Empathic Responses Are Reduced to Competitive but Not Non-Competitive Outgroups

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis via the DOI in this recordIndividuals feel more empathy for those in their group (i.e. ingroup members) than those who are not (i.e. outgroup members). But empathy is not merely selective to group distinctions, rather it fluctuates according to how groups are perceived. The goal of this research was to determine whether group-based evaluations can drive biases in self-reported empathy as well as in the underlying neural activity. Participants were asked to rate a target’s physical pain while BOLD responses were recorded via functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The target was either a member of the ingroup or one of two outgroups, one which was more of a rival to the ingroup than the other. Participants reported more empathy for targets experiencing painful compared to innocuous events showing bias only in favour of their ingroup. Neural responses were stronger while observing painful, compared to innocuous, events but only for targets from the ingroup or the less competitive outgroup. The difference was non-significant and trended in the opposite direction when the target was from the more competitive outgroup. This provides evidence that empathy is not merely selective to “us” vs “them” but is more nuanced by whom we refer to by “them”.This work was supported by the Defence Science Technology Labs under Grant DSTLX-1000083201Defence Science and Technology Laboratory [DSTLX-1000083201]

Loneliness Around the World: Age, Gender, and Cultural Differences in Loneliness

© 2020 The Authors. The BBC Loneliness Experiment provided a unique opportunity to examine differences in the experience of lonelines across cultures, age, and gender, and the interaction between these factors. Using those data, we analysed the frequency of loneliness reported by 46,054 participants aged 16–99 years, living across 237 countries, islands, and territories, representing the full range of individualism-collectivism cultures, as defined by Hofstede (1997). Findings showed that loneliness increased with individualism, decreased with age, and was greater in men than in women. We also found that age, gender, and culture interacted to predict loneliness, although those interactions did not qualify the main effects, and simply accentuated them. We found the most vulnerable to loneliness were younger men living in individualistic cultures.Wellcome Trust [Funder reference: 209625/Z/17/Z]

Dynamic Tests of High Strength Concrete Cylinders

Idaho National Laboratory engineers collaborated

A METHOD FOR SELECTING SOFTWARE FOR DYNAMIC EVENT ANALYSIS I: PROBLEM SELECTION

New nuclear power reactor designs will require resistance to a variety of possible malevolent attacks, as well as traditional dynamic accident scenarios. The design/analysis team may be faced with a broad range of phenomena including air and ground blasts, high-velocity penetrators or shaped charges, and vehicle or aircraft impacts. With a host of software tools available to address these high-energy events, the analysis team must evaluate and select the software most appropriate for their particular set of problems. The accuracy of the selected software should then be validated with respect to the phenomena governing the interaction of the threat and structure. In this paper, we present a method for systematically comparing current high-energy physics codes for specific applications in new reactor design. Several codes are available for the study of blast, impact, and other shock phenomena. Historically, these packages were developed to study specific phenomena such as explosives performance, penetrator/target interaction, or accidental impacts. As developers generalize the capabilities of their software, legacy biases and assumptions can remain that could affect the applicability of the code to other processes and phenomena. R&D institutions generally adopt one or two software packages and use them almost exclusively, performing benchmarks on a single-problem basis. At the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), new comparative information was desired to permit researchers to select the best code for a particular application by matching its characteristics to the physics, materials, and rate scale (or scales) representing the problem at hand. A study was undertaken to investigate the comparative characteristics of a group of shock and high-strain rate physics codes including ABAQUS, LS-DYNA, CTH, ALEGRA, ALE-3D, and RADIOSS. A series of benchmark problems were identified to exercise the features and capabilities of the subject software. To be useful, benchmark problems require several features. They should be; 1) small, requiring reasonable computer resources, 2) designed to engage a small set of physical phenomena, 3) independent of code formulation, 4) verifiable, either by closed-form solution or experimental result, and 5) unlimited in distribution. This paper presents the selection rationale and problems chosen for the benchmarking suite exhibiting the above features. Detailed discussion of the benchmark study results will be presented in future reports

A Method for Selecting Software for Dynamic Event Analysis: II — The Taylor Anvil and Dynamic Brazilian Tests

New nuclear power reactor designs will require resistance to a variety of possible malevolent attacks as well as traditional dynamic accident scenarios. The design/analysis team may be faced with a broad range of phenomena including air and ground blasts, high-velocity penetrators or shaped charges, and vehicle or aircraft impacts. With a host of software tools available to address these high-energy events, the analysis team must evaluate and select the software most appropriate for their particular set of problems. The accuracy of the selected software should then be validated with respect to the phenomena governing the interaction of the threat and structure. Several software codes are available for the study of blast, impact, and other shock phenomena. At the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), a study is underway to investigate the comparative characteristics of a group of shock and high-strain rate physics codes including ABAQUS, LS-DYNA, CTH, ALEGRA, and ALE-3D. In part I of this report, a series of five benchmark problems to exercise some important capabilities of the subject software was identified. The benchmark problems selected are a Taylor cylinder test, a split Hopkinson pressure bar test, a free air blast, the dynamic splitting tension (Brazilian) test, and projectile penetration of a concrete slab. Part II-- this paper-- reports the results of two of the benchmark problems: the Taylor cylinder and the dynamic Brazilian test. The Taylor cylinder test is a method to determine the dynamic yield properties of materials. The test specimen is a right circular cylinder which is impacted against a theoretically rigid target. The cylinder deforms upon impact, with the final shape depending upon the dynamic yield stress, in turn a function of strain and strain rate. The splitting tension test, or Brazilian test, is a method to measure the tensile strength of concrete using a cylindrical specimen. The specimen is loaded diametrically in compression, producing a fracture at the center of the specimen that propagates toward the loading points until the cylinder is split. To generate a dynamic load, different methods such as a drop-weight or a split Hopkinson pressure bar are employed. The Taylor anvil and dynamic Brazilian test analyses are presented, including discussion of the analysis approach for each of the five subject software packages; comparison of results both among the codes and to physical test results; and conclusions as to the applicability of the subject codes to these two problems. Studies of the remaining three benchmark problems and overall conclusions will be presented in future reports

A global genotyping survey of Strongyloides stercoralis and Strongyloides fuelleborni using deep amplicon sequencing

© 2019 This is an open access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. Strongyloidiasis is a neglected tropical disease caused by the human infective nematodes Strongyloides stercoralis, Strongyloides fuelleborni fuelleborni and Strongyloides fuelleborni kellyi. Previous large-scale studies exploring the genetic diversity of this important genus have focused on Southeast Asia, with a small number of isolates from the USA, Switzerland, Australia and several African countries having been genotyped. Consequently, little is known about the global distribution of geographic sub-variants of these nematodes and the genetic diversity that exists within the genus Strongyloides generally. We extracted DNA from human, dog and primate feces containing Strongyloides, collected from several countries representing all inhabited continents. Using a genotyping assay adapted for deep amplicon sequencing on the Illumina MiSeq platform, we sequenced the hyper-variable I and hyper-variable IV regions of the Strongyloides 18S rRNA gene and a fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (cox1) gene from these specimens. We report several novel findings including unique S. stercoralis and S. fuelleborni genotypes, and the first identifications of a previously unknown S. fuelleborni infecting humans within Australia. We expand on an existing Strongyloides genotyping scheme to accommodate S. fuelleborni and these novel genotypes. In doing so, we compare our data to all 18S and cox1 sequences of S. fuelleborni and S. stercoralis available in GenBank (to our knowledge), that overlap with the sequences generated using our approach. As this analysis represents more than 1,000 sequences collected from diverse hosts and locations, representing all inhabited continents, it allows a truly global understanding of the population genetic structure of the Strongyloides species infecting humans, non-human primates, and domestic dogs

Emotions in business-to-business service relationships

Emotion in business-to-business service relationships regarding cargo services is explored. The service relationship is characterised by mutual trust and cooperation. Contact is mainly via telephone or e-mail with some face-to-face interactions and participants providing a complex, multi-skilled seamless service. Experience rather than training plays a vital role with long-term service relationships built up and maintained. Emotional sensitivity is acquired partly by experience and a repeat customer base but mainly through a genuine desire to help and get to know others. In contrast to the view of emotional labour bringing managerial control or adverse affects to service staff, the emotion engendered by this work is authentic expression bringing personal satisfaction

Exploring the nature and variation of the stigma associated with loneliness

This is the final version. Available on open access from SAGE Publications via the DOI in this recordThe current study uses data from The British Broadcasting Corporation Loneliness Experiment to explore the social stigma of loneliness and how it varies by gender, age and cultural individualism. We examined stigmatizing judgements of people who are lonely (impressions of those who feel lonely and attributions for loneliness), perceived stigma in the community and self-stigma (shame for being lonely and inclination to conceal loneliness), while controlling for participants’ own feelings of loneliness. The scores on most measures fell near the mid-point of the scales, but stigmatizing perceptions depended on the measure of stigmatization that was used and on age, gender and country-level individualism. Multilevel analyses revealed that men had more stigmatizing perceptions, more perceived community stigma, but less self-stigma than women; young people had higher scores than older people on all indicators except for internal versus external attributions and people living in collectivist countries perceived loneliness as more controllable and perceived more stigma in the community than people living in individualistic countries. Finally, young men living in individualistic countries made the most internal (vs. external) attributions for loneliness. We discuss the implications of these findings for understandings of loneliness stigma and interventions to address loneliness.Wellcome TrustAuthor accepted manuscript replaced with published version by Caroline Huxtable on 2022-05-0

Materialistic cues make us miserable: A meta‐analysis of the experimental evidence for the effects of materialism on individual and societal well‐being

open access articleConsumer‐oriented societies are awash with materialistic messages that link happiness and success to wealth and consumption. However, despite extensive research evidence that dispositional materialistic orientations are correlated with lower well‐being, the effects of materialistic cues on the well‐being of individuals and social groups have not been examined. The present research meta‐analytically reviews the experimental evidence for the causal effects of materialism on two dimensions of well‐being: (a) individual and (b) societal. We included 27 independent studies that met the inclusion criteria of priming materialism and measuring well‐being (N = 3,649), containing a total of 62 effect sizes. Multilevel modeling revealed that materialism has an effect on both individual (δ = −0.39) and societal well‐being (δ = −0.41), suggesting that materialistic cues cause lower well‐being. Moderation effects suggested that materialistic cues might have a higher effect on interpersonal well‐being than on self‐evaluation indicators. We discuss the limitations of the current evidence, highlight the research gaps and underdeveloped areas, and provide recommendations such as minimum sample size for future experimental work, since the advancement of this area will help us to gain a better understanding of the impact of consumer‐oriented societies on the well‐being of individuals and social groups

The Intentional Use of Service Recovery Strategies to Influence Consumer Emotion, Cognition and Behaviour

Service recovery strategies have been identified as a critical factor in the success of. service organizations. This study develops a conceptual frame work to investigate how specific service recovery strategies influence the emotional, cognitive and negative behavioural responses of . consumers., as well as how emotion and cognition influence negative behavior. Understanding the impact of specific service recovery strategies will allow service providers' to more deliberately and intentionally engage in strategies that result in positive organizational outcomes. This study was conducted using a 2 x 2 between-subjects quasi-experimental design. The results suggest that service recovery has a significant impact on emotion, cognition and negative behavior. Similarly, satisfaction, negative emotion and positive emotion all influence negative behavior but distributive justice has no effect