Infants’ social evaluation abilities: testing their preference for prosocial agents at 6, 12 and 18 months with different social scenarios

International audienceA recent body of research suggests infants prefer prosocial behaviours. However, some studies failed to report this preference, and asked what specific parameters allow to observe it. We attempt to provide a part of answer to that question by investigating if the preference vary 1) with age (testing infants aged 6, 12, 18 months), 2) with the type of social behaviours (help, play and share), and 3) when the pro-and antisocial agents' appearance were manipulated (i.e., displaying neutral, own-race or other-race faces). To this end, we use an eye-tracking methodology to assess infants' preference between pro-and antisocial agents featured in animated cartoons. We found that the prosocial preference was not stable across ages and varied depending on social scenarios. No sound conclusion could be given about the influence of faces. Our results invite to wonder in which extent very young infants perceive the prosociality in complex social behaviours

Reducing Information’s Speed Improves Verbal Cognition and Behavior in Autism: A 2-Cases Report

International audienc

Humane Orientation as a New Cultural Dimension of the GLOBE Project: A Validation Study of the GLOBE Scale and Out-Group Humane Orientation in 25 Countries

We validate, extend, and empirically and theoretically criticize the cultural dimension of humane orientation of the project GLOBE (Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness Research Program). Theoretically, humane orientation is not just a one-dimensionally positive concept about being caring, altruistic, and kind to others as discussed by Kabasakal and Bodur (2004), but there is also a certain ambivalence to this concept. We suggest differentiating humane orientation toward in-group members from humane orientation toward out-group members. A multicountry construct validation study used student samples from 25 countries that were either high or low in humane orientation (N = 876) and studied their relation to the traditional GLOBE scale and other cultural-level measures (agreeableness, religiosity, authoritarianism, and welfare state score). Findings revealed a strong correlation between humane orientation and agreeableness, welfare state score, and religiosity. Out-group humane orientation proved to be the more relevant subfacet of the original humane orientation construct, suggesting that future research on humane orientation should make use of this measure instead of the vague original scale. The ambivalent character of out-group humane orientation is displayed in its positive correlation to high authoritarianism. Patriotism was used as a control variable for noncritical acceptance of one’s society but did not change the correlations. Our findings are discussed as an example of how rigid expectations and a lack of tolerance for diversity may help explain the ambivalent nature of humane orientatio

Estimating the abundance of the critically endangered Baltic Proper harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) population using passive acoustic monitoring

The SAMBAH project was funded by the LIFE+ program of the European Commission (LIFE08 NAT/S/000261) and co-funded by Bundesamt für Naturschutz, Germany (SAMBAH II 5 Vw/52602/2011-Mar 36032/66); Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz und Reaktorsicherheit, Germany (COSAMM FKZ 0325238); Carlsbergfondet, Denmark (CF16-0861); European Association of Zoos and Aquaria, The Netherlands; Główny Inpektorat Ochrony Środowiska, Poland; Havs-och Vattenmyndigheten, Sweden; Instytut Meteorologii i Gospodarki Wodnej - Państwowy Instytut Badawczy, Poland; Japanese Science and Technology Agency-CREST, Japan (7620-7); Kolmårdens Djurpark, Sweden; Maailman Luonnon Säätiö (WWF) Suomen Rahasto, Finland; Miljøministeriet, Denmark; Miljø- og Fødevareministeriet, Denmark (SN 343/SN-0008); Narodowy Fundusz Ochrony Środowiska i Gospodarki Wodnej, Poland (561/2009/Wn-50/OP/RE-LF/D); Naturvårdsverket, Sweden; SNAK Ph.D. School, Aarhus University, Denmark (91147/365); Tampereen Särkänniemi Ltd., Finland; Turun ammattikorkeakoulu Oy, Finland; Uniwersytet Gdański, Poland; Wojewódzki Fundusz Ochrony Środowiska i Gospodarki Wodnej w Gdańsku, Poland; and Ympäristöministeriö, Finland.Knowing the abundance of a population is a crucial component to assess its conservation status and develop effective conservation plans. For most cetaceans, abundance estimation is difficult given their cryptic and mobile nature, especially when the population is small and has a transnational distribution. In the Baltic Sea, the number of harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) has collapsed since the mid-20th century and the Baltic Proper harbour porpoise is listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN and HELCOM; however, its abundance remains unknown. Here, one of the largest ever passive acoustic monitoring studies was carried out by eight Baltic Sea nations to estimate the abundance of the Baltic Proper harbour porpoise for the first time. By logging porpoise echolocation signals at 298 stations during May 2011-April 2013, calibrating the loggers' spatial detection performance at sea, and measuring the click rate of tagged individuals, we estimated an abundance of 71-1105 individuals (95% CI, point estimate 491) during May-October within the population's proposed management border. The small abundance estimate strongly supports that the Baltic Proper harbour porpoise is facing an extremely high risk of extinction, and highlights the need for immediate and efficient conservation actions through international cooperation. It also provides a starting point in monitoring the trend of the population abundance to evaluate the effectiveness of management measures and determine its interactions with the larger neighboring Belt Sea population. Further, we offer evidence that design-based passive acoustic monitoring can generate reliable estimates of the abundance of rare and cryptic animal populations across large spatial scales.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Emerging themes to support ambitious UK marine biodiversity conservation

Healthy marine ecosystems provide a wide range of resources and services that support life on Earth and contribute to human wellbeing. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are accepted as an important tool for the restoration and maintenance of marine ecosystem structure, function, health and ecosystem integrity through the conservation of significant species, habitats, or entire ecosystems. In recent years there has been a rapid expansion in the area of ocean designated as an MPA. Despite this progress in spatial protection targets and the progressive knowledge of the essential interdependence between the human and the ocean system, marine biodiversity continues to decline, placing in jeopardy the range of ecosystem services benefits humans rely on. There is a need to address this shortcoming. Ambitious marine conservation:• Requires a shift from managing individual marine features within MPAs to whole-sites to enable repair and renewal of marine systems;• Reflects an ambition for sustainable livelihoods by fully integrating fisheries management with conservation (Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management) as the two are critically interdependent;• Establishes a world class and cost effective ecological and socio-economic monitoring and evaluation framework that includes the use of controls and sentinel sites to improve sustainability in marine management; and• Challenges policy makers and practitioners to be progressive by integrating MPAs into the wider seascape as critical functional components rather than a competing interest and move beyond MPAs as the only tool to underpin the benefits derived from marine ecosystems by identifying other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) to establish synergies with wider governance frameworks

One ‘C’ to Rule Them All: The Psychology of Creativity Needs to Refocus on Behaviors

The 7C’s of creativity (Lubart, 2017) summarize scientific contributions in seven categories as a function of their main object of interest in relation to creativity: Creators, Creating, Collaboration, Context, Creations, Consumption, and Curricula. In its attempt to grasp these different dimensions of the phenomenon of creativity, the psychology of creativity seems to have lost sight of its main object of interest: creative human behavior. This contribution constitutes a short plea to restore ‘Creating’ (i.e., the creative behavior), to its central place in the psychology of creativity. Indeed, the study of the C's of creativity only makes sense in the articulation with the 'why' and the 'how' of creative behavior. This means focusing on behavioral measures, or at least explicitly considering a direct link between the variables under study and actual creative behaviors. Not all C's are equal, and ‘Creating’ should be the main phenomenon of interest for the discipline. This proposition echoes the various calls to refocus on the study of behavior and behavioral measures in psychology. Research in the field of the psychology of creativity, and especially in the Journal of Creative Behavior, cannot ignore the need to focus on creative behavior

La menace (sa perception, ses effets, son utilisation)

PARIS5-BU Saints-Pères (751062109) / SudocSudocFranceF

Threat of the thin-ideal body image and body malleability beliefs: Effects on body image self-discrepancies and behavioral intentions

International audienceThis study examined the effect of the threat aroused by the perception of thin-ideal images combined with beliefs about the malleability of the body on perceived/objective, ideal/objective and ought/objective body image self-discrepancies. An experimental computer program enabled women (N = 82) to artificially increase or decrease the shape of their own body (previously photographed) in response to questions about their " actual " , " ideal " and " ought " body self-perceptions. As predicted, results showed that women had greater body self-discrepancies when confronted with threatening thin ideals, regardless of their body mass index. The size of this trend depended on the way they were made to think of their body (malleable vs. fixed). Findings also suggested a possible relationship between body self-representations and eating behaviors or intentions. The impact of thin-ideal threats and body malleability beliefs on body perception is discussed

You Want to Foster Creative Behavior? Try Behavioral Sciences Models

Why do individuals confronted with a specific situation act creatively or not? To answer this question, the psychology of creativity needs to rely on comprehensive behavioral models allowing researchers to better identify the determinants of creative behavior and to be able to efficiently foster this behavior. Behavioral sciences precisely developed behavioral models that allow us to understand and influence a wide variety of behaviors. The present contribution argues for the use of behavioral sciences models in creativity research, and describes three main functions for creativity research: (1) a heuristic function (supporting the development of scientific knowledge about goal-directed creative behavior), (2) an interventional function (supporting the elaboration of efficient behavioral interventions to foster creative behavior), and (3) a categorization function (providing a clearer view of the types of interventions designed to foster specific creative behavior and of the behavioral drivers used)

The dynamics of public opinion following terror attacks: Evidence for a decrease in equalitarian values from Internet Search Volume Indices

The tendency of terror attacks to generate increased right-wing attitudes is a direct prediction from the motivated cognition approach to political ideology (Jost, 2017). However, due to methodological and theoretical problems, evidence for this ‘right-shift’ hypothesis is currently mixed. To address these issues, we introduce for the first-time search volume indices (SVI) analysis to the study of public opinion dynamics by assessing the effects of exposure to the 2015 Paris terror attacks, with a focus on equalitarian values related searches in the French cyberspace. Consistent with the ‘right-shift’ hypothesis, we demonstrate that online collective threat salience (SVI for the word ‘terror attack’) predicts significant decreases in equalitarian values SVI (e.g. ‘equality’) 6 weeks later, but not in non-equalitarian values SVI (e.g. ‘liberty’). Mixed-model analyses of SVI for the period 2012-2017 confirmed these results by showing both decrease in equalitarian values SVI and no change in non-equalitarian values SVI after 2015. These findings corroborate the ‘right-shift’ hypothesis at the societal level using ecological-behavioural measures of public opinion and demonstrate the value of SVI analysis for theory-testing in political psychology