Harnessing the unconscious mind of the consumer: How implicit attitudes predict pre-conscious visual attention to carbon footprint information on products

AbstractConsumers clearly have a role to play in the global fight against climate change, since even relatively small changes in patterns of household consumption could significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But what evidence is there that consumers do consider the environmental impacts of products when shopping? Indeed, how psychologically salient the carbon footprint labels that are now appearing on a range of products in various countries? Here we test the psychological salience of this information using eye tracking to identify, on a frame-by-frame basis, individual fixations on various features of the packaging, including carbon footprint. We found that the mean fixation level for carbon footprint was 12.2%, indicating it was indeed as salient as other important features. High or low levels of carbon footprint had no significant effect on gaze fixation. We also found no significant relationship between self-reported attitudes to low carbon products and overall level of fixation, nor was there any significant relationship between implicit attitude and level of fixation. But implicit attitude did significantly impact on the point of first fixation, in that those with a strong positive implicit attitude were significantly more likely to fixate first on carbon footprint information. This suggests that carbon labelling could potentially be effective for</jats:p

The Role of Explicit Categorization in the Implicit Association Test

The present study investigated how task-irrelevant attributes of a stimulus affected responses in a multi-attribute version of the Implicit Association Test (IAT). In Experiment 1, participants categorized images of Black and White male and female individuals on the basis of either race or gender. Both the race and gender of the individuals affected task performance regardless of which attribute was currently relevant to performing the task, yielding the IAT effects on both attributes. However, the influences of a task-irrelevant attribute depended on whether the taskrelevant attribute was categorized compatibly or incompatibly with the underlying implicit biases. These results suggest that individuals are still categorized implicitly based on taskirrelevant social attributes and that the explicit categorization required in the standard IAT has a considerable impact on implicit social biases. Experiment 2 considered a third, non-social attribute (the color of the picture frame) and reproduced task-irrelevant IAT effects and their dependence on explicit categorization. However, Experiments 3 and 4 suggested that the taskirrelevant IAT effects based on social attributes are determined by whether the task-relevant attribute is a social or non-social attribute. The results raise fundamental questions about the basic assumptions underpinning the interpretations of the results from the IAT

Consumption and climate change. Why we say one thing but do another in the face of our greatest threat.

AbstractThere is clear evidence that human beings have contributed to climate change through their patterns of consumption, and, it could be argued that, since we are part of the problem then we must be part of the solution. The apparently good news is that people report that they have very positive attitudes to environmentally-friendly products and they also consistently say that they are prepared to adapt their behavior to ameliorate the effects of climate change. However, numerous studies have found little behavior change on the part of consumers. This study investigates this critical issue experimentally. It does this by exploring whether self-reported attitudes to low carbon products, or alternatively implicit attitudes to such products (measured using an associative task and not requiring self-report), predict consumer choice of products varying on a range of dimensions including environmental consequences, in an experimental context where time for selection was also systematically varied. We found firstly, in line with previous research, that human beings have explicit and implicit attitudes that are not correlated. Secondly, in terms of brand choice, we found that consumers are particularly sensitive to both brand information and value in their selection of products, particularly under time pressure. Organic/eco brands are, however, much less favoured, especially under any time pressure, where processes that are more automatic prevail. Thirdly, color-coded carbon footprint information can influence choice even under time pressure but only for those consumers with a strong positive implicit attitude to carbon footprint. The conclusions from this research are that humans beings may well have a “divided self” when it comes to the environment and climate change, and this underlying “dissociation” in attitude (implicit versus explicit) might be critical to their behavior as consumers. This concept of the“divided self” may help us understand why relatively little has changed thus far with regard to more sustainable consumption, but might open up new lines of enquiry about how we might attempt to promote more sustainable consumption in the future.</jats:p

Mapping our underlying cognitions and emotions about good environmental behavior:Why we fail to act despite the best of intentions

Despite the widespread recognition of climate change as the single biggest global threat, the willingness of people to change their behaviour to mitigate its effects is limited. Past research, often focussing on specific categories of behaviour, has highlighted a very significant gap between people’s intentions to behave more sustainably and their actual behaviour. This paper presents a new approach to this issue, by using more open-ended questions to map a much broader range of cognitions and emotions about good environmental behaviour. Two key findings emerged. Firstly, participants were aware of the contradiction between their level of concern about the environment and their willingness to act in more sustainable ways. The qualitative analysis further revealed that this discrepancy often hinged on a lack of knowledge about how to act more sustainably; the analysis also revealed a desire for more information about genuinely green behaviour. Secondly, pro-environmental behaviour was often conceptualised by participants in essentially ‘social’ terms; anticipated emotions relating to sustainable/non-sustainable behaviour were as closely tied to the behaviour of one’s peers as to one’s own behaviour. This finding suggests that we must highlight the social dimension in any interventions to increase sustainable behaviours amongst the public

A novel inhibitor of p75-neurotrophin receptor improves functional outcomes in two models of traumatic brain injury.

The p75 neurotrophin receptor is important in multiple physiological actions including neuronal survival and neurite outgrowth during development, and after central nervous system injury. We have discovered a novel piperazine-derived compound, EVT901, which interferes with p75 neurotrophin receptor oligomerization through direct interaction with the first cysteine-rich domain of the extracellular region. Using ligand binding assays with cysteine-rich domains-fused p75 neurotrophin receptor, we confirmed that EVT901 interferes with oligomerization of full-length p75 neurotrophin receptor in a dose-dependent manner. Here we report that EVT901 reduces binding of pro-nerve growth factor to p75 neurotrophin receptor, blocks pro-nerve growth factor induced apoptosis in cells expressing p75 neurotrophin receptor, and enhances neurite outgrowth in vitro Furthermore, we demonstrate that EVT901 abrogates p75 neurotrophin receptor signalling by other ligands, such as prion peptide and amyloid-β. To test the efficacy of EVT901 in vivo, we evaluated the outcome in two models of traumatic brain injury. We generated controlled cortical impacts in adult rats. Using unbiased stereological analysis, we found that EVT901 delivered intravenously daily for 1 week after injury, reduced lesion size, protected cortical neurons and oligodendrocytes, and had a positive effect on neurological function. After lateral fluid percussion injury in adult rats, oral treatment with EVT901 reduced neuronal death in the hippocampus and thalamus, reduced long-term cognitive deficits, and reduced the occurrence of post-traumatic seizure activity. Together, these studies provide a new reagent for altering p75 neurotrophin receptor actions after injury and suggest that EVT901 may be useful in treatment of central nervous system trauma and other neurological disorders where p75 neurotrophin receptor signalling is affected

Psychological first aid for workers in care and nursing homes: systematic review

Background: The Covid-19 pandemic has produced unprecedented challenges across all aspects of health and social care sectors globally. Nurses and healthcare workers in care homes have been particularly impacted due to rapid and dramatic changes to their job roles, workloads, and working environments, and residents’ multimorbidity. Developed by the World Health Organisation, Psychological First Aid (PFA) is a brief training course delivering social, emotional, supportive, and pragmatic support that can reduce the initial distress after disaster and foster future adaptive functioning. Objectives: This review aimed to synthesise findings from studies exploring the usefulness of PFA for the well-being of nursing and residential care home staff. Methods: A systematic search was conducted across 15 databases (Social Care Online, Kings Fund Library, Prospero, Dynamed, BMJ Best Practice, SIGN, NICE, Ovid, Proquest, Campbell Library, Clinical Trials, Web of Knowledge, Scopus, Ebsco CINAHL, and Cochrane Library), identifying peer-reviewed articles published in English language from database inception to 20th June 2021. Results: Of the 1,159 articles screened, 1,146 were excluded at title and abstract; the remaining 13 articles were screened at full text, all of which were then excluded. Conclusion: This review highlights that empirical evidence of the impact of PFA on the well-being of nursing and residential care home staff is absent. PFA has likely been recommended to healthcare staff during the Covid-19 pandemic. The lack of evidence found here reinforces the urgent need to conduct studies which evaluates the outcomes of PFA particularly in the care home staff population

Uptake and effects of psychological first aid training for healthcare workers’ wellbeing in nursing homes: A UK national survey

Aims Psychological First Aid is a brief intervention based on international guidance from the World Health Organisation. Free to access online training in the intervention was introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic in UK. We aimed to determine the uptake of Psychological First Aid training among healthcare workers in care homes in the UK and to assess its effects on their wellbeing. Design This was a sequential mixed methods design. Methods Healthcare workers (nurses and carers) working in care homes in the UK were surveyed about their uptake of Psychological First Aid, their stress, coping efficacy and the key concepts of Psychological First Aid (safety, calmness, hopefulness, connectedness, and accomplishment). Those that completed the Psychological First Aid training were asked to share their experiences via qualitative survey. Data collection was conducted between June and October 2021. Analyses included descriptive statistics and regression analysis. A six step thematic analysis was used to interpret the qualitative data. Results 388 participants responded to the survey. The uptake of Psychological First Aid training was 37 (9.5%). Psychological first aid was a significant predictor for coping efficacy (β = 17.54, p = .001). Participants with a physical or mental health condition experienced higher stress and lower coping regardless of PFA training. Four themes were identified from the qualitative analysis: self-awareness and growth, relationships with others, overcoming stress and accessibility. Conclusion While this study suggests some benefits to healthcare workers in care home settings undergoing PFA the poor uptake of the training warrants further investigation. Impact Care home staff need psychological support. This gap remains as few completed PFA training. This is the first study in UK and worldwide to look at the effects of psychological first aid on stress and coping in this population and it warrants further investigation