Quantifying system disturbance and recovery from historical mining-derived metal contamination at Brotherswater, northwest England

The final publication is available at Springer via https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-016-9907-1Metal ore extraction in historical times has left a legacy of severe contamination in aquatic ecosystems around the world. In the UK, there are ongoing nationwide surveys of present-day pollution discharged from abandoned mines but few assessments of the magnitude of contamination and impacts that arose during historical metal mining have been made. We report one of the first multi-centennial records of lead (Pb), zinc (Zn) and copper (Cu) fluxes into a lake (Brotherswater, northwest England) from point-sources in its catchment (Hartsop Hall Mine and Hogget Gill processing plant) and calculate basin-scale inventories of those metals. The pre-mining baseline for metal contamination has been established using sediment cores spanning the past 1,500 years and contemporary material obtained through sediment trapping. These data enabled the impact of 250 years of local, small-scale mining (1696 – 1942) to be quantified and an assessment of the trajectory towards system recovery to be made. The geochemical stratigraphy displayed in twelve sediment cores show strong correspondence to the documented history of metal mining and processing in the catchment. The initial onset in 1696 was detected, peak Pb concentrations (>10,000 µg g-1) and flux (39.4 g m-2 y-1) corresponded to the most intensive mining episode (1863-1871) and 20th century technological enhancements were reflected as a more muted sedimentary imprint. After careful evaluation, we used these markers to augment a Bayesian age-depth model of the independent geochronology obtained using radioisotope dating (14C, 210Pb, 137Cs and 241Am). Total inventories of Pb, Zn and Cu for the lake basin during the period of active mining were 15,415 kg, 5,897 kg and 363 kg, respectively. The post-mining trajectories for Pb and Zn project a return to pre-mining levels within 54-128 years for Pb and 75-187 years for Zn, although future remobilisation of metal-enriched catchment soils and floodplain sediments could perturb this recovery. We present a transferable paleolimnological approach that highlights flux-based assessments are vital to accurately establish the baseline, impact and trajectory of mining-derived contamination for a lake catchment

The source model of group threat: responding to internal and external threats

We introduce a model of group threat that articulates the opposing effects of intergroup (between-groups) and intragroup (within-group) threat on identity processes and group relations. The source model of group threat argues that the perceived source of a threat is critical in predicting its consequences, such that perceptions of intergroup threat will strengthen (in)group identity processes and relations, whereas perceptions of intragroup threat has the potential to undermine the same. In addition to reviewing the large literature on intergroup threat and a smaller body of unsynthesized work on intragroup threat, we discuss how these processes are captured in representations of monsters (aliens, vampires, and zombies) in popular media and how these ideas can inform interpretation of current political debates, such as those around homegrown terrorism. This model provides a novel summary of the core effects of intergroup and intragroup threat, generating testable hypotheses about the psychological effects of different types of threat. Applying this model will help to make sense of seemingly contradictory findings in the literature, illustrating how appraisal of a threat as originating from an intergroup or intragroup source has the capacity to change the group-based effects of that threat

The intersection of goals to experience and express emotion

Experience and expression are orthogonal emotion dimensions: we do not always show what we feel, nor do we always feel what we show. However, the experience and expression dimensions of emotion are rarely considered simultaneously. We propose a model outlining the intersection of goals for emotion experience and expression. We suggest that these goals may be aligned (e.g., feeling and showing) or misaligned (e.g., feeling but not showing). Our model posits these states can be separated into goals to (a) experience and express, (b) experience but not express, (c) express but not experience, or (d) neither experience nor express positive and negative emotion. We contend that considering intersections between experience and expression goals will advance understanding of emotion regulation choice and success

Do people turn to visible reminders of group identity under stress?

How do people cope with stress? Research suggests that people have a number of strategies, including turning to the groups to which they belong, increasing feelings of identification and affiliation. We examine a novel extension of this strategy: adopting visible reminders of one's group identity. In two experiments (Ns=103 and 194), we explore whether students are more likely to use an artifact that displays their university identity in situations of high, compared to low, evaluative stress. In Experiment 1, students were more likely to choose a university-branded pen (vs. an identical unbranded pen) to complete exam questions when their performance would be evaluated versus not. In Experiment 2, we found the tendency to use a university-branded pen in the face of evaluative stress emerged only among people who found the evaluation personally relevant. In addition, we present converging results from two observational studies suggesting that students are more likely to wear clothing that signals their university identity on exam days compared to control days. These findings suggest that people may turn to visible reminders of group membership when facing evaluative stress. Although we found no consistent evidence for a psychological mechanism underlying this effect, we speculate about theoretically relevant possibilities

Only human: Hostile human norms reduce legitimisation of intergroup discrimination by perpetrators of historical atrocities

We investigated the effects of salient shared humanity with a benevolent or hostile human norm on perpetrators of historical atrocities. Our findings suggest that a focus on benevolent superordinate humanity enables perpetrators to legitimize intergroup discrimination and preserve existing negative attitudes towards victims. In Expt 1 (N=135), salient shared humanity with a human norm of benevolence and kindness preserved the perceived legitimacy of intergroup inequality, while exposure to a hostile norm of human nature reduced perceived legitimacy. Expt 2 (N=51) replicated the association between exposure to a hostile human norm and reduced legitimization when perpetrator intentions were unambiguously negative. In contrast, when perpetrator intentions were ambiguous, a hostile human norm had no effect on perceived legitimacy. Our findings qualify previous research, and demonstrate that the effects of emphasizing shared humanity are not equivalent or universally positive for perpetrators and victims

Suppress for success? Exploring the contexts in which expressing positive emotion can have social costs

Researchers and lay people alike have tended to focus on social benefits of expressing positive emotion and, as a result, tend to overlook potential social costs. In this paper, we consider limits to the idea that expressing positive emotion is universally beneficial and review literature demonstrating that, in some contexts, expressing positive emotion can have social costs. Building on our own and others' work in this space, we outline three sociocontextual factors that influence the social success of positive emotion expression: To avoid potential costs, we suggest that positive emotion should generally be expressed in the right situation, by (and to) the right person, and in the right way. Where positive emotion expression may incur social costs, we propose people can effectively down-regulate positive emotion through use of expressive suppression, and review literature demonstrating that there can be social benefits to down-regulating positive emotion. This review advances theorising on the importance of considering context when seeking to understand socially successful emotion expression and regulation

A social identity perspective on COVID‐19: health risk is affected by shared group membership

In the face of a novel infectious disease, changing our collective behaviour is critical to saving lives. One determinant of risk perception and risk behaviour that is often overlooked is the degree to which we share psychological group membership with others. We outline, and summarize supporting evidence for, a theoretical model that articulates the role of shared group membership in attenuating health risk perception and increasing health risk behaviour. We emphasize the importance of attending to these processes in the context of the ongoing response to COVID-19 and conclude with three recommendations for how group processes can be harnessed to improve this response

Are “they” out to get me? A social identity model of paranoia

This research tests a social identity model of paranoia, building on work showing that identification with social groups is associated with less paranoid thinking. Studies 1 (N = 800) and 2 (N = 779) supported this model, showing that national group identification is associated with lower paranoia. Study 3 (N = 784) added to the literature by probing the mechanisms underlying these relationships, and found that it is through enhanced control and trust that identification is associated with better mental health. Studies 4 (N = 390) and 5 (N = 904) manipulated identification to provide evidence of causality. A minimeta analysis revealed a robust association between national identification and paranoia across the studies, although no association emerged between political identification and paranoia. The results point to the role that lack of social connections can play in underpinning paranoid thinking, and suggest that, as with other mental health issues, the problems caused by paranoia may have a social cure

Context matters: Explicit and implicit reminders of ingroup privilege increase collective guilt among foreigners in a developing country

We test three ways context matters in the study of intergroup inequality: where participants are approached, who interacts with participants, and how researchers ask participants questions. Regarding how, we replicate a finding that framing intergroup inequality as outgroup disadvantage rather than ingroup privilege reduces collective guilt in a novel context. Regarding where, we go beyond the laboratory to test foreigners in Nepala country where inequality is highly salient. Regarding who, we had participants approached by an ingroup (foreign) experimenter or an outgroup (Nepalese) experimenter. We found an outgroup disadvantage framing reduced collective guilt relative to ingroup privilege framing, but only when delivered by an ingroup member. This highlights the importance of taking where, who, and how into account to fully understand the contextual nature of intergroup emotion