To Look or Not to Look: Acknowledging Facial Stigmas in the Interview to Reduce Discrimination

As the use of technology-mediated interviews (e.g., Skype) is becoming a standard method to interview applicants, it is important to understand how discrimination can still manifest in these types of interviews. Because technology-mediated interviews focus on applicants’ faces, discrimination based on facial stigmas can be particularly inevitable. Thus, the purpose of the current study is to examine how a facial stigma affects visual attention during a technology-mediated interview and acknowledgment as a remediation strategy that individuals might use to reduce the amount of visual attention on a facial stigma. We used a 2 (acknowledge: yes or no) x 2 (target gender: male or female) experimental design. The participants heard a computer-mediated interview while viewing one of the manipulated images. For half of the conditions, the participants heard the applicant acknowledge their stigma. Using an eye tracker, visual attention to the stigma was measured every 30 seconds during the 8-minute interview, producing 16 different time points and a total of 1,792 data points. Multilevel growth curve model analysis examined variation in the trajectory of visual attention to the stigma. The results showed that facial stigmas draw visual attention during a computer-mediated interview, which decreased over time. However, the trajectory of the decrease in visual attention depended on whether an applicant acknowledged their stigma during the interview. The decrease in visual attention was faster in the acknowledgment condition than in the control condition. The current research provides a better understanding to how a facial stigma influences the interview process and provides a theoretical rationale for why acknowledging a facial stigma benefits the interview process

The Effect of Ionized Bracelets on Pain and Function in Individuals with Arthritis

Arthritis is a prevalent condition found throughout the entire population. Manifestations of this disease can lead to increased pain in multiple joints leading to decreased functional mobility and limitations in activities of daily living. Ionized bracelets have become an increasingly popular non-traditional, conservative treatment for decreasing pain and improving well-being in persons with multiple diagnoses and body system involvement. Very little research has been conducted on the effects of ionized bracelets; therefore, additional research needs to be conducted to validate these theories. The purpose of our study is to determine the effect of ionized bracelets on pain and function in individuals diagnosed with arthritis. Fifty subjects over the age of 18 and diagnosed with arthritis were recruited to participate in this double blind, randomized controlled trial. The subjects were required to wear either an ionized or placebo bracelet for a four week time period. A pre screening questionnaire was used to collect general demographic data and as a screening tool to exclude those with any pathology/conditions that could have been adversely affected by the ionized bracelets. Subjects were randomly divided into two groups (19 ionized, 31 placebo). Subjects rated their pain using the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) and measuring functional activities using the Short Form 36 (SF-36). Statistical analysis using a mixed groups factorial ANOV A showed no significant interaction of treatment groups and time as related to pain and function. In the ionized group, a significant difference was found using a paired t-test when evaluating the main effects of time on the Bodily Pain subset in the SF-36, but not in the VAS. This group showed a decrease in pain over the four week course. A significant level of improvement of function was also found in the Vitality and Social Functioning subsets of the SF-36. This significance was found only in the placebo group, not in the ionized. In the General Health subset of the SF-36 a significant difference was found when looking at both ionized and placebo groups together, but no significance was found when analyzed separately. With so many inconsistencies, the results of this study have illustrated the need for further research regarding the effects that ionized bracelets have on arthritic pain and function. Further research should focus on more precise single variables such as pain as opposed to multiple factors, such as pain and function. These studies should be performed with larger sample sizes and over longer periods of time. Only as research accumulates will consumers be able to make informed decisions regarding the use of alternative therapies such as ionized bracelets

Hirers scrutinising veterans’ social media tend to stigmatise those with post-traumatic stress disorder

Military veterans are vulnerable to having their post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) discovered on social media by hiring agents. Veterans with PTSD tend to be more stigmatised than veterans without the condition and are less likely to get an interview. They are often judged as more likely to engage in counterproductive behaviours such as saying something hurtful to someone at work, or acting rudely to co-workers. Wenxi Pu, Philip Roth, Jason B Thatcher, Christine Nittrouer, and Michelle “Mikki” Hebl offer recommendations to organisations and veterans looking for a job

The Impact of Suspect Descriptions in University Crime Reports on Racial Bias

Crime reports often include suspect descriptions to alert community members and aid in police investigations. However, vague descriptions of suspects with racial identifiers can potentially do more harm than good. We first conducted an archival study to examine the frequency of reporting suspect race, as well as the relationship between the inclusion of race and the likelihood that the suspect was caught. Then we conducted an experimental study to examine how reporting race may affect overt and subtle racial attitudes. We found no significant relationship between the racial identification of a suspect and the likelihood that the suspect was caught in our archival study. However, our findings from the experimental study demonstrate increased overt and subtle racial bias towards Black people when comparing participants who read a crime report with a Black suspect to those who read one about a suspect with no racial identification. Implications and future directions are discussed

Hirers scrutinising veterans’ social media tend to stigmatise those with post-traumatic stress disorder

Military veterans are vulnerable to having their post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) discovered on social media by hiring agents. Veterans with PTSD tend to be more stigmatised than veterans without the condition and are less likely to get an interview. They are often judged as more likely to engage in counterproductive behaviours such as saying something hurtful to someone at work, or acting rudely to co-workers. Wenxi Pu, Philip Roth, Jason B Thatcher, Christine Nittrouer, and Michelle “Mikki” Hebl offer recommendations to organisations and veterans looking for a job

Additional Agents of Change in Promoting Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered Inclusiveness in Organizations

King and Cortina (2010) describe several ways in which organizations can promote equity in the workplace environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) employees. We commend the authors for promoting such inclusiveness and describing both the moral and fiscally responsible reasons for doing so. We are hopeful that employers will heed the valuable suggestions offered by King and Cortina and work to adopt formal policies that protect the rights of LGBT employees, launch diversity initiatives to make LGBT employees feel more accepted, and advocate on behalf of LGBT interests. As King and Cortina mention, however, employers are not prescribed by law to adopt such policies or act on behalf of the best interests of their LGBT employees. And ultimately, some employers simply will not. What, then, can be done to work toward and achieve the same important outcomes? Are there other sources that also have the power to motivate LGBT inclusiveness and initiatives within organizations other than the employers themselves? We asser

Personality predictors of levels of forgiveness two and a half years after the transgression

The aim of the present study was to explore whether the domains and facets of the five-factor model of personality predicted motivational states for avoidance and revenge following a transgression at a second temporal point distant from the original transgression. A sample of 438 university students, who reported experiencing a serious transgression against them, completed measures of avoidance and revenge motivations around the transgression and five-factor personality domains and facets at time 1, and measures of avoidance and revenge motivations two and a half years later. The findings suggest that neuroticism, and specifically anger hostility, predicts revenge and avoidance motivation