The Effects of Threats to Meaning on Attitudes Toward Evolution

Humans have an innate need to make sense of the world and give it meaning (Heine, Proulx, & Vohs, 2006), and do so by creating and defending cultural worldviews (Solomon, Greenberg, & Pyszcynski, 2004). Threats to meaning cause existential anxiety, and to protect ourselves from this existential fear, we reject, eliminate, or avoid threats to our cultural worldviews (Schmeichel & Martens, 2005). In addition, following threats to meaning, we compensate by showing aggression towards those who are dissimilar (Rosenblatt, Greenberg, Solomon, Pyszczynski, & Lyon, 1989). Science and religion are two prominent cultural worldviews that can provide meaning. We predict that following a meaning threat, participants high in religious fundamentalism would report a less favorable attitude toward evolution than those low in religious fundamentalism. Sixty introductory self-identified religious students at Hope College participated in this study. Participants first completed a measure of religious fundamentalism. They were then randomly assigned to complete a writing task based on condition: meaning challenge (writing about life’s lack of meaning), meaning affirmation (writing about how they find meaning in life), or neutral (writing about their plans for next week). Finally, they read an essay that presented mixed evidence about evolution and rated the essay and their views on evolution. Data were analyzed using an ANOVA examining the interaction between religious fundamentalism and priming condition on attitudes toward evolution. We found a significant interaction showing that religious fundamentalists were more critical of evolution when their meaning was challenged. Given that religious fundamentalists have been found to hold negative attitudes toward evolution (Poling & Evans, 2004), meaning threats may enhance these negative attitudes as a way of regaining meaning. These results highlight that individuals bolster different sources of meaning that are aligned with their values

Constancia de la Mora: Vida y obra de una heroína controvertida/ Constancia de la Mora: The Life and Work of a Controversial Hero

Prior to the declaration of the Second Republic in 1931, Spain was a nation marked by social, cultural, and intellectual repression of women. The progressive Second Republic and the growing feminist movement introduced many reforms that improved the quality of life for the Spanish woman. Thus, when Franco and the nationalist forces threatened these newly gained freedoms with the initiation of the Civil War in 1936, many women dedicated themselves to fighting for the Republican cause. The majority of these women came from the working and middle classes. However, one of the most passionate – and unlikely – champions of the Republican cause came from an upper-class family: Constancia de la Mora. In contrast to her wealthy upbringing, de la Mora’s support for the cause of the working class of the Second Republic was highly controversial. During the Spanish Civil War, de la Mora served as the director of the Republican Foreign Press Office. In 1939, she moved to the United States to begin lobbying for the cause of the Spanish refugees. Later that year, to amplify those efforts, she published her perspective of the war and the refugee crisis in her autobiography, In Place of Splendor. Her work garnered attention for her cause, but it also stands out as one of the first autobiographies published by a Spanish woman. Although some have questioned the absolute truthfulness of the facts de la Mora reports in her book, her dedication to and actions on behalf of her people are undeniable. Today, in Spain and throughout the world, the concluding sentiment of her book continues to serve as a reminder of the essential nature of freedom: “¡Viva la República!

The Effect of Automatic and Controlled Processing Metaphorical Sentences on the N400: An Event Related Potentials Study

We compared automatic and controlled processing of metaphors using literal and metaphorical sentences, a varied inter-stimulus interval (ISI) and related and unrelated word pairs. To assess the difference between automatic and controlled processing, we manipulated the ISI, which was either 100 ms (short) or 1400 ms (long). Previous research has shown that an ISI of 100 ms elicits automatic processing while an ISI of 1400 ms elicits controlled processing. Stimuli were literal sentences (The penetrating needle was painful) or metaphorical sentences (The principal’s eyes were knives) paired with a related word (pierce) or unrelated word (rosy). Literal sentences paired with related words were the control sentences. We examined the differences using event-related potentials (ERP) derived from an electroencephalogram (EEG), which measures electrical activity at the scalp. The dependent measure was the amplitude of the N400, a negative waveform that occurs approximately 400 ms after the presentation of the stimulus. A larger N400 amplitude indicates greater difficulty in understanding the semantic context of the target word stimulus. We hypothesized that metaphorical sentences with an ISI of 1400 ms will have a larger N400 than literal sentences with an ISI of 100 ms because both controlled processing and processing of metaphors require greater cognitive effort. These findings will help us understand the differences in automatic versus controlled processing of figurative language in college controls. We plan to extend this study to participants with autism in order to better understand the literal bias of autism spectrum disorder

Isolation and Genome Sequencing of Two Novel Mycobacteriophages, Optimus and Sassafras

Twenty new mycobacteriophages, capable of infecting Mycobacterium smegmatis, were isolated from soil samples collected on or nearby Hope College in Holland, Michigan. Collectively, the group displayed a variety of plaque morphologies indicating an assortment of different phages. Both lytic and temperate phages appear represented in this collection. Purified phage stocks were used to prepare genomic DNA samples for restriction digest analysis. Of 20 samples analyzed, a total of 13 phages produced just 4 types of restriction digest patterns indicating some degree of relatedness among some of our new phage isolates. Interestingly, one group of 4 phages (Optimus, Lynx, Aurora and TheCube14) that yielded a similar restriction digest pattern, were all isolated from mulch-covered soil at a depth of 4-8 cm. Two phages (Optimus and Sassafras) were chosen for complete genome sequencing and comparative genomic analyses. Both phages produced plaques of between 1-2 mm in diameter at 24 hours that enlarged to about 4 mm in diameter after 48 hours of incubation at 37°C. Whereas continued incubation of phage Optimus resulted in cessation of plaque growth by 72 hours, plaques produced by Sassafras continued to enlarge beyond 8 days, reaching a diameter of greater than 10 mm. Phage Optimus produced plaques that displayed a clear center surrounded by turbid rings. Phage Sassafras produced clear plaques with defined edges at 24 hours, but all subsequent growth was progressively more turbid in nature, resulting in plaques with a turbid ring around a center clear zone. Comparison of the restriction digest patterns for Optimus and Sassafras with more than 60 existing mycobacteriophage genomes indicates that Optimus may be a new representative of cluster H, while Sassafras shows some similarity to the F cluster of mycobacteriophages. Results of our analyses of both genomes are reported