Communicating Science Effectively: When an Optimised Video Communication Enhances Comprehension,Pleasantness, and People’s Interest in Knowing More About Scientific Findings

In two experiments (N = 160) we predicted and found that an optimised video science communication was more effective than either a press release science communication (Experiment 1) and a non-optimised video science communication (Experiment 2) in promoting (a) a better comprehension of the communication, (b) a higher perceived pleasantness, and (c) a stronger manifest interest in learning more about its findings, as reflected in participants’ explicit requests to receive supplemental material on the communicated and analogous findings. The results were consistent across experiments. They were also not influenced by the content type of the communication. Implications for communication professionals and future research in the field of media, social influence, education, and applied social psychology are discussed.     

A confirmatory factor analysis of the Francis Burnout Inventory: preliminary psychometric support to a replicable two factor model of the Italian version

ABSTRACT

This study set out to examine the properties of the revised version of the Francis Burnout Inventory (FBI) among Catholic priests and religious sisters in Italy. The psychometric properties of the FBI were examined in two phases. Phase 1 demonstrated the instrument's factorial validity and internal consistency of two derived dimensions (the Scale of Emotional Exhaustion in Ministry and the Satisfaction in Ministry Scale), with a sample of Catholic priests and religious sisters coming from Lazio, a region around Rome in Italy (N?=?156). In Phase 2, the FBI dimensionality was cross-validated using confirmatory factor analysis with Catholic priests and religious sisters coming from all over Italy (N?=?287). Alpha and stability coefficients computed with this sample provided further evidence for the FBI's reliability. Implications for work-related health are included.     

The Deceiving Mirror. Altered Body Perception and Alexithymia in a Group of Sports Adolescents and Adults

Recent literature emphasizes an altered perception of the body in subjects practicing sport to pursue an ideal body image. Sometimes such bodily misperception is associated with the inability to recognize and express emotions, and addiction to sport. This research investigates the relationship between body image and alexithymia in a group of 363 sportive adolescents and adults, including 78 males and 285 females, aged 11 to 68?years. Participants completed the Anamnestic Data Questionnaire, Body Uneasseness Test, and Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). Results highlight differences between adolescents and adults, especially about externally oriented thinking, concern for body image, and compulsive self-monitoring.     

Category-specific naming impairments? Yes

Recently, Stewart, Parkin, and Hunkin (1992) have questioned previously reported cases of selective damage in processing items from categories of animate objects, arguing that there has been a lack of adequate control for visual familiarity, visual complexity, and name frequency of the stimuli employed. When re-testing Michelangelo (see Sartori & Job, 1988), one of the patients cited by Stewart et al. (1992), with a set of materials matched on all three factors, the asymmetry in naming animal and artefact items still remains. An analogous pattern is obtained when--in addition to such factors--the visual similarity within the sub-sets of animals and artefacts is taken into account. These results constitute empirical evidence for category-specific impairments and cannot be interpreted as being due to isolated or conjoint effects of visual familiarity, visual complexity, or name frequency.     

The Psychosomatic Relationship As A Symbolic Circular Communication: Subjective And Transgenerational Dreams

The human being can be divided into body and mind, two inextricably linked aspects influencing each other. From birth, the body is the site of emotional experiences thanks to cellular memory. The transgenerational and the oneiric imaginary are two themes closely related to the body. Many families express their emotional experiences through bodily symptoms and, in dreams, body icons are used to “talk” about the subject’s identity. The body expresses itself and “speaks” through dreams, which can even become predictors of diseases.     

The Rhetoric Side of Fake News: A New Weapon for Anti-Politics?

Abstract

As an “insidious form of post-truth rhetoric”, fake news find a fertile ground in the complex scenario of new media and fruitful fertilizers in several psychological foundations and social phenomena. As a consequence, social scientists and psychologists are more and more interested to deepen these dynamics. Nonetheless, the study of the discursive and rhetoric facets of fake news has been rather neglected. The aim of this work is to investigate their discursive construction in one of the preferred domains of this misleading process of construction of reality, the political world. Through the discourse analysis applied to several fake news involving a very popular female Italian politician, we emphasize the risk of empowering the (already widespread) anti-political feeling.