Balloting in churches sways attitudes and votes towards more conservative policies and candidates

During elections, churches often act as voting sites – they are common and often centrally placed within most American communities. But does voting in a church building influence the way that people vote? Using evidence from survey research, Jordan P. LaBouff finds that church voting promotes more conservative attitudes in voters on issues ranging from immigration to tax policy. He argues that with this in mind, selecting more neutral community sites for polling places would better serve the public

Honors Flourishing in the Midst of Change

In the wake of formidable institutional change, and in response to administrative concerns about honors’ place within the university, authors describe the development of a pilot course that led to a program’s critical self-study and course transformations that were long overdue. Citizen Scholarship and Human Flourishing incorporates specific practices such as peer instruction and “ungrading” to align with new institutional learning objectives and broadly defined undergraduate research experiences across disciplines. The experimental course presents honors as a model for progressive curricular change in the midst of shifting administrative landscapes

One size does not fit all: gender implications for the design of outcomes, evaluation and assessment of science communication programs

As science communication programs grow worldwide, effective evaluation and assessment metrics lag. While there is no consensus on evaluation protocols specifically for science communication training, there is agreement on elements of effective training: listening, empathy, and knowing your audience - core tenets of improvisation. We designed an evaluation protocol, tested over three years, based on validated and newly developed scales for an improvisation-based communication training at the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science. Initial results suggest that 'knowing your audience' should apply to training providers as they design and evaluate their curriculum, and gender may be a key influence on outcomes

The effects of Jesus and God on pro-sociality and discrimination

This study contributes to the debate over whether religion is a force for social good or harm. It shows that different belief concepts within the same religion can have different effects on distributive behaviour. A dictator game experiment, with two different charities as potential recipients, measures how priming the concepts of God and Jesus affects both the pro-sociality of Christians and their propensity to discriminate against LGBTQ people, an identity group traditionally opposed by their religion. Priming Jesus significantly raises the amounts Christians give to charity, but priming God has no such effect. Christians are found, at borderline significance, to discriminate against LGBTQ people, but this discrimination does not significantly increase when Jesus or God are primed

The relationship between physician humility, physician–patient communication, and patient health

ObjectiveCultural portrayals of physicians suggest an unclear and even contradictory role for humility in the physician-patient relationship. Despite the social importance of humility, however, little empirical research has linked humility in physicians with patient outcomes or the characteristics of the doctor-patient visit. The present study investigated the relationship between physician humility, physician-patient communication, and patients' perceptions of their health during a planned medical visit.MethodsPrimary care physician-patient interactions (297 patients across 100 physicians) were rated for the physician's humility and the effectiveness of the physician-patient communication. Additionally, patients reported their overall health and physicians and patients reported their satisfaction with the interaction.ResultsWithin-physician fluctuations in physician humility and self-reported patient health positively predicted one another, and mean-level differences in physician humility predicted effective physician-patient communication, even when controlling for the patient's and physician's satisfaction with the visit and the physician's frustration with the patient.ConclusionsThe results suggest that humble, rather than paternalistic or arrogant, physicians are most effective at working with their patients.Practice implicationsInterventions to improve physician humility may promote better communication between health care providers and patients, and, in turn, better patient outcomes

A fül normál mikrobiomja és betegségek összefüggése

Szakdolgozatomban bemutatom a fül normál mikrobiomját és betegségek összefüggéseit

Towards an implicit measure of religiousness-spirituality.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 77-81).This series of studies examined statistical associations between a newly-developed implicit measure of religiousness-spirituality, well-validated explicit measures and pro-social behavior. In Study 1, undergraduates (n = 109) at a private institution completed self-report measures of a broad spectrum of religiousness-spirituality and related constructs (i.e. religious fundamentalism, authoritarianism, empathy). Participants also completed an Implicit Association Test designed to assess religiousness-spirituality. Informants also rated the participants’ religiousness-spirituality. We found acceptable implicit-explicit correspondence providing convergent validity for the new measure. Study 2 tested the relationship between religiousness-spirituality and helping behavior in spontaneous and controlled opportunities. Undergraduates (n = 102) completed a similar battery to Study 1 and were also given the opportunity to help a student in need. Self-reported religiousness predicted helping when pressure was high. Future research directions and applications are discussed.by Jordan LaBouff.M.A

The ecological validity of priming religiousness : context and culture.

Across four studies, the paradox of religiousness and prejudice was examined through self-report and priming methods in both a laboratory setting in an evangelical culture and a culturally agnostic field setting. Across all cultures and methods greater religiousness was associated with more positive attitudes towards the religious ingroup and more negative attitudes towards religious value-violating outgroups (i.e., intergroup bias) whether religion was inherently salient in the culture examined, or activated by a religious context. These studies indicate that priming religiousness through subtle ecologically valid methods is possible but difficult, and the activation of these constructs is seated in the culture in which those constructs are activated. In a highly religious series of American samples, subtle religious primes did not significantly influence self-reported religiousness, attitudes towards outgroups, or political attitudes. In a more religiously heterogeneous European sample, however, the mere presence of a religious stimulus in a participant’s visual field was associated with more conservative attitudes, higher self-reported personal religiousness, and greater intergroup bias.Ph.D