Heroic Helping: The Effects of Priming Superhero Images on Prosociality

Two experiments examined how exposure to superhero images influences both prosociality and meaning in life. In Experiment 1 (N = 246) exposed individuals to scenes with superhero images or neutral images. Individuals primed with superhero images reported greater helping intentions relative to the control group, which, in turn, were associated with increased meaning in life (indirect effect only; no direct effect). In Experiment 2 (N = 123), individuals exposed to a superhero poster helped an experimenter in a tedious task more than those exposed to a bicycle poster, though no differences were found for meaning in life. These results suggest that subtle activation of superhero stimuli increases prosocial intentions and behavior

Testing for Behavioral and Physiological Responses of Domestic Horses (Equus caballus) Across Different Contexts – Consistency Over Time and Effects of Context

In a number of species, consistent behavioral differences between individuals have been described in standardized tests, e.g., novel object, open field test. Different behavioral expressions are reflective of different coping strategies of individuals in stressful situations. A causal link between behavioral responses and the activation of the physiological stress response is assumed but not thoroughly studied. Also, most standard paradigms investigating individual behavioral differences are framed in a fearful context, therefore the present study aimed to add a test in a more positive context, the feeding context. We assessed individual differences in physiological [heart rate (HR)] and behavioral responses (presence or absence of pawing, startle response, defecation, snorting) of 20 domestic horses (Equus caballus) in two behavioral experiments, a novel object presentation and a pre-feeding excitement test. Experiments were conducted twice, once between July and August, and once between September and October. Both experiments caused higher mean HR in the first 10 s after stimulus presentation compared to a control condition, but mean HR did not differ between the experimental conditions. In the novel object experiment, horses displaying stress-related behaviors during the experiments also showed a significantly higher HR increase compared to horses which did not display any stress-related behaviors, reflecting a correlation between behavioral and physiological responses to the novel object. On the contrary, in the pre-feeding experiments, horses that showed fewer behavioral responses had a greater HR increase, indicating the physiological response being due to emotional arousal and not behavioral activity. Moreover, HR response to experimental situations varied significantly between individuals. Individual average HR was significantly repeatable across both experiments, whereas HR increase was only significantly repeatable during the novel object and not the pre-feeding experiment. Conversely, behavioral response was not repeatable. In conclusion, our findings show that horses’ behavioral and physiological responses differed between test situations and that emotional reactivity, shown via mean HR and HR increase, is not always displayed behaviorally, suggesting that behavioral and physiological responses may be regulated independently according to context

The Effects of Disasters on View of and Relationship with God

Disasters can be a considerable threat to one’s sense of meaning. We examined the effects of priming disaster related stimuli on participants’ view of and relationship with God. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: (a) implicit disaster threat, (b) explicit disaster threat, (c) implicit neutral prime, or (d) explicit neutral prime. Next, participants completed measures of meaning in life, as well as scales assessing their views of God (e.g., authoritarian, benevolent) and their relationship to God, including an implicit assessment of their relationship with God. We hypothesize that (religious) participants faced with a disaster prime will reaffirm their meaning and religious values compared to those in the control group. We also sought to explore how the disaster prime would affect how people related to God. We are in the process of collecting data (N~50; Target N=100), but we expect to find the data will support our hypothesis that meaning in life will be reaffirmed when a person is faced with a disaster scenario and that God associations will also be reaffirmed for religious participants. We will also examine whether the primes affected how relate with God. To analyze the data, we will run an ANOVA test comparing participant’s responses in all four conditions. This research has the potential to inform how religious and spiritual values may play a role in overcoming larger meaning threats, such as disasters

Analysis of transcriptional changes in the immune system associated with pubertal development in a longitudinal cohort of children with asthma

Puberty is an important developmental period marked by hormonal, metabolic and immunological changes. Here the authors report gene expression changes in immune cells associated with age and puberty, and that may be relevant for sex differences in susceptibility to asthma, in a longitudinal cohort of 251 children with asthma