When Authoritarians Confront Prejudice. Differential Effects of SDO and RWA on Support for Hate‐Speech Prohibition

Two nationwide representative studies (N = 653 adolescents; N = 1007 adults) investigated the psychological correlates of the intention to penalize public expressions of prejudice in the form of support for hate‐speech prohibition. We presented participants with preselected examples of hate speech from the Internet and other mass media and assessed their willingness to support the prohibition of public expressions of such remarks. Both studies found that social dominance orientation and right‐wing authoritarianism are positively correlated with outgroup prejudice, but they have differential effects on hate‐speech prohibition. Social dominance orientation was positively related to the acceptance of hate speech, whereas right‐wing authoritarianism was positively related to hate‐speech prohibition. In discussing this counterintuitive finding, we suggest that right‐wing authoritarians are particularly vigilant toward norm violations—and this makes them more punitive toward counternormative expressions of prejudice, such as hate speech.     

The use of virtual reality in the study, assessment, and treatment of body image in eating disorders and nonclinical samples: a review of the literature

This article reviews research into the use of virtual reality in the study, assessment, and treatment of body image disturbances in eating disorders and nonclinical samples. During the last decade, virtual reality has emerged as a technology that is especially suitable not only for the assessment of body image disturbances but also for its treatment. Indeed, several virtual environment-based software systems have been developed for this purpose. Furthermore, virtual reality seems to be a good alternative to guided imagery and in vivo exposure, and is therefore very useful for studies that require exposure to life-like situations but which are difficult to conduct in the real world. Nevertheless, review highlights the lack of published controlled studies and the presence of methodological drawbacks that should be considered in future studies. This article also discusses the implications of the results obtained and proposes directions for future research.     

The willingness of medical students to use Facebook as a training channel for professional habits: the case of influenza vaccination

The low acceptance of influenza vaccination by both medical students and healthcare workers (HCWs) signals the need for innovative strategies. We administered an anonymous questionnaire to 410 University of Barcelona medical students who were asked about using the Internet to find information on influenza vaccination of HCWs and about their willingness to use technical and informal Facebook pages as an information channel on this topic. Of the 410 participants, 74.1 percent were female and 58.3 percent were in the first preclinical 3-year university cycle. A total of 7.6 percent participants reported using the Internet for queries on influenza vaccination, 89.8 percent reported that they were Facebook users, and 275 (67.1 percent) would accept an invitation from the technical or informal Facebook pages. The technical Web site would be actively followed by 77, or by 30.0 percent of those who would accept the invitation and the informal site by 116 (43.6 percent of those who would accept). The marked willingness to use Facebook to obtain information on the influenza vaccination of HCWs potentially opens a new window in health education: social networks could be used to help create professional habits. Students would be more likely to engage with this type of Facebook page if the contents were informal rather than highly technical.     

Are we going to close social gaps in HIV? Likely effects of behavioral HIV-prevention interventions on health disparities

Although experimental behavioral interventions to prevent HIV are generally designed to correct undesirable epidemiological trends, it is presently unknown whether the resulting body of behavioral interventions is adequate to correct the social disparities in HIV-prevalence and incidence present in the United States. Two large, diverse-population meta-analytic databases were reanalyzed to estimate potential perpetuation and change in demographic and behavioral gaps as a result of introducing the available behavioral interventions advocating condom use. This review suggested that, if uniformly applied across populations, the analyzed set of experimental (i.e. under testing) interventions is well poised to correct the higher prevalence and incidence among males (vs. females) and African-Americans and Latinos (vs. other groups), but ill poised to correct the higher prevalence and incidence among younger (vs. older) people, as well as men who have sex with men, injection-drug users, and multiple partner heterosexuals (vs. other behavioral groups). Importantly, when the characteristics of the interventions most efficacious for each population were included in the analyses of behavior change, results replicated with three exceptions. Specifically, after accounting for interactions of intervention and facilitator features with characteristics of the recipient population (e.g. gender), there was no behavior change bias for men who have sex with men, younger individuals changed their behavior more than older individuals, and African-Americans changed their behavior less than other groups.     

Vegetative state: efforts to curb misdiagnosis

Media reports on the case of Rom Houben have constituted a new reminder of the risks of misdiagnosis with cases with apparent vegetative state, particularly when following the clinical consensus of the care team as diagnostic criterion. Systematic use of behavioral and non-behavioral assessment strategies (e.g., behavioral scales, event-related potentials, and neuro-imaging) may help reduce the aforementioned risks. A new learning assessment strategy could also be considered part of the assessment to extend the evaluation process. Signs of learning might be viewed as forms of concrete knowledge representing a basic level of non-reflective consciousness.     

The users of an online psychological advice service: a sociodemographic analysis

Although online psychological services and research based on them are increasing rapidly, it is not that easy to find investigations that focus on the kind of people that demand them. To know their profile could help to improve the online psychological services that are offered to them. For this purpose, we analysed the sociodemographic characteristics of 1052 participants, all of them having posed a psychological question to our online advice service. The relations between sociodemographics and variables related to the psychological consultation are analysed herein. Features such as age distribution, a high proportion of long-term problems, the large quantity of questions from Latin America, or the under representation of the lowest socioeconomic and educational levels could lead to clinical, social and legal implications that we comment on in this work.     

A Door to HIV‐Prevention Interventions: How Female‐Targeted Materials Can Enhance Female Participation1

The aim of this study was to examine the influence of gender on exposure to gender‐tailored HIV‐prevention brochures. During an unobtrusive observation of participants' reading of brochures, both men and women were likely to avoid gender‐mismatched brochures. However, women were more likely to selectively approach gender‐matched brochures over gender‐neutral brochures than were men. Furthermore, exposure to the female‐targeted brochure predicted accepting an HIV‐prevention video. This pattern was only the case for females and not for males or for the male‐targeted brochure. This finding implies that the gender‐tailored brochures are more useful for women than for men, and may open the door to other materials designed with preventive objectives.     

Systemic administration of a nitric oxide synthase inhibitor impairs fear sensitization in the plus-maze

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the occurrence of fear sensitization in rats previously treated with an inhibitor of the NO syntheses and submitted to Trial1/Trial2 plus-maze (PM) procedure. Male Wistar rats received a systemic treatment with N(omega)-nitro-L-Arginine-methyl ester (L-NAME; 5, 10 or 50 mg kg(-1)) and were submitted to PM Trial1. In the following day the animals were re-exposed to the PM with no drug administration (Trial2). Some standards spatial-temporal measures, such as the percentage of entries (% Open arm entries) and time spent (% Open arm time) in the open arms and risk assessment frequency were recorded and used to estimate the animal level of fear sensitization in PM Trial2. The results showed that animals receiving L-NAME (50 mg kg(-1)) displayed increased % Open arm entries and % Open arm time in Trial2 in relation to the group receiving 0.9% saline, which is compatible with impaired fear/anxiety acquisition during Trial1/Trial2 PM procedure. In addition, rats treated with L-NAME (50 mg kg(-1)) exhibited low level of risk assessment in Trial2 in relation to the group treated with 0.9% saline, which indicates low level of fear/anxiety during PM re-exposure. The number of entries into the enclosed arms was not changed by any L-NAME treatment, which suggests no bias of the drug treatments on animal locomotor activity. The data suggest that NO synthesis may mediate the fear sensitization process in the PM.     

False recognition of facial expressions of emotion: causes and implications

This article examines the importance of semantic processes in the recognition of emotional expressions, through a series of three studies on false recognition. The first study found a high frequency of false recognition of prototypical expressions of emotion when participants viewed slides and video clips of nonprototypical fearful and happy expressions. The second study tested whether semantic processes caused false recognition. The authors found that participants made significantly higher error rates when asked to detect expressions that corresponded to semantic labels than when asked to detect visual stimuli. Finally, given that previous research reported that false memories are less prevalent in younger children, the third study tested whether false recognition of prototypical expressions increased with age. The authors found that 67% of eight- to nine-year-old children reported nonpresent prototypical expressions of fear in a fearful context, but only 40% of 6- to 7-year-old children did so. Taken together, these three studies demonstrate the importance of semantic processes in the detection and categorization of prototypical emotional expressions.