Reducing Exclusionary Attitudes through Interpersonal Conversation: Evidence from Three Field Experiments

Exclusionary attitudes-prejudice toward outgroups and opposition to policies that promote their well-being-are presenting challenges to democratic societies worldwide. Drawing on insights from psychology, we argue that non-judgmentally exchanging narratives in interpersonal conversations can facilitate durable reductions in exclusionary attitudes. We support this argument with evidence from three pre-registered field experiments targeting exclusionary attitudes toward unauthorized immigrants and transgender people. In these experiments, 230 canvassers conversed with 6,869 voters across 7 US locations. In Experiment 1, face-To-face conversations deploying arguments alone had no effects on voters' exclusionary immigration policy or prejudicial attitudes, but otherwise identical conversations also including the non-judgmental exchange of narratives durably reduced exclusionary attitudes for at least four months (d = 0.08). Experiments 2 and 3, targeting transphobia, replicate these findings and support the scalability of this strategy (ds = 0.08, 0.04). Non-judgmentally exchanging narratives can help overcome the resistance to persuasion often encountered in discussions of these contentious topics

The Minimal Persuasive Effects of Campaign Contact in General Elections: Evidence from 49 Field Experiments

Significant theories of democratic accountability hinge on how political campaigns affect Americans' candidate choices. We argue that the best estimate of the effects of campaign contact and advertising on Americans' candidates choices in general elections is zero. First, a systematic meta-analysis of 40 field experiments estimates an average effect of zero in general elections. Second, we present nine original field experiments that increase the statistical evidence in the literature about the persuasive effects of personal contact tenfold. These experiments' average effect is also zero. In both existing and our original experiments, persuasive effects only appear to emerge in two rare circumstances. First, when candidates take unusually unpopular positions and campaigns invest unusually heavily in identifying persuadable voters. Second, when campaigns contact voters long before election day and measure effects immediately-although this early persuasion decays. These findings contribute to ongoing debates about how political elites influence citizens' judgments

New degeneration of Fay's identity and its application to integrable systems

In this paper we prove a new degenerated version of Fay's trisecant identity. The new identity is applied to construct new algebro-geometric solutions of the multi-component nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation. This approach also provides an independent derivation of known algebro-geometric solutions to the Davey-Stewartson equations

How Aspects of Self-Compassion Contribute to Wellbeing and the Effect of Age

This study investigating the differential contribution of self-compassion subcomponents to wellbeing, and examined the effect of age. A total of 275 participants (219 females) completed demographic measures, the Self-Compassion Scale, the Mental Health Index, and a Social Desirability Scale. Hierarchical Multiple Regression indicated that the self-kindness and mindfulness subcomponents predicted wellbeing, whereas the self-judgement, isolation and over- identification subcomponents predicted psychological distress. Furthermore, the negative self- compassion subcomponents accounted for additional variance in psychological wellbeing. Self- compassion was also significantly higher in older adults. This research consolidates previous findings, increases the scope of self-compassion research, and may have practical implications in treatment

Az újkőkori „Nagy Istennő” tündöklése és bukása

Az újkőkori Nagy Istennő / Nagy Anyaistennő sokáig igen népszerű koncep - ciója alapvetően a kisméretű meztelen női ábrázolások értelmezésén alapult. A cikk ennek az elképzelésnek a gyökereit, kialakulását, társadalmi hatásait és elvetését (dekonstrukcióját) követi nyomon