-level variation in average wage levels to assess how the 2015 minimum wage reform in Germany affected the employment of 1) mothers and childless women, 2) mothers of pre-school and school-aged children, and 3) mothers in counties with low and high childcare availability. We contrast theoretical predictions from neoclassical economics and theories of gender norms to derive hypotheses. Using panel data from the German Microcensus (2014-2015) for West Germany, we estimate the impact of the minimum wage at the county level (N=324 counties) on women’s transition probabilities between inactivity, marginal, part-time, and full-time employment. Findings support that inactive mothers were more likely to take up marginal or part-time work after the reform, whereas already employed mothers tended to reduce their working hours, thus consolidating maternal marginal and part-time work. Childless women show little response to the reform. Overall, raising wage floors may reduce gaps in employment participation between mothers and childless women, but is unlikely to reduce gaps in employment intensity.
More childcare today, less poverty tomorrow? A county-level analysis on the effects of childcare availability on poverty in Germany.
Emanuela Struffolino; Sophia Fauser
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This study provides new evidence for the understanding of the consequences of family policies on poverty: we investigate if and to what extent higher childcare availability when the youngest child is aged 0-2 affects household poverty in subsequent years. Unlike prior cross-country research, we focus on within-country variation in childcare availability over 400 German counties using panel data from the Microcensus (2012–2019) linked to local childcare provision data. Our findings show a significant reduction in household poverty risk over and above the mediating role of maternal employment. This effect is notably stronger in Eastern than in Western counties. In Western counties, higher ECEC coverage is associated with poverty declines primarily for single mothers and mothers whose partners work non-standard jobs, while in Eastern counties mostly for mothers with partners employed in standard or non-standard jobs. Poverty risks decrease as children grow older for less affluent households regardless of childcare availability. We conclude that more childcare “today” does improve the economic wellbeing of households with children “tomorrow”. We discuss policy implications arguing that more widespread and substantial poverty reduction cannot be envisaged via higher childcare availability only. This is particularly true in institutional settings promoting the “adult worker model” for mothers against the background of persistent and large gender pay gaps and where the burden of reconciling work and care falls largely on mothers’ shoulders.
Work-Hour Mismatches among Parents in Germany: A Dynamic Analysis on Post-Birth Employment and Work-Hour Preference Trajectories
Sophia Fauser; Emanuela Struffolino
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Objective This brief report examines German parents’ post-birth employment trajectories, highlighting gender differences in mismatches between work-hour preferences and actual employment. Background Previous studies on post-birth employment rarely considered work-hour preferences, while research on such preferences rarely takes a longitudinal perspective. We bridge these two literature streams by using a dynamic approach, illustrating how actual-to-preferred-hour mismatches evolve when the youngest child is aged 0-3. Method We apply multichannel sequence and fuzzy clustering analysis on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP, 2008-2023), restricting our sample to 645 cohabitating couples. Next, we use Dirichlet regression to link the identified (fuzzy) patterns to individual, household, and contextual characteristics. Results Among mothers, mismatches between actual and preferred working hours increase as children grow older, with many mothers employed in short part-time jobs wishing to work more hours (i.e., underemployment), while most full-time working mothers would prefer to reduce their hours (i.e., overemployment). Among full-time working fathers, a substantial share feels either overemployed or satisfied with their current hours. Dirichlet regression reveals that among fathers, especially job characteristics are associated with overemployment, while individual characteristics and constraints are associated with longer-term preferences for inactivity among mothers. Conclusion Results highlight that overemployment and employment matched with preferences is much more common among parents than underemployment, leaving little room for reallocation of paid and unpaid work within couples.
A framework for identifying paper parks
Jessica L Stewart; Naomi Kingston; Natasha Ali; Heather C Bingham; Zoe G. Davies; Nigel Dudley; Charlie J Gardner; Jonas Geldmann; Diego Juffe-Bignoli; Thomas Pienkowski
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The term ‘paper park’ is widely used to label protected areas that only exist ‘on paper’. Identifying and rectifying paper parks could be critical for producing ‘effectively conserved and managed […] systems of protected areas’, a core component of Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework Target 3. However, the term is not well defined and often applied to cases more accurately described as protected areas with low management effectiveness. This inconsistency is problematic because areas where management interventions are entirely absent (true paper parks) fundamentally differ in conceptualisation, monitoring, and required solutions from those where management is insufficient or poorly executed (ineffective management). To address this, here we propose a new paper park definition as “a site that has been legally or otherwise designated as a protected area, but where management interventions have been absent for at least 5 years”. We present a decision tree to identify paper parks and discuss how they differ from other types of conservation areas. We suggest addressing the problem by measuring the extent of paper parks, investigating the causes of absent management, and prioritising investment to implement effective interventions. Without such work, there is a risk that Target 3 will perversely incentivise the creation of more paper parks.
Aquaculture is subject to more regulations than any other food sector in the United States
Margaret Hegwood; Halley E. Froehlich; Michael Clark; Matthew G. Burgess; Peter Newton
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The United States (U.S.) food system is governed by an extensive set of regulations that determines, in part, which foods reach consumers and how. Regulations play an important role in protecting public interests, such as environmental well-being, but their complexity and number are criticized for delaying innovation and increasing business costs. We explored how the regulatory landscape varies across U.S. food industries and compares to industries’ associated environmental impacts. We analyzed five decades of federal regulatory data from the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) for 44 food industries across five food production sectors. We found that the total number of food system regulations has increased over time, with large disparities across individual food sectors. Since at least 1970, the aquaculture sector was annually subject to a greater number of direct regulations than any other food sector, on average. Aquaculture regulation originates from a larger number of CFR titles and federal agencies, and aquaculture is often subject to more regulations within each title and agency, than other food sectors. Our analysis identified several cases where food industries with smaller environmental impacts (e.g., greenhouse gas emissions, water use, land use)—including industries in the aquaculture sector—were subject to as many or more total regulations as food industries with larger environmental impacts. This pattern also persisted when comparing impacts only to the number of environmental regulations. While the number of regulations is only a proxy measure of regulatory burden, our results suggest that the U.S. federal regulatory landscape might disadvantage some lower-environmental-impact food industries and their products in the U.S. marketplace, especially aquaculture.
From Climate Distress to Psychedelic Insight: Exploring the Lived Experience of Eco-anxiety and Psychedelics
Luisa Čapková; Ginie Servant Miklos
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Eco-anxiety is gaining attention as a growing mental health issue. This phenomenon emerges due to perceived lack of control over ecological destruction, and is characterized by a spectrum of emotions, such as grief, anger, worry, uncertainty and hopelessness. However, eco-anxiety appears to affect more than one’s emotional state, with consequences for behaviour and engagement with environmental and societal issues. While existing mental health interventions such as Acceptance Commitment Therapy have been adapted and studied for addressing eco- anxiety with mixed results, there remains a gap in understanding and addressing the experiential dimension of this challenge. To address this gap, this study uses Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis to explore the lived experience of eco-anxiety and the impact of psychedelic experiences on coping mechanisms and meaning-making processes. In-depth interviews exploring individual accounts revealed that psychedelics could serve as transformative catalysts for eco-anxiety. Psychedelic experiences triggered shifts in worldviews and broadened perspectives, leading to a sense of interconnectedness of the self, nature and the universe. Furthermore, such experiences enabled emotional release and reconfiguration, further alleviating distress. Those emotional and cognitive shifts gave opportunities for new ways of understanding and responding to eco-anxiety, mitigating feelings of hopelessness and anger through adaptive environmental action. This study contributes to the current dialogue on eco-anxiety and offers insights into understanding how ecological distress and psychedelics interact, proposing psychedelics as transformative catalysts.
Who Finances the Carbon Transition? Financial Structure, Institutional Quality, and Emissions in OECD Economies
Angelo Leogrande; Fabio Anobile; Alberto Costantiello; Carlo Drago; Massimo Arnone
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This study aims to examine the interrelated effects of finance structure, institutional quality, and macro-demographics on CO₂ emissions per capita in OECD countries from 2004 to 2021. Building on the conventional linear and aggregate nature of the finance–environment relationship, this study suggests an improved methodology based on a hybrid framework combining panel estimation, machine learning-based clustering, and nonlinear modeling. The empirical findings support a positive relationship between bank-based intermediation structure, represented by private credit and credit quality, and CO₂ emissions per capita, which could be explained by a scale effect. At the same time, a negative relationship is found between non-performing loans and CO₂ emissions per capita. In addition, a negative relationship is found between the assets of pension funds and mutual funds and CO₂ emissions per capita. This suggests a critical role played by long-horizon investors in offsetting the carbon footprint of economic activity. Government effectiveness is found to have a positive relationship with CO₂ emissions per capita. This could reflect development stage considerations rather than institutional failure. Finally, a weak positive relationship is found between population density and CO₂ emissions per capita. This supports scale efficiencies. The K-means clustering methodology reveals a strong structural heterogeneity in the finance–environment relationship. This supports the view that there are unique structural regimes in which similar CO₂ emissions per capita outcomes are influenced by a variety of interrelated finance structure and institutional quality drivers. In addition, the Random Forest methodology outperforms other machine learning techniques. This suggests a strong nonlinear nature in the finance–environment relationship. Finally, the empirical findings support a relatively stronger emphasis placed on structural finance structure and institutional quality variables rather than short-run macroeconomic variables in explaining variations in CO₂ emissions per capita.
Expert-identified Crime and Security Risks of Climate Change Mitigation Technologies
Sarah; Shane Johnson; Lorenzo Pasculli
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Climate change mitigation technologies (CCMTs) play a key role in decarbonisation efforts, but may also create new opportunities for crime and security risks that have remained under-explored. This study presents an expert-informed assessment of crime threats and countermeasures associated with CCMTs, involving 28 experts from government, law enforcement, industry, academia, and civil society. Through structured idea generation, thematic analysis, and forecasting surveys, the participants evaluated 35 distinct crime threats and 36 countermeasures, of which 13 threats and 18 countermeasures were uniquely identified by them. The identified risks were found to be concentrated in CCMT supply chains and resource extraction, with high-priority threats relating to environmental harms, illegal mining, and human rights abuse, alongside cyber-enabled and financial crimes. Promising countermeasures include CCMT-specific regulation, risk assessment, data sharing, physical security, and targeted education. The findings show that the green transition reshapes rather than removes crime risks, underscoring the need for proactive governance to ensure a secure and sustainable low-carbon transition.
Governing movements: how mobility activists in the Amelisweerd forest practice transition governance
Emil Beemer; Gijs Diercks; Derk Loorbach
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Present-day mobility systems centered around automobility need transformative change to become just and sustainable. In these processes of societal transitions, citizen-led social movements are often theorized to be valuable actors, yet when it comes to mobility transitions, they have received little attention. We therefore investigate a prominent fifty-year mobilization of community activism against highway construction and expansion in the city of Utrecht, the Netherlands. The social movement to protect Amelisweerd forest is described in a historical narrative drawing on contemporary primary and secondary sources. We analyze the movement through its ability to exercise agencies for transition governance: how a highly localized movement attempts to support systemic change. Identifying destabilization, visioning alternatives, independent spaces, and reflexivity as key mechanisms, we demonstrate how activists have deployed each type of agency as required. The Amelisweerd case indicates that local social movements can build broad coalitions around alternative solutions through strategic adaptability, whose greatest obstacle is ideological entrenchment on the national scale. These transformative social movements and their potential obstructions are worthy of greater consideration in mobility transitions.
Started From the Bottom, Now We’re (Working) Here: Workplace Segregation by Social Class Origin
Martin Hällsten; August Torngren Wartin
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Segregation is a pervasive social phenomenon, separating individuals of different categories or groups across social foci. Workplaces are hubs of the labor market and central to economic outcomes, but may also facilitate cross-cutting social ties. Workplace segregation might exacerbate social inequality and decrease social cohesion. Most work on segregation focuses on salient categories like race and ethnicity, and we know little about segregation by more subtle statuses. Social class background is a case in point, because it is imperfectly observed by individuals involved in social interaction, and is more difficult to measure for total populations. In this paper, we analyze workplace segregation by social class background. We document substantial segregation by social background, over and above counterfactual segregation under random allocation of employees across workplaces. Moreover, we observe segregation levels over and above what would be expected under random allocation conditional on individual and workplace characteristics, including e.g. human capital, occupation, and workplace county. Also, when accounting for our richest set of covariates, employees are somewhat overexposed to coworkers who share their own class background. The excess segregation is the smallest for groups at the bottom of the class origin distribution, and larger at the top.
What Makes Policy Fair? Evidence from U.S. Immigrant Integration Policy and Public Opinion
Taylor Trummel
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Immigration attitudes research is often centered on cultural and economic threat debates. However, this focus has missed an important mechanism that guides our everyday judgments: fairness. Very limited work has engaged with fairness and little has done so in the context of immigration. To address this, I construct a theoretically grounded method for measuring different dimensions of fairness. Using an original conjoint experiment, I test how varying state-level policy attributes such as eligibility requirements, intended beneficiaries, and assistance types influence perceptions of fairness. Agreement with different dimensions of fairness and policy support increase when policies include social services and exclusion criteria. I find limited evidence for xenophobic cultural threat and sociotropic economic threat in motivating policy support. The results offer a reevaluation of immigration attitude debates and demonstrate opportunities for broader use of a multidimensional measurement of fairness, as well as suggest a framework for democratically popular subnational immigrant integration policy design.
Towards a Theory of Black Biracial Positionality
Clare Xanthos
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Multiracial scholarship has long treated Black-White biracial individuals as a homogeneous group, often overlooking how proximity to whiteness influences their lived experiences. This oversight is particularly evident in the case of Black biracial individuals, defined here as those with one Black and one White parent who are socially identified as Black. These individuals experience a dual burden: they are subjected to the same anti-Black racism as monoracial Black individuals and simultaneously encounter monoracism, a mixed-race-specific form of oppression that frequently manifests as identity invalidation (e.g., societal dismissal of multiracial heritage, social pressure to identify with a single racial group). Despite its significance, this form of dual marginalization remains under-theorized within existing literature. The present article addresses this gap. Drawing on critical race theory, critical multiracial theory, and intersectionality theory, I propose a theoretical framework for understanding Black biracial positionality and experiences by considering the intersection of Blackness and biraciality. This framework provides scholars with the analytical tools to examine an overlooked aspect of the multiracial experience and challenges academic discourse to move beyond monolithic conceptions of Black-White biracial identity.
Archive: A database of tabulated results from American ranked-choice voting elections
Yuki Atsusaka; Jordan Holbrook
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In the past two decades, a growing number of ranked-choice voting (RCV) elections have been conducted in various jurisdictions across the United States. However, tabulated results of RCV have been reported and stored in widely different styles across places and years, making it infeasible for researchers to perform systematic analyses of vote tabulations. We introduce ARCHIVE: a dataset of standardized tabulated results for over 7600 round-level candidate vote counts from 514 American RCV elections, 2004-2024. To construct the dataset, we develop a methodological procedure based on large-language models that semi-automatically collect, standardize, and store candidate vote counts while instantly validating the resulting information. Our dataset releases multiple levels of data, including election metadata, round-level attributes, and candidate-level information with consistent election identifiers, allowing users to address key questions in electoral competition under RCV. Our project and user interface are also available at www.archive-rcv.com.
Towards accessibility thresholds
Camila Ramos; Tim Schwanen
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A major issue with the use of accessibility measures in transport studies is that it is not clear how to define the level of accessibility that people should have, and below which they may not be able to function within society. Although there are myriad studies on the impacts of low or unequal accessibility, only a few have made efforts to specify which opportunities must be reachable, how much choice is required, or under what circumstances access should be protected. As a result, the boundary below which accessibility becomes socially inadequate is often left implicit. This paper provides the first theoretical framework for defining accessibility thresholds grounded in Sen’s Capability Approach, theories of freedom, and existing conceptual work on sufficiency and thresholds. We identify the capabilities that accessibility must support, classify the conversion factors that condition their realisation, and propose normative principles—informed by philosophical accounts of freedom—to guide where and how thresholds should be set. We then outline a practical sequence of steps enabling researchers and practitioners to adapt existing accessibility measures to reflect what people have reason to value. By making explicit the ethical commitments underlying accessibility thresholds, this framework supports more transparent, just, and context-sensitive evaluation of transport systems.
Holding the Faculty to Ac(count): From Audit Culture to Participatory Taylorism
Abe Walker
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Cultures of shared governance in academia may appear as a noble tradition to be upheld and defended against the steady encroachment of audit culture. However, building upon recent interest in the ‘dark side’ of collegiality, this theoretically-motivated article proposes that the collegial ideal of collective and participatory decision-making now co-exist alongside performance metrics in an uneasy alliance that softens their surface-level opposition. Invoking the paradoxical concept of ‘participatory Taylorism,’ this study demonstrates that faculty engagement is essential to audit culture’s apparent staying power. Performance metrics survive by opening themselves to the demos, inviting robust debates about their composition and legitimacy – provided these dialogues stop short of contesting audit culture itself. In this sense, permissible modes of shared governance perform a type of ‘collegiality-washing,’ substituting a simulacra of participation for the real thing. Moreover, because ‘participation’ is precisely the lever through which performance measures exert their influence, conventional oppositional strategies risk co-optation. In a university setting that demands constant engagement and actively recuperates dissent, resistance may take the form of withdrawal, silence, or even a more recent trend, ‘quiet quitting.’
Sharing Knowledge Openly: Author Gender, Race/Ethnicity, & Feminist Science
Molly M. King; Jeffrey W Lockhart
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Open science is an increasingly important movement in contemporary social science. Many funders have begun to mandate open practices, newer journals like Socius are open access, and preprint servers have increased readership for paywalled articles. Feminist scholars have written about the values and pitfalls of open research. In this paper, we put those ideas in conversation with each other and empirical data on open access publishing to develop a feminist framework for thinking about feminist knowledge, data, publishing, and audience. Using a survey of 19,462 social scientists, linked with their entire Web of Science publication history from 2000 to 2023 and all papers posted to SocArXiv, we replicate past work showing that articles by women are less likely to be some types of open access. We extend these findings to scholars of color and feminist scholarship, while also demonstrating a few surprising null results for all three groups.
Machine Learning-Based Cultural Values Inventory (MLCVI) R Package User Guide
Leng He; Abhishek Sheetal
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The MLCVI R package implements tools for cross-cultural research based on the machine learning-based cultural values inventory (ML-CVI) developed by Sheetal et al. (2025). The package provides three core functions: measuring cultural distance between country pairs using three methods (Kogut-Singh, Shulgin, and ML-CVI), identifying which of the 60 ML-CVI items statistically mediate a cultural difference in any outcome variable, and predicting country-level scores for countries missing from a given dataset using ML-CVI-weighted Ridge regression. This guide describes each function's purpose, inputs, and outputs, and includes replication code for the mediation studies reported in Sheetal et al. (2025).
SemĂĄnticas constitucionales: un anĂĄlisis de los programas de los convencionales constituyentes
SebastiĂĄn Aliaga Valenzuela
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En este artículo analizamos los programas presentados por los 155 convencionales constituyentes divididos en cuatro grupos: convencionales de pueblos originarios, convencionales independientes en cupos de partido, convencionales de partido y convencionales independientes. Exploramos los conceptos que emplean y las relaciones que se establecen entre estos por medio de herramientas de humanidades digitales. Empleamos una herramienta simple de visualización denominada bigram. Ella permite observar una red de términos relacionados a partir del cálculo de la frecuencia de coocurrencia entre dos términos (el número de veces que aparecen juntos) dentro de un documento. Identificamos cuatro nodos semánticos en los programas de los convencionales constituyentes: uno en torno al concepto de derechos, otro sobre expectativas del proceso constitucional, uno que aborda temas socioinstitucionales y uno asociado a los pueblos originarios. El nodo semántico de los derechos es compartido por los cuatro grupos de convencionales. En este se incluye el catálogo de derechos propios de la modernidad (civiles, políticos, fundamentales, humanos, sociales, culturales). Por otro lado, los cuatro grupos muestran diferencias de énfasis en expectativas y en aspectos institucionales, aunque en este último ámbito hay coincidencias importantes. Una diferencia importante se observa a nivel de la denominación “pueblos originarios” versus “pueblos indígenas”. Esta afecta incluso a los propios pueblos originarios y sugiere posibles divergencias en futuras prácticas políticas al interior de este grupo y en sus relaciones con los otros. Los programas escritos no son la única forma por medio de la cual las y los convencionales expresan conceptos, ideas e imaginarios sobre la nueva Constitución. Sin embargo, este tipo de archivos contribuye a formar una línea de base desde la cual la discusión constitucional puede desplegarse. Palabras clave: convencionales constituyentes, programas, semántica, derechos, expectativas, instituciones, pueblos originarios
Towards accessibility thresholds
Camila Ramos; Tim Schwanen
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A major issue with the use of accessibility measures in transport studies is that it is not clear how to define the level of accessibility that people should have, and below which they may not be able to function within society. Although there are myriad studies on the impacts of low or unequal accessibility, only a few have made efforts to specify which opportunities must be reachable, how much choice is required, or under what circumstances access should be protected. As a result, the boundary below which accessibility becomes socially inadequate is often left implicit. This paper provides the first theoretical framework for defining accessibility thresholds grounded in Sen’s Capability Approach, theories of freedom, and existing conceptual work on sufficiency and thresholds. We identify the capabilities that accessibility must support, classify the conversion factors that condition their realisation, and propose normative principles—informed by philosophical accounts of freedom—to guide where and how thresholds should be set. We then outline a practical sequence of steps enabling researchers and practitioners to adapt existing accessibility measures to reflect what people have reason to value. By making explicit the ethical commitments underlying accessibility thresholds, this framework supports more transparent, just, and context-sensitive evaluation of transport systems.
Reconstructing Combinatorial Inventions Through Design Problem Analysis
Mathieu Charbonneau
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Combinatorial invention—the process by which new technologies emerge through the combination of existing ones—is central to technological evolution, yet it remains poorly understood. This paper develops a novel framework for analysing combinatorial invention by recognising its dual nature as both a design problem-solving process and a lineage-generating process. While existing approaches often treat combinatorial invention as a stochastic process mapping precursor technologies to composite ones, this framework reveals how the challenge of interfacing components generates multiple concurrent technological traditions. By identifying genuine design sub-problems—those requiring solutions that were novel, necessary, and culturally transmitted—we can reconstruct aspects of combinatorial invention processes through the phylogenetic traces their solutions left in the archaeological record. Using the invention of hafted tools by Neanderthals and their African contemporaries as an illustrative case study, I show how this framework reveals a complex, multi-tiered invention process involving functional organization, material implementation, and assembly procedures. The combinatorial invention of complex technologies should be understood not merely as producing composite technologies, but in addition as one generating a manifold of technological lineages through the solving of multiple design sub-problems, specifically traditions of interfaces between the components of the technologies. The proposed framework provides preliminary methodological grounds for reconstructing prehistoric invention processes.
Housing Populism Under Financialized Capitalism
Rafaela Dancygier; Vincent Heddesheimer; Andreas Wiedemann
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This paper examines the rise of housing populism---narratives that cast financial investors as predatory, demand investor bans, and frame housing as a fundamental social right requiring state protection. We argue that politicians embrace housing populism less because it reflects economic realities than because it resonates with public moral commitments: distrust of finance capitalism and support for housing as a collective entitlement. Using U.S. property-level transaction data (2012-2021), a difference-in-differences analysis finds no consistent evidence that investor activity increases housing costs. Yet original surveys reveal widespread, bipartisan beliefs that investors undermine the right to housing and that government should safeguard access. A candidate-choice experiment further shows that candidates advocating investor bans framed in rights-based or anti-elite terms substantially outperform those prioritizing home-building through pragmatic or market-oriented appeals. Housing populism channels social-rights claims into symbolic confrontations between ``the people’’ and financial elites, often displacing more effective policy responses.
Climate Change and Mental Health in Guinea-Bissau: Insights from women engaged in rural-urban mobility
ClĂĄudia Santos; Burcin Ikiz
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Introduction Climate change and extreme weather events are increasingly recognized as major stressors on mental health, yet research in West Africa remains scarce. Guinea-Bissau, one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable Small Island Developing States (SIDS), faces intensifying extreme weather events, including flooding, heat, and sea-level rise, which intersect with poverty, political instability, and limited health infrastructure. This study investigates how environmental and socio-economic vulnerabilities associated with climate change influence the mental well-being of women engaged in rural-urban mobility. Methods Ethnographic fieldwork was conducted among 27 Balanta women living temporarily in zinc-roofed dwellings at two docks in Bissau. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews, informal conversations, and participant observation, with oral consent. A narrative analytical approach was employed to examine lived experiences, focusing on climate-related exposures, psychosocial stressors, and collective coping mechanisms. Results Participants described heightened psychological distress manifested as fatigue, anxiety, and sleep disruption related to recurrent heat, humidity, heavy rainfall, and tidal flooding. Rain-related sleep deprivation and caregiving demands emerged as particularly salient stressors. Structural inequities, including economic precarity and lack of access to health services, intensified mental strain. At the same time, strong communal organization and the replication of familiar rural social structures in urban space functioned as protective mechanisms, mitigating isolation and fostering psychological resilience. Conclusion Findings underscore the compounded mental health risks faced by women engaged in rural-urban mobility while temporarily living in climate-exposed urban settings. Community solidarity operates as a key resilience mechanism, highlighting the need for integrated, gender-responsive, and community-anchored mental health and climate adaptation policies in Guinea-Bissau and comparable SIDS contexts.
Physical and virtual mobilities’ role in shaping socioeconomic and wellbeing outcomes: development of configurational analysis to reveal meso-level causal dynamics
YUMING ZHANG
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This thesis examines how the co-evolution of physical (transport) and digital mobilities shapes inequality and wellbeing in rapidly urbanising, digitalising cities. As residents navigate increasingly complex mobility systems, understanding these dynamics is critical for equitable urban futures. It asks: (1) What causal pathways link evolving infrastructure–individual relationships to poverty risks and quality of life (QoL)? (2) How do transport and digital mobilities interact to produce these outcomes? (3) How do social ties mediate these effects across age groups? The thesis makes three contributions. Theoretically, it bridges micro–meso gaps by showing how socio-technical regime evolution influences individual outcomes through “mobility assemblages.” Methodologically, it advances fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) with a novel two-step design that connects individual mobility patterns to regime-level conditions, including a configurational propinquity index and accompanying visualisation software. Empirically, it provides original survey evidence from Wuhan, Guangzhou and Shenzhen (n=739; July–September 2022), demonstrating how transport–digital mobility interactions generate differentiated pathways to poverty risks and wellbeing. QoL is measured using EQ-5D-5L with Chinese value sets. Findings reveal multiple, non-linear, city- and population-specific pathways: exclusion is not universal to any single demographic, but emerges from configurations combining life-course stage, education, infrastructure trajectories and perceptions, socio-economic/social capital, and mobility skills. Younger groups tend to achieve good QoL via flexible multimodal strategies that avoid platform lock-ins, while older groups do so through sustained physical mobility combined with context-appropriate digital engagement. Across generations, social ties consistently support good QoL, and “city membership” is not required in configurations linking social ties to QoL—suggesting more generalisable social pathways across the three cities. Policy implications emphasise integrated mobility planning that treats transport and digital systems as interdependent, platform design that prevents lock-ins while remaining accessible across age groups, and interventions that mobilise social capital as a protective factor. Overall, the thesis offers a framework for analysing mobility–inequality dynamics in digitalising cities globally, with particular relevance for ageing societies undergoing technological transition.
Clinical and sociodemographic determinants of miscarriage hospitalisation: Evidence from French healthcare records
Marie-Caroline Compans; HÊlène Malmanche; Heini Väisänen
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Background: Despite miscarriages being common, little is known about who and to what extent people experiencing miscarriage resort to miscarriage care at the hospital. Methods: We analysed healthcare records from the French National Health Insurance Information System (SNDS) from 2015 to 2022. Descriptive analyses and logistic regressions estimated the trend in day (ambulatory) or longer (inpatient) miscarriage hospitalisation, and characteristics of those who received that type of care instead of primary care, emergency department visit, hospital external consultation, or no care. Results: On average, 44% of miscarriages identified in the healthcare records led to ambulatory or inpatient care, with a decrease from 44% to 41% before the COVID-19 lockdown, after which the trend increased again and stabilised. Those from precarious groups, undergoing infertility treatments, with underlying chronic conditions, prior history of miscarriages and births, between 35 and 45 years old, and those from rural areas, were more likely to be hospitalised. Conversely, those from urban areas and younger age groups were less likely to receive ambulatory or inpatient hospital care. Among these hospitalisations, financially precarious women, those with chronic conditions, and prior miscarriages, were also more likely to receive inpatient rather than ambulatory care. Conclusions: Ambulatory and inpatient miscarriage care decreased over time, which signifies a shift towards other types of care, or an increase in pregnancy losses managed outside the formal healthcare system. However, the decline levelled off after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Those with underlying conditions and prior miscarriage(s) may more often experience complications and therefore seek (inpatient) hospital care, or have more monitored pregnancies, leading to planned interventions at the hospital. The greater likelihood of receiving (inpatient) hospital care among those living in rural areas may reflect challenges in accessing primary care due to limited availability of practitioners. Similarly, the greater (inpatient) hospitalisation rates among financially precarious women raise concerns about potential barriers to timely miscarriage care and more complications. Improving miscarriage care should involve addressing access barriers, counselling, and potential interventions for groups with specific needs when receiving formal healthcare for a miscarriage.
Educational Systems and the Trade-Off between Labour Market Allocation and Equality of Educational Opportunity. A replication of Bol and van de Werfhorst (2013)
Claudia Traini
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Bol and van de Werfhorst’s article published in 2013 represents a milestone for researchers studying the effect of educational institutions on micro-level outcomes. In the above-mentioned article, tracking and other concepts, like vocational enrolment and vocational specificity, have been operationalized into numerical indicators and then used in regression models in order to establish their associations with individual outcomes. This article points out that Bol and van de Werfhorst’s analyses contain two errors. First, their model specifications disregard the role played by a confounder i.e., political orientation of policy makers. Second, their analytical strategy does not adequately correct for the fact that the dependent variables are estimated. I replicate their analyses regarding social inequality of educational attainment (OE) and educational gradient in occupational attainment (ED) correcting for both errors. These new findings do not support the existence of a trade-off between labour market allocation and equality of educational opportunity when it comes to educational and occupational attainment.
Gender dynamics of a Rift Valley fever vaccination campaign for livestock in pastoral Kenya
Zoe Campbell; Adan Abdi Kutu; Boru Akbul Guyo; Dennis Turibu Mwongela; Bernard Kipngetich Bett
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In pastoral communities, seeking animal health services for livestock is a male-dominated activity. Women are not always recognized as livestock keepers and face restrictions on interacting with men outside their households. This mixed-methods study qualitatively identified barriers to women's access to vaccines, tested a gender-accommodative intervention in a Rift Valley fever vaccination campaign serving 909 households, and assessed impact on women’s decision-making, financial contributions, and number of livestock vaccinated. In half of the vaccination sites, local government implemented co-designed interventions to improve communication with women. There was no improvement of the target indicators, indicating the intervention was insufficient to address barriers like restrictive gender norms and safety concerns. About half of women reported contributing financially to the vaccination of animals in their households and were more likely to contribute when the household heard about the vaccination campaign through word of mouth, suggesting that informal communication motivated women’s support for vaccination.
Solidarity Arbitrage: Labour Transnationalism and the Challenge of Differential Inclusion at a US Automotive Plant
Abe Walker
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This article examines how competitive pressures within transnational labor alliances can undermine their potential for effective global solidarity. Drawing on a decade-long struggle by the United Auto Workers to organize a major automotive plant in the US, this research explores how internal conflicts within transnational coalitions contribute to organizing outcomes. The concept of solidarity arbitrage is introduced to describe how multinational corporations strategically exploit existing rivalries among employee representative bodies to weaken labor's collective power. This strategy involves the calculated promotion of less confrontational partners while marginalizing more militant ones—a form of differential inclusion. These findings challenge overly optimistic views of network effects, revealing that transnational alliances are not an unalloyed good. Successful organizing may require independent, adversarial strategies to counter solidarity arbitrage.
Bireysel Risk Skorlama Çerçevesi ve Yapay Zekâ Destekli Sosyal Hizmet Karar Destek Modeli: Türkiye Bağlamında Çok Kriterli Karar Modellemeye Dayalı Üç Fazlı Bir Çerçeve
Ercan Mayaer
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Türkiye sosyal hizmet sistemi son yirmi yılda hızlı bir kurumsal dönüşüm geçirmiş; hizmet kapsamı ve erişilebilirliği önemli ölçüde genişlemiştir. Bu gelişime paralel olarak, risk değerlendirme süreçlerinin nicel, çok boyutlu ve teknoloji entegreli araçlarla güçlendirilmesi giderek daha fazla önem kazanmaktadır. Mevcut Sosyal İnceleme Raporu (SİR), bilgi toplama sürecini standartlaştırma açısından değerli bir işlev görmekle birlikte, ağırlıklı puanlama, dinamik risk izleme ve yapay zekâ destekli karar desteği gibi bileşenler sisteme henüz entegre edilmemiştir. Bu çalışma, söz konusu boşluğu gidermek amacıyla Bireysel Risk Skorlama Çerçevesi'ni (BRSC) ve üç fazlı Yapay Zekâ Destekli Sosyal Hizmet Karar Destek Modeli'ni (YZDM) kavramsal düzeyde sunmaktadır. Model birbiriyle bağlantılı üç faz üzerine inşa edilmektedir. Faz 1 - Statik Risk Skorlama Çerçevesi, sekiz ana risk kategorisi ve 47 risk faktöründen oluşan, uzman ağırlıklı çok kriterli karar modellemesine (MCDM) dayanan yapılandırılmış bir sistemdir. Faktörlerin puanlanmasında yedi ağırlıklandırma kriteri (Şiddet, Aciliyet, İşlevsellik Etkisi, Kronikleşme Riski, Kümülatif Etki, Müdahale Gerektirme Düzeyi, Epidemiyolojik Kanıtlar) kullanılmakta; kriter ağırlıkları Analitik Hiyerarşi Süreci (Analytic Hierarchy Process, AHP) ile, faktör geçerliliği Modified Delphi uzman konsensüsü yöntemiyle belirlenecektir. Faz 2 - Dinamik Ağırlıklandırma, bağlam duyarlı ağırlıklandırma (CBW), etkileşim sinerjisi (ISW) ve zaman duyarlı ağırlıklandırma (TSW) bileşenlerini içeren hesaplamalı bir uzantıdır. Faz 3 - Öğrenen Sistem, bireyselleştirilmiş risk profili üretimi ve sürekli model güncelleme kapasitesini barındıran tam otomasyon mimarisidir. Her risk faktörü 2828, 5395, 6284 ve 6698 sayılı kanunlar başta olmak üzere güncel Türkiye sosyal hizmet mevzuatıyla ilişkilendirilmiştir. YZDM, uzman klinik yargısının yerini almayı değil; görüşme desteği, otomatik raporlama, kanıta dayalı müdahale planlaması ve hizmet eşleştirme işlevleriyle mesleki kapasiteyi güçlendirmeyi hedeflemektedir. Bu ön baskı, çerçevenin fikir önceliğini zaman damgalı biçimde kayıt altına almakta ve çok aşamalı araştırma programının teorik zeminini oluşturmaktadır. Anahtar Kelimeler: bireysel risk değerlendirmesi, çok kriterli karar modelleme, MCDM, Modified Delphi, AHP, sosyal hizmet, yapay zekâ destekli karar desteği, dinamik ağırlıklandırma, öğrenen sistem, Türkiye
Child Marriage in a Changing Climate: Evidence from Mali
Abbie Robinson; Brian C. Thiede
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The social costs of climate change are of global interest, as vulnerable populations face new or heighted environmental stressors. Previous research has documented many social consequences of environmental change, but several important outcomes, including child marriage, remain underexplored. We address one of these gaps by examining the relationship between climate shocks and early marriage in Mali, a country where weather extremes are common and rates of child marriage are high. We draw on three decades of marriage records (1986-2016) from the Demographic Health Surveys (n=117,170 person-years), combined with high-resolution climate data. We measure overall climate impacts on early marriage and evaluate spatial differences across rural and urban areas, northern and southern Mali, and environmental conditions. Across the full sample, cooler than average temperatures reduce the probability of child marriage, while precipitation shocks show no statistically meaningful effect. However, the effects of climate conditions vary spatially. Linear models show that the marginal effect of very high rainfall increases child marriage for girls living in urban areas and northern Mali. In addition, exposure to very cold and very dry conditions predicts marriage before age 18. Overall, our findings point to meaningful but complex relationships between climate variability and child marriage, in which precipitation and temperature exposures can increase or decrease marriage risks, underscoring the need for more research on understudied populations and spaces affected by climate change.
Good, bad, and beyond: Host community stereotypes of refugees
Melati Nungsari; Kirstine Rahma Stroeh Varming
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Low- and middle-income countries host nearly three-quarters of the world’s refugees, yet research on refugee stereotypes and their social consequences remains heavily concentrated in high-income settings. This imbalance obscures how stereotypes operate in countries where refugees lack legal recognition, where welfare and labor protections are limited, and where public attitudes significantly shape the conditions of daily survival. Malaysia, home to almost 200,000 refugees despite not being a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, offers a critical context for examining these dynamics. This study analyzes six focus group discussions with 47 Malaysian participants to assess the content, sources, and implications of refugee stereotypes in a developing-country setting. Using inductive content analysis of 382 excerpts, we identify a wide range of both positive and negative stereotypes, with self-generated opinions emerging as the most common source. Mapping these perceptions onto the Stereotype Content Model, developed by Fiske et al. (2002), reveals nuanced combinations of perceived intentions and capabilities that underpin both empathy and hostility toward refugees. These stereotypes, when reinforced through prejudice, discrimination, and stereotype threat, erode refugees’ sense of belonging and constrain long-term socioeconomic outcomes. Yet, the predominance of self-held rather than socially attributed stereotypes suggest meaningful opportunities for change. We argue that developing-country contexts such as Malaysia require tailored interventions that leverage media narratives, counter- stereotypical representations, and low-cost intergroup contact to shift public attitudes. By centering a middle-income host country, this paper underscores the urgent need to address stereotype-driven barriers to refugee well-being in the places where most displaced people reside.
Platform-Based Pathways to Inclusion: How Digital Ecosystems Can Enable Refugee Social and Economic Integration Under Legal Constraints
Melati Nungsari; L. Lin Ong; Lauren Brodie Tsen
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How can innovation in digital ecosystems be used to support the societal inclusion of marginalized groups around the world? This paper argues that platform-based business innovation can facilitate refugee integration and inclusion in societies where access to basic human rights, such as legal status, is fraught. To do this, we examine the theoretical and empirical foundations of three fields of study: first, digital platforms and marketplaces; next, platform-based innovation; and finally, refugee displacement and movement, one of the most complex humanitarian issues of the modern era. This paper contributes to the literature by unifying platform-based innovation theory with refugee integration scholarship, identifying financial access as a cross-cutting determinant of digital inclusion in legally restrictive contexts. The paper first defines digital platforms and platform-based innovation, then situates digital practices within Ager and Strang’s refugee integration framework. Finally, it synthesizes evidence from digital platforms across Asia and presents new analysis on the critical role of financial access to broader integration outcomes.
Manufacturing the Neoliberal Subject: Corporate Capture of Vocational Education at a US Community College
Abe Walker
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This study investigates the corporate capture of vocational education at a North Carolina community college, arguing that public institutions are being repurposed as subsidized human resources arms for transnational capital. Grounded in the concept of the “shadow college,” the analysis reveals how the democratic mission of public education is subordinated to the short-term profitability needs of private firms. Using Critical Discourse Analysis, the study demonstrates how the curriculum combines “human capital” and “deficit” models to engineer compliant neoliberal subjects. The program enforces labor discipline through intrusive behavioral interventions—such as self-optimization and scripted social interactions—that extend corporate control into the student’s subjectivity. Situated within the anti-union context of the American South, this model reinscribes historical industrial paternalism under the guise of workforce development. Ultimately, the study concludes that this employer-driven model compromises workforce resilience by producing non-transferable skills, leaving workers vulnerable to market volatility while socializing the costs of training onto the public.
A demographic theory of similarity-biased social learning
Alejandro PĂŠrez Velilla; Paul E. Smaldino
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We develop a demographic theory of similarity-biased social learning that formalizes our understanding of when and why individuals should preferentially copy others that look or act like them. We build an evolutionary model in which individuals can either learn on their own or copy others from a demonstrator pool that contains varying proportions of in-group and out-group members, and where group tags can be more or less informative about local knowledge. We find that where social learning becomes common, selection favors copying biases that track the direction of informational advantage---toward the group that tends to be better adapted to local conditions, including an anti-similarity bias when tags are negatively associated with local correctness (as may be the case for some immigrant communities). We also find conditions in which a similarity bias can stabilize social learning when such learners are already common, but not when they are rare, with implications for the role of group identities in cultural evolution. We discuss implications for understanding parochialism as risk aversion, majority-minority dynamics, the sociology of immigration, and the lasting impacts of colonialism.
Energy Dependence, Environmental Quality and Banking Sector Capital: New Evidence from OECD Countries
Angelo Leogrande; Fabio Anobile; Alberto Costantiello; Carlo Drago; Massimo Arnone
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This article seeks to explore and analyze the interrelationship between environmental factors, the structure of the energy sector, and stability/resilience within the financial sector by employing data from OECD countries between 2004 and 2021. The article utilizes new data sets provided by the World Bank Group's Global Financial Development Data and Sovereign ESG Data, with specific emphasis placed on the bank capitalization indicator, which is described as the bank capital asset ratio, and is considered an important factor in sectoral stability/resilience. Using fixed effect panel data econometrics, the article suggests that methane emissions, PM2.5 air pollution, and net energy imports have statistically significant impacts on the bank capitalization process, while renewable energy and bank capitalization have positive and statistically significant associations. The positive association between fossil fuel consumption and bank capitalization suggests that there is an inherent contradiction between current sectoral stability/resilience and the challenges associated with the energy transition process. The Hausman test suggests that omitted variables may exist and that fixed effect econometrics is an appropriate model. Clustering analysis suggests that each country has an underlying regime driven by environmental factors, the structure of the energy sector, and sectoral stability/resilience. Moreover, machine learning regression analysis employing K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN) and Random Forest models indicate that significant predictive potential is possible and that energy dependence, renewable energy, and air pollution are important factors in bank capitalization processes. The article suggests that robust evidence is provided regarding environmental quality and its interrelationship with sectoral stability/resilience and has significant implications for developing macroprudential frameworks that incorporate elements of the energy transition process.
Flight of the Kuaka: Mapping the Physical Healthcare, Legal System, and Social Care Network for Māori with Mental Health and Substance Use Conditions in Aotearoa New Zealand: A Mixed-Methods Meta-Synthesis Using Actor Network Theory
Mau Te Rangimarie Clark; Nathan John Monk; Suzanne Pitama; Helen Lockett; Cameron Lacey; Richard Porter
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This study developed a schema to illustrate the physical healthcare experiences of Māori (Indigenous Peoples of Aotearoa New Zealand) with mental health and substance use conditions and their whānau (support network). This research conducts a mixed-methods meta-synthesis of nine studies: seven qualitative and two quantitative. Employing Kaupapa Māori methodologies and Actor-Network theory, it centres Māori knowledge to critique settler-colonial power structures of Aotearoa New Zealand’s healthcare system. From the analysis, a network graph mapped the key actors and relationships in these healthcare experiences. Findings identified 28 actors and 175 connections, revealing the complex, cumulative barriers Māori face in accessing quality care. The study highlights systemic disruptions across health, social, and legal systems, emphasising the need for targeted service improvements. By applying actor-network theory, this research identifies priority actors and relationships for future interventions and advocates for culturally responsive models that address structural inequities in healthcare access for Māori.
A Simulation-Based Slope Metric for Anchor List Reliability in Word Embedding Spaces
Marshall A. Taylor; Dustin S. Stoltz; Heather Harper; Sanuj Kumar; Sumanth Reddy Nandhikonda; Luke Burks
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Inducing semantic relations in word vector spaces and analyzing how other words or entire documents discursively engage these relations is a popular form of cultural analysis. We propose a reliability metric that is easily interpretable and agnostic to the type of relation. The metric, which we call the anchor reliability coefficient (or relco), is found by creating an artificial document-term matrix of simulated documents that sequentially shift more of their probability mass from relation-relevant anchor terms to non-anchor words, and then regressing the documents' similarity to an induced relation on the anchor inclusion score of the documents. We validate the metric at the word-level with both expert- and crowd-sourced dictionaries and at the document-level with expert-annotated social media posts. We also provide some heuristic baselines for assessing reliability effect sizes and null hypothesis testing.
Identifying and Mapping Women’s Hunting and Fishing Groups to Increase Retention
Shelby Isensee; Lauren Redmore; Joshua D. Stafford; Jennifer Zavaleta Cheek
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As more women seek to become skilled in the outdoors, programming targeted toward women has grown. These outdoor education programs can be difficult to find and access, especially in hunting and fishing where women are underrepresented. This paper examined women’s hunting and fishing groups across the Mountain-Prairie Region, which has the nation’s highest participation in these activities. We visualized these groups with an interactive social system map to help prospective participants and group leaders connect with relevant programs and reveal gaps in existing programming. This social systems mapping approach can be used by Extension professionals in a wide array of educational contexts.
Composition Theory: A Pragmatist Specification of the Mesosocial
David D Brown
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This article develops composition theory as a pragmatist specification of the mesosocial. Existing theories describe situated social life without adequately explaining the mechanisms that produce it. Recent pragmatist scholarship has established important foundations: Gross on mechanisms, Lizardo on habit, and Hallett on inhabited institutionalism. Yet the mechanisms themselves remain underspecified. Composition theory fills this gap through four sets of mechanisms: composition, engagement, sedimentation, and circulation. Together, these explain how problem responsive actors assemble formations, how formations become consequential as affordances meet capacities, how residues accumulate over time and how patterns extend across settings through movement and echoing. The article reinterprets Dewey's concept of situation as the flow of actors' transactions with and within their present place (relational, symbolic and material environment) while remaining cognizant of their direct and indirect experiences with other places. Place is the somewhere somewhen locatable environment that necessarily grounds each situation and social reality as such. The framework reconceptualizes microsocial, mesosocial, and macrosocial as a continuum of compositional complexity anchored in the mesosocial. It expands the range of theory-driven research questions by directing attention to processes within and across places of action rather than to the forces of abstract structural properties.
Ukrainian Refugees in Switzerland: A research synthesis of what we know
Didier Ruedin
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The objective of this research synthesis is to collect and summarize the research literature on Ukrainian refugees in Switzerland. This is done through a systematic review, mostly in the form of a narrative review and with statistical indicators that are synthesized. A graphical summary (evidence gap map) is provided to better identify the nature of evidence available. There is a wide range of evidence on Ukrainian refugees in Switzerland and their integration, although substantive and systematic gaps remain. The review provides a brief historical background, looks at the demographic composition of Ukrainian refugees in Switzerland, discusses economic integration, housing, education, social integration, crime and safety, health and well-being, and attitudes to Ukrainian refugees. The demographic profile of Ukrainian refugees (many women, many children and elderly people, highly educated) is well documents, as are challenges to economic integration. Much less is known about cultural integration and political participation, for example. Given the size of the population and the ongoing war in Ukraine, more research on Ukrainian refugees is warranted, particularly in the direction of successful integration in a context where return in the near future seems increasingly unlikely --- although so-called dual-intent remains the official focus ---, and in areas beyond economic integration that affect well-being and intentions to return.
Buying Followers: The Political Consequences of the Twitter Acquisition
Theo Serlin; Chenoa Yorgason
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A handful of individuals control social media platforms that collectively reach billions. Does this control give those owners influence over their platforms' users? To investigate this question we study the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk in October 2022. Musk changed Twitter from a predominantly liberal platform to one favored by conservatives. Using panel survey data on over 8,000 respondents and 145 survey questions, we find that the issue preferences of pre-acquisition Twitter users became more conservative post-acquisition. Twitter users moved right on economic and social issues -- especially racial issues -- but not on climate, an issue where Musk is less conservative. Republican Twitter users became more pro-Republican, but there was no aggregate move toward the Republican Party, in part due to backlash by strong Democratic partisans who left the site. Social media platforms empower their owners to persuade and polarize, but this power is constrained by which users choose to remain on the platform.
Policy, Pathways, and Potential for Mature Students in Canadian Universities
Loretta Janes
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Abstract This article examines how mature students are positioned within Canadian university admissions policies, arguing that their experiences are shaped not only by what policies state, but also by what they leave unsaid. Drawing on the Capability Approach, the study analyzes publicly available admissions documents from three Canadian universities—Cape Breton University, Brock University, and the University of British Columbia—using content analysis. The findings reveal that mature students are frequently rendered invisible through fragmented, opaque, and inconsistently labeled policies that obscure access pathways and place the burden of interpretation on applicants. While formal criteria are often present, the absence of clear guidance, institutional accountability, and visible supports constrains mature students’ real opportunities to convert access into meaningful participation. To conceptualize these systemic absences, the article introduces the metaphor of Dark Matter Policy, describing how unseen policy gaps shape lived experiences in powerful yet unacknowledged ways. The study contributes to critical higher education policy scholarship by reframing access not as a neutral process, but as a capability-shaping structure that can either expand or restrict educational freedoms for mature learners. Keywords: Mature students; higher education admissions; Capability Approach; content analysis; Dark Matter Policy
Segment and Rule: Modern Censorship in Authoritarian Regimes
Kun Heo; Antoine Zerbini
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We analyze the incentives of authoritarian regimes to segment access to censored content through technology. Citizens choose whether to pay to access censored online content at a cost fixed by the regime: the firewall. A low firewall segments access and generates more compliance than full censorship - a high firewall - ever could. Regime opponents self-select into consuming censored content, and comply conditional on positive independent reporting. Regime supporters exclusively consume state propaganda, which secures their compliance. This segment-and-rule strategy can be engineered by making local news outlets uninformative, or by affecting the intrinsic benefit from access.
The Retirement Spending Smile Revisited: Cross-Sectional Patterns versus Within-Household Dynamics
Derek Tharp
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The "retirement spending smile" (Blanchett, 2014), a U-shaped pattern in the rate of retiree spending change, has influenced how advisors project retirement spending. We replicate Blanchett's analysis using RAND HRS/CAMS data (2001–2009) and extend it with panel methods through 2021. The smile pattern appears when comparing different households at different ages but is not statistically detectable when tracking the same households over time. In our replication, coefficient signs match Blanchett's specification, but 95% bootstrap confidence intervals for Age² and Age include zero — the curvature is not statistically distinguishable from simple linear decline. We also document that the ln(Spending) coefficient sign depends on whether spending is measured at interval start or end, an implementation choice unspecified in the original. The smile attenuation finding is robust to survey weighting. For individual client projections, a constant real decline (~1%, sensitivity 0–2% annually) is a more defensible baseline than assuming a smile.
The interaction between innate abilities and social origins on academic performance: Persistent inequalities across academic trajectories in England
Ines Echevarria
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Research shows that children with similar levels of cognitive ability experience markedly different educational outcomes. This paper examines how innate abilities (measured using a polygenic index for cognition) and social origins (understood as different forms of family economic, educational, and sociocultural resources) interact to shape academic performance across primary and secondary education in England (ages 7 to 18). Drawing on data from the Millennium Cohort Study linked to the National Pupil Database, this study asks whether social origins moderate the association between genetic traits and academic performance, and whether the strength and direction of this moderation varies across educational stages. The findings show that gene-by-social origins interactions operate differently across levels of academic performance, becoming most evident at the tails of the performance distribution. At the lower tail, students from socioeconomically advantaged backgrounds are largely protected from low achievement regardless of their genetic traits, producing a ‘glass floor’ consistent with the Compensatory Advantage hypothesis. At the upper tail, genetic advantages translate into high performance primarily among students from advantaged backgrounds, creating a ‘glass ceiling’ for disadvantaged students in line with the Boosting Advantage hypothesis. These compensatory and boosting patterns operate consistently across educational stages: social origin gaps are already evident at the start of primary school and remain broadly stable throughout academic trajectories. Overall, this study demonstrates that the realisation of genetic propensities is strongly context dependent and points to a pattern of talent wastage, whereby high-ability students from disadvantaged backgrounds are less able to fulfil their potential within the British education system.
The Adaptive PERMA Framework: Reconceptualizing Well-Being as Dynamic and Context-Responsive
Eidan James Rosado
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Well-being research has long sought to identify what enables human flourishing, with frameworks like PERMA providing structured approaches to understanding psychological well-being components. However, existing frameworks conceptualize well-being as relatively stable individual differences measured at discrete time points, an approach that cannot capture rapid fluctuations characteristic of digital environments where well-being responds to continuous social feedback, algorithmically-curated content, and frequent context switching. This paper introduces the Adaptive PERMA Framework (APF), which reconceptualizes well-being as a dynamic, temporally evolving system. By integrating foundational well-being theory with computational psychology methods, APF addresses gaps through three core mechanisms: bidirectional feedback loops, adaptive weighting, and state-dependent transitions. Unlike prior extensions adding new PERMA dimensions, APF explicitly models how well-being evolves in digitally-mediated contexts where psychological states fluctuate rapidly. This enables predictive modeling of well-being trajectories, provides a theoretical foundation for adaptive interventions, and advances understanding of how digital environments shape human flourishing.
Qualitative Methods in the Digital Era: How computation entangles fieldwork?
Livio Silva-Muller
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Scholars writing about the interface between qualitative and computational methods have rightly focused on machine learning. But computation can also change qualitative fieldwork in quieter ways, through scrapping, parsing, optical character recognition, archiving, and zooming. This paper situates computational methods within a wider digital era and argues that they entangle fieldwork spatially (by increasing its geographical reach), temporally (by accelerating research), and epistemically (by influencing what we can now). I show these kinds of entanglement by reflecting on my own comparative-historical study of Brazil’s decarbonization capacities, which was conducted within a Ph.D. structured by COVID-19. Before the lockdown, fieldwork relied on direct observation and interviews with environmental fieldworkers and policymakers. During lockdown, computation provided continuity: web scraping, archival digitization, and machine learning substituted travel and extended the field in time and space. After restrictions eased, these computational results were reintroduced into interviews through visualizations that prompted important findings but highlighted blind spots.
From Anger to Silence: A Conceptual Integration of Avoidance Strategies in Workplace Harassment
Koichi Hiraoka
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This study proposes a theoretical framework that reconceptualizes workplace harassment not as isolated deviant acts but as a staged transformation of avoidance strategies selected in response to criticism or problem-raising. Prior research has examined anger as aggressive behavior (Averill, 1982; Gibson & Callister, 2010) and silence as voice suppression or interpersonal risk avoidance (Morrison, 2014; Van Dyne et al., 2003), yet the dynamic relationship between these phenomena has not been sufficiently integrated. Building upon prior conceptualizations of silent harassment as communicative exclusion grounded in meta-communication dysfunction and structural ambiguity (Hiraoka, 2025b), the present study develops a Dual-Stage Avoidance Harassment Model. It theorizes anger-based immediate avoidance as the first stage and silent harassment as a subsequent, more invisible and sustainable avoidance strategy. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that this transition process is consistent with social learning theory (Bandura, 1977), institutional isomorphism (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983), and organizational learning theory (Argyris & SchĂśn, 1978). The shift from anger to silence is interpreted not as emotional calming but as a strategic transformation. By bridging harassment research, employee silence research, psychological safety, and organizational learning, the model provides a theoretical foundation for structural intervention.
[DIA]show(c/c) from #MeTooSTS / #WeDoSTS: A Transformative Movement Through Post-traumatic Academia
Claudia Gertraud Schwarz
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This article offers an autoethnographic and multimodal analysis of the #MeTooSTS/#WeDoSTS movement, initiated through a public Medium testimony on gender-based violence and abuse of power in academia. Writing from a scholar-survivor-activist standpoint, I trace how public disclosure operates as both epistemic intervention and affective labour, revealing field “shadow zones” in science and technology studies (STS). The article documents the testimonial writer’s journey after going public, including legal threats, institutional backlash, and attempts at containment. Methodologically, the piece combines autoethnography, visual storytelling, and movement analysis to conceptualise disclosure as field shadow work: a reparative practice that exposes hidden power relations while generating new collective forms of knowing, solidarity, and critique. Against institutional logics of closure, I argue that survivor-led disclosure produces fragile yet generative openings for transformative justice in academic fields. The article theorises public testimony as a mode of survivance that resists silencing, reclaims epistemic authority, and reimagines the conditions of academic belonging.
Equity Market Structure and Trading Diversification: Insights from Panel Data, Clustering, and Machine Learning
Angelo Leogrande; Fabio Anobile; Alberto Costantiello; Carlo Drago; Massimo Arnone
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This article aims to contribute to a relatively understudied area of financial development, namely, the internal dispersion of trading activity. The focus is not on overall financial development measures such as total market capitalization and liquidity but rather on trading diversification, defined as the proportion of trading volume contributed by firms outside the VTX, representing the top ten most frequently traded firms. The article uses data from the World Bank’s Global Financial Development Database. The sample is constructed as a balanced panel of 23 countries over the period 2002-2021, starting with a sample of 38 countries. The article uses four key explanatory variables, namely, relative size of deposit-taking banks (DBS), remittance inflows (REM), market capitalization excluding the top ten firms (MCX), and outstanding international public debt (IPU). The article uses a combination of panel econometrics, hierarchical clustering, and machine learning methods. The econometric results show that a diversified financial system structure and remittance inflows are strongly, positively related to overall and less concentrated trading activity, while bank dominance and reliance on international public debt are related to more concentrated trading activity. The clustering results show significant cross-country heterogeneity and a core-periphery structure. The machine learning results show that, using all models, equity market structure is again found to be the most important explanatory variable, with external financial flows being important as well. The article concludes that equity market structure is key to understanding internal dispersion, with important policy implications.
The Economic Consequences of Mr Trump.
Richard Michael Blaber
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Following the introduction of heavy tariffs by President Donald Trump in his second term in the White House, some of them punitive, and almost all of them ruled illegal by the US Court of International Trade and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit [1], with a further appeal to the Republican-majority Supreme Court (which has now ruled), this paper will examine the likely consequences of a trade war between the US and some of its major trading partners, such as China and the EU, for the American and global economies, with reference to the historical parallel of the 1930s. Trump’s attempts to wrest control of monetary policy from the Federal Reserve may signal that he intends to repeat the competitive devaluations (currency war) of the 1930s as well. It will also examine the effects of his fiscal policy on the US economy.
Predicting populism: Methodological and substantive insights from supervised classification of social media data
Lukas Schuette; Paul C. Bauer
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This paper addresses the challenges of empirically studying populism and similar social science concepts in large text datasets. We begin by reviewing existing research on predicting populism, highlighting definitional ambiguities and limitations for classifying populism on social media data. We then propose a narrow, practical definition for social media data, develop a coding scheme and label data. Next, using a substantial Twitter dataset and our revised definition, we compare various machine learning and deep learning models, including LLMs. This comparison offers methodological insights applicable to classifying populism and similar concepts in diverse contexts. Finally, we examine how model accuracy impacts substantive conclusions about populism’s prevalence, informing optimal modeling choices for such analyses.
Mapping food and drink products to environmental sustainability metrics using retail transaction data
Mariana Dineva; Emma Wilkins; Mark Alan Green; Mark S Gilthorpe; Alexandra Johnstone; Michelle Morris
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With increasing concerns around food sustainability, estimating the environmental footprint of diets is critical. Supermarket transaction data are becoming prominent as a valuable source of objective dietary purchase data. We developed a method to map environmental sustainability metrics to foods and beverages sold by a major UK supermarket, using sales data from the Yorkshire and the Humber region (2022). Products were mapped to global Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHGE) estimates for 45 commodities in four stages. Initially, products were grouped into categories and linked to commodities. Subsequent stages disaggregated high-complexity or high-sales categories into subcategories with similar ingredients, using retailer categorisations (Stage 2) and word searches within product descriptions (Stage 3), and finally refined categorisations to aid interpretability (Stage 4). The product with the highest sales in each subcategory was selected as an indicator product and mapped to commodities using data on ingredient proportions. Land Use and Water Use estimates were generated using the final mapping scheme. A look-up tool was produced linking categories to environmental sustainability metrics for use with other food product data. By Stage 4, 98¡6% of >27,000 products were mapped to GHGE, using 200 category/subcategory-based GHGE estimates. Disaggregation revealed significant variation in GHGE estimates: up to a three-fold difference between Stage 1 and 4 estimates for the same category, and up to a 30-fold difference between subcategories within the same category. Disaggregation of complex categories is important for accurate estimation of sustainability indices. Our sales-guided approach balances accuracy and efficiency when dealing with large supermarket data and could support a wide range of research into sustainable diets.
TradWives, Dating Coaches, and Co. – A Typology of Women anti-feminist Influencers on TikTok and Instagram
Mareike Fenja Bauer
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Whether through red-pill conspiracy narratives or hashtags such as #FemininityNotFeminism, anti-feminism is widespread on social media platforms. This paper contributes to the research on women anti-feminist influencers within digital public spheres. While previous studies have identified various actors within the so-called 'manosphere', such as Incels or Pick-up-Artists, we still know little about women's involvement in (online) anti-feminism. This qualitative study aims to shed light on the global phenomenon of women anti-feminist influencers on visual social media platforms by developing a typology of women anti-feminist influencers on TikTok and Instagram. The study uncovers that women anti-feminist influencers adopt different roles such as political commentators, dating-coaches, and TradWives, among others, to disseminate their beliefs. The findings point to the unique role that women play as influencers within contemporary (online) anti-feminism, contributing to our understanding of this occurrence.
Impacts of allowing respondents to abstain in conjoint experiments
G. BrĂźckmann; Isabelle Stadelmann-Steffen
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Conjoint experiments have gained popularity in political science, accompanied by methodological discussions. We contribute to these by investigating the impact of (randomly) offering an abstention option alongside the usual forced choice dependent variable. We explore the usage of abstention employing data from a novel experiment with 4466 respondents. The findings reveal that a notable proportion of respondents abstain due to non-acceptance and unwillingness or inability to choose. Abstention from binary choice also impacts the subsequent rating tasks, suggesting binary choice may overestimate favorability deduced from conjoint experiments. Mirroring the real-world decision process, which often includes abstention options, improves our understanding of preferences and prevents biases in the analysis, highlighting the importance of considering offering an abstention option in conjoint experiments.
Shaping Public Health Policy in Personalised Prevention: The multidimensional PROPHET Framework
Astrid Vicente; Angelica Valz Gris; Cristina Costa; Maria Luis Cardoso; Alexandra Costa; FĂĄtima Lopes; Pragathy Kannan; Markus Perola; Roberta Pastorino; Angelo Pezzullo
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There is currently no widely accepted framework to guide decision-making for preventive approaches using genetic and genomic technologies. In the context of the PROPHET project, we developed a multidimensional framework integrating Health Technology Assessment (HTA) and Health Impact Assessment (HIA), complemented by a monitoring phase to assess the impact of policies implementing personalised prevention interventions. This integrated approach links technical, clinical, and societal dimensions, supporting prevention strategies that are effective, equitable and sustainable. The PROPHET framework supports policy makers in the equitable and efficient implementation of personalised prevention policies at scale.
The roles of siblings and school peers in young adults’ life course events: A review and a research agenda
Clara H. Mulder; Yu-Chin Her; Zuzana Zilincikova; Kilian J. Steigner
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BACKGROUND Young adulthood is characterised by the occurrence of many life events, the outcomes of which have long-term repercussions throughout the life course. Parental influences are known to be key to young adults’ life courses. Yet, young adults spend much of their time with siblings and school peers (particularly classmates), whose influences might complement or counterbalance parental influences. OBJECTIVE We review the literature on the roles of siblings and school peers in the occurrence, timing, and outcomes of important life-course events that tend to occur frequently in young adulthood: Leaving the parental home, returning home, entry into tertiary education, residential relocations, partnership formation and dissolution, and the transition to parenthood. We then present an agenda for research that aims to identify and disentangle the roles of siblings and school peers in these life-course events using longitudinal register micro-data. We intend to carry out parts of this agenda over the next few years and have initiated the work on it. We also pay attention to methodological issues associated with the envisaged research. CONTRIBUTION We provide (1) a review of the literature on the important but under-researched topic of the roles of siblings and peers in young adults’ life-course events, and (2) an agenda for research on this topic, which includes a preview of our own ongoing and future work in the context of two research projects.
Input to Impact: A Two-Round Delphi Study to Identify and Rate Student Experience Enhancements
Paulo Ricardo Vieira Braga; Toni Beardmore; Katie Tyrrell
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Universities face growing pressure to evidence a high-quality “student experience”, yet institutions often lack systematic ways to convert student voice into institutional actions. Therefore, this study applied a two-round Delphi method at a post-1992 UK university to identify and prioritise student-suggested enhancements, and to evaluate the method’s effectiveness for collecting and prioritising feedback. Using an exploratory mixed-methods design and Jones’s (2017) seven-microsystem student experience framework, Round 1 (n=97) gathered open-ended suggestions across microsystems, and content analysis produced 26 categories to develop specific suggestions for the subsequent round. Round 2 (n=64 valid) converted these categories into 28 importance rating items on a 7-point scale, with a priori consensus criteria of median ≥ 6 and IQR ≤ 1. Overall, 15 items (54%) reached consensus. The strongest agreement concerned clarifying assessments (rubrics and exemplars), providing clear timetables with early access to materials, and offering online teaching options with earlier tutorials. All items concerning the “extracurricular activity” and “preparation for life after graduation” microsystems achieved consensus, signalling support for cohort-building events, integrating extracurricular learning, and early, structured placements and career guidance. Items in the “transition” and “peer/friendship groups” resulted in high medians but wider dispersion, reflecting diverse preferences. Students also reached consensus that the two-round Delphi was effective for collecting and prioritising student feedback (median=6; IQR=1). These findings provide a pragmatic, scalable route for converting student voice into context-sensitive, actionable institutional priorities. The approach is domain-agnostic and offers a blueprint for organisations seeking to involve primary stakeholders in institutional decision-making.
Why is food insecurity associated with health outcomes? A review of possible pathways
Daniel Nettle
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Food insecurity (FI) in high income countries has become a major focus of academic and policy concern. FI is prevalent, and is consistently associated with poor physical and mental health outcomes. These associations are attenuated but not eliminated by controlling for more general social determinants, with which food insecurity is correlated. Though it is clear that the associations exist, it is less clear why. In this paper, we review four possible pathways between FI and poor health: (A) FI is a non-causal correlate of general deprivation and disadvantage; (B) FI causes poor health, but this is not mediated by diet; (C) FI causes poor health by changing what people eat; (D) FI causes poor health by changing the temporal patterning of their eating. These pathways are not mutually exclusive and we suggest that several play a role. Understanding their relative importance is nonetheless an important goal if we wish to intervene effectively to mitigate the health burden of FI.
Nightmare neighbours: The economic geography of gambling shops and gambling harms
Francisco Nobre; Tasos Kitsos; Emmanouil Tranos; Chiara Paola Donegani
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We focus on the dark side of consumer city and examine the economic geography of gambling as a consumption disamenity with localised wellbeing impacts. Our framework combines proximity and density, and we use data on gambling shops matched with surveys to measure how ’gamblogenic’ environments lead to negative, localised, wellbeing effects using probit models and coarsened exact matching. Living closer to and in high densities of gambling shops, increases the likelihood of gambling and being a problematic gambler. The spatial distribution of gambling venues matters, and calls for targeted interventions to mitigate harms.
Racialised Erotic Labour among Northeastern Student Women in Delhi
Ruth Laldinpuii; Shlok Goenka
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This paper examines why female university students aged 18–21 from northeast India enter Delhi’s informal erotic economy, massage parlours, escort platforms, brothels, at rates structurally unmatched by peers from other regions. Drawing on 34 semi-structured interviews (February–December 2025), Right-to-Information institutional data, and semiotic analy- sis of 147 escort listings, we identify five interlocking mechanisms that produce what we term racialised surplus availability: a structural position wherein northeast women are simultaneously hyper-desired as erotic commodities and hyper-excluded from institutional safety nets. The paper documents the labour itself in granular ethnographic detail—the acts, the bodily negotiations, the somatic aftermath, as narrated by participants in their own teenage and young-adult register. We reject both rescue and empowerment framings, arguing that student sex work in this population is a rational, degrading, temporally bounded survival strategy produced at the intersection of racial desire and institutional abandonment
Peningkatan Kualitas Tata Kelola SDM Tenaga Pendidik TK Aisyiah Bustanul Athfal Banda Aceh
Khairita Hasbi; Desy Puspita; Zahriatul Aini; Mirnawati; Indra Akbar; Agustina; Cut Intan Amalia; Azlina; Arwina Sufika; Desy Sinaga
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Kehadiran Taman kanak–kanak (TK) dalam dunia pendidikan sangat dibutuhkan untuk menyesuaikan dengan kebutuhan para orang tua dalam memenuhi pendidikan anak-anaknya. Pemilihan sekolah, termasuk TK menjadi perhatian khusus para orang tua, dengan mempertimbangkan fasilitas yang memadai dan sumber daya pengajar yang berkualitas menjadi salah satu faktor penting sebuah lembaga Pendidikan. Oleh karena itu, kegiatan pengabdian kepada masyarakat ini bertujuan untuk mengidentifikasi, mensosialisasikan, dan memantau tata kelola Sumber Daya Manusia (SDM) oleh Politeknik Kutaraja yang diterapkan di TK Aisyiyah Bustanul Athfal Lhong Raya Banda Aceh. Hasil yang diperoleh dari kegiatan pengabdian kepada Masyarakat ini menunjukkan bahwa sosialisasi dan pembinaan terkait tata kelola SDM berjalan dengan baik. Pihak sekolah dan guru menerima materi pembinaan melalui sosialisasi, pelatihan, dan diskusi yang bersifat berkelanjutan. Proses monitoring yang dilakukan memberikan gambaran positif mengenai kemajuan yang dicapai, khususnya dalam penerapan tata kelola SDM yang lebih efektif. Secara keseluruhan, program ini memberikan kontribusi yang baik terhadap kualitas pendidikan dan pengelolaan sekolah di TK Aisyiyah Bustanul Athfal Lhong Raya Banda Aceh, meskipun masih terdapat beberapa aspek yang perlu diperbaiki lebih lanjut.
Slow Migration: Financial Uncertainty and the Ethics of Minority Staying in Kashmir
Bupinder Singh Bali
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How do minority communities move away from places they have inhabited for generations when departure is never consciously chosen? This article examines the livelihood practices of Kashmiri Sikhs, a long-settled micro-minority in the Kashmir Valley, to argue that migration can unfold as a slow, cumulative process driven by the gradual exhaustion of everyday endurance. Drawing on longitudinal ethnographic engagement with Kashmiri Sikh households conducted across multiple phases between the mid-2010s and early 2020s, the article traces how financial uncertainty under conditions of protracted political instability reshapes the temporal horizons, moral obligations, and bodily risks through which staying is sustained. Livelihood is analysed here as ethical practice: earning, saving, commuting, and investing are shown to be the sites where political instability, communal vulnerability, and institutional unpredictability converge and must be managed at the household level. Three ethnographic scenes examine how this ethical labour operates across small-scale entrepreneurship, intergenerational household geographies, and state employment. The article introduces the concept of slow migration to describe an incremental, ethically structured form of movement that differs from both crisis-driven displacement and aspiration-led mobility. Slow migration involves no singular decision point. It emerges through accumulation, when the work required to remain in place exceeds what financial life can sustain. By foregrounding livelihood as the medium through which minority endurance is produced and eventually strained, the article contributes to anthropological scholarship on ethics, precarity, and migration in South Asia.
Towards youth-centred communication in chronic disease care: A scoping review
Neda Karimi; Aadhavi Vasanthan; Alison Rotha Moore
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Background Rising numbers of youth are living with chronic conditions that require sustained engagement with healthcare during a period of increasing expectations for autonomy. Communication is central to supporting their health literacy, participation, and transition to independent self-management. This scoping review synthesises evidence on how adolescents and young adults with chronic conditions experience communication with healthcare providers and what they need and value in these interactions. Methods Scopus, PubMed, and PsycINFO were searched for eligible peer-reviewed studies that reported on communication experiences of young people aged≥11 with chronic illness. Data on communication-related findings were extracted and synthesised using reflexive thematic analysis. Results Fifty-one publications met inclusion criteria. Across approximately 3073 young people, key communication needs centred on trust, autonomy, health literacy, and psychosocial support. Trust was strengthened by continuity of care, clear introductions, showing genuine interest, empathy, and respect. Youth valued being listened to, taken seriously, and involved in decisions; however, many reported limited opportunities to participate meaningfully, especially those from historically marginalised groups. The literature suggested that parental involvement could both support and inhibit engagement, underscoring the need for gradual, collaborative transitions. Significant gaps were identified in condition-specific and system-level health literacy. Psychosocial concerns strongly shaped communication needs. Young people wanted proactive discussions about sexuality, fertility, alcohol, and drug use. Observational research was scarce. Conclusion Trusting, person-centred relationships and proactive, developmentally appropriate communication are essential to support youth engagement and autonomy in clinical care. More observational research is needed to understand how best to support youth in healthcare interactions.
THE FUTURE OF GHANAIAN MICROENTERPRISE: HOW A MODEL SMALL BUSINESS SHOULD LOOK LIKE
Kofi Ofori-Mensah
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Microenterprises in Ghana are run mostly by people in the informal sector. These entrepreneurs often lack the skills needed to start a small business. As a result, most of the businesses they start up often collapse or cannot stand the test of time. The future of Ghanaian microenterprises should move away from a try-and-error approach and adopt a systematic approach. The study focused on how a model small Ghanaian business should be structured to ensure its sustainability. Important aspects of the microenterprise model, such as the composition of a new microenterprise system, including the microenterprise planning stage, the capital stage, and the execution stage, were considered. The research also considered how an entrepreneur can systematically save to enable him or her start a microenterprise venture in Ghana. This study, through a questionnaire survey, investigated entrepreneurs' awareness of starting microenterprises in Ghana and the success of those new startups, analyzing whether they have a future. The study also ascertained the difficulties entrepreneurs encounter in accessing financial support for their startups. The study revealed a low level of awareness among entrepreneurs about how to properly start a microenterprise and ensure its sustainability. Most Ghanaian entrepreneurs enter into microenterprises because there are no jobs. They lack the basic understanding of microenterprises and are unable to sustain their businesses. A number of specific action areas have been identified to proactively educate microenterprises in Ghana to ensure their sustainability.
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF GHANAIAN LOAN CLIENTS AND HOW IT AFFECTS LOAN REPAYMENTS: A CASE STUDY OF PAN-AFRICAN SAVINGS AND LOANS
Kofi Ofori-Mensah
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This study sought to examine the relationship between borrower psychology or behaviour, the intended purpose of loans, and credit repayment performance. The methodology used was a cross-sectional survey design, with a sample of 800 respondents selected using purposive and simple random sampling. Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data, which were processed and analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS V22.0.0). The findings showed significant positive correlations between borrower psychology or behaviour, intended purpose of loans and credit repayment performance which implied that the way borrowers behaved during credit accessibility or after acquiring credit from or even before taking the loan from the bank, had a lot of effects on how borrowers use the money acquired from the bank which would in turn affect effectiveness and efficiency of credit repayment. From the regression analysis, it was apparent that borrower psychology or behaviour was a strong predictor of credit repayment performance; therefore, the management of credit institutions should put a lot of emphasis on the training of loan officers to enable them screen prospective clients well before giving them loans, since what they use the loans for affects how they repay the loans. Management should also let borrowers know the importance of using the loans for their intended purpose, since it is the business that repays the loan, not the borrower, as most people think.
Identity Spillovers: How the Politics of Immigration Shapes Class and Religious Self-Identification
Leonardo Carella; Francesco Raffaelli
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Social identities like class and religion are typically treated as stable antecedents of political preferences. This article shows that the causal arrow can also run in reverse: when exposed to narratives that pit immigrants against a discrete native social group, individuals can ‘update’ their identities to match their preferences over immigration. We theorise that anti-immigration individuals may claim membership of groups portrayed as threatened by immigrants as a form of instrumental belief justification: adopting this identity allows them to ground out-group aversion in concern for in-group interests. We test this framework with two original survey experiments: one on class identity in Britain and one on Christian identity in Italy. When primed with narratives framing immigration as a threat to the British working class or to the role of Christianity in Italian culture, respondents with anti-immigration preferences become more likely to claim working-class and Christian identities. In the British case, we also find evidence that pro-immigration individuals dis-identify from the working class when exposed to the treatment. These identity updates are driven by respondents who lack ‘objective’ markers of group membership (i.e., middle-class Britons and non-church-going Italians). They are also not reflected in changes in support for policies benefiting these groups, underscoring the instrumental nature of individuals' responses to these narratives. Overall, the findings speak to the literature on cleavage realignment, suggesting that when political actors strategically link immigration to ‘old’ dimensions of political conflict, traditional categories of politics such as class and religion acquire new meanings in people's minds.
Consideration of sex and gender in routine research data: Results from an online survey across German medical Data Integration Centers
Lea Schindler; Hilke Beelich; Lea GĂźtebier; Elpiniki Katsari; Sylvia Stracke; Dagmar Waltemath
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Background: Medical Data Integration Centers (DIZ) have been established at German university hospitals to collect, transfer, consolidate, and process routine clinical data and make it available for health research. Consideration of sex and gender benefits research and enhances the quality of medical care. We therefore argue that DIZ staff members need to be well-informed and knowledgeable about sex and gender aspects in clinical data. Only then they can inform about research quality gain and advise researchers on thoughtful selection of study cohorts, appropriate encoding of sex and gender information, and the benefits of considering gender distributions. Objective: This work systematically analyzes the awareness of sex and gender among technical and scientific staff members at DIZ. The survey will guide future recommendations for handling sex and gender aspects in clinical research. Methods: Using an online survey, we assess how knowledgeable DIZ staff currently are regarding sex, gender and gender scores. The survey was distributed in February 2024 to all 38 DIZ in Germany via a national mailing list. It was structured into three topics: (1) perception of sex and gender in medical research, (2) consideration of sex and gender during data collection, and (3) consideration of sex and gender in data use and reuse. We analyzed the collected data with descriptive statistics and checked for correlation within the dataset. Results: After a four-week response period, 74 current employees had fully completed the questionnaire and an additional 62 had partially completed it. The survey results show a lack of knowledge and awareness regarding sex and gender aspects among DIZ employees indicated by a high amount of ``No" and ``I don't know" answers, specifically regarding sex- and gender-specific training, official recommendations, and team policies. Conclusion: As essential links between clinics and researchers, DIZ employees need targeted training on sex and gender aspects to better support and advise research efforts. We provide first recommendations for the different levels of administration to improve knowledge and awareness of sex and gender aspects in medical research data.
Is the association between food insecurity and depression mediated by diet?
Melissa Bateson; Courtney Neal; Oliver Shannon; Daniel Nettle
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Background. Food insecurity is associated with depression. Food insecurity involves distinctive patterns of dietary intake, and recent evidence suggests that dietary intake affects mood. Thus, an important pathway from food insecurity to depression may be via dietary changes. Methods. We studied two observational datasets (one from the UK, and NHANES 2017-8 from the USA) with measurements of food insecurity and affective state, plus dietary data from 24-hr food recalls. We examined variables concerning dietary composition and intake timing, as well as affective state, by food-insecurity status. Results. In both datasets, people experiencing food insecurity had significantly worse affective states. They showed dietary differences, notably more meal skipping, less regular timing of the first meal, and lower dietary diversity. A set of dietary variables (meal irregularity, night eating, dietary diversity, fruit and vegetable intake, and protein intake) partially mediated the association between food insecurity and affective state, accounting for 23% and 6% of the total association. Discussion. Dietary intake represents one pathway via which food insecurity can negatively affect mental health. Our findings suggest that while dietary intake plays a role in the association between food insecurity and poorer mood outcomes, it does not predominate.
Tool Media, Security, and the Mediated Meaning of the Second Amendment
Chandler Bahk
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Emerging Internet of Things (IoT) technologies are transforming everyday practices of security in ways that extend beyond communication and discourse. This article introduces "tool media" as a new conceptual category to describe media technologies designed primarily for instrumental and operational purposes—such as surveillance, monitoring, and automated response—rather than symbolic human-to-human communication, yet which nonetheless mediate perception, decision-making, and social meaning. Focusing on IoT-based home security systems as a theoretically rich case, the article examines how tool media reconfigure the cultural meaning of protection by shifting emphasis from armed readiness toward prevention, surveillance, and delegation to technological systems. Drawing on media theory, science and technology studies, and scholarship on gun culture and surveillance, the analysis explores the implications of this shift for American gun culture and Second Amendment discourse, highlighting processes of cultural fragmentation and demographic differentiation. The article further examines how tool media introduce new tensions related to privacy, algorithmic authority, and civil liberties through the privatization and normalization of surveillance. By foregrounding non-discursive forms of mediation, the article argues for expanding media theory beyond content and representation to account for the growing influence of operational technologies on law, governance, and everyday life.
Reassessing the Royal Burials at Vergina: A Post-Alexandrian Monumentalization of Philip II in Tomb II and the Political Reconfiguration of Argead Funerary Memory
PAULO CACELLA
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The identification of the occupants of the Royal Tombs beneath the Great Tumulus at Vergina remains one of the central problems in Macedonian archaeology. Recent bioarchaeological and radiocarbon analyses have excluded Tomb I as the burial of Philip II of Macedon, removing the osteological and chronological basis for the traditional attribution and leaving Philip’s resting place unresolved. This paper proposes an integrative reinterpretation of Tomb II as either the primary cremation or a secondary monumentalized burial of Philip II, constructed or refurbished during the political reorganization of Macedonia following the death of Alexander the Great. We argue that the tomb’s cremation rites, exceptional monumentality, dynastic iconography, equestrian sacrifices, and elite military regalia correspond more closely to the commemoration of a foundational warrior king than to the historically marginal reign of Philip III Arrhidaeus. Situating Tomb II within broader Greek traditions of heroization, secondary burial, and dynastic legitimation, the model explains the archaeological and historical evidence with fewer assumptions and generates testable predictions for future research.
The Modernity Trap : Structural Constraints on Fertility in Wealthy Democracies
Victor Slätis
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The "Optimistic Consensus" suggested that fertility would recover at high development levels. We test this hypothesis using panel data from 161 countries (1990–2023, N=2,989) and find no evidence of J-curve recovery. Instead, wealthy democracies converge on a synchronized fertility decline toward a total fertility rate of 1.3–1.5 as of 2023—persistently below replacement. We construct a "Modernity Index" via principal components analysis of education, gross domestic product, and urbanization, and then estimate interaction models with cluster-robust standard errors. Modernity emerges as the primary predictor of fertility decline (β=-0.68, p<0.001), consistent with prohibitive opportunity costs that fiscal transfers cannot offset. Democracy shows no independent main effects but significantly moderates modernity's impact through an interaction term (β=+0.48, p=0.020): at high development, stronger democratic institutions correlate with marginally higher fertility. Robustness analysis with larger samples (N=5,589) strengthens these findings. Israel constitutes a statistically identified exception due to religio-cultural forces. We formalize these constraints as the "Liberal Trilemma": advanced societies struggle simultaneously sustain meritocratic education, demographic continuity, and economic growth. Policy implications are stark—even pro-natalist spending achieves TFRs 20–30% below replacement, confirming that transfers address direct costs but have not reversed structural decline.
The Synthetic Turn A Genealogy of Digital Methods from Platform Critique to Generative Inquiry
Jonathan Albright
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This study traces the "Synthetic Turn" in digital methods—the transformation of generative AI from object of study to primary research instrument. Analyzing the complete archive of 474 projects from the Digital Methods Initiative (2007–2026), I document a fourteen-fold increase in AI/ML method adoption: from 4.9% of projects during algorithmic critique (2007–2015), to 33.5% during platform auditing (2016–2021), to 70.1% in the current period (2022–2026). The timing complicates popular narratives: 41.4% of projects in 2022 engaged substantively with AI/ML before ChatGPT's public release. I formalize four "synthetic protocols"—Performative Probing, Contrastive Generation, Recursive Amplification, and Symptomatic Reading—each tracing clear lineage to established practices. Yet two-thirds of Synthetic Turn projects employ AI/ML methods while only 4.8% position AI as their primary methodological lineage: adaptation, not displacement. Synthetic protocols offer pathways to critical AI research that do not depend on corporate cooperation, technical infrastructure, or privileged access.
What Predicts Support for Political Violence? Results from a Machine Learning Meta-Reanalysis
Sam Fuller; Jack T. Rametta; Alexa Federice
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There is significant research on support for political violence (SPV), its correlates, and interventions to reduce it. However, there is no framework for understanding who supports political violence. This article leverages the exploratory power of (causal) machine learning to conduct a registered meta-reanalysis of both the observational and experimental literature on SPV from 1995-2025 to synthesize and summarize previous research. First, we identify three categories of individual-level predictors: politically salient identities, psychological characteristics, and attitudes toward one's political system. Second, we find that young adults are the most likely to support political violence across many recent surveys, particularly in the U.S. Additionally, in two experiments in the U.S. and India we find that young people are by far the most affected by treatments aimed at both decreasing and increasing support, respectively. Third, and in contrast to research on the perpetration of violence, we find scant evidence of a relationship between gender identity and SPV.
Memes About AI as Sociotechnical Narratives: Vernacular Criticism and the Imaginary Institution of Society
Alberto Romele; Fabrizio Defilippi
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This article examines how internet memes contribute to the sociotechnical imaginaries surrounding artificial intelligence (AI). Drawing on Castoriadis’s distinction between instituted and instituting imaginaries, we understand memes as narratives that symbolically construct AI in everyday culture. In the first section, we review research on sociotechnical imaginaries of AI across textual and visual domains, and show that memes that speak about AI have received comparatively little scholarly attention. We then introduce the notion of sociotechnical narratives to frame these imaginaries as contested and provisional rather than coherent or hegemonic. In the second section, we conceptualize memes as narratives that intervene in the symbolic institution of social reality, showing that they can reinforce dominant meanings through repetition and normalization, but also subvert or reframe them. The third section presents a mixed-methods empirical study of 560 memes collected from Imgflip.com (2016–2025). After building the corpus through manual filtering, we coded memes by topic and conducted a fine-grained qualitative analysis of four main categories: AI takeover, generative AI, art, and AI social impact. Our findings show that most memes reiterate rather than subvert dominant representations of AI. Humor tends to flatten disagreement rather than intensify it, producing what we describe as dormant agonism.
Artificial Intelligence as Political Antagonism: Media Traces of a Displaced Super-Controversy
Alberto Romele; ClĂŠment Bert-Erboul; Julien MĂŠsangeau
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This article argues that public engagement with Artificial Intelligence (AI), as it becomes visible through media traces, is structured less as a technoscientific controversy among competing publics than as a displaced form of political antagonism. Intervening in current STS debates on AI “super-controversy,” we revisit controversy studies and recent calls for controversy elicitation, which seek to revitalize democratic problematisation by fostering participation and extended expertise. While these approaches foreground conflict, they retain an implicit epistemic horizon in which legitimate participation is tied to articulated critique and the formation of lay expertise. Drawing instead on Ernesto Laclau’s theory of antagonism and populist logic, we propose an alternative analytical lens. In this perspective, conflict is not necessarily organized around shared objects of dispute, but around the construction of political frontiers through which heterogeneous grievances are articulated against a common adversary. Empirically, we analyse 1,148,092 comments posted on 4,244 TF1.info YouTube news videos (March 2022–May 2024), comparing AI with electric vehicles, nuclear technologies, and climate change, and mapping intersections with party-political publics. While quantitative measures suggest weak AI issue-public formation, qualitative analysis reveals predominantly vertical antagonism targeting elites and institutions. AI functions less as a technical object of debate than as a symbolic condensation of institutional power.
Tripartite Perception of Race Theory (TPRT): A Framework for Understanding Interracial Interaction
Chandler Bahk
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The Tripartite Perception of Race Theory (TPRT) advances a new theoretical framework for explaining how racial perception structures interracial interaction. Rather than treating anxiety, threat, or prejudice as primary explanatory endpoints, TPRT conceptualizes racial perception itself as the foundational mechanism organizing communicative experience prior to interaction. The theory specifies three analytically distinct but interrelated perceptual dimensions—racial distinctness, racial inequality, and racial incompatibility—through which racial hierarchy and difference are anticipated, interpreted, and negotiated. Racial distinctness concerns perceived cultural and normative divergence; racial inequality captures perceived hierarchical asymmetry and status differentiation; and racial incompatibility reflects beliefs about the feasibility of constructive cross-racial engagement. By formalizing these dimensions through a set of propositions, TPRT articulates how perceptual orientations shape communicative expectations, participation, and avoidance, particularly in contexts marked by historical and structural inequality. The framework reorients race and communication scholarship from outcome-centered models of anxiety and threat toward a perception-centered account that links macro-level racial structures to micro-level interactional processes. Although developed within the domain of interracial communication, TPRT offers a generalizable analytic structure for examining how perceptions of social difference condition interaction across diverse intergroup contexts. In doing so, the theory provides an empirically falsifiable and conceptually integrative foundation for understanding how race is anticipated, enacted, and reproduced in everyday communicative life.
Topic Hijacking in Online Health Communities
Zhiya Zuo; Xi Wang; Xiji ZHU; Yulin Fang
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Online health communities (OHCs) are conventionally recognized as information commons for mutual exchange among peer users with similar health concerns. Extant research reckons that engagement patterns universally conform to implicit norms guided by social exchange; that is, when a topic owner (i.e., user who initiates a topic thread) receives replies from peer users, they are said to acquire social support. This overlooks topic hijacking, a prevalent phenomenon where peer users solicit instead of providing support to topic owners. Drawing on the territoriality theory, we conceptualize that OHCs, as a form of health information commons, accommodate the emergence of personal territories when a user initiates a topic for support seeking. We posit topic hijacking as territorial infringement, and theorize a fight–flight–flex response framework for topic owners who experience topic hijacking, as well as the contingency of hijacking competitiveness on responses. Using data from 368 topics in an OHC, we develop measures of hijacking and hijacking competitiveness (competitive vs. complementary). Regression analyses attest to our research hypotheses that hijacking triggers (i) defensive responses at both the topic owner territory and community levels, including fight (marking self-presence) and flight (disengagement), and (ii) expansive response at the community level manifested by flex (subsequent hijacking of other topic owners’ territories). Moreover, competitive hijacking intensifies defensive responses, while complementary hijacking fosters territorial expansion. This study advances the OHC literature by recognizing topic hijacking as territorial infringements disrupting topic owner engagement, introducing a novel fight–flight–flex framework that captures both defensive and expansive responses, and identifying hijacking competitiveness as a boundary condition discerning defensive versus expansive responses to hijacking. Our findings offer implications for platform governance by showing how different hijacking forms may disrupt or enhance community vitality.
Tool Media, Security, and the Reconfigured Meaning of the Second Amendment
Chandler Bahk
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Emerging Internet of Things (IoT) technologies are transforming everyday practices of security in ways that extend beyond communication and discourse. This article introduces tool media as a distinct conceptual category to describe media technologies that organize perception, judgment, and action through automated systems of sensing, evaluation, and response rather than primarily through symbolic representation or communicative exchange. By foregrounding operational delegation as a mediating logic, the article expands media theory beyond discourse-centered paradigms to account for technologies that structure environments and coordinate behavior through procedural systems. Focusing on IoT-based home security systems as a theoretically generative case, the article examines how tool media contribute to a reconfiguration of protection. Whereas protection has historically been associated with armed readiness and individual response---particularly within American gun culture and Second Amendment discourse---IoT security systems reorganize protection around anticipatory monitoring, infrastructural reliability, and delegated authority. This shift does not directly contest constitutional rights but subtly recalibrates the cultural conditions under which they acquire meaning. By analyzing how operational media reshape perceptions of risk, responsibility, and authority, the article demonstrates how constitutional meaning and cultural identity are reorganized through everyday technological systems. More broadly, it argues that understanding contemporary social organization and transformation requires attention to operational systems that organize perception, judgment, and action prior to and alongside symbolic communication.
Artificial intelligence and access to justice at the ‘shop front’: the potential and limitations of meeting legal need through technology
Catherine Hastings; Art Cotterell; Farzana Bruce
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In Australia, governments fund Community Legal Centres (CLCs) as part of the legal assistance sector (LAS) to meet the ‘legal needs’ of people experiencing disadvantage who cannot afford private legal services. Persistent unmet demand for CLCs is well-documented. To increase access to justice, the sector has been a long-time adopter of once-revolutionary innovations, like video conferencing. As artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly used in private legal practice to increase productivity and profits, some parts of the LAS are also exploring AI use cases. This article asks: What do we know about CLC clients and how services are currently delivered to meet their needs? What must we consider about client capabilities to ensure AI technologies are appropriate in the context of CLC service delivery? The research includes a review of policy documents, peer-reviewed research and grey literature, and secondary analysis of empirical data on how client capabilities contribute to the legal needs of CLC clients. We show in the article that the three-dimensional nature of legal need, a client’s capability and ability to self-assist, structural inequalities and current CLC service delivery models are vital considerations when developing AI tools to increase access to justice.
The Coordination Gap in Frontier AI Safety Policies
Isaak Mengesha
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Frontier AI Safety Policies concentrate on prevention—capability evaluations, deployment gates, usage constraints—while neglecting institutional capacity to coordinate responses when prevention fails. We argue this coordination gap is structural: investments in ecosystem robustness yield diffuse benefits but concentrated costs, generating systematic underinvestment. Drawing on risk regimes in nuclear safety, pandemic preparedness, and critical infrastructure, we propose that similar mechanisms—precommitment, shared protocols, standing coordination venues—could be adapted to frontier AI governance. Without such architecture, institutions cannot learn from failures at the pace of relevance.