Implicit shopping: Attitudinal determinants of the purchasing of healthy and unhealthy foods

Implicit attitudes, evaluations that can occur without effort, quickly and without conscious intent, have been shown to predict self-reported diets and objectively measured food choices within the laboratory. We present two studies which extend the literature by demonstrating that implicit attitudes predict objective purchasing of healthy and unhealthy foods. Both Study 1 (N?=?40) and Study 2 (N?=?36) utilised an online shopping paradigm and concerned purchasing of fruit and chocolate. In both studies, implicit attitudes predicted purchases. Explicit attitudes towards buying or eating fruit versus chocolate did not predict purchase behaviour. These studies represent an original test of whether implicit attitudes predict healthy consumer behaviour, which involves participants paying for products. This research provides the strongest evidence yet that implicit attitudes play a role in predicting health food purchases. A comprehensive model of health behaviour should take into account the role of implicit attitudes.     

SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY PHILOSOPHY

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Cyborgs in the Everyday: Masculinity and Biosensing Prostate Cancer

Abstract

An in vivo biosensor is a technology in development that will assess the biological activity of cancers to individualise external beam radiotherapy. Inserting such technology into the human body creates cybernetic organisms; a cyborg that is a human–machine hybrid. There is a gap in knowledge relating to patient willingness to allow automated technology to be embedded and to become cyborg. There is little agreement around what makes a cyborg and less understanding of the variation in the cyborgisation process. Understanding the viewpoint of possible beneficiaries addresses such gaps. There are currently three versions of ‘cyborg’ in the literature (i) a critical feminist STS concept to destabilise power inherent in dualisms, (ii) an extreme version of the human/machine in science-fiction that emphasises the ‘man’ in human and (iii) a prediction of internal physiological adaptation required for future space exploration. Interview study findings with 12 men in remission from prostate cancer show a fourth version can be used to describe current and future sub-groups of the population; ‘everyday cyborgs'. For the everyday cyborg the masculine cyborg status found in the fictionalised human–machine related to issues of control of the cancer. This was preferred to the felt stigmatisation of being a ‘leaker and bleeder’. The willingness to become cyborg was matched with a having to get used to the everyday cyborg's technological adaptations and risks. It is crucial to explore the everyday cyborg's sometimes ambivalent viewpoint. The everyday cyborg thus adds the dimension of participant voice currently missing in existing cyborg literatures and imaginations.     

Gaze Perception Triggers Reflexive Visuospatial Orienting

This paper seeks to bring together two previously separate research traditions: research on spatial orienting within the visual cueing paradigm and research into social cognition, addressing our tendency to attend in the direction that another person looks. Cueing methodologies from mainstream attention research were adapted to test the automaticity of orienting in the direction of seen gaze. Three studies manipulated the direction of gaze in a computerized face, which appeared centrally in a frontal view during a peripheral letter-discrimination task. Experiments 1 and 2 found faster discrimination of peripheral target letters on the side the computerized face gazed towards, even though the seen gaze did not predict target side, and despite participants being asked to ignore the face. This suggests reflexive covert and/or overt orienting in the direction of seen gaze, arising even when the observer has no motivation to orient in this way. Experiment 3 found faster letter discrimination on the side the computerized face gazed towards even when participants knew that target letters were four times as likely on the opposite side. This suggests that orienting can arise in the direction of seen gaze even when counter to intentions. The experiments illustrate that methods from mainstream attention research can be usefully applied to social cognition, and that studies of spatial attention may profit from considering its social function.     

Event perception as a control process for visual awareness

ABSTRACT

We present evidence demonstrating that the structure of everyday events guides attention to and representation of visual properties. Incidental change detection increases dramatically at the boundaries between events, whereas individuals are largely unaware of the sequence of actions within a single event. Observers demonstrate a limited capacity for representing events, and inducing cognitive load by presenting two simultaneous events decreases detection of sequence errors. These studies support emerging evidence that the event perception network operates as a control process that guides attention and awareness in real-world settings.     

Reasons given by UK churchgoers for their stance on evolution

A sample of 661 churchgoers from a range of Christian denominations in the United Kingdom was asked about Darwinian evolution (defined as the common origin of all species, including humans). Respondents were categorised as those who accepted the idea, those who rejected it, and those who were unsure or neutral. People in each category were given a number of statements that related to reasons why they might have held their particular stance, and responses were used to create summated rating scales. Reasons for accepting or rejecting evolution could be classified as broadly relating to the theory itself or to the religious consequences of the theory. Accepters saw the theory as rational and attractive, and one that allowed a role for God in shaping evolution. Rejecters saw the theory as unsupported by evidence and one that denied a role for God and/or contradicted Scripture. Those unsure or neutral seemed to be so because they lacked sufficient knowledge about evolution or the Bible, and/or because they were disinterested. Predicting which reasons were likely to be chosen by an individual was difficult, though there were significance differences in some cases between denominations and between those with or without education in biology or science.     

“They never listen”: towards a grounded theory of the role played by trusted adults in the spiritual lives of children

This qualitative study addresses the lack of research into the role of trusted adults in the spiritual lives of children. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine children from a British primary school and the data analysed using a grounded theory approach. Six categories were identified outlining the reciprocal relationship of unavailability and withholding between children and their trusted adults and how children made sense of spirituality in the absence of explicit guidance. It was found that the children had little opportunity for negotiating a shared understanding or experience of spirituality with adults and, as a result, either preserved an isolated and secret sense of spirituality or accepted what they observed to be their trusted adults' stance. The practical and theoretical implications of the children's responses in the absence of trusted adults are discussed and recommendations are made for practice and future research.     

The relationship between aging expectations and various modes of physical activity among aging adults

ObjectivePrevious research has indicated that older adults who expect decline and disease with age are less likely to engage in aerobic exercise. This study explores the influence that different types of aging expectations have on various modes of physical activity (PA) among aging adults.Design & methodsCommunity-dwelling adults aged 41–97 years (M = 70.8, SD = 12.8, n = 247) completed a questionnaire including the Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly, the Expectations Regarding Aging (ERA) Survey, and a number of demographic, socio-economic, and medical covariates.ResultsBivariate analyses revealed significant relationships between overall ERA scores and multiple modes of PA, but not at multivariate levels. Bivariate analyses of the ERA sub-scales revealed significant associations among PA and the physical health ERA sub-scale but not mental health or cognitive function ERA sub-scales. In the multivariate analyses, higher physical health ERA was correlated with strenuous sport and recreational physical activities after adjusting for all covariates among aging adults without restrictions of daily activity (OR = 1.01, CI = 1.00–1.02, n = 194).ConclusionsThe association between aging expectations and PA appears to be dependent on the type of aging expectation (i.e., physical health), the mode or intensity of PA, and the functional abilities of the aging adult.     

Spouses' Cortisol Associations and Moderators: Testing Physiological Synchrony and Connectedness in Everyday Life

In this study, associations were examined between cortisol levels of wives and husbands in 47 heterosexual married couples. Both partners' salivary cortisol levels were measured at the same moments seven times a day on 2 typical weekdays. After accounting for the effects of the diurnal rhythm of cortisol and relevant control variables, dyadic hierarchical linear modeling indicated significant positive linkages between partners' cortisol levels, consistent with the hypothesized within‐couple physiological synchrony. Variables reflecting more (spousal presence) or less connectedness (loneliness, being alone) were also collected at the time of each cortisol sample. Results indicated that husbands' cortisol levels were higher at moments they reported feeling lonelier and lower at moments they were in the presence of their spouse. Wives' cortisol levels were higher at moments they were alone. In addition, wife–husband cortisol synchrony was stronger for husbands who spent relatively more time with their spouse across the study period—even after accounting for time spent with others in general. These findings suggest that marital partners evidence positive within‐couple cortisol associations, and that connectedness (particularly physical closeness) may underpin spouses' physiological synchrony.