Body appreciation around the world: Measurement invariance of the Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2) across 65 nations, 40 languages, gender identities, and age

The Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2) is a widely used measure of a core facet of the positive body image construct. However, extant research concerning measurement invariance of the BAS-2 across a large number of nations remains limited. Here, we utilised the Body Image in Nature (BINS) dataset - with data collected between 2020 and 2022 - to assess measurement invariance of the BAS-2 across 65 nations, 40 languages, gender identities, and age groups. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis indicated that full scalar invariance was upheld across all nations, languages, gender identities, and age groups, suggesting that the unidimensional BAS-2 model has widespread applicability. There were large differences across nations and languages in latent body appreciation, while differences across gender identities and age groups were negligible-to-small. Additionally, greater body appreciation was significantly associated with higher life satisfaction, being single (versus being married or in a committed relationship), and greater rurality (versus urbanicity). Across a subset of nations where nation-level data were available, greater body appreciation was also significantly associated with greater cultural distance from the United States and greater relative income inequality. These findings suggest that the BAS-2 likely captures a near-universal conceptualisation of the body appreciation construct, which should facilitate further cross-cultural research

Panasiti MS, Ponsi G, Monachesi B, Lorenzini L, Grano C. "Autonomic correlates of emotion regulation in patients with psoriasis: a facial thermal imaging study" AIP - Sezione Clinica e dinamica XIX, Symposium Session, 5, 2 A, Suppl. 2017

Psoriasis is a chronic debilitating disease which is frequently associated with strong psychological distress and psychological conditions (e.g., depression, anxiety). Although some studies have indicated a relationship between this condition and difficulties in emotion regulation (as they are self-reported by the patients), behavioral and physiological evidence about this link are scarce. Here, we measured emotion regulation abilities of patients with psoriasis (N=16) and a control group (N=17) by examining the impact of distracting emotional (positive, negative or neutral) images during the performance on a working memory task (“Emotional n-back”) which could present high (1 back) or low (2 back) cognitive workload. Moreover, we used Functional Infrared Thermal Imaging to record participants’ facial temperature in order to obtain a measure of the activation of the autonomic system during the task. In particular, temperature over the peri-orbital areas and the tip of the nose are believed to reflect the activation of the sympathetic and parasympathetic system, respectively. Patients scored significantly higher than controls on the “Lack of emotional clarity” subscale of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS). Compared to the control group, patients showed to improve their performance when the cognitive workload was higher (and then it was easier not to pay attention to the distracting stimuli) but only when the distracting image was neutral. Consistently with this behavioral pattern, patients showed a lower temperature of periorbital areas and a higher temperature of the tip of the nose (especially in the neutral blocks) during the high vs low cognitive load condition. These results suggest that patients with difficulties in understanding their emotions might benefit more than controls from the distracting power of cognitive load. However, this advantage seems to extinguish when the distractors are emotionally charged

Pain sensitivity in mice lacking the Ca(v)2.1 alpha(1) subunit of P/Q-type Ca2+ channels

The role of voltage-gated Ca2+ (Ca-v) channels in pain mechanisms has been the object of intense investigation using pharmacological approaches and, more recently, using mutant mouse models lacking the Cava, pore-forming subunit of N-, R- and T-type channels. The role of P/Q-type channels in nociception and pain transmission has been investigated by pharmacological approaches but remains to be fully elucidated. To address this issue, we have analyzed pain-related behavioral responses of null mutant mice for the Ca(v)2.1 alpha(1) subunit of P/Q-type channels. Homozygous null mutant Ca(v)2.1 alpha(1)-/- mice developed dystonia at 10-12 days after birth and did not survive past weaning. Tested at ages where motor deficit was either absent or very mild, Ca(v)2.1 alpha(1)-/- mice showed reduced tall withdrawal latencies in the tail-flick test and reduced abdominal writhes in the acetic acid writhing test. Adult heterozygous Ca(v)2.1 alpha(1)+/- mice did not show motor deficits in the rotarod and activity cage tests and did not show alterations in pain responses in the tail-flick test and the acetic acid writhing test. Strikingly, they showed a reduced licking response during the second phase of formalin-induced inflammatory pain and a reduced mechanical allodynia in the chronic constriction injury model of neuropathic pain. Our findings show that P/Q-type channels play an antinociceptive role in sensitivity to non-injurious noxious thermal stimuli and a pronociceptive role in inflammatory and neuropathic pain states, pointing to an important role of Ca(v)2.1 channels in central sensitization. (c) 2006 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Right-wing authoritarianism and stereotype-driven expectations interact in shaping intergroup trust in one-shot vs multiple-round social interactions

<div><p>Trust towards unrelated individuals is often conditioned by information about previous social interactions that can be derived from either personal or vicarious experience (e.g., reputation). Intergroup stereotypes can be operationalized as expectations about other groups’ traits/attitudes/behaviors that heavily influence our behavioral predictions when interacting with them. In this study we investigated the role of perceived social dimensions of the Stereotype Content Model (SCM)–Warmth (W) and Competence (C)—in affecting trusting behavior towards different European national group members during the Trust Game. Given the well-known role of ideological attitudes in regulating stereotypes, we also measured individual differences in right-wing authoritarianism (RWA). In Experiment 1, we designed an online survey to study one-shot intergroup trust decisions by employing putative members of the European Union states which were also rated along SCM dimensions. We found that low-RWA participants’ trusting behavior was driven by perceived warmth (i.e., the dimension signaling the benevolence of social intentions) when interacting with low-C groups. In Experiment 2, we investigated the dynamics of trust in a multiple-round version of the European Trust Game. We found that in low-RWA participants trusting behavior decreased over time when interacting with high-W groups (i.e., expected to reciprocate trust), but did not change when interacting with low-W groups (i.e., expected not to reciprocate trust). Moreover, we found that high-RWA participants’ trusting behavior decreased when facing low-W groups but not high-W ones. This suggests that low-RWA individuals employ reputational priors but are also permeable to external evidence when learning about others’ trustworthiness. In contrast, high-RWA individuals kept relying on stereotypes despite contextual information. These results confirm the pivotal role played by reputational priors triggered by perceived warmth in shaping social interactions.</p></div