Using humor to increase COVID-19 vaccination intention for the unvaccinated: The moderating role of trust in government

Since COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic, scholars and practitioners have put much effort into testing effective advertising strategies for COVID-19 vaccinations. Guided by humor theories, this study aimed to examine (1) the effect of humor on persuading COVID-19 vaccination and (2) the moderating role of trust in government for the unvaccinated population. Across two studies (college students and general adult populations), for lower trust in government individuals, through greater public service advertisement (PSA) processing depth and believability, there was a higher vaccination intention after the humor (non-humor) advertisement. For higher trust in government individuals, there was evidence that the vaccination intention was lowered after the humor (vs. non-humor) message through lowered PSA processing depth and believability. This study expands humor theory into testing COVID-19 vaccination messages while considering an individual psychological factor, trust in the government, that has emerged as an essential determinant to COVID-19 messaging. The contributions to COVID-19 vaccination advertising strategy and advertising to the unvaccinated population, in general, are discussed.     

The role of body weight in resident-intruder aggression

The behavior of male NIH Swiss mice of various body weights in the resident-intruder test of aggression was investigated. Mice were housed individually for 10 days prior to the test, and allocated to six groups. In the first three groups body weights of residents and group-housed intruders were matched, and the animals were divided into light, average, or heavy groups. In the last three groups weights of the intruder mice were either matched with the residents, or intruders were lighter or heavier than the residents. We found that light residents spent significantly less time in aggressive behaviors and longer time in defensive behaviors than the other two groups. The heavy mice showed most social investigation. The body weights of intruders were also shown to affect the behavior in the test: those residents which had light opponents spent a longer time in aggressive behavior than those which had matched or heavy opponents. The resident mice with heavy opponents showed most defensive behaviors. To study whether pharmacological manipulation may have different effects on behavior in the resident-intruder test in mice having different weights, animals of light, average, and heavy body weight received a low dose (0.8 g/kg) of ethanol 30 min prior to the test. We did not note any effect of ethanol on aggressive behavior in the three groups. The results suggest that body weight plays a significant role in determining the level of aggression and defensive behaviors in the resident-intruder test.     

Verbal memory compensation: application to left and right temporal lobe epileptic patients

This study investigates the compensatory impact of cognitive aids on left and right temporal lobe epileptic patients suffering from verbal memory disorders, who were candidates for surgery. Cognitive aids are defined in the levels-of-processing framework and deal with the depth of encoding, the elaboration of information, and the use of retrieval cues. Results indicate differential compensatory impact for left and right epileptic patients and are discussed according to the HERA model and the compensation framework.     

Perceptual learning can reverse subliminal priming effects

Masked primes presented prior to a target can result in inverse priming (i.e., benefits on trials in which the prime and the target are mapped onto opposite responses). In five experiments, time-of-task effects on subliminal priming of motor responses were investigated. First, we replicated Klapp and Hinkley's (2002) finding that the priming effect is initially straight (i.e., it benefits congruent trials, in which the prime and targets are mapped onto the same response) or absent, and only later reverses (i.e., faster responses in incongruent than in congruent trials). We show that the presentation of the mask plays a crucial role in this reversal and that the reversal occurs later if the mask pattern is very complex. We suggest that perceptual learning improves the recognition of task-relevant features. Once recognized, these features can trigger the preparation of the alternative response and/or inhibit the prime-activated response. These findings support an active role of the mask in priming.     

The role of social identity in the explanation of collective action: An intergroup perspective on the Yellow Vests movement

Social psychologists have developed influential theoretical models to understand intergroup conflicts, radicalism, and collective action. November 2018 saw the emergence of a new powerful movement in France named the Yellow Vests. Born on social media, the movement has sustained an unprecedented period of intense protests and violent clashes with the police, challenging the French government. As such, this movement offers an ideal context to examine the real-world relevance of current social-psychological theorizing. Using a social identity and self-categorization perspective, two correlational studies (three samples, N = 1,849) tested the role of self-categorization as a group member, or social identity, in accounting for individual participation in normative and nonnormative collective action. Using different operationalizations of identification, both studies confirm a powerful role of identification as a Yellow Vest and provided evidence that the effect of social media use on collective action is fully mediated by self-categorization as a Yellow Vest. An alternative model suggesting that social media use mediated the relation between social identity and collective action was not supported by the data.     

Traditional and proposed tests of slope homogeneity for non-normal and heteroscedastic data

The purpose of this study was to develop and compare tests of independent groups' slopes for non-normal distributions and heteroscedastic variances, including slope tests based on least squares, Theil-Sen, and trimmed estimation approaches. A slope test based on jackknife standard error estimates is proposed that can utilize each of the traditional estimation methods while also addressing problematic aspects of methods' standard error estimates. Simulations demonstrate that the proposed jackknife-based slope tests can improve standard error estimation, Type I error, and power relative to the traditional slope tests.     

The impact of premature childbirth on parental bonding

The development of an affectionate parent-infant bond is essential for a newborn infant's survival and development. However, from evolutionary theory it can be derived that parental bonding is not an automatic process, but dependent on infants' cues to reproductive potential and parents' access to resources. The purpose of the present study was to examine the process of bonding in a sample of Dutch mothers (n = 200) and fathers (n = 193) of full-term (n = 69), moderately premature (n = 68), and very premature infants (n = 63). During the first month postpartum parents completed the Pictorial Representation of Attachment Measure (PRAM) and Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire (PBQ). Longitudinal analyses revealed that mothers' PRAM scores decreased after moderately preterm delivery, whereas decreases in PRAM scores occurred in both parents after very preterm delivery. As lower PRAM scores represent stronger feelings of parent-infant connectedness, our findings suggest a higher degree of bonding after premature childbirth. Results of the PBQ analysis were in line with PRAM outcomes, as parents of preterm infants reported less bonding problems compared to parents of full-terms. These findings support the hypothesis that in affluent countries with adequate resources, bonding in parents of preterm infants on average may be higher than in parents of full-term infants.     

Redundant sensory information does not enhance sequence learning in the serial reaction time task

In daily life we encounter multiple sources of sensory information at any given moment. Unknown is whether such sensory redundancy in some way affects implicit learning of a sequence of events. In the current paper we explored this issue in a serial reaction time task. Our results indicate that redundant sensory information does not enhance sequence learning when all sensory information is presented at the same location (responding to the position and/or color of the stimuli; Experiment 1), even when the distinct sensory sources provide more or less similar baseline response latencies (responding to the shape and/or color of the stimuli; Experiment 2). These findings support the claim that sequence learning does not (necessarily) benefit from sensory redundancy. Moreover, transfer was observed between various sets of stimuli, indicating that learning was predominantly response-based.     

Procedural Fairness and Creativity: Does Voice Maintain People's Creative Vein Over Time?

Although some research suggests a link between procedural fairness and creativity, so far no study has directly tested whether a real manipulation of procedural fairness affects creativity. Additionally, research on procedural fairness effects consists mostly of unique studies, but more realistic, life-like longitudinal experiments with repeated fairness manipulations are lacking. This study investigated the influence of procedural fairness (i.e., having voice) on similar creativity tasks over a period of 4 weeks. Participants in the fair procedure condition maintained their level of creativity during the course of the experiment, whereas participants who were treated unfairly showed a decline in creativity. This research confirms the supporting role of conditions of procedural fairness regarding creativity and the importance of longitudinal designs to fully explore procedural fairness effects.     

Linking mind,body and language: free association revisited

Psychoanalysis differs from other theories because of the great significance it attributes to a man's unconscious. Psychoanalysis differs fundamentally from other therapeutic methods in its use of free association and the significance and power it gives to this method when investigating unconscious phenomena. The present article begins with a brief review of the history of free association and its use as a method. After that, I discuss the relationship between free association and memory, neuropsychoanalysis and semiotics. Free association is linked with implicit memory and seen as a way of remembering; unconscious experiences are given a verbal form with the help of free association. The psychoanalytical setting and transference together constitute a psychic space, in which it becomes possible for the patient to get into touch with his or her bodily, psychic and verbal experiences and material simultaneously. The author sees free association specifically as a form of mental processing which is typical to psychoanalysis; it is a core process where the experiences of mind, body and language and their expressions link together. Free association is simultaneously the result of a memory activity and creative activity and, above all, a combination or synthesis of these two processes.