The Support for Economic Inequality Scale: Development and Adjudication

Past research has documented myriad pernicious psychological effects of high economic inequality, prompting interest into how people perceive, evaluate, and react to inequality. Here we propose, refine, and validate the Support for Economic Inequality Scale (SEIS)–a novel measure of attitudes towards economic inequality. In Study 1, we distill eighteen items down to five, providing evidence for unidimensionality and reliability. In Study 2, we replicate the scale’s unidimensionality and reliability and demonstrate its validity. In Study 3, we evaluate a United States version of the SEIS. Finally, in Studies 4–5, we demonstrate the SEIS’s convergent and predictive validity, as well as evidence for the SEIS being distinct from other conceptually similar measures. The SEIS is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing perceptions of and reactions to economic inequality and provides a useful tool for researchers investigating the psychological underpinnings of economic inequality

Side by Side Treadmill Walking With Intentionally Desynchronized Gait

Humans demonstrate an innate desire to synchronize stepping when walking side by side. This behavior requires modification of each person’s gait, which may increase for pairings with very different walking patterns. The purpose of this study was to compare locomotor behavior for conditions in which partners exhibited similar and substantially different walking patterns. Twenty-six unimpaired subjects walked on a motorized treadmill at their preferred walking speed for three trials: by themselves (SOLO), next to someone on an adjacent treadmill (PAIRED), and next to someone who purposely avoided synchronization by altering stride times and/or lengths (DeSYNC). Means, coefficients of variance, approximate entropy (ApEn), rate of autocorrelation decay (α), and estimates of maximal Lyapunov exponents (λ*) were calculated for several dependent variables taken from sagittal plane kinematic data. Few differences in behavior were noted when the PAIRED condition was compared to the SOLO condition. However, the DeSYNC condition resulted in several alterations in ApEn, α, and λ*. These results suggest that greater differences in walking pattern between partners will facilitate greater modification to an individual’s gait. Additional study of side by side walking may hold implications for understanding the control of gait in humans and may have application in a clinical setting