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Psychedelics and sexual trauma: effects on communication and emotional connection
No full textPsychedelics are theorized to enhance emotional openness and interpersonal attunement, but their effects in sexual contexts – particularly among those with a history of sexual trauma – remain underexplored. This study investigated whether individuals who had used psychedelics to cope with or overcome sexual trauma (Psy-CST) reported different experiences of sexual communication and emotional connection compared to those who had not (No-Psy-CST). The Psy-CST label reflects participants’ self-classification based on a single survey item; the study did not assess whether psychedelics were intentionally used as a means of trauma recovery. Rather, it examined self-reported experiences within sexual contexts among these groups. Participants (N = 675; Mage = 32.8) were drawn from the 2022 Global Drug Survey and had engaged in sexual activity within four to six hours of a full psychedelic experience. Chi-square tests and regression analyses were used to compare outcomes between groups. Psy-CST participants were significantly less likely to report improved sexual communication (relative risk ratio [RRR] = 0.310, p < .01); no significant differences were observed for emotional connection (odds ratio [OR] = 1.160, p = .536). Within the Psy-CST group, women were significantly more likely than men to report improved communication (RRR = 1.83, p = .02) and emotional connection (OR = 1.85, p < .01). Findings suggest gender significantly moderates psychedelics’ effects on intimacy outcomes. Further research is needed to inform harm reduction and trauma-informed care frameworks for psychedelic use in sexual contexts
TEAM-UP: mixed-methods data for understanding traditional and modern contraceptive use dynamics in four sub-Saharan African countries
Get PDFThis Data Article describes a novel dataset from the “Re-Examining Traditional Method Use” (TEAM-UP) project, which systematically collected data on the measurement of and motivations for use of non-modern (traditional and folkloric) contraceptive methods and/or modern methods, in four sub-Saharan African countries: the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, and Nigeria. TEAM-UP comprises four datasets (two quantitative and two qualitative), enabling comprehensive analyses of: 1) the impact of methodological innovations on reporting of modern and non-modern method use, and prevalence estimates, 2) motivations for, and user experiences related to traditional and folkloric methods, and 3) contraceptive use dynamics across all methods and method types, including non-use. Data collection was conducted in four stages: qualitative (Stage 1; 54 focus group discussions and 81 key informant interviews) and quantitative (Stage 2; n=918) pilots, followed by women’s surveys (Stage 3; n=13,625) and follow-up qualitative in-depth interviews (Stage 4; 469 interviews). The main TEAM-UP survey data are publicly available, with both the pilot and follow-up in-depth qualitative data available upon vetted request
Gross domestic product of cultural and creative industries from an income perspective: the Brazilian case
No full textThis paper employs the Creative Occupations methodology to quantify the Culture and Creative Industries’ (CCI) contribution to Brazil's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) using the income approach. Understanding sectoral GDP is essential for formulating targeted policies and developing innovative methods to accurately measure economic impact. Calculating the GDP of the CCI sector presents significant challenges due to methodological divergences stemming from data limitations and the sector's unique characteristics, such as multiple jobs holding, informality, and intermittency. To address these challenges, we propose using the creative intensity approach to estimate creative occupations, enabling to calculate the CCI GDP using the income approach. This innovative methodology combines traditional and novel data sources, aiming to provide a more comprehensive representation of the CCI sector's contribution to Brazil's GDP. Our findings not only enhance the understanding of the CCI sector's economic significance but also inform policy decisions aimed at fostering the sector's growth and development
Maximum softly penalised likelihood in factor analysis
No full textEstimation in exploratory factor analysis often yields estimates on the boundary of the parameter space. Such occurrences, known as Heywood cases, are characterised by non-positive variance estimates and can cause issues in numerical optimisation procedures or convergence failures, which, in turn, can lead to misleading inferences, particularly regarding factor scores and model selection. We derive sufficient conditions on the model and a penalty to the log-likelihood function that i) guarantee the existence of maximum penalised likelihood estimates in the interior of the parameter space, and ii) ensure that the corresponding estimators possess the desirable asymptotic properties expected by the maximum likelihood estimator, namely consistency and asymptotic normality. Consistency and asymptotic normality are achieved when the penalisation is soft enough, in a way that adapts to the information accumulation about the model parameters. We formally show, for the first time, that the penalties of Akaike (1987) and Hirose et al. (2011) to the log-likelihood of the normal linear factor model satisfy the conditions for existence, and, hence, deal with Heywood cases. Their vanilla versions, though, can result in questionable finite-sample properties in estimation, inference, and model selection. The maximum softly-penalised likelihood framework we introduce enables the careful scaling of those penalties to ensure that the resulting estimation and inference procedures inherit the ML estimator’s optimal properties. Through comprehensive simulation studies and the analysis of real data sets, we illustrate the desirable finite-sample properties of the maximum softly penalised likelihood estimators and associated procedures
Making sense of nonsense: a qualitative study on how low-quality content serves Generation Z’s media needs
No full textBrainrot refers to low-quality content saturating digital spaces and the cognitive deterioration resulting from consuming it. Through semi-structured interviews with 24 participants aged 13-26, this study examines the functions that brainrot serves for Gen Z. Users report that brainrot facilitates aesthetic experience through deliberate absurdity, enables resistance to attention economy exploitation, supports generational in-group formation, and provides escapism from digital oversaturation. Importantly, the findings suggest that social media infrastructure, coupled with the spread of GenAI tools, induce mental states of brainrot which precede and shape content creation, rather than consumption of brainrot content causing cognitive decline. Gen Z uses brainrot as a subversive strategy to reclaim agency within oversaturated media environments, challenging deficit-based framings of digital youth culture. This study therefore introduces the concept of anti-gratification - a previously untheorized media need where users actively seek content that rejects productivity and meaning-making
Effect of influencer Owinion leadership on cosmetic purchase intention: the mediating role of trust, brand awareness, and price expectation
No full textBackground: In recent years, due to the expansion of social media platforms, influencers have emerged as a new category of opinion leaders. Objective: The study develops a new conceptual framework to explain the impact of influencer opinion leadership on cosmetic purchase intention, mediated by trust, brand awareness, and price expectation. Methodology: The study focuses on 327 Vietnamese millennials and generation Z demographics. The data was analysed using the quantitative technique and the PLS-SEM model. Results: The results show a full mediation effect in the relationship between influencer opinion leadership and purchase intention. In addition, this study also shows the trend of young Vietnamese using social media and examines differences between consumer groups. Conclusion: Overall, this study highlights the mediating roles of trust, brand awareness, and price expectation in enriching the academic background of influencer opinion leadership and influencer marketing. Furthermore, the findings provide businesses with a better understanding of how these factors influence customers’ intentions to purchase and offer concrete suggestions for optimising the implementation of this marketing strategy. Key Recommendation: The findings also highlight the need for influencers to actively collaborate with businesses to enhance their ability to fulfil customers' price expectations, thereby helping influencers themselves optimise benefits through content
Using markets to adapt to climate change
No full textEven under the most ambitious greenhouse gas emissions mitigation scenarios, climate change will continue to affect human well-being for generations, with the severity of these impacts differing across mitigation pathways. Adapting to climate change is thus a necessary complement to mitigation. Because individuals, businesses, and communities benefit directly from their adaptation choices, the incentives they face as individuals to adapt are generally stronger than the incentives they face to mitigate emissions. Yet evidence to date suggests that communities are not systematically adapting to recent climate changes (1). What can policy-makers do to facilitate adaptation? Here, we draw on a burgeoning field of economic research on climate adaptation to identify when and how markets can be a promising tool for effective and efficient adaptation
Public coverage of Long-Term Care in the post-Covid period: strengthening systems vs cost-containment
No full textWomen in diplomacy in the Gulf region: Iran and the UAE in comparative perspective
No full textScholarship on women in diplomacy has largely centred on Europe, North America and international organisations, leaving the area known as the ‘Gulf’ as an unexplored area. To address this gap, the article uses feminist institutionalism and Feminist Foreign Policy Analysis (FFPA) to compare women’s representation in diplomacy in Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Both countries are patriarchal, authoritarian and illiberal states with legacies of entrenched gender inequality, and the percentage of women ambassadors representing both countries is well below the global average However, while in Iran only a handful of women ambassadors have ever been appointed, in the UAE, the percentage of women ambassadors almost doubled between 2018 and 2025. The article deploys a most-similar systems logic to reveal conditions under which women’s representation in diplomacy can be strengthened in two Gulf countries that are patriarchal, authoritarian and with legacies of entrenched gender inequality. It argues that Iran is a case of ‘patriarchal exclusion’ while the UAE is a case of ‘state-managed inclusion’, and explains why exclusion persists in Iran but inclusion became possible in the UAE. The findings advance our understanding of women representation in diplomacy beyond the west