36 research outputs found
The Shadow of the Italian Colonial Experience: The Impact of Collective Emotions on Intentions to Help the Victimsâ Descendants
Recalling the Italian colonial experience elicits the collective emotions of guilt, shame, and ingroup-focused anger. We expected that these emotions would predict different reparation intentions in favor of the colonized populations' descendants. Students and non-students were recruited (N = 152) and asked to rate their emotions of collective guilt, shame, and anger for the violence that their ingroup had perpetrated against colonized people. Results showed that shame affected intentions to provide economic compensation to current inhabitants of the ex-colonies. This relationship was mediated by concerns of damage for the ingroup's image. Anger toward the ingroup predicted intentions to help immigrants from the ex-colonies now living in Italy. Interestingly, empathy toward the outgroup mediated the latter relation. Finally, collective guilt was not reliably associated with any reparation strategy. These findings have implications for theory and for the historical collective memory of Italian colonialism
Picturing the Other: Targets of Delegitimization across Time
Italian Fascist propaganda was compared with contemporary right-wing material to explore how political propaganda depicts specific target groups in different historical periods. Taking the theory of delegitimization as the theoretical framework, we analyzed visual images concerning despised social groups used by the Fascist regime and current images of contemporary targets of social resentment used by Lega Nord (currently part of the governing coalition). Images of Jewish and Black people published in the Fascist magazine La Difesa della Razza were classified according to eight delegitimizing strategies, as were images of immigrants used on Lega Nord propaganda posters. Although the target group has changed, six of the eight strategies of delegitimization were used in both periods. In most cases, overlap was found in the way target groups were portrayed in the past and in the present
Learning to Prompt in the Classroom to Understand AI Limits: A pilot study
Artificial intelligence's progress holds great promise in assisting society
in addressing pressing societal issues. In particular Large Language Models
(LLM) and the derived chatbots, like ChatGPT, have highly improved the natural
language processing capabilities of AI systems allowing them to process an
unprecedented amount of unstructured data. The consequent hype has also
backfired, raising negative sentiment even after novel AI methods' surprising
contributions. One of the causes, but also an important issue per se, is the
rising and misleading feeling of being able to access and process any form of
knowledge to solve problems in any domain with no effort or previous expertise
in AI or problem domain, disregarding current LLMs limits, such as
hallucinations and reasoning limits. Acknowledging AI fallibility is crucial to
address the impact of dogmatic overconfidence in possibly erroneous suggestions
generated by LLMs. At the same time, it can reduce fear and other negative
attitudes toward AI. AI literacy interventions are necessary that allow the
public to understand such LLM limits and learn how to use them in a more
effective manner, i.e. learning to "prompt". With this aim, a pilot educational
intervention was performed in a high school with 30 students. It involved (i)
presenting high-level concepts about intelligence, AI, and LLM, (ii) an initial
naive practice with ChatGPT in a non-trivial task, and finally (iii) applying
currently-accepted prompting strategies. Encouraging preliminary results have
been collected such as students reporting a) high appreciation of the activity,
b) improved quality of the interaction with the LLM during the educational
activity, c) decreased negative sentiments toward AI, d) increased
understanding of limitations and specifically We aim to study factors that
impact AI acceptance and to refine and repeat this activity in more controlled
settings.Comment: Submitted to AIXIA 2023 22nd International Conference of the Italian
Association for Artificial Intelligence 6 - 9 Nov, 2023, Rome, Ital
Grand Theft Auto is a âSandboxâ Game, but There are Weapons, Criminals, and Prostitutes in the Sandbox: Response to Ferguson and Donnellan (2017)
Phenotypic spectrum and transcriptomic profile associated with germline variants in TRAF7
PURPOSE: Somatic variants in tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated factor 7 (TRAF7) cause meningioma, while germline variants have recently been identified in seven patients with developmental delay and cardiac, facial, and digital anomalies. We aimed to define the clinical and mutational spectrum associated with TRAF7 germline variants in a large series of patients, and to determine the molecular effects of the variants through transcriptomic analysis of patient fibroblasts. METHODS: We performed exome, targeted capture, and Sanger sequencing of patients with undiagnosed developmental disorders, in multiple independent diagnostic or research centers. Phenotypic and mutational comparisons were facilitated through data exchange platforms. Whole-transcriptome sequencing was performed on RNA from patient- and control-derived fibroblasts. RESULTS: We identified heterozygous missense variants in TRAF7 as the cause of a developmental delay-malformation syndrome in 45 patients. Major features include a recognizable facial gestalt (characterized in particular by blepharophimosis), short neck, pectus carinatum, digital deviations, and patent ductus arteriosus. Almost all variants occur in the WD40 repeats and most are recurrent. Several differentially expressed genes were identified in patient fibroblasts. CONCLUSION: We provide the first large-scale analysis of the clinical and mutational spectrum associated with the TRAF7 developmental syndrome, and we shed light on its molecular etiology through transcriptome studies
Original dataset used in the article âDoes PokeÌmon Go lead to a more physically active life style?â
The data presented in this article are related to the research article entitled âDoes PokĂ©mon Go lead to a more physically active life style?â (Gabbiadini et al., in press) [1]. In the study, 981 individuals completed a web survey, in which frequency of PokĂ©mon Go usage, overall physically active behavior, and amount of PokĂ©mon Go related physical activity were measured. Regression analyses revealed that PokĂ©mon Go related physical activity significantly reversed the positive effects of the app on participantsâ overall physically active behavior, suggesting that the mere adoption of the app does not reliably change peopleŚłs behavior in general. The increase in physical activity levels is rather explained by the exercise required by the game. The data set is made publicly available to enable critical or extended analyzes
Brief report: Does exposure to violent video games increase moral disengagement among adolescents?
Excluded From All Humanity: Animal Metaphors Exacerbate the Consequences of Social Exclusion
Past research suggested thatâfrom the perspective of perpetratorsâanimal metaphors are a powerful means to reinforce social exclusion and to foster hostile behaviors against the targets of social exclusion. In the current work, we focus on the consequences of this dehumanizing form of social exclusion from the perspective of victims. In two studies, we manipulated the presence of animal metaphors in a variety of contexts of interpersonal social exclusion. Our results showed that when social exclusion is associated with animal metaphors, its consequences are exacerbated. In particular, labelling targets of social exclusion as animals indirectly caused them to display more aggressive tendencies compared with when they are labelled with corresponding offending, but nondehumanizing, attributes. Crucially, this increased aggressiveness was mediated by higher perceptions of being treated (Study 1) or viewed (Study 2) by others as animal-like. Overall, our research showed the detrimental effects of the interplay between social exclusion and animal metaphors from the perspective of victims. </jats:p