Towards psychological herd immunity: Cross-cultural evidence for two prebunking interventions against COVID-19 misinformation

Funder: Cabinet Office, Government of the United KingdomMisinformation about the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is a pressing societal challenge. Across two studies, one preregistered ( n1 = 1771 and n2 = 1777), we assess the efficacy of two ‘prebunking’ interventions aimed at improving people’s ability to spot manipulation techniques commonly used in COVID-19 misinformation across three different languages (English, French and German). We find that Go Viral!, a novel five-minute browser game, (a) increases the perceived manipulativeness of misinformation about COVID-19, (b) improves people’s attitudinal certainty (confidence) in their ability to spot misinformation and (c) reduces self-reported willingness to share misinformation with others. The first two effects remain significant for at least one week after gameplay. We also find that reading real-world infographics from UNESCO improves people’s ability and confidence in spotting COVID-19 misinformation (albeit with descriptively smaller effect sizes than the game). Limitations and implications for fake news interventions are discussed.</jats:p

Social and ecological dominance orientations: Two sides of the same coin? Social and ecological dominance orientations predict decreased support for climate change mitigation policies

In this article, we examine the roles of social dominance orientation (SDO) and ecological dominance orientation (EDO) as predictors of climate change risk and threat perceptions and associated pro-environmental policy support. EDO is a novel measure that we devised based on social dominance theory to assess general preferences for an anthropocentric, hierarchical arrangement between humans, non-human animals, and the natural environment. Across two pre-registered studies ( N = 715; USA and Germany) our results indicate that SDO and EDO are uniquely associated with decreased support for climate change mitigation policies benefitting humans, non-human animals, and the natural environment. These relationships in turn are partially mediated by decreased climate change risk and threat perceptions. We successfully replicate our findings using a more behavioral measure as dependent variable. Notably, using a more behavioral measure (Study 2), EDO was significantly associated with pro-environmental behavior but not SDO, when threats are accounted for as mediators.</jats:p

The roots of ecological dominance orientation: Assessing individual preferences for an anthropocentric and hierarchically organized world

Ecological dominance is a central concept in the study of interspecies and species-environment relations. Yet, although theoretical and empirical work on ecological dominance has progressed in many scientific disciplines, the psychology of ecological dominance remains understudied. The present research advances theoretical and empirical inquiry on ecological dominance as a psychological construct, examining how it relates to humans’ attitudes, beliefs, and behavior across different relational domains (i.e., intraspecies, interspecies, human-environment). To this end, we validate a novel measure, the Ecological Dominance Orientation (EDO) scale, based on the popular iconic depiction of ecocentric versus anthropocentric arrangements of the relationship between humans, nonhuman animals, and the natural environment. In five pre-registered studies across two countries (N = 2407), we demonstrate that EDO a) relates to various attitudes in a similar fashion both within and between different relational domains, b) is uniquely associated with socially consequential attitudes (i.e., modern sexism, speciesism, dehumanization) above established measures of personal ideology, c) is reliable over time, d) relates to a distinct set of personality correlates, and e) uniquely predicts pro-environmental behavior. This research extends classical Social Dominance Theory (Sidanius &amp; Pratto, 1999) by theorizing about the socio-ecological roots of intergroup, interspecies, and human-environment relations as hierarchically structured power relations. Theoretical implications of social and ecological dominance orientations are discussed

Bilateral antrochoanal polyps in an adult: a case report

Antrochoanal polyps (ACP) are almost always unilateral. Only two bilateral cases have been reported to date, both of them in children. There have been no investigations of the aetiology of the bilateral occurrence of these lesions, possibly due to the rarity of bilateral ACPs. In this paper, we report on the first adult case of bilateral ACPs and review the literature

Transplantation Direct / Cardiac Surgery After Heart Transplantation: Elective Operation or Last Exit Strategy?

Background Because of improved long-term survival after heart transplantation (HTx), late graft pathologies such as valvular disease or cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV) might need surgical intervention to enhance longer survival and ensure quality of life. To this date, there exist no guidelines for indication of cardiac surgery other than retransplantation after HTx. Methods In this retrospective, single-center study, we evaluated patients who underwent cardiac surgery after HTx at our institution. Results Between March 1984 and October 2016, 17 (1.16%) of 1466 HTx patients underwent cardiac surgery other than retransplantation after HTx. Indication were valvular disease (n = 7), CAV (n = 6), and other (n = 4). Of these, 29.4% (n = 5) were emergency procedures and 70.6% were elective cases. Median age at time of surgery was 61 years (interquartile range, 52-66 years); 82.4% (n = 14) were male. Median time to surgery after HTx was 9.3 years (2.7-11.1 years). In-hospital, mortality was 11.8% (n = 2); later need of retransplantation was 11.8% (n = 2) due to progressing CAV 3 to 9 months after surgery. One-year survival was 82.35%; overall survival was 47.1% (n = 8) with a median follow-up of 1477 days (416-2135 days). Overall survival after emergency procedures was 209 days (36-1119.5 days) whereas, for elective procedures, it was 1583.5 days (901.5-4319 days). Conclusions Incidence of cardiac surgery after HTx in our cohort was low (1.16%) compared with that of other studies. In elective cases, long-term survival was good.(VLID)487520

A local view of the laser induced magnetic domain dynamics in CoPd stripe domains at the picosecond time scale

The dynamic of the magnetic structure in a well ordered ferromagnetic CoPd stripe domain pattern has been investigated upon excitation by femtosecond infrared laser pulses. Time-resolved X-ray magnetic circular dichroism in photoemission electron microscopy (TR-XMCD-PEEM) is used to perform real space magnetic imaging with 100 ps time resolution in order to show local transformations of the domains structures. Using the time resolution of the synchrotron radiation facility of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, we are able to image the transient magnetic domains in a repetitive pump and probe experiment. In this work, we study the reversible and irreversible transformations of the excited magnetic stripe domains as function of the laser fluence. Our results can be explained by thermal contributions, reducing the XMCD amplitude in each stripe domain below a threshold fluence of 12 mJ/cm2. Above this threshold fluence, irreversible transformations of the magnetic domains are observed. Static XMCD-PEEM images reveal the new partially ordered stripe domain structures characterized by a new local magnetic domain distribution showing an organized pattern at the micrometer scale. This new arrangement is attributed to the recovery of the magnetic anisotropy during heat dissipation under an Oersted field.Comment: 20 pages including 8 figures and 1 Tabl