Segmented political assimilation: perceptions of racialized opportunities and Latino immigrants' partisan identification

Abstract

To account for Latino immigrants' assimilation into the American political mainstream, I derive social psychological factors from the contextual notion of ‘modes of incorporation’ in the segmented assimilation literature. These social psychological factors, perceptions of racialized opportunities (PROPs), relate to immigrants' adoption of political party identities (i.e. Democrat, Republican). I test these PROPs factors utilizing the 2006 Latino National Survey (N=5,717 immigrant Latino respondents). Multinomial logistic regressions predicting party identification, compared to either ‘Don't Know’ or ‘Don't Care’ options, indicate that PROPs are significantly related to Latino immigrants' identification as either Democrats or Republicans. High levels of identification with perceived white opportunities are related to Republican identity and high levels of identification with perceived black opportunities differentiate Democrats from Republicans.     

Seeing Red: Anger Increases How Much Republican Identification Predicts Partisan Attitudes and Perceived Polarization

We examined the effects of incidental anger on perceived and actual polarization between Democrats and Republicans in the context of two national tragedies, Hurricane Katrina (Study 1) and the mass shooting that targeted Representative Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona (Study 2). We hypothesized that because of its relevance to intergroup conflict, incidental anger exacerbates the political polarization effects of issue partisanship (the correlation between partisan identification and partisan attitudes), and, separately, the correlation between conservative partisan identification and perceived polarization between Democrats and Republicans. We further hypothesized that these effects would be strongest for Republican identification because Republican leaders were targets of public criticism in both tragedies and because conservative (Republican) ideology tends to be more sensitive to threat. In the studies, participants first completed an emotion induction procedure by recalling autobiographical events that made them angry (Studies 1 & 2), sad (Studies 1 & 2), or that involved recalling emotionally neutral events (Study 2). Participants later reported their attitudes regarding the two tragedies, their perceptions of the typical Democrat’s and Republican’s attitudes on those issues, and their identification with the Democratic and Republican parties. Compared with incidental sadness (Studies 1 and 2) and a neutral condition (Study 2), incidental anger exacerbated the associations between Republican identification and partisan attitudes, and, separately between Republican identification and perceived polarization between the attitudes of Democrats and Republicans. We discuss implications for anger’s influence on political attitude formation and perceptions of group differences in political attitudes.     

On the perception of religious group membership from faces

Background

The study of social categorization has largely been confined to examining groups distinguished by perceptually obvious cues. Yet many ecologically important group distinctions are less clear, permitting insights into the general processes involved in person perception. Although religious group membership is thought to be perceptually ambiguous, folk beliefs suggest that Mormons and non-Mormons can be categorized from their appearance. We tested whether Mormons could be distinguished from non-Mormons and investigated the basis for this effect to gain insight to how subtle perceptual cues can support complex social categorizations.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Participants categorized Mormons'' and non-Mormons'' faces or facial features according to their group membership. Individuals could distinguish between the two groups significantly better than chance guessing from their full faces and faces without hair, with eyes and mouth covered, without outer face shape, and inverted 180°; but not from isolated features (i.e., eyes, nose, or mouth). Perceivers'' estimations of their accuracy did not match their actual accuracy. Exploration of the remaining features showed that Mormons and non-Mormons significantly differed in perceived health and that these perceptions were related to perceptions of skin quality, as demonstrated in a structural equation model representing the contributions of skin color and skin texture. Other judgments related to health (facial attractiveness, facial symmetry, and structural aspects related to body weight) did not differ between the two groups. Perceptions of health were also responsible for differences in perceived spirituality, explaining folk hypotheses that Mormons are distinct because they appear more spiritual than non-Mormons.

Conclusions/Significance

Subtle markers of group membership can influence how others are perceived and categorized. Perceptions of health from non-obvious and minimal cues distinguished individuals according to their religious group membership. These data illustrate how the non-conscious detection of very subtle differences in others'' appearances supports cognitively complex judgments such as social categorization.     

Subliminally perceived odours modulate female intrasexual competition: an eye movement study

Background

Evidence suggests that subliminal odorants influence human perception and behavior. It has been hypothesized that the human sex-steroid derived compound 4,16-androstadien-3-one (androstadienone) functions as a human chemosignal. The most intensively studied steroid compound, androstadienone is known to be biologically relevant since it seems to convey information about male mate quality to women. It is unclear if the effects of androstadienone are menstrual cycle related.

Methodology/Principal Findings

In the first experiment, heterosexual women were exposed to androstadienone or a control compound and asked to view stimuli such as female faces, male faces and familiar objects while their eye movements were recorded. In the second experiment the same women were asked to rate the level of stimuli attractiveness following exposure to the study or control compound. The results indicated that women at high conception risk spent more time viewing the female than the male faces regardless of the compound administered. Women at a low conception risk exhibited a preference for female faces only following exposure to androstadienone.

Conclusions/Significance

We contend that a woman''s level of fertility influences her evaluation of potential competitors (e.g., faces of other women) during times critical for reproduction. Subliminally perceived odorants, such as androstadienone, might similarly enhance intrasexual competition strategies in women during fertility phases not critical for conception. These findings offer a substantial contribution to the current debate about the effects that subliminally perceived body odors might have on behavior.     

Similarities and differences in Chinese and Caucasian adults' use of facial cues for trustworthiness judgments

Background

All cultural groups in the world place paramount value on interpersonal trust. Existing research suggests that although accurate judgments of another''s trustworthiness require extensive interactions with the person, we often make trustworthiness judgments based on facial cues on the first encounter. However, little is known about what facial cues are used for such judgments and what the bases are on which individuals make their trustworthiness judgments.

Methodology/Principal Findings

In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that individuals may use facial attractiveness cues as a “shortcut” for judging another''s trustworthiness due to the lack of other more informative and in-depth information about trustworthiness. Using data-driven statistical models of 3D Caucasian faces, we compared facial cues used for judging the trustworthiness of Caucasian faces by Caucasian participants who were highly experienced with Caucasian faces, and the facial cues used by Chinese participants who were unfamiliar with Caucasian faces. We found that Chinese and Caucasian participants used similar facial cues to judge trustworthiness. Also, both Chinese and Caucasian participants used almost identical facial cues for judging trustworthiness and attractiveness.

Conclusions/Significance

The results suggest that without opportunities to interact with another person extensively, we use the less racially specific and more universal attractiveness cues as a “shortcut” for trustworthiness judgments.     

Political Regimes,Political Ideology,and Self-Rated Health in Europe: A Multilevel Analysis

Background

Studies on political ideology and health have found associations between individual ideology and health as well as between ecological measures of political ideology and health. Individual ideology and aggregate measures such as political regimes, however, were never examined simultaneously.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Using adjusted logistic multilevel models to analyze data on individuals from 29 European countries and Israel, we found that individual ideology and political regime are independently associated with self-rated health. Individuals with rightwing ideologies report better health than leftwing individuals. Respondents from Eastern Europe and former Soviet republics report poorer health than individuals from social democratic, liberal, Christian conservative, and former Mediterranean dictatorship countries. In contrast to individual ideology and political regimes, country level aggregations of individual ideology are not related to reporting poor health.

Conclusions/Significance

This study shows that although both individual political ideology and contextual political regime are independently associated with individuals'' self-rated health, individual political ideology appears to be more strongly associated with self-rated health than political regime.     

Perceptions and experiences of research participants on gender-based violence community based survey: implications for ethical guidelines

Objective

To explore how survey respondents perceived their experiences and the impact of participating in a survey, and to assess adverse consequences resulting from participation.

Design

Qualitative study involving purposefully selected participants who had participated in a household-based survey.

Methods

This qualitative study was nested within a survey that investigated the prevalence of gender-based violence perpetration and victimization with adult men and women in South Africa. 13 male- and 10 female-in-depth interviews were conducted with survey respondents.

Results

A majority of informants, without gender-differences, perceived the survey interview as a rare opportunity to share their adverse and or personal experiences in a ''safe'' space. Gender-differences were noted in reporting perceptions of risks involved with survey participation. Some women remained fearful after completing the survey, that should breach of confidentiality or full survey content disclosure occur, they may be victimized by partners as a punishment for survey participation without men''s approval. A number of informants generally discussed their survey participation with others. However, among women with interpersonal violence history or currently in abusive relationships, full survey content disclosure was done with fear; the partner responses were negative, and few women reported receiving threatening remarks but none reported being assaulted. In contrast no man reported adverse reaction by others. Informants with major life adversities reported that the survey had made them to relive the experiences causing them sadness and pain at the time. No informant perceived the survey as emotionally harmful or needed professional support because of survey questions. Rather the vast majority perceived benefit from survey participation.

Conclusion

Whilst no informant felt answering the survey questions had caused them emotional or physical harm, some were distressed and anxious, albeit temporarily. Research protocols need to put in place safeguards where appropriate so that this group receives support and protection.     

Crowding by invisible flankers

Background

Human object recognition degrades sharply as the target object moves from central vision into peripheral vision. In particular, one''s ability to recognize a peripheral target is severely impaired by the presence of flanking objects, a phenomenon known as visual crowding. Recent studies on how visual awareness of flanker existence influences crowding had shown mixed results. More importantly, it is not known whether conscious awareness of the existence of both the target and flankers are necessary for crowding to occur.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Here we show that crowding persists even when people are completely unaware of the flankers, which are rendered invisible through the continuous flash suppression technique. Contrast threshold for identifying the orientation of a grating pattern was elevated in the flanked condition, even when the subjects reported that they were unaware of the perceptually suppressed flankers. Moreover, we find that orientation-specific adaptation is attenuated by flankers even when both the target and flankers are invisible.

Conclusions

These findings complement the suggested correlation between crowding and visual awareness. What''s more, our results demonstrate that conscious awareness and attention are not prerequisite for crowding.     

Visual personal familiarity in amnestic mild cognitive impairment

Background

Patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment are at high risk for developing Alzheimer''s disease. Besides episodic memory dysfunction they show deficits in accessing contextual knowledge that further specifies a general concept or helps to identify an object or a person.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we investigated the neural networks associated with the perception of personal familiar faces and places in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment and healthy control subjects. Irrespective of stimulus type, patients compared to control subjects showed lower activity in right prefrontal brain regions when perceiving personally familiar versus unfamiliar faces and places. Both groups did not show different neural activity when perceiving faces or places irrespective of familiarity.

Conclusions/Significance

Our data highlight changes in a frontal cortical network associated with knowledge-based personal familiarity among patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment. These changes could contribute to deficits in social cognition and may reduce the patients'' ability to transition from basic to complex situations and tasks.     

The Alliance Hypothesis for Human Friendship

Background

Exploration of the cognitive systems underlying human friendship will be advanced by identifying the evolved functions these systems perform. Here we propose that human friendship is caused, in part, by cognitive mechanisms designed to assemble support groups for potential conflicts. We use game theory to identify computations about friends that can increase performance in multi-agent conflicts. This analysis suggests that people would benefit from: 1) ranking friends, 2) hiding friend-ranking, and 3) ranking friends according to their own position in partners'' rankings. These possible tactics motivate the hypotheses that people possess egocentric and allocentric representations of the social world, that people are motivated to conceal this information, and that egocentric friend-ranking is determined by allocentric representations of partners'' friend-rankings (more than others'' traits).

Methodology/Principal Findings

We report results from three studies that confirm predictions derived from the alliance hypothesis. Our main empirical finding, replicated in three studies, was that people''s rankings of their ten closest friends were predicted by their own perceived rank among their partners'' other friends. This relationship remained strong after controlling for a variety of factors such as perceived similarity, familiarity, and benefits.

Conclusions/Significance

Our results suggest that the alliance hypothesis merits further attention as a candidate explanation for human friendship.     

Vision is adapted to the natural level of blur present in the retinal image

Background

The image formed by the eye''s optics is inherently blurred by aberrations specific to an individual''s eyes. We examined how visual coding is adapted to the optical quality of the eye.

Methods and Findings

We assessed the relationship between perceived blur and the retinal image blur resulting from high order aberrations in an individual''s optics. Observers judged perceptual blur in a psychophysical two-alternative forced choice paradigm, on stimuli viewed through perfectly corrected optics (using a deformable mirror to compensate for the individual''s aberrations). Realistic blur of different amounts and forms was computer simulated using real aberrations from a population. The blur levels perceived as best focused were close to the levels predicted by an individual''s high order aberrations over a wide range of blur magnitudes, and were systematically biased when observers were instead adapted to the blur reproduced from a different observer''s eye.

Conclusions

Our results provide strong evidence that spatial vision is calibrated for the specific blur levels present in each individual''s retinal image and that this adaptation at least partly reflects how spatial sensitivity is normalized in the neural coding of blur.     

Living with a crucial decision: a qualitative study of parental narratives three years after the loss of their newborn in the NICU

Background

The importance of involving parents in the end-of-life decision-making-process (EOL DMP) for their child in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is recognised by ethical guidelines in numerous countries. However, studies exploring parents'' opinions on the type of involvement report conflicting results. This study sought to explore parents'' experience of the EOL DMP for their child in the NICU.

Methods

The study used a retrospective longitudinal design with a qualitative analysis of parental experience 3 years after the death of their child in four NICUs in France. 53 face-to-face interviews and 80 telephone interviews were conducted with 164 individuals. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore how parents perceived their role in the decision process, what they valued about physicians'' attitudes in this situation and whether their long-term emotional well being varied according to their perceived role in the EOL DMP.

Findings

Qualitative analysis identified four types of perceived role in the DMP: shared, medical, informed parental decision, and no decision. Shared DM was the most appreciated by parents. Medical DM was experienced as positive only when it was associated with communication. Informed parental DM was associated with feelings of anxiousness and abandonment. The physicians'' attitudes that were perceived as helpful in the long term were explicit sharing of responsibility, clear expression of staff preferences, and respectful care and language toward the child.

Interpretation

Parents find it valuable to express their opinion in the EOL DMP of their child. Nonetheless, they do need continuous emotional support and an explicit share of the responsibility for the decision. As involvement preferences and associated feelings can vary, parents should be able to decide what role they want to play. However, our study suggests that fully autonomous decisions should be misadvised in these types of tragic choices.     

The Value of Emotion: How Does Episodic Prospection Modulate Delay Discounting?

Background

Humans often show impatience when making intertemporal choice for monetary rewards, preferring small rewards delivered immediately to larger rewards delivered after a delay, which reflects a fundamental psychological principle: delay discounting. However, we propose that episodic prospection humans can vividly envisage exerts a strong and broad influence on individuals'' delay discounting. Specifically, episodic prospection may affect individuals'' intertemporal choice by the negative or positive emotion of prospection.

Methodology/Principal Findings

The present study explored how episodic prospection modulated delay discounting by emotion. Study 1 showed that participants were more inclined to choose the delayed but larger rewards when they imaged positive future events than when they did not image events; Study 2 showed that participants were more inclined to choose the immediate but smaller rewards when they imaged negative future events than when they did not image events; In contrast, study 3 showed that choice preferences of participants when they imaged neutral future events were the same as when they did not image events.

Conclusions/Significance

By manipulating the emotion valence of episodic prospection, our findings suggested that positive emotion made individuals tend to choose delayed rewards, while negative emotion made individuals tend to choose immediate rewards. Only imaging events with neutral emotion did not affect individuals'' choice preference. Thus, the valence of imaged future events'' emotion might play an important role in individuals'' intertemporal choice. It is possible that the valence of emotion may affect the changed direction (promote or inhibit) of individuals'' delay discounting, while the ability to image future events affects the changed degree of individuals'' delay discounting.     

Larger than Life: Humans' Nonverbal Status Cues Alter Perceived Size

Background

Social dominance and physical size are closely linked. Nonverbal dominance displays in many non-human species are known to increase the displayer''s apparent size. Humans also employ a variety of nonverbal cues that increase apparent status, but it is not yet known whether these cues function via a similar mechanism: by increasing the displayer''s apparent size.

Methodology/Principal Finding

We generated stimuli in which actors displayed high status, neutral, or low status cues that were drawn from the findings of a recent meta-analysis. We then conducted four studies that indicated that nonverbal cues that increase apparent status do so by increasing the perceived size of the displayer. Experiment 1 demonstrated that nonverbal status cues affect perceivers'' judgments of physical size. The results of Experiment 2 showed that altering simple perceptual cues can affect judgments of both size and perceived status. Experiment 3 used objective measurements to demonstrate that status cues change targets'' apparent size in the two-dimensional plane visible to a perceiver, and Experiment 4 showed that changes in perceived size mediate changes in perceived status, and that the cue most associated with this phenomenon is postural openness.

Conclusions/Significance

We conclude that nonverbal cues associated with social dominance also affect the perceived size of the displayer. This suggests that certain nonverbal dominance cues in humans may function as they do in other species: by creating the appearance of changes in physical size.     

Culture Shapes Efficiency of Facial Age Judgments

Background

Cultural differences in socialization can lead to characteristic differences in how we perceive the world. Consistent with this influence of differential experience, our perception of faces (e.g., preference, recognition ability) is shaped by our previous experience with different groups of individuals.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Here, we examined whether cultural differences in social practices influence our perception of faces. Japanese, Chinese, and Asian-Canadian young adults made relative age judgments (i.e., which of these two faces is older?) for East Asian faces. Cross-cultural differences in the emphasis on respect for older individuals was reflected in participants'' latency in facial age judgments for middle-age adult faces—with the Japanese young adults performing the fastest, followed by the Chinese, then the Asian-Canadians. In addition, consistent with the differential behavioural and linguistic markers used in the Japanese culture when interacting with individuals younger than oneself, only the Japanese young adults showed an advantage in judging the relative age of children''s faces.

Conclusions/Significance

Our results show that different sociocultural practices shape our efficiency in processing facial age information. The impact of culture may potentially calibrate other aspects of face processing.     

Perceived Impeding Factors for Return-to-Work after Long-Term Sickness Absence Due to Major Depressive Disorder: A Concept Mapping Approach

Objective

The purpose of the present study was to explore various stakeholder perspectives regarding factors that impede return-to-work (RTW) after long-term sickness absence related to major depressive disorder (MDD).

Methods

Concept mapping was used to explore employees'', supervisors'' and occupational physicians'' perspectives on these impeding factors.

Results

Nine perceived themes, grouped in three meta-clusters were found that might impede RTW: Person, (personality / coping problems, symptoms of depression and comorbid (health) problems, employee feels misunderstood, and resuming work too soon), Work (troublesome work situation, too little support at work, and too little guidance at work) and Healthcare (insufficient mental healthcare and insufficient care from occupational physician). All stakeholders regarded personality/coping problems and symptoms of depression as the most important impeding theme. In addition, supervisors emphasized the importance of mental healthcare underestimating the importance of the work environment, while occupational physicians stressed the importance of the lack of safety and support in the work environment.

Conclusions

In addition to the reduction of symptoms, more attention is needed on coping with depressive symptoms and personality problems in the work environment support in the work environment and for RTW in mental healthcare, to prevent long term sickness absence.     

Neighbourhood Factors and Depression among Adolescents in Four Caribbean Countries

Background

Past research suggests that perceived neighbourhood conditions may influence adolescents'' emotional health. Relatively little research has been conducted examining the association of perceived neighbourhood conditions with depressive symptoms among Caribbean adolescents. This project examines the association of perceived neighbourhood conditions with levels of depressive symptoms among adolescents in Jamaica, the Bahamas, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Vincent.

Methods

Adolescents attending grade ten of the academic year 2006/2007 in Jamaica, the Bahamas, St. Vincent, and St. Kitts and Nevis were administered the Neighbourhood Characteristics Questionnaire along with the BDI-II. Social cohesion, attachment to the neighbourhood, neighbourhood quality, neighbourhood crime, and neighbourhood disorder scales were created by summing the relevant subscales of the Neighbourhood Characteristics Questionnaire. Multiple regression analyses were used to examine the relationships of perceived neighbourhood conditions to depressive symptoms.

Results

A wide cross-section of tenth grade students in each nation was sampled (n = 1955; 278 from Jamaica, 217 from the Bahamas, 737 St. Kitts and Nevis, 716 from St. Vincent; 52.1% females, 45.6% males and 2.3% no gender reported; 12 to 19 years, mean = 15.3 yrs, sd = .95 yr). Nearly half (52.1%) of all adolescents reported mild to severe symptoms of depression with 29.1% reporting moderate to severe symptoms of depression. Overall, Jamaican adolescents perceived their neighbourhoods in a more positive manner than those in the Bahamas, St. Vincent and St. Kitts and Nevis. Results of a series of hierarchical multiple regression analyses suggested that a different pattern of neighbourhood factors for each island were associated with depressive symptoms. However, neighbourhood factors were more highly associated with depressive symptoms for Jamaican students than for students in the other three islands.

Conclusions

Neighbourhood factors appear to be partially associated with adolescents'' self-reports of depressive symptoms. However, other factors may mitigate this relationship.     

Corporate Philanthropy,Political Influence,and Health Policy

Background

The Framework Convention of Tobacco Control (FCTC) provides a basis for nation states to limit the political effects of tobacco industry philanthropy, yet progress in this area is limited. This paper aims to integrate the findings of previous studies on tobacco industry philanthropy with a new analysis of British American Tobacco''s (BAT) record of charitable giving to develop a general model of corporate political philanthropy that can be used to facilitate implementation of the FCTC.

Method

Analysis of previously confidential industry documents, BAT social and stakeholder dialogue reports, and existing tobacco industry document studies on philanthropy.

Results

The analysis identified six broad ways in which tobacco companies have used philanthropy politically: developing constituencies to build support for policy positions and generate third party advocacy; weakening opposing political constituencies; facilitating access and building relationships with policymakers; creating direct leverage with policymakers by providing financial subsidies to specific projects; enhancing the donor''s status as a source of credible information; and shaping the tobacco control agenda by shifting thinking on the importance of regulating the market environment for tobacco and the relative risks of smoking for population health. Contemporary BAT social and stakeholder reports contain numerous examples of charitable donations that are likely to be designed to shape the tobacco control agenda, secure access and build constituencies.

Conclusions and Recommendations

Tobacco companies'' political use of charitable donations underlines the need for tobacco industry philanthropy to be restricted via full implementation of Articles 5.3 and 13 of the FCTC. The model of tobacco industry philanthropy developed in this study can be used by public health advocates to press for implementation of the FCTC and provides a basis for analysing the political effects of charitable giving in other industry sectors which have an impact on public health such as alcohol and food.     

Investigating Gaze of Children with ASD in Naturalistic Settings

Background

Visual behavior is known to be atypical in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Monitor-based eye-tracking studies have measured several of these atypicalities in individuals with Autism. While atypical behaviors are known to be accentuated during natural interactions, few studies have been made on gaze behavior in natural interactions. In this study we focused on i) whether the findings done in laboratory settings are also visible in a naturalistic interaction; ii) whether new atypical elements appear when studying visual behavior across the whole field of view.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Ten children with ASD and ten typically developing children participated in a dyadic interaction with an experimenter administering items from the Early Social Communication Scale (ESCS). The children wore a novel head-mounted eye-tracker, measuring gaze direction and presence of faces across the child''s field of view. The analysis of gaze episodes to faces revealed that children with ASD looked significantly less and for shorter lapses of time at the experimenter. The analysis of gaze patterns across the child''s field of view revealed that children with ASD looked downwards and made more extensive use of their lateral field of view when exploring the environment.

Conclusions/Significance

The data gathered in naturalistic settings confirm findings previously obtained only in monitor-based studies. Moreover, the study allowed to observe a generalized strategy of lateral gaze in children with ASD when they were looking at the objects in their environment.