Does Stigmatized Social Risk Lead to Denialism? Results from a Survey Experiment on Race,Risk Perception,and Health Policy in the United States

In this article, we report findings from an original survey experiment investigating the effects of different framings of disease threats on individual risk perceptions and policy priorities. We analyze responses from 1,946 white and African-American participants in a self-administered, web-based survey in the United States. We sought to investigate the effects of: 1) frames emphasizing disparities in the racial prevalence of disease and 2) frames emphasizing non-normative (blameworthy or stigmatized) behavioral risk factors. We find some evidence that when treated with the first frame, African-Americans are more likely to report higher risk of infection (compared to an African-American control group and to whites receiving the same treatment); and that whites are more likely to report trust in government data (compared to a White control group and to African-Americans receiving the same treatment). Notwithstanding, we find no support for our hypotheses concerning the interactive effects of providing both frames, which was a central motivation for our study. We argue that this may be due to very large differences in risk perception at baseline (which generate limits on possible treatment effects) and the fact that in the context of American race relations, it may not be possible to fully differentiate racialized and stigmatized frames.     

Johnny Depp,Reconsidered: How Category-Relative Processing Fluency Determines the Appeal of Gender Ambiguity

Individuals that combine features of both genders–gender blends–are sometimes appealing and sometimes not. Heretofore, this difference was explained entirely in terms of sexual selection. In contrast, we propose that part of individuals’ preference for gender blends is due to the cognitive effort required to classify them, and that such effort depends on the context in which a blend is judged. In two studies, participants judged the attractiveness of male-female morphs. Participants did so after classifying each face in terms of its gender, which was selectively more effortful for gender blends, or classifying faces on a gender-irrelevant dimension, which was equally effortful for gender blends. In both studies, gender blends were disliked when, and only when, the faces were first classified by gender, despite an overall preference for feminine features in all conditions. Critically, the preferences were mediated by the effort of stimulus classification. The results suggest that the variation in attractiveness of gender-ambiguous faces may derive from context-dependent requirements to determine gender membership. More generally, the results show that the difficulty of resolving social category membership–not just attitudes toward a social category–feed into perceivers’ overall evaluations toward category members.     

Barrels XXVIII take the Windy City by storm

The 28th annual Barrels meeting was held prior to the Society for Neuroscience meeting in October 2015 at the Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago, Illinois. The meeting brought together researchers focused on the rodent sensorimotor system. The meeting focused on modern techniques to decipher cortical circuits, social interactions among rodents, and decision-making. The meeting allowed investigators to share their work via short talks, poster presentations, and a data blitz.     

The pIC plasmid and phage vectors with versatile cloning sites for recombinant selection by insertional inactivation

The versatility of insertional inactivation of β-galactosidase activity for subcloning and sequencing has been enhanced by combining a chemically synthesized oligonucleotide which specifies nine 6-bp-cutter restriction sites including BglII, XhoI, NruI, ClaI, SacI and EcoRV in various configurations with existing polylinkers to create a set of highly versatile cloning sites. These improved polylinkers have been inserted into plasmids (the pICs) for routine cloning of double-stranded DNA, and into chimeric phage/plasmids (the pICEMs) for biological production of single stranded DNA. The most versatile Polylinker specifies 17 restriction sites in the β-galactosidase α-complementing gene fragment. One of the new polylinkers was inserted into M 13 DNA to produce a vector (M13mIC7) with nine cloning sites.     

Introgressive Hybridization and the Evolution of Lake-Adapted Catostomid Fishes

Hybridization has been identified as a significant factor in the evolution of plants as groups of interbreeding species retain their phenotypic integrity despite gene exchange among forms. Recent studies have identified similar interactions in animals; however, the role of hybridization in the evolution of animals has been contested. Here we examine patterns of gene flow among four species of catostomid fishes from the Klamath and Rogue rivers using molecular and morphological traits. Catostomus rimiculus from the Rogue and Klamath basins represent a monophyletic group for nuclear and morphological traits; however, the Klamath form shares mtDNA lineages with other Klamath Basin species (C. snyderi, Chasmistes brevirostris, Deltistes luxatus). Within other Klamath Basin taxa, D. luxatus was largely fixed for alternate nuclear alleles relative to C. rimiculus, while Ch. brevirostris and C. snyderi exhibited a mixture of these alleles. Deltistes luxatus was the only Klamath Basin species that exhibited consistent covariation of nuclear and mitochondrial traits and was the primary source of mismatched mtDNA in Ch. brevirostris and C. snyderi, suggesting asymmetrical introgression into the latter species. In Upper Klamath Lake, D. luxatus spawning was more likely to overlap spatially and temporally with C. snyderi and Ch. brevirostris than either of those two with each other. The latter two species could not be distinguished with any molecular markers but were morphologically diagnosable in Upper Klamath Lake, where they were largely spatially and temporally segregated during spawning. We examine parallel evolution and syngameon hypotheses and conclude that observed patterns are most easily explained by introgressive hybridization among Klamath Basin catostomids.