The limitations of polling data in understanding public support for COVID-19 lockdown policies

Opinion polls regarding policies designed to tackle COVID-19 have shown public support has remained high throughout the first year of the pandemic in most places around the world; however there is a risk that headline support over-simplifies people’s views. We carried out a two-wave survey with six-month interval on a public sample (N = 212) in the United Kingdom, examining a broad range of perspectives on COVID-19. We find that the majority of people support most public health measures introduced, but that they also see significant side effects of these policies, and that they consider many of these side effects as unacceptable in a cost-benefit analysis. We also find that people judged the threat of COVID-19 via the magnitude of the policy response, and that they do not use their perception of the direct threat to themselves or close others to guide their support for policy. Polling data only offer one simple perspective and do not illustrate the ambivalence people feel around policies relating to COVID-19. There is also a meaningful risk of public opinion and government policy forming a symbiotic relationship, which impacts upon how effectively such policies are implemented both now, and in relation to future threats

Croedau am werth cynhenid a pherthynol byd natur: Sut maent yn cydberthyn ag ymddygiad cynaliadwy yn y Dernas Unedig?

Public messages use a variety of methods to encourage sustainable behaviour (i.e. pro-environmental behaviour), including emphasizing the intrinsic value of nature (the value of nature beyond its usefulness to people) and the relational value of nature (the value of people’s relationship with nature). In this study, we present the results of a survey of adults in the United Kingdom (n = 499) who completed questionnaires that reflected the intrinsic value of nature (intrinsic value beliefs and biospheric values) and two that reflected the relational value of nature (connectedness to nature and empathy towards nature). The sample reported that they perform low-cost behaviour very often (e.g. taking short showers), consumption behaviour less often (e.g. buying a product with less packaging material), and committed behaviour very rarely (e.g. participating in conservation work). No variable predicted low-cost behaviours. Biospheric values and connectedness to nature were found to predict consumption behaviour. Only the relational value beliefs (connectedness and empathy) predicted committed behaviour. The results have implications for presenting environmental messages from the point of view of the intrinsic and relational value of nature. Recommendations are made for future work in this area

Scientists, speak up! Source impacts trust in health advice across five countries

We examined how different types of communication influence people’s responses to health advice. We tested whether presenting Covid-19 prevention advice (e.g., washing hands/distancing) as either originating from a government or scientific source would affect people’s trust in and intentions to comply with the advice. We also manipulated uncertainty in communicating the advice effectiveness. To achieve this, we conducted an experiment using large samples of participants (N= 4,561) from the UK, US, Canada, Malaysia, and Taiwan. Across countries, participants found messages more trustworthy when the purported source was science rather than the government. This effect was moderated by political orientation in all countries except for Canada, while religiosity moderated the source effect in the US. Although source did not directly affect intentions to act upon the advice, we found an indirect effect via trust, such that a more trusted source (i.e., science) was predictive of higher intentions to comply. However, the uncertainty manipulation was not effective. Together, our findings suggest that despite prominence of science scepticism in public discourse, people trust scientists more than governments when it comes to practical health advice. It is therefore beneficial to communicate health messages by stressing their scientific bases

Scientists, speak up! Source impacts trust in health advice across five countries

We examined how different types of communication influence people’s responses to health advice. We tested whether presenting Covid-19 prevention advice (e.g., washing hands/distancing) as either originating from a government or scientific source would affect people’s trust in and intentions to comply with the advice. We also manipulated uncertainty in communicating the advice effectiveness. To achieve this, we conducted an experiment using large samples of participants (N= 4,561) from the UK, US, Canada, Malaysia, and Taiwan. Across countries, participants found messages more trustworthy when the purported source was science rather than the government. This effect was moderated by political orientation in all countries except for Canada, while religiosity moderated the source effect in the US. Although source did not directly affect intentions to act upon the advice, we found an indirect effect via trust, such that a more trusted source (i.e., science) was predictive of higher intentions to comply. However, the uncertainty manipulation was not effective. Together, our findings suggest that despite prominence of science scepticism in public discourse, people trust scientists more than governments when it comes to practical health advice. It is therefore beneficial to communicate health messages by stressing their scientific bases

Multicolor plate reader fluorescence calibration

Plate readers are commonly used to measure cell growth and fluorescence, yet the utility and reproducibility of plate reader data is limited by the fact that it is typically reported in arbitrary or relative units. We have previously established a robust serial dilution protocol for calibration of plate reader measurements of absorbance to estimated bacterial cell count and for green fluorescence from proteins expressed in bacterial cells to molecules of equivalent fluorescein. We now extend these protocols to calibration of red fluorescence to the sulforhodamine-101 fluorescent dye and blue fluorescence to Cascade Blue. Evaluating calibration efficacy via an interlaboratory study, we find that these calibrants do indeed provide comparable precision to the prior calibrants and that they enable effective cross-laboratory comparison of measurements of red and blue fluorescence from proteins expressed in bacterial cells

Comparative analysis of three studies measuring fluorescence from engineered bacterial genetic constructs

Reproducibility is a key challenge of synthetic biology, but the foundation of reproducibility is only as solid as the reference materials it is built upon. Here we focus on the reproducibility of fluorescence measurements from bacteria transformed with engineered genetic constructs. This comparative analysis comprises three large interlaboratory studies using flow cytometry and plate readers, identical genetic constructs, and compatible unit calibration protocols. Across all three studies, we find similarly high precision in the calibrants used for plate readers. We also find that fluorescence measurements agree closely across the flow cytometry results and two years of plate reader results, with an average standard deviation of 1.52-fold, while the third year of plate reader results are consistently shifted by more than an order of magnitude, with an average shift of 28.9-fold. Analyzing possible sources of error indicates this shift is due to incorrect preparation of the fluorescein calibrant. These findings suggest that measuring fluorescence from engineered constructs is highly reproducible, but also that there is a critical need for access to quality controlled fluorescent calibrants for plate readers

Conceptualizing leadership perceptions as attitudes:using attitude theory to further the understanding of the relation between leadership and outcomes

Leadership is one of the most examined factors in relation to understanding employee wellbeing and performance. While there are disparate approaches to studying leadership, they share a common assumption that perceptions of a leader's behavior determine reactions to the leader. The concept of leadership perception is poorly understood in most theoretical approaches. To address this, we propose that there are many benefits from examining leadership perceptions as an attitude towards the leader. In this review, we show how research examining a number of aspects of attitudes (content, structure and function) can advance understanding of leadership perceptions and how these affect work-related outcomes. Such a perspective provides a more multi-faceted understanding of leadership perceptions than previously envisaged and this can provide a more detailed understanding of how such perceptions affect outcomes. In addition, we examine some of the main theoretical and methodological implications of viewing leadership perceptions as attitudes to the wider leadership area. The cross-fertilization of research from the attitudes literature to understanding leadership perceptions provides new insights into leadership processes and potential avenues for further research. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserve

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Inter-individual differences in attitude content: Cognition, affect, and attitudes

In this chapter, we describe and integrate advances in the study of inter-individual differences in attitude content. Research within this area has addressed how people differ in the extent to which their attitudes are primarily guided by the favorability of their cognitive and affective responses. We begin by describing work that prompted researchers to address this topic and how these individual differences have been measured. We then highlight the implications of individual differences in cognitive and affective content in relation to attitude formation, attitude change, attitude strength, and how individuals perceive and evaluate people, groups, and other attitude objects. Taken together, these lines of research lend support to the argument that people differ in their use of cognitive and affective information as bases for attitudes. We conclude the chapter by addressing new questions that we believe will stimulate further interest in the topic