Racism and racial categorization.

Social identity theory predicts that perceivers strongly identified with an in-group will maximize the distinction and maintain a clear boundary between their own and other groups by categorizing others' membership accurately. Two experiments tested the prediction that racially prejudiced individuals, who presumably identify highly with their racial in-group, are more motivated to make accurate racial categorizations than nonprejudiced individuals. Results indicated that prejudiced participants not only took longer to categorize race-ambiguous targets (Experiments 1 and 2), but also made more nonverbal vocalizations when presented with them (Experiment 1), suggesting response hesitation. The results support the hypothesis that, compared to nonprejudiced individuals, prejudiced individuals concern themselves with accurate identification of in-group and out-group members and use caution when making racial categorizations

The hows and whys of face processing: Level of construal influences the holistic processing of human faces

Face recognition and identification are optimized by holistic processing. Various visual-spatial manipulations appear to have transfer effects on holistic face processing. The present experiment tests the effects of a semantic manipulation-of construal level-on holistic processing as measured by composite congruency effects. Participants completed two blocks of trials. The first served as a baseline, whereas the second included a manipulation of construal level. High-level construal resulted in stronger congruency effects, indicative of greater holistic processing (relative to baseline and to low-level construal). These results have implications for conceptualizations of both construal level and holistic processing

The hows and whys of face memory: level of construal influences the recognition of human faces.

Three experiments investigated the influence of level of construal (i.e., the interpretation of actions in terms of their meaning or their details) on different stages of face memory. We employed a standard multiple-face recognition paradigm, with half of the faces inverted at test. Construal level was manipulated prior to recognition (Experiment 1), during study (Experiment 2) or both (Experiment 3). The results support a general advantage for high-level construal over low-level construal at both study and at test, and suggest that matching processing style between study and recognition has no advantage. These experiments provide additional evidence in support of a link between semantic processing (i.e., construal) and visual (i.e., face) processing. We conclude with a discussion of implications for current theories relating to both construal and face processing

A Bunch of Blues / music by J. Paul Wyer; words by H. Alf Kelly

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/sharris_c/1080/thumbnail.jp

Selective self-categorization: Meaningful categorization and the in-group persuasion effect

Research stemming from self-categorization theory (Turner et al., 1987) has demonstrated that individuals are typically more persuaded by messages from their in-group than by messages from the out-group. The present research investigated the role of issue relevance in moderating these effects. In particular, it was predicted that in-groups would only be more persuasive when the dimension on which group membership was defined was meaningful or relevant to the attitude issue. In two studies, participants were presented with persuasive arguments from either an in-group source or an out-group source, where the basis of the in-group/out-group distinction was either relevant or irrelevant to the attitude issue. Participants' attitudes toward the issue were then measured. The results supported the predictions: Participants were more persuaded by in-group sources than out-group sources when the basis for defining the group was relevant to the attitude issue. However, when the defining characteristic of the group was irrelevant to the attitude issue, participants were equally persuaded by in-group and out-group sources. These results support the hypothesis that the fit between group membership and domain is an important moderator of self-categorization effects

The roles of motivation and ability in controlling the consequences of stereotype suppression

Two experiments investigated the conditions under which previously suppressed stereotypes are applied in impression formation. In Experiment 1, the extent to which a previously suppressed racial stereotype influenced subsequent impressions depended on the race of the target who was subsequently encountered. Whereas impressions of race-unspecified targets were assimilated to the stereotype following its suppression, no such effects were observed when the target belonged to the racial group whose stereotype had been initially suppressed. These results demonstrate that when perceivers are motivated to avoid stereo-typing individuals, the influence of a stereotype that has been previously activated through suppression is minimized. Experiment 2 demonstrated that these processing goals effectively reduce the impact of suppression-activated stereotypes only when perceivers have sufficient capacity to enact the goals. These results suggest that both sufficient motivation and capacity are necessary to prevent heightened stereotyping following stereotype suppression

Entanglements of affect, space, and evidence in pandemic healthcare: An analysis of Australian healthcare workers' experiences of COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to highlight both global interconnectedness and schisms across place, context and peoples. While countries such as Australia have securitised their borders in response to the global spread of disease, flows of information and collective affect continue to permeate these boundaries. Drawing on interviews with Australian healthcare workers, we examine how their experiences of the pandemic are shaped by affect and evidence 'traveling' across time and space. Our analysis points to the limitations of global health crisis responses that focus solely on material risk and spatial separation. Institutional responses must, we suggest, also consider the affective and discursive dimensions of health-related risk environments

A functional-cognitive framework for attitude research

In attitude research, behaviours are often used as proxies for attitudes and attitudinal processes. This practice is problematic because it conflates the behaviours that need to be explained (explanandum) with the mental constructs that are used to explain these behaviours (explanans). In the current chapter we propose a meta-theoretical framework that resolves this problem by distinguishing between two levels of analysis. According to the proposed framework, attitude research can be conceptualised as the scientific study of evaluation. Evaluation is defined not in terms of mental constructs but in terms of elements in the environment, more specifically, as the effect of stimuli on evaluative responses. From this perspective, attitude research provides answers to two questions: (1) Which elements in the environment moderate evaluation? (2) What mental processes and representations mediate evaluation? Research on the first question provides explanations of evaluative responses in terms of elements in the environment (functional level of analysis); research on the second question offers explanations of evaluation in terms of mental processes and representations (cognitive level of analysis). These two levels of analysis are mutually supportive, in that better explanations at one level lead to better explanations at the other level. However, their mutually supportive relation requires a clear distinction between the concepts of their explanans and explanandum, which are conflated if behaviours are treated as proxies for mental constructs. The value of this functional-cognitive framework is illustrated by applying it to four central questions of attitude research

Depression is associated with longer emergency department length of stay in acute coronary syndrome patients

Background: Patient demographic characteristics have been associated with longer emergency department (ED) treatment times, but the influence of psychosocial characteristics has not been assessed. We evaluated whether depression was associated with greater ED length of stay (LOS) in non-ST elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) and unstable angina (UA) patients presenting to a large metropolitan academic medical center. Methods: We calculated ED LOS for NSTEMI or UA patients enrolled an observational cohort study by taking the difference between ED triage time in the medical record and time of transfer to an inpatient bed from standardized transfer documentation forms. Depression status was defined as current, past, or never by clinical interview and also by self-report on the Beck Depression Inventory. Results: Participants were 120 NSTEMI/UA patients [mean age= 62, 36% women, 56% Hispanic, 26% Black/African American, 40% NSTEMI, mean global registry of acute cardiac events (GRACE) score= 93.9]. Mean ED LOS was 11.6 hours, SD= 8.3. A multiple linear regression model that included the above demographic and clinical variables, and time of presentation to ED, explained 11% of the variance in ED LOS, F (11, 108)= 2.35, p= .01, R2 adj.= .11. Currently depressed patients spent 5.4 more hours (95% CI= .40, 10.4 hours) in the ED on average than patients who had never been depressed. Conclusions: Currently depressed NSTEMI/UA patients are in the ED for an average of 5 hours longer than those who have never been depressed. Further research is needed to identify the reasons for this difference

Gamma-herpesvirus colonization of the spleen requires lytic replication in B cells

Gamma-herpesviruses infect lymphocytes and cause lymphocytic cancers. Murid Herpesvirus-4 (MuHV-4), Epstein-Barr virus and the Kaposi's Sarcoma-associated Herpesvirus all infect B cells. Latent infection can spread by B cell recirculation and proliferation, but whether this alone achieves systemic infection is unclear. To test the need of MuHV-4 for lytic infection in B cells we flanked its essential ORF50 lytic transactivator with loxP sites, then infected mice with B cell-specific cre expression (CD19-cre). The floxed virus replicated normally in cre- mice. In CD19-cre mice, nasal and lymph node infections were maintained but there was little splenomegaly and splenic virus loads remained low. Cre-mediated removal of other essential lytic genes gave a similar phenotype. CD19-cre spleen infection by intraperitoneal virus was also impaired. Therefore MuHV-4 had to emerge lytically from B cells to colonize the spleen. An important role for B cell lytic infection in host colonization is consistent with the large CD8+ T cell responses made to gamma-herpesvirus lytic antigens during infectious mononucleosis, and suggests that vaccine-induced immunity capable of suppressing B cell lytic infection might reduce long-term virus loads.IMPORTANCE Gamma-herpesviruses cause B cell cancers. Most models of host colonization derive from cell cultures with continuous, virus-driven B cell proliferation. However vaccines based on these models have worked poorly. To test whether proliferating B cells suffice for host colonization, we inactivated the capacity of MuHV-4, a gamma-herpesvirus of mice, to re-emerge from B cells. The modified virus was able to colonize a first wave of B cells in lymph nodes, but spread poorly to B cells in secondary sites such as the spleen. Consequently viral loads remained low. These results were consistent with virus-driven B cell proliferation exploiting normal host pathways, and so having to transfer lytically to new B cells for new proliferation. We conclude that viral lytic infection is a potential target to reduce B cell proliferation