Confronting Politics: The Role of Conflict Orientation in Shaping Political Debate

Previous research (Testa et al 2014, Mutz 2015) finds that conflict orientation—individuals’ psychological predisposition towards conflict--conditions attitudes of people in the United States in the face of political disagreement. However, little research has been done into how conflict orientation influences the ways in which people engage in conversation that has the potential to become uncomfortable or contentious. While we argue that conflict orientation has a significant impact on the way college students discuss politics, results from series of interviews with undergraduate students about their thoughts and ideas regarding political incivility and campus free speech suggest that this is not the case. Instead we find that deliberation and small-group conversation can bring both the conflict-avoidant and conflict-approaching into the political conversation

Sex‐Related Differences in the Effects of Sports‐Related Concussion: A Review

Sports‐related concussion is a serious health challenge, and females are at higher risk of sustaining a sports‐related concussion compared to males. Although there are many studies that investigate outcomes following concussion, females remain an understudied population, despite representing a large proportion of the organized sports community. In this review, we provide a summary of studies that investigate sex‐related differences in outcome following sports‐related concussion. Moreover, we provide an introduction to the methods used to study sex‐related differences after sports‐related concussion, including common clinical and cognitive measures, neuroimaging techniques, as well as biomarkers. A literature search inclusive of articles published to March 2020 was performed using PubMed. The studies were reviewed and discussed with regard to the methods used. Findings from these studies remain mixed with regard to the effect of sex on clinical symptoms, concussion‐related alterations in brain structure and function, and recovery trajectories. Nonetheless, there is initial evidence to suggest that sex‐related differences following concussion are important to consider in efforts to develop objective biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of concussion. Additional studies on this topic are, however, clearly needed to improve our understanding of sex‐related differences following concussion, as well as to understand their neurobiological underpinnings. Such studies will help pave the way toward more personalized clinical management and treatment of sports‐related concussion