Predicting Explicit and Implicit Attitudes towards Gay Men using the Dual Process Model of Prejudice and the Dark Tetrad

Although attitudes towards gay men are becoming increasingly inclusive, negative attitudes are still experienced by this socially marginalised group. Prejudice research often uses the DualProcess Model of Prejudice (DPM; comprised of right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation) to understand negative social attitudes, and recently researchers have begun exploring the role of personality in addition to this theoretical framework. In this paper, we explored the predictive potential of the DPM (right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation) and the dark tetrad model of personality (D4: narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism, everyday sadism) in explaining implicit and explicit attitudes towards gaymen. The sample (N = 182; Mage = 39.15 years, SD = 10.65) was recruited using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Variance in explicit negative attitudes towards gay men was predicted by the ideological variables in the DPM, and further variance was predicted with the addition of the D4 traits (narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism each contributed unique variance, while sadism did not). Variance in implicit attitudes towards gay men was not predicted by any individual difference factors. The current study offers theoretical and empirical contributions to the ongoing debate surrounding the utility of the D4 in explaining antisocial cognitions

Eye Movement Monitoring Reveals Differential Influences of Emotion on Memory

Research shows that memory for emotional aspects of an event may be enhanced at the cost of impaired memory for surrounding peripheral details. However, this has only been assessed directly via verbal reports which reveal the outcome of a long stream of processing but cannot shed light on how/when emotion may affect the retrieval process. In the present experiment, eye movement monitoring (EMM) was used as an indirect measure of memory as it can reveal aspects of online memory processing. For example, do emotions modulate the nature of memory representations or the speed with which such memories can be accessed? Participants viewed central negative and neutral scenes surrounded by three neutral objects and after a brief delay, memory was assessed indirectly via EMM and then directly via verbal reports. Consistent with the previous literature, emotion enhanced central and impaired peripheral memory as indexed by eye movement scanning and verbal reports. This suggests that eye movement scanning may contribute and/or is related to conscious access of memory. However, the central/peripheral tradeoff effect was not observed in an early measure of eye movement behavior, i.e., participants were faster to orient to a critical region of change in the periphery irrespective of whether it was previously studied in a negative or neutral context. These findings demonstrate emotion's differential influences on different aspects of retrieval. In particular, emotion appears to affect the detail within, and/or the evaluation of, stored memory representations, but it may not affect the initial access to those representations

Interferon-Induced Guanylate Binding Protein-1 (GBP-1) Mediates an Antiviral Effect against Vesicular Stomatitis Virus and Encephalomyocarditis Virus

AbstractA cDNA encoding the human guanylate binding protein-1 (hGBP-1) was expressed in HeLa cells using a constitutive expression vector. Stably transfected clones expressing hGBP-1 exhibited resistance to the cytopathic effect mediated by both vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) and encephalomyocarditis virus (EMCV) and produced less viral progeny than control cells following infection with these viruses. To study the role hGBP-1 plays in the IFN-mediated antiviral effect, cells were stably transfected with a construct expressing antisense RNA for hGBP-1. VSV infection of IFN-α-treated antisense RNA-expressing cells produced an amount of virus comparable to that produced in the parental cell line, while EMCV infection of the IFN-α-treated transfected cells and VSV and EMCV infection of the IFN-γ-treated transfected cells produced far more virus than was produced in the parental cell line. These results demonstrate that GBP-1 mediates an antiviral effect against VSV and EMCV and plays a role in the IFN-mediated antiviral response against these viruses