Bulletin of NTU "KhPI". Series: Problems of Electrical Machines and Apparatus Perfection. The Theory and Practice / Вісник Національного технічного університету "ХПІ". Серія: Проблеми удосконалювання електричних машин і апаратів. Теорія і практика
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Dual Evolutionary Foundations of Political Ideology Predict Divergent Responses to COVID-19
No full textPolitical conservatives’ opposition to COVID-19 restrictions is puzzling given the well-documented links between conservatism and conformity, threat sensitivity, and pathogen aversion. We propose a resolution based on the Dual Foundations Theory of ideology, which holds that ideology comprises two dimensions, one reflecting trade-offs between threat-driven conformity and individualism, and another reflecting trade-offs between empathy-driven co-operation and competition. We test predictions derived from this theory in a UK sample using individuals’ responses to COVID-19, and widely-used measures of the two dimensions – ‘right-wing authoritarianism’ (RWA) and ‘social dominance orientation’ (SDO), respectively. Consistent with our predictions, we show that RWA but not SDO increased following the pandemic, and that high-RWA conservatives do, in fact, display more concerned, conformist, pro-lockdown attitudes, while high-SDO conservatives display less empathic, cooperative attitudes and are anti-lockdowns. This helps explain paradoxical prior results and highlights how a focus on unidimensional ideology can mask divergent motives across the ideological landscape
Magic, Bayes and wows: a Bayesian account of magic tricks
No full textMagic tricks have enjoyed an increasing interest by scientists. However, most research in magic focused on isolated aspects of it and a conceptual understanding of magic, encompassing its distinct components and varieties, is missing. Here, we present an account of magic within the theory of Bayesian predictive coding. We present the “wow” effect of magic as an increase in surprise evoked by the prediction error between expected and observed sensory data. We take into account prior knowledge of the observer, attention, and (mis-)direction of perception and beliefs by the magician to bias the observer’s predictions and present two examples for the modelling of the evoked surprise. The role of misdirection is described as everything that aims to maximize the surprise a trick evokes by the generation of novel beliefs, the exploitation of background knowledge and attentional control of the incoming information. Understanding magic within Bayesian predictive coding allows unifying all aspects of magic tricks within one framework, making it tractable, comparable and unifiable with other models in psychology and neuroscience
Social and Non Social Media Users During The COVID-19 Pandemic Confinement Period in Canada: The "Plugged-In", Unplugged and Other Population Segments
No full textCanadians are using a variety of social and non-social media vehicles to gather information, share experiences and express anxieties during the COVID-19 confinement period. The purpose of the study is to produce a portrait of media use in Canada, paying special attention to the typical population segments in the Canadian population differentiated by their media vehicles and sources of information about the pandemic. The study used as its data source a survey sample of 4,600 adult Canadians aged 15 years old and over during the period of July 20-26 2020, and collected by Statistics Canada. Media user activities comprised a set of 11 dichotomous scales collecting data on main sources of information such as social media posts, online news, online magazines, video platforms, e-mails as well as non internet-based sources. A market segmentation analysis of these scales using Principal Components and k-means cluster analysis revealed the presence of six major population segments: Social Media Buffs (27%), News Followers (33%), Unplugged (10%),Plugged-In (9%), E-Mailers (7%) and Mixed Source Users (16%). The segment mottos were as follows: "Social Media Influencers Know Their Stuff!", "Track Those Headlines!", "I’ve Got My Own Info Sources About The Pandemic!", "Did You Read The Last Blog?" "My People Know Better!" and "Better Info Means More Choices!". This study suggests that media users in Canada constitute a very diverse group of individuals who are engaged in social and non social media to obtain timely information about the pandemic. However, they can also be exposed to inaccurate, misleading information about the virus, its transmission and its treatments. In this light, market segmentation may be a useful tool for decision makers to categorize population members by their typical attitudinal traits and, by doing so, facilitate better public campaigns directed at population segments, help design messages, and implement changes that can promote more efficient ways to deal with their target audiences
Relationship between Achievement Goals and Attention of University Instructors in Professional Training Courses
No full textPurpose
Professional training courses play an important role for higher education instructors and their teaching quality. However, participants strongly differ in how much they learn in these courses. The present study seeks to explain these differences by focusing on attention as a central aspect of their behavioral engagement that can stem from participants' achievement motivations.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors investigated the attention of participants in full-day higher education professional training courses and how differences therein are associated with their achievement goals. Prior to course participation, 117 university instructors (49.6% male, 79.5% with PhD, average age 31.4 years) reported their achievement goals. Using an adapted observational instrument (Hommel, 2012a), two raters subsequently observed and coded the participants' attention during the course (ICC2 = 0.83).
Findings
The results documented very high attention levels, although with substantial interindividual differences. Multilevel analyses indicated that learning goals positively and work avoidance goals negatively predicted observed attention.
Originality/value
The findings provide insight into the value of an observational approach to measuring a fundamental aspect of learning engagement, and contribute to the understanding of interindividual differences in an important higher education learning environment. The study illuminates the relevance of personal predictors for university instructors' successful learning. Specifically, the findings point to the significance of goals as a relevant, but surprisingly hitherto uninvestigated, premise of learning engagement
Gambling on Others’ Health: Risky Pro-social Decision-Making in the Era of Covid19
No full textIn the early days of the Covid19 pandemic, individuals were asked to perform costly actions to reduce harm to strangers, even while the general population, including authorities and experts, grappled with the uncertainty surrounding the novel virus. Many studies have examined health decision-making by experts, but the study of lay, non-expert, individual decision-making on a stranger's health has been left to the wayside, as ordinary citizens are usually not tasked with such decisions. We sought to capture a snapshot of this specific choice behavior by administering two surveys to the general population in the spring of 2020, when much of the global community was subject to Covid19-related restrictions, as well as uncertainty surrounding the virus. We presented study participants with fictitious diseases varying in severity that threatened oneself, a loved one or a stranger. Participants were asked to choose between treatment options that could either provide a sure, but mild improvement (sure option) or cure the affected person at a given probability of success (risky option). Respondents preferred gambles overall, but risk-seeking decreased progressively with higher expected severity of disease. This pattern was observed regardless of the recipient's indentity. Distinctions between targets emerged however when decisions were conditioned on a treatment's monetary cost, with participants preferring cheaper options for strangers. Overall, these findings provide a descriptive model of individual decision-making under risk for others; and inform on the limits of what can be asked of an individual in service to a stranger
Reporting Standards for Psychological Network Analyses in Cross-sectional Data
No full textStatistical network models describing multivariate dependency structures in psychological data have gained increasing popularity. Such comparably novel statistical techniques require specific guidelines to make them accessible to the research community. In this literature, researchers have previously provided tutorials guiding the estimation of networks and their accuracy. However, there is currently little guidance in determining what parts of the analyses and results should be documented in a scientific report. A lack of such reporting standards may foster researcher degrees of freedom and could provide fertile ground for questionable reporting practices. Here, we introduce reporting standards for network analyses in cross-sectional data, along with a tutorial and two examples. The presented guidelines are aimed at researchers as well as the broader scientific community, such as reviewers and journal editors evaluating scientific work. We conclude by discussing how the network literature specifically can benefit from such guidelines for reporting and transparency
The Einstein effect: Global evidence for scientific source credibility effects and the influence of religiosity
No full textPeople tend to evaluate information from reliable sources more favourably, but it is unclear exactly how perceivers' worldviews interact with this source credibility effect. In a large and diverse cross-cultural sample (N = 10,195 from 24 countries), we presented participants with obscure, meaningless statements attributed to either a spiritual guru or a scientist. We found a robust global source credibility effect for scientific authorities, which we dub `the Einstein effect': across all 24 countries scientists hold greater authority than spiritual source, even among highly committed religious people, who are relatively also more credulous of nonsense from scientists than they are of nonsense from spiritual gurus. Additionally, individual religiosity predicted a weaker relative preference for the statement from the scientist vs. the spiritual guru, and was more strongly associated with credibility judgments for the guru than the scientist. Independent data on explicit trust ratings across 143 countries mirrored the experimental patterns. These findings suggest that irrespective of religious worldview, science is a powerful and universal heuristic that signals the reliability of information
Predicting current voting intentions by Big Five personality domains, facets, and nuances - A random forest analysis approach in a German sample
No full textTo understand what is driving individual differences in voting intentions in a large German sample, we investigated the predictability of voting intentions from the Big Five personality domains, facets, and nuances, thereby tackling shortcomings of previous studies.
Using random forest analyses in a dataset of N = 4,286 individuals (46.01% men), separate models were trained to predict intentions to i) not vote versus to vote, ii) vote for a specific party, and iii) vote for a left- versus right-from-the-center party from either the Big Five personality domains, facets, or nuances (represented by individual items).
Except non-voting vs voting intentions, balanced accuracies to predict voting intentions slightly exceeded those achieved by a baseline learner always predicting the majority class. Using nuances over facets and domains increased balanced accuracies.
Results indicate that additional variables should be taken into account to accurately predict voting intentions, at least in German samples
Puppets as symbols in early development: From whether to how in the Theory of Puppets debate
No full textThe use of animations and puppet shows in developmental research has recently been questioned on external validity grounds. Do infants and children interpret symbolic stimuli (e.g., animated shapes, wooden circles) as required for a given measure of interest (e.g., as agents)? We review the arguments on both sides and conclude that external validity is not under threat by the mere use of symbolic stimuli. At the same time, the debate in its current formulation runs the risk of masking an important theoretical question: how do infants, children, and adults interpret such stimuli? We present the standard answer to the how-question (symbolic stimuli satisfy the input conditions of the cognitive domain under investigation) and contrast it with the under-explored possibility that these stimuli are interpreted the same way they have been generated (i.e., as representations)
Estimating the Associations between Big Five Personality Traits, Testosterone, and Cortisol
No full text**Objective**: Hormones are often conceptualized as biological markers of individual differences and have been associated with a variety of behavioral indicators and characteristics, such as mating behavior or acquiring and maintaining dominance. However, before researchers create strong theoretical models for how hormones modulate individual and social behavior, information on how hormones are associated with dominant models of personality are needed. Although there have been some studies attempting to quantify the associations between personality traits, testosterone, and cortisol, there are many inconsistencies across these studies.
**Methods**: In this registered report, we examined associations between testosterone, cortisol, and Big Five personality traits. We aggregated 25 separate samples to yield a single sample of 3,964 (50.3% women; 27.7% of women were on hormonal contraceptives). Participants completed measures of personality and provided saliva samples for testosterone and cortisol assays.
**Results**: The results from multi-level models and meta-analyses revealed mostly weak, non-significant associations between testosterone or cortisol and personality traits. The few significant effects were still very small in magnitude (e.g. testosterone and conscientiousness: r = -0.05). A series of moderation tests revealed that hormone-personality associations were mostly similar in men and women, those using hormonal contraceptives or not, and regardless of the interaction between testosterone and cortisol (i.e., a variant of the dual-hormone hypothesis).
**Conclusions**: Altogether, we did not detect many robust associations between Big Five personality traits and testosterone or cortisol. The findings are discussed in the context of biological models of personality and the utility of examining heterogeneity in hormone-personality associations