Soft power: Power of attraction or confusion?

Despite its popularity soft power remains power of confusion. The paper examines the concept, with a special focus on the nature and sources of soft power. Nye’s notion of soft power is largely ethnocentric and based on the assumption that there is a link between attractiveness and the ability to influence others in international relations. This poses two problems: Firstly, a country has many different actors. Some of them like the attraction and others don’t. Whether the attraction will lead to the ability to influence the policy of the target country depends on which groups in that country find it attractive and how much control they have on policymaking. Secondly, policymaking at the state level is far more complicated than at the personal level; and has different dynamics that emphasise the rational considerations. This leaves little room for emotional elements thus significantly reducing the effect of soft power. Given the nature of soft power being uncontrollable and unpredictable, it would be impossible to wield soft power in any organised and coordinated fashion as Nye suggested. Furthermore, the relationship between two countries is shaped by many complex factors. It is ultimately decided by the geopolitics and strategic interests of nations, in which soft power may play only a limited role. The paper also discusses the link between soft power and nation branding as both concepts are concerned with a nation’s influence on the world stage. Public diplomacy is a subset of nation branding that focuses on the political brand of a nation; whereas nation branding is about how a nation as whole to reshape the international opinions. A successful nation branding campaign will help create a more favourable and lasting image among the international audience thus further enhancing a country’s soft power

Forensic interviewing of mentally disordered suspects: The impact of interview style on investigation outcomes.

The investigative interviewing of a vulnerable suspect is a complex and difficult task. Current best practice advocates for the use of open questions in order to elicit a free recall. However, those with mental health conditions have limited cognitive abilities that relate to free recall and episodic memory, and there is emerging evidence that suggests open questions may not always be most suitable for the vulnerable interviewee. As such, the present study examined the impact of two different interview models (best practice v modified interview) on the amount and accuracy of investigation relevant information obtained within an experimental vulnerable ‘suspect’ sample. Participants engaged in two tasks; a minor transgression and a matched non-transgression. Each participant was then subject to either a best practice (containing largely open questions) or a modified interview (containing largely closed questions). Vulnerable participants provided a significantly higher and more accurate amount of investigation relevant information during the modified interview rather than the best practice interview. In addition, participants that have mental health conditions sought more clarifications during the best practice interviews. The type of interview did not impact upon the level of vulnerability displayed. Our findings challenge current best practice in that vulnerable participants performed worse in interviews containing more open questions than closed questions. These findings add to the emerging evidence base that vulnerable individuals may require an alternative method of questioning, including the use of closed questions as ‘scaffolding’ during an investigative interview

Behind the confession: Relating false confession, interrogative compliance, personality traits, and psychopathy

The present study further supports the established notion that personality traits contribute to the phenomenon of false confessions and compliance in an interrogative setting. Furthermore, the study provides an investigation into the more recent interest in the potential effect of psychopathic traits in this context. A sample of university students (N = 607) completed questionnaires measuring psychopathic traits, interrogative compliance, and the big five personality factors. Of these, only 4.9% (n=30) claimed to have falsely confessed to an academic or criminal offense, with no participant taking the blame for both types of offense. Across measures the big five personality traits were the strongest predictors of compliance. The five personality traits accounted for 17.9 % of the total variance in compliance, with neuroticism being the strongest predictor, followed by openness and agreeableness. Psychopathy accounted for 3.3% of variance, with the lifestyle facet being the only significant predictor. After controlling for the big five personality factors, psychopathy only accounted for a small percentage of interrogative compliance, indicating that interrogators should take into account a person’s personality traits during the interrogation.N/

The Link Between Suggestibility, Compliance, and False Confessions: A Review using Experimental and Field Studies

Expert witnesses and scholarssometimesdisagree on whether suggestibility and compliance are related to people’s tendency to falsely confess. Hence, the principal aim of this review was to amass the available evidence on the link between suggestibility and complianceand false confessions. We reviewed experimental data in which false confessions were experimentally evoked and suggestibilityand compliancewere measured. Furthermore, we reviewed field data ofpotential false confessions and their relationship with suggestibility and compliance. These diverse databases converge to the same conclusion. We unequivocally found that high levels of suggestibility (andto a lesser extentcompliance)were associated with an increased vulnerability to falsely confess. Suggestibility measurements might be informative for expert witnesses who must evaluate the false confession potential in legal cases

Exploring the Consequences of Nonbelieved Memories in the DRM Paradigm

In the current experiments, we attempted to elicit nonbelieved memories (NBMs) using the Deese/Roediger–McDermott (DRM) false memory paradigm. Furthermore, by using this approach, we explored the consequences of nonbelieved true and false memories. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants received several DRM wordlists and were presented with a recognition task. After the recognition task, participants’ statements were contradicted by giving them feedback about true and false items. In this way, we succeeded in eliciting nonbelieved true and false memories. In Experiment 2, participants were also involved in a modified perceptual closure task after receiving belief-relevant feedback. In this task, participants received degraded visual representations of words (e.g., false and true) that became clearer over time. Participants had to identify them as fast as possible. We also measured dissociation, compliance, and social desirability. We found that undermining belief had contrasting consequences for true and false memories. That is, nonbelieved true memories were identified more slowly whereas nonbelieved false memories were identified more quickly. We did not find any relation between our individual differences measures and the formation of NBMs

A systematic review on the relationship between self-esteem and interrogative suggestibility

Some factors, such as age, learning disability and mental health difficulties, have been identified as making police suspects more vulnerable to suggestibility and false confessions during interview. However, there has been no systematic review on the association between self-esteem and suggestibility. Seven electronic bibliographic databases and reference lists of previous literature reviews of suggestibility in children were searched. Selected studies were quality assessed using pre-defined criteria before data were extracted. Electronic searches yielded 1914 hits. Of these, 685 duplicates, 1181 irrelevant references and 39 references that did not meet the inclusion criteria were removed. Nine publications were included in the review. Significant correlations between self-esteem and suggestibility, most notably on the Yield 1 subscale of the GSS, were found but four of the nine studies found no significant correlation. The prevalent use of self-report measures and lack of clarity in defining self-esteem limit the validity of those studies

A randomized controlled trial reporting functional outcomes of cognitive-behavioural therapy in medication‑treated adults with ADHD and comorbid psychopathology

Studies assessing psychological treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adults are increasingly reported. However, functional outcomes are often neglected in favour of symptom outcomes. We investigated functional outcomes in 95 adults with ADHD who were already treated with medication and randomized to receive treatment as usual (TAU/MED) or psychological treatment (CBT/MED) using a cognitive–behavioural programme, R&R2ADHD, which employs both group and individual modalities. RATE-S functional outcomes associated with ADHD symptoms, social functioning, emotional control and antisocial behaviour were given at baseline, end of treatment and three-month follow-up. The Total composite score of these scales is associated with life satisfaction. In addition, independent evaluator ratings of clinicians who were blind to treatment arm were obtained on the Clinical Global Impression scale at each time point. CBT/MED showed overall (combined outcome at end of treatment and 3-month follow-up) significantly greater functional improvement on all scales. Post-group treatment effects were maintained at follow-up with the exception of emotional control and the Total composite scales, which continued to improve. The largest treatment effect was for the RATE-S Total composite scale, associated with life satisfaction. CGI significantly correlated with all outcomes except for social functioning scale at follow-up. The study provides further evidence for the effectiveness of R&R2ADHD and demonstrates the importance of measuring functional outcomes. The key mechanism associated with improved functional outcomes is likely to be behavioural control

Elevated expression of the chemokine-scavenging receptor D6 is associated with impaired lesion development in psoriasis

D6 is a scavenging-receptor for inflammatory CC chemokines that are essential for resolution of inflammatory responses in mice. Here, we demonstrate that D6 plays a central role in controlling cutaneous inflammation, and that D6 deficiency is associated with development of a psoriasis-like pathology in response to varied inflammatory stimuli in mice. Examination of D6 expression in human psoriatic skin revealed markedly elevated expression in both the epidermis and lymphatic endothelium in "uninvolved" psoriatic skin (ie, skin that was more than 8 cm distant from psoriatic plaques). Notably, this increased D6 expression is associated with elevated inflammatory chemokine expression, but an absence of plaque development, in uninvolved skin. Along with our previous observations of the ability of epidermally expressed transgenic D6 to impair cutaneous inflammatory responses, our data support a role for elevated D6 levels in suppressing inflammatory chemokine action and lesion development in uninvolved psoriatic skin. D6 expression consistently dropped in perilesional and lesional skin, coincident with development of psoriatic plaques. D6 expression in uninvolved skin also was reduced after trauma, indicative of a role for trauma-mediated reduction in D6 expression in triggering lesion development. Importantly, D6 is also elevated in peripheral blood leukocytes in psoriatic patients, indicating that upregulation may be a general protective response to inflammation. Together our data demonstrate a novel role for D6 as a regulator of the transition from uninvolved to lesional skin in psoriasis

Cognitive-behavioural therapy in medication-treated adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and co-morbid psychopathology:a randomized controlled trial using multi-level analysis

Background. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by high rates of co-morbid psychopathology. Randomized controlled trials of multimodal interventions, combining pharmacological and psychological treatments, have shown a robust treatment effect for ADHD symptoms but outcomes for co-morbid symptoms have been mixed. This may be accounted for by the type of intervention selected and/or by methodological problems including lack of follow-up and low power. The current study addressed these limitations in a parallel-group randomized controlled trial conducted in Iceland.  Method. A total of 95 adult ADHD patients who were already being treated with medication (MED) were randomly assigned to receive treatment as usual (TAU/MED) or 15 sessions of cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT/MED) using the R&R2ADHD intervention which employs both group and individual modalities. Primary measures of ADHD symptoms and severity of illness, and secondary measures of anxiety, depression and quality of life were given at baseline, end of treatment and 3-month follow-up. Primary outcomes were rated by clinicians blind to treatment condition assignment.  Results. CBT/MED showed overall (combined outcome at end of treatment and 3-month follow-up) significantly greater reduction in primary outcomes for clinician-rated and self-rated ADHD symptoms. Treatment effect of primary outcomes was maintained at follow-up, which suggests robust and lasting findings. In contrast to the primary outcomes, the secondary outcomes showed significant improvement over time.  Conclusions. The study provides evidence for the effectiveness of R&R2ADHD and demonstrates that there are differential effects over time for ADHD symptoms versus co-morbid problems, the latter taking longer to show positive effects

HER2 induced EMT and tumorigenicity in breast epithelial progenitor cells is inhibited by coexpression of EGFR.

To access publisher's full text version of this article, please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field or click on the hyperlink at the top of the page marked Files. This article is open access.The members of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) kinase family are important players in breast morphogenesis and cancer. EGFR2/HER2 and EGFR expression have a prognostic value in certain subtypes of breast cancer such as HER2-amplified, basal-like and luminal type B. Many clinically approved small molecular inhibitors and monoclonal antibodies have been designed to target HER2, EGFR or both. There is, however, still limited knowledge on how the two receptors are expressed in normal breast epithelium, what effects they have on cellular differentiation and how they participate in neoplastic transformation. D492 is a breast epithelial cell line with stem cell properties that can undergo epithelial to mesenchyme transition (EMT), generate luminal- and myoepithelial cells and form complex branching structures in three-dimensional (3D) culture. Here, we show that overexpression of HER2 in D492 (D492(HER2)) resulted in EMT, loss of contact growth inhibition and increased oncogenic potential in vivo. HER2 overexpression, furthermore, inhibited endogenous EGFR expression. Re-introducing EGFR in D492(HER2) (D492(HER2/EGFR)) partially reversed the mesenchymal state of the cells, as an epithelial phenotype reappeared both in 3D cultures and in vivo. The D492(HER2/EGFR) xenografts grow slower than the D492(HER2) tumors, while overexpression of EGFR alone (D492(EGFR)) was not oncogenic in vivo. Consistent with the EGFR-mediated epithelial phenotype, overexpression of EGFR drove the cells toward a myoepithelial phenotype in 3D culture. The effect of two clinically approved anti-HER2 and EGFR therapies, trastuzumab and cetuximab, was tested alone and in combination on D492(HER2) xenografts. While trastuzumab had a growth inhibitory effect compared with untreated control, the effect of cetuximab was limited. When administered in combination, the growth inhibitory effect of trastuzumab was less pronounced. Collectively, our data indicate that in HER2-overexpressing D492 cells, EGFR can behave as a tumor suppressor, by pushing the cells towards epithelial differentiation.Landspitali University Hospital Science Fund, University of Iceland Research Fund, Science and Technology Policy Council Research Fund and Grant of Excellence, ‘Göngum saman’, a supporting group for breast cancer research in Iceland