You’re either with us or against us! Moral conviction determines how the politicized distinguish friend from foe

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from SAGE Publications via the DOI in this recordThree studies investigated how politicized collective identification affects individuals’ reactions towards others. We hypothesized that a strong politicized identity tends to be accompanied by a moral conviction about the politicized cause, which in turn determines how the politicized respond to those less committed to their cause. Consistent with this, Study 1 showed that politicized (feminist) identification is associated with lower identification with women who place moderate (vs. high) moral value on gender equality. Study 2 showed that politicized identification was associated with negative emotions towards people who disagree with this cause and this was mediated by the extent to which participants saw supporting the activist goal as morally obligatory. Study 3 showed that politicized identification, to the extent to which it implied holding a moral conviction about the activist cause, is associated with a desire for more social distance to an attitudinally dissimilar other, but not from an attitudinally similar other.The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The research reported in this article was partially funded by a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship (328485) awarded to Maarten Zaal

Control of interjoint coordination during the swing phase of normal gait at different speeds

BACKGROUND: It has been suggested that the control of unconstrained movements is simplified via the imposition of a kinetic constraint that produces dynamic torques at each moving joint such that they are a linear function of a single motor command. The linear relationship between dynamic torques at each joint has been demonstrated for multijoint upper limb movements. The purpose of the current study was to test the applicability of such a control scheme to the unconstrained portion of the gait cycle – the swing phase. METHODS: Twenty-eight neurologically normal individuals walked along a track at three different speeds. Angular displacements and dynamic torques produced at each of the three lower limb joints (hip, knee and ankle) were calculated from segmental position data recorded during each trial. We employed principal component (PC) analysis to determine (1) the similarity of kinematic and kinetic time series at the ankle, knee and hip during the swing phase of gait, and (2) the effect of walking speed on the range of joint displacement and torque. RESULTS: The angular displacements of the three joints were accounted for by two PCs during the swing phase (Variance accounted for – PC1: 75.1 ± 1.4%, PC2: 23.2 ± 1.3%), whereas the dynamic joint torques were described by a single PC (Variance accounted for – PC1: 93.8 ± 0.9%). Increases in walking speed were associated with increases in the range of motion and magnitude of torque at each joint although the ratio describing the relative magnitude of torque at each joint remained constant. CONCLUSION: Our results support the idea that the control of leg swing during gait is simplified in two ways: (1) the pattern of dynamic torque at each lower limb joint is produced by appropriately scaling a single motor command and (2) the magnitude of dynamic torque at all three joints can be specified with knowledge of the magnitude of torque at a single joint. Walking speed could therefore be altered by modifying a single value related to the magnitude of torque at one joint

Positive interactions among alpine plants increase with stress

International audiencePlants can have positive effects on each other(1). For example, the accumulation of nutrients, provision of shade, amelioration of disturbance, or protection from herbivores by some species can enhance the performance of neighbouring species. Thus the notion that the distributions and abundances of plant species are independent of other species may be inadequate as a theoretical underpinning for understanding species coexistence and diversity(2). But there have been no large-scale experiments designed to examine the generality of positive interactions in plant communities and their importance relative to competition. Here we show that the biomass, growth and reproduction of alpine plant species are higher when other plants are nearby. In an experiment conducted in subalpine and alpine plant communities with 115 species in 11 different mountain ranges, we find that competition generally, but not exclusively, dominates interactions at lower elevations where conditions are less physically stressful. In contrast, at high elevations where abiotic stress is high the interactions among plants are predominantly positive. Furthermore, across all high and low sites positive interactions are more important at sites with low temperatures in the early summer, but competition prevails at warmer sites