Reducing Affective Polarization: Warm Group Relations or Policy Compromise?

Hostility between rival political partisans, referred to as affective polarization, has increased in the United States over the last several decades generating considerable interest in its reduction. The current study examines two distinct sets of factors that potentially reduce affective polarization, drawn respectively from a group-based and a policy-based model of its origins. Specifically, we contrast the degree to which warm social relations and policy compromise reduce affective polarization. In two experimental studies (N = 937), respondents read a mock news story about an observed interaction between Chuck Schumer, Senate minority leader, and Mitch McConnell, Senate majority leader. The leaders either interact in a warm or hostile manner and independently compromise, or fail to compromise, on immigration matters. In both studies, warm leader relations reduced affective polarization whereas policy compromise did not. We consider the implications of these findings for the study of affective polarization and its reduction.     

Self‐absorption paradox is not a paradox: Illuminating the dark side of self‐reflection

Although considered an important component of a healthy personality, self‐reflection has not so far been shown to have any specific benefits for mental health. This research addresses this issue by taking into consideration two important suppressor variables, self‐rumination and the need for absolute truth. The latter is an innovative variable, defined and presented in this research. The first two studies aimed to validate a new measure that acts as an operational definition of the need for absolute truth. The first study was conducted with two group of participants; the first group consisted of 129 females and 67 males, mean age = 20 years, and the second 182 females and 104 males, mean age = 27. In the second study, participants were 22 females and 18 males, mean age = 20.5. In the final study, conducted with 296 female, 163 male participants (mean age = 37), suppressor effects were tested using structural equation modeling. The results showed that by taking account of these two suppressor variables, particularly the need for absolute truth, the expected relationship between self‐reflection and mental health was revealed. The need for absolute truth was shown to be crucial for understanding the effects of self‐reflection on mental health, therefore it should be considered in all processes of psychotherapy.     

How people make decisions about predictive genetic testing: An analogue study

Abstract

Persons scoring high on negative affectivity (NA) have more subjective health complaints. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that high NA persons are more likely to experience internal sensations as threatening signs of health problems. Low and high NA participants (N=44) were given four breathing trials: one room air trial followed by three trials containing 5.5% CO₂ which induced transient low intensity somatic sensations. Prior to each CO₂ trial, participants received either positive, negative or uncertain labelings of the sensations that might occur. Participants rated the (un)pleasantness of the experienced somatic sensations and the perceived intensity. Also respiratory responses were measured. During CO₂ trials, reliable main effects of information were found but no effects involving NA were observed, neither on pleasantness ratings nor on respiratory responses. However, during room air breathing, high NA participants reported more intense somatic sensations than low NA participants. Post-experimental data suggested that high NA participants had more negative meanings and worries about the consequences of the physical sensations. It is concluded that interpretational biases in high NA is situated at the level of attributional processes.     

"Thy People Are My People": Emma Lazarus,Daniel Deronda,and the Ambivalence of Jewish Modernity

This essay examines the role of Jews in Britain’s imperial strategy and asks whether Britain could have built its empire without them. Recent scholarship concerning Jews and the British Empire places Jews in the “informal empire”, in economic and other activities outside political rule. This was the case in nineteenth‐century Malta, where Jews established themselves in commercial activities in support of Britain’s military ambitions in the Mediterranean. They received some political recognition, though this was short‐lived. Despite the efforts of Moses Montefiore, the British government refused to yield space for building a synagogue. The success of Malta’s leading Jews, in the early and mid‐century, meant that they were never above suspicion. In the late nineteenth century, the British government shielded the Jewish community from an accusation of ritual murder, but this had more to do with promoting British interests vis‐à‐vis the Catholic Church in Malta than advancing Jewish interests. Colonial policy concerning Jews did not result from a coherent rationale concerning Jewish interests nor consistent Jewish influence.     

Conditioned craving cues elicit an automatic approach tendency

In two experiments, we used a Pavlovian differential conditioning procedure to induce craving for chocolate. As a result of repeated pairing with chocolate intake, initially neutral cues came to elicit an automatic approach tendency in a speeded stimulus-response compatibility reaction time task. This automatic approach tendency, moreover, seemed to be sensitive to manipulations of extinction and renewal in the Pavlovian conditioning procedure. These findings corroborate and extend previous reports of automatic approach tendencies elicited by substance-relevant cues in addiction, while controlling for alternative accounts for such observations. Moreover, our data lend support to and extend learning models of cue-induced craving and addiction. Finally, we argue that the procedure we present here provides an ecologically valid behavioural tool that allows studying processes involved in cue-induced craving, addiction and relapse without relying on verbal report.     

The continuity principle: A unified approach to disaster and trauma

The continuity principle stipulates that through all stages of disaster, management and treatment should aim at preserving and restoring functional, historical, and interpersonal continuities, at the individual, family, organization, and community levels. Two misconceptions work against this principle and lead to decisional errors: the “abnormalcy bias” which results in underestimating victims' ability to cope with disaster, and the “normalcy bias” which results in underestimating the probability or extent of expected disruption. This article clarifies these biases and details the potential contributions of the continuity principle at the different stages of the disaster. The authors are reserve officers in the Mental Health and Behavioral Sciences Centers of the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) and were, in this capacity, directly involved in the coordination of agencies dealing with Gulf War victims.     

Idiopathic Environmental Intolerance: A Treatment Model

Idiopathic environmental intolerance (IEI) refers to a health condition characterized by the presence of multiple symptoms in different organ systems in response to a variety of environmental cues, such as chemical exposures, electromagnetic radiation, infrasound from windmill farms, (parts of) buildings, foods, etc. Typically, the symptoms arise in response to triggers and at dosages that do not cause symptoms in the majority of people, and no clear link with any physiological dysfunction can be found. The condition varies in a dimensional way from very mild, for which no medical help is sought, to very disabling, compromising normal life. The condition is controversial, but several indications strongly suggest that the symptoms result from nocebo mechanisms. Currently, different psychological treatments are explored, but they are generally not based on a clear understanding of the aetiopathological mechanisms and the treatment effects are not well documented. In the present paper, we describe a treatment protocol based on a comprehensive explanatory model of IEI. The goal is to contribute to standardized, mechanism-based treatments as a basis for more systematic treatment studies.