Putting ourselves in another’s skin: using the plasticity of self-perception to enhance empathy and decrease prejudice

The self is one the most important concepts in social cognition and plays a crucial role in determining questions such as which social groups we view ourselves as belonging to and how we relate to others. In the past decade, the self has also become an important topic within cognitive neuroscience with an explosion in the number of studies seeking to understand how different aspects of the self are represented within the brain. In this paper, we first outline the recent research on the neurocognitive basis of the self and highlight a key distinction between two forms of self-representation. The first is the “bodily” self, which is thought to be the basis of subjective experience and is grounded in the processing of sensorimotor signals. The second is the “conceptual” self, which develops through our interactions of other and is formed of a rich network of associative and semantic information. We then investigate how both the bodily and conceptual self are related to social cognition with an emphasis on how self-representations are involved in the processing and creation of prejudice. We then highlight new research demonstrating that the bodily and conceptual self are both malleable and that this malleability can be harnessed in order to achieve a reduction in social prejudice. In particular, we will outline strong evidence that modulating people’s perceptions of the bodily self can lead to changes in attitudes at the conceptual level. We will highlight a series of studies demonstrating that social attitudes towards various social out-groups (e.g. racial groups) can lead to a reduction in prejudice towards that group. Finally, we seek to place these findings in a broader social context by considering how innovations in virtual reality technology can allow experiences of taking on another’s identity are likely to become both more commonplace and more convincing in the future and the various opportunities and risks associated with using such technology to reduce prejudice

Underground excavations in rock salt.

An historical review of the geotechnical behaviour of the Northwich Rock Salt is presented as a forerunner to a numerical modelling analysis of the current stability of the Winsford salt mine, Cheshire. Extensive laboratory and in situ tests have been historically undertaken by the mine to characterise the strength and stiffness behaviour of the rock salt. Recent proposals to store waste within the Bostock No. 5 panel of the mine have lead to increasing concerns as to the current stability of the workings, as well as to the long term stability of the mine. This present study uses the wealth of geotechnical data to assess the current mine stability using numerical modelling techniques and validates the results against in situ roof to floor convergence data. The results indicate that the mine structures are stable. Convergence simulation using the numerical model compare favourably with the in situ monitoring data allowing greater con.dence to be placed in future predictions

Stability problems associated with an abandoned ironstone mine.

The stability problems associated with a shallow, room and pillar ironstone mine have been analysed in detail using established, empirical approaches. Initial analysis centred on elastic beam theory and pillar strength formulae to establish the factor of safety against roof beam and pillar failure, respectively. The pillars have been shown to be inherently stable; even those that have been subsequently reduced in size as a result of pillar splitting have safety factors in excess of 3. The roof has been shown to be unstable using an elastic beam analogy, which is corroborated by the extensive surface damage. Confidence in the application of such approaches is shown to be difficult due to the lack of knowledge relating to the effects of time on mine stability; increased weathering of the mine structures may lead to weakening and ultimately failure at lower stresses than determined through the mine design approaches. Clearer definition of the rock mass behaviour is required in order to advance such techniques as valid approaches for the analysis of abandoned mines. However, the paper also highlights how such approaches are valid where failure mechanisms are well defined and understood. Probabilistic risk analysis has also been considered as an alternative approach. From a surface developer's perspective, such approaches are more useful

Numerical modelling of time-dependent deformation around an underground mine in rock salt

Extensive in-situ and laboratory-based experimental work formed the basis for an assessment of the stability of an abandoned panel of Winsford salt mine, Cheshire, England, conducted by numerical modelling with the finite-difference code FLAC. The final model is composed of a Burger rheological component to represent the time-dependent deformation of the salt sequences and a Mohr-Coulomb constitutive model to simulate the behaviour of the non-creeping marl strata. The results of the creep model are compared with actual convergence monitoring data for validation purposes. The results indicate that the section of the mine is stable and confirm the presence of an inherently stable core in each of the internal pillars within the panel