Our attitudes and emotions are affected by how the media describes migration

by Cajsa Malmström, University of Gothenburg

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

News that describes migration in a positive context, makes us become more positive about immigration and vice versa. This is stated by Nora Theorin in a new dissertation on media and migration at the Department of Journalism, Media and Communication, University of Gothenburg.

Media are often said to play a central role when it comes to shaping the perceptions people have of migration, but our knowledge is limited about HOW and WHEN they influence people, and why.

Nora Theorin has investigated what it looks like in six European countries to see if there are any common patterns and mechanisms; countries that differ greatly in their attitudes toward migration: Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Germany and Hungary.

Differences between traditional and alternative media

The survey in Sweden showed that traditional news media did not seem to have influenced users' attitudes toward migration to any great extent, despite the fact that it was carried out during 2014–2016, when an exceptionally large number of refugees (160,000) came to Sweden.

On the other hand, it emerged that the use of certain media—those with a pronounced political orientation—had a greater influence. Those who followed the alternative right-wing site Avpixlat (now Samhällsnytt) became more negative about immigration from countries outside the EU, while those who read the left-wing ETC became more positive.

"You need to be aware of this difference when talking about public opinion—and the influence of the media—in migration issues, especially since media with a clear political, especially immigration-critical, profile have increasingly established themselves as sources of information in many Western democracies," says Nora Theorin.

Emotions matter

To find out if it matters how the media portrays immigrants and immigration, she conducted an experiment in which 5,510 participants in the different countries got to take part of both positive and negative articles about immigrants—something that aroused different kinds of feelings.

The different angles (or frames) led to different reactions—those where immigrants appeared in a positive context reduced the readers' negative emotions, which in turn also led to more positive attitudes. At the same time, the positive emotions of those who read negative articles decreased, and they also had more negative attitudes toward immigration.

"Emotions seem to be an important mechanism and can function as so-called mediating variables or factors that explain why people are influenced by the media's representations of immigration," says Nora Theorin.

Media use and threats

Internationally, it also turned out that the media in different ways seem to trigger people's perceptions of immigration as a threat to the economy, security and culture, depending on where in the world the migrants come from.

Immigration from outside Europe was mainly associated with cultural threats, while the only perceived negative effect of European migration was on the economy.

"But the results differ so much between the countries that it is not possible to talk about any universal influence or common patterns," says Nora Theorin.

In general, the effect of the media was more limited than she expected, both in Sweden and internationally. Something Theorin believes may be due to the fact that many people, long before the study, had already established such strong views on migration that they are difficult to change.

Taking in refugees does not strongly influence xenophobia in East German communities

More information: Us Versus Them and the Role of the Media: hdl.handle.net/2077/69572

Provided by University of Gothenburg 

Refugees in the media: How the most commonly used images make viewers dehumanise them

by Manos Tsakiris, The Conversation

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

When the Syrian refugee crisis began in 2011, the journeys of thousands of people fleeing their home country to cross the Mediterranean were widely documented in the media. But the public response was tepid until 2015, when a photograph of drowned Syrian toddler Alan Kurdi on a Turkish beach was printed in media around the world. The photo prompted international responses, a change of EU policy on refugees, and a surge in donations to charities working with refugees.

Images shape our perceptions of the world and have the capacity to become political forces themselves. While more refugees risk their lives to cross the English Channel and the Mediterranean, not to mention the Belarus-Poland border, our research has found that the photos of these populations in the media affect how people view and respond to migration issues.

This phenomenon is described in social psychology as the "identifiable victim effect." People engage differently with words and images concerning the suffering of a single individual rather than that of large groups. We are willing to offer greater aid to a single victim under hardship than to a group of people with the same need. Increased charity donations are an example of this.

Yet in the mainstream media, images of identifiable victims are the exception rather than the norm. In the context of the Syrian refugee crisis, the majority of news images in western media depict refugees as anonymous, faceless masses. These may either render audiences numb to the subjects' hardship or simply fail to shift their attitudes or behaviors, as past research suggests.

Dehumanization

In set of recent studies, we showed media images of refugees to nearly 4,000 European citizens. We exposed them to images of either large groups, in which individuals are not identifiable, or small groups of identifiable refugees. We found that viewers dehumanized refugees more strongly when they were exposed to images of them in large groups.

We reached this conclusion by asking participants to tell us the extent to which they think that refugees are capable of experiencing certain emotions. We did this because an important dimension of dehumanization is considering others as being less capable of experiencing secondary emotions that typically distinguish humans from animals, such as tenderness, guilt and compassion (as opposed to primary emotions that are shared with animals such as fear, anger and joy).

We found that the participants who saw images of refugees in large groups attributed fewer secondary emotions to them. Interestingly, we did not observe this difference when participants saw images of large groups of survivors of natural disasters.

We also looked at another distinguishing feature of these images: whether the subjects were depicted crossing a body of water or traveling by land. One of the most striking aspects of the imagery of refugee journeys has been their crossing of the Mediterranean Sea—being rescued or having drowned.

Social scientists have speculated that the visual and linguistic portrayal of refugees using metaphors of water (waves, tides and floods) reinforces the stereotype of refugees as potentially threatening, uncontrollable agents.

In our study, the visual narrative of depicting large groups of refugees in the sea resulted in even greater dehumanization. This suggests that current visual representations of refugees emphasize a security issue rather than a humanitarian debate—refugees are depicted as "being a crisis" for host nations, rather than finding themselves "in a crisis."

Turning emotion to action

We found that not only do these differences in images affect our attitudes toward refugees, they also influence our behavior and action. We found that participants who had been exposed to images of large groups of refugees were also more likely to endorse anti-refugee petitions and less likely to endorse pro-refugee petitions.

We also tested whether exposure to these images affected people's support for political leaders. We found that viewing images of large groups was associated with increased support for more dominant and less trustworthy-looking political leaders.

Interestingly, in our research, it was not the emotions that viewers attributed to the people in the photographs that drove political effects. Instead, the driving factor seemed to be the specific emotions that the viewers themselves experienced (such as reduced pity) when looking at the images of large groups.

There are no neutral ways to visually depict human beings. Neither the medium of photography itself can afford such neutrality, nor the photographers, the publishers or the viewers themselves.

The decision of what photos to publish is often made by editors who are exposed daily to many images of human suffering. Our research shows that these decisions should consider both the likely emotions audiences will "see" in the images, but also the emotions they will "feel."Images are not always worth a thousand words

Provided by The Conversation 

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Study shows we can reduce people's bias against non-native speakers

by Royal Holloway, University of London

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Researchers from Royal Holloway, University of London, have published a new study in Cognitive Science that shows people are more likely to believe information given to them by a native speaker rather than those with a foreign accent, but that this bias can be reduced.

Whenever people process information, they evaluate it by relying not only on its content but also how easy it is to process. The new study carried out by academics from the Department of Psychology at Royal Holloway shows that it is harder to process foreign-accented speech. As a result, people believe information less when it's spoken in a foreign accent, but the study found that more exposure to foreign accents can reduce this bias by improving how individuals process the accent.

The results demonstrate how cognitive aspects of processing language can influence attitudes. In the study, participants listened to trivia statements by native and non-native speakers and rated how likely the statements were to be true.

Participants believed the statements less when they were provided by non-native speakers, but if they had been previously exposed to the foreign accent, they showed a smaller bias against the non-native speakers.

Dr. Shiri Lev-Ari from the Department of Psychology at Royal Holloway, said: "Despite interactions between native and non-native speakers being very common in today's society, prior research has indicated that individuals have biases that can lead them to treat the speech of non-native speakers less favorably.

"The results from our study are interesting because they highlight that people can reduce the bias they have against non-native speakers by having more exposure to foreign accents. This suggests that diversity can reduce discrimination against non-native speakers."

"Exposing individuals to foreign accent increases their trust in what non-native speakers say," was carried out by Dr. Shiri Lev Ari from the Department of Psychology and Katarzyna Boduch-Grabka, formerly from the Department of Psychology at Royal Holloway.Recognizing foreign accents helps brains process accented speech

More information: Katarzyna Boduch‐Grabka et al, Exposing Individuals to Foreign Accent Increases their Trust in What Nonnative Speakers Say, Cognitive Science (2021). DOI: 10.1111/cogs.13064

Journal information: Cognitive Science 

Provided by Royal Holloway, University of London 

Justinianic Plague was nothing like flu and may have struck England before it reached Constantinople, new study suggests

by University of Cambridge

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

'Plague sceptics' are wrong to underestimate the devastating impact that bubonic plague had in the 6th– 8th centuries CE, argues a new study based on ancient texts and recent genetic discoveries.

The same study suggests that bubonic plague may have reached England before its first recorded case in the Mediterranean via a currently unknown route, possibly involving the Baltic and Scandinavia.

The Justinianic Plague is the first known outbreak of bubonic plague in west Eurasian history and struck the Mediterranean world at a pivotal moment in its historical development, when the Emperor Justinian was trying to restore Roman imperial power.

For decades, historians have argued about the lethality of the disease; its social and economic impact; and the routes by which it spread. In 2019-20, several studies, widely publicised in the media, argued that historians had massively exaggerated the impact of the Justinianic Plague and described it as an 'inconsequential pandemic'. In a subsequent piece of journalism, written just before COVID-19 took hold in the West, two researchers suggested that the Justinianic Plague was 'not unlike our flu outbreaks'.

In a new study, published in Past & Present, Cambridge historian Professor Peter Sarris argues that these studies ignored or downplayed new genetic findings, offered misleading statistical analysis and misrepresented the evidence provided by ancient texts.

Sarris says: "Some historians remain deeply hostile to regarding external factors such as disease as having a major impact on the development of human society, and 'plague scepticism' has had a lot of attention in recent years."

Sarris, a Fellow of Trinity College, is critical of the way that some studies have used search engines to calculate that only a small percentage of ancient literature discusses the plague and then crudely argue that this proves the disease was considered insignificant at the time.

Sarris says: "Witnessing the plague first-hand obliged the contemporary historian Procopius to break away from his vast military narrative to write a harrowing account of the arrival of the plague in Constantinople that would leave a deep impression on subsequent generations of Byzantine readers. That is far more telling than the number of plague-related words he wrote. Different authors, writing different types of text, concentrated on different themes, and their works must be read accordingly."

Sarris also refutes the suggestion that laws, coins and papyri provide little evidence that the plague had a significant impact on the early Byzantine state or society. He points to a major reduction in imperial law-making between the year 546, by which point the plague had taken hold, and the end of Justinian's reign in 565. But he also argues that the flurry of significant legislation that was made between 542 and 545 reveals a series of crisis-driven measures issued in the face of plague-induced depopulation, and to limit the damage inflicted by the plague on landowning institutions.

In March 542, in a law that Justinian described as having been written amid the 'encircling presence of death', which had 'spread to every region', the emperor attempted to prop up the banking sector of the imperial economy.

In another law of 544, the emperor attempted to impose price and wage controls, as workers tried to take advantage of labour shortages. Alluding to the plague, Justinian declared that the 'chastening which has been sent by God's goodness' should have made workers 'better people' but instead 'they have turned to avarice'.

That bubonic plague exacerbated the East Roman Empire's existing fiscal and administrative difficulties is also reflected in changes to coinage in this period, Sarris argues. A series of light-weight gold coins were issued, the first such reduction in the gold currency since its introduction in the 4th century and the weight of the heavy copper coinage of Constantinople was also reduced significantly around the same time as the emperor's emergency banking legislation.

Sarris says: "The significance of a historical pandemic should never be judged primarily on the basis of whether it leads to the 'collapse' of the societies concerned. Equally, the resilience of the East Roman state in the face of the plague does not signify that the challenge posed by the plague was not real."

"What is most striking about the governmental response to the Justinianic Plague in the Byzantine or Roman world is how rational and carefully targeted it was, despite the bewilderingly unfamiliar circumstances in which the authorities found themselves.

"We have a lot to learn from how our forebears responded to epidemic disease, and how pandemics impacted on social structures, the distribution of wealth, and modes of thought."

Bubonic plague in England

Until the early 2000s, the identification of the Justinianic Plague as 'bubonic' rested entirely upon ancient texts which described the appearance of buboes or swellings in the groins or armpits of victims. But then rapid advances in genomics enabled archaeologists and genetic scientists to discover traces of the ancient DNA of Yersinia pestis in Early Medieval skeletal remains. Such finds have been made in Germany, Spain, France and England.

In 2018, a study of DNA preserved in remains found in an early Anglo-Saxon burial site known as Edix Hill in Cambridgeshire revealed that many of the interred had died carrying the disease. Further analysis revealed that the strain of Y. pestis found was the earliest identified lineage of the bacterium involved in the 6th-century pandemic.

Sarris says: "We have tended to start with the literary sources, which describe the plague arriving at Pelusium in Egypt before spreading out from there, and then fitted the archaeological and genetic evidence into a framework and narrative based on those sources. That approach will no longer do. The arrival of bubonic plague in the Mediterranean around 541 and its initial arrival in England possibly somewhat earlier may have been the result of two separate but related routes, occurring some time apart."

The study suggests that the plague may have reached the Mediterranean via the Red Sea, and reached England perhaps via the Baltic and Scandanavia, and from there onto parts of the continent.

The study emphasises that despite being called the 'Justinianic Plague', it was "never a purely or even primarily Roman phenomenon" and as recent genetic discoveries have proven, it reached remote and rural sites such as Edix Hill, as well as heavily populated cities.

It is widely accepted that the lethal and virulent strain of bubonic plague from which the Justinianic Plague and later the Black Death would descend had emerged in Central Asia by the Bronze Age before evolving further there in antiquity.

Sarris suggests that it may be significant that the advent of both the Justinianic Plague and the Black Death were preceded by the expansion of nomadic empires across Eurasia: the Huns in the 4th and 5th centuries, and the Mongols in the 13th.

Sarris says: "Increasing genetic evidence will lead in directions we can scarcely yet anticipate, and historians need to be able to respond positively and imaginatively, rather than with a defensive shrug."

New call to examine old narratives: Infectious disease modeling study casts doubt on the Justinianic Plague's impact

---

More information: Peter Sarris, New Approaches to the 'Plague of Justinian', Past & Present (2021). DOI: 10.1093/pastj/gtab024

Provided by University of Cambridge 

Warnings may reduce hate speech on Twitter, new study finds

by New York University

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Warning Twitter users about potential adverse consequences of their use of hate speech can decrease their subsequent posting of hateful language for a week, finds a new study by New York University's Center for Social Media and Politics.

"Debates over the effectiveness of social media account suspensions and bans on abusive users abound, but we know little about the impact of either warning a user of suspending an account or of outright suspensions in order to reduce hate speech," explains Mustafa Mikdat Yildirim, an NYU doctoral candidate and the lead author of the paper, which appears in the journal Perspectives on Politics. "Even though the impact of warnings is temporary, the research nonetheless provides a potential path forward for platforms seeking to reduce the use of hateful language by users."

In the aftermath of decisions by Twitter and other social media platforms to suspend large numbers of accounts, in particular those of former President Donald Trump following the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, many have asked about the effectiveness of measures aimed at curbing hate speech and other messages that may incite violence.

In the Perspectives on Politics paper, the researchers examined one approach—issuing warnings of possible suspensions resulting from the use of hate speech—to determine its efficacy in diminishing future use of this type of language.

To do so, the paper's authors designed a series of experiments aimed at instilling the possible consequences of the use of hate and related speech.

"To effectively convey a warning message to its target, the message needs to make the target aware of the consequences of their behavior and also make them believe that these consequences will be administered," they write.

In constructing their experiments, the authors focused on the followers of users whose accounts had been suspended for posting tweets that used hateful language in order to find a group of users for whom they could create credible warning messages. The researchers reasoned that the followers of those who had been suspended and who also used hateful language might consider themselves potential "suspension candidates" once they learned someone they followed had been suspended—and therefore be potentially willing to moderate their behavior following a warning.

To identify such candidates, the team downloaded more than 600,000 tweets on July 21, 2020 that were posted in the week prior and that contained at least one word from hateful language dictionaries used in previous research. During the period, Twitter was flooded by hateful tweets against both the Asian and Black communities due to the coronavirus pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests.

From this group of users of hateful language, the researchers obtained a sample of approximately 4,300 followers of users who had been suspended by Twitter during this period (i.e., "suspension candidates").

These followers were divided into six treatment groups and one control group. The researchers tweeted one of six possible warning messages to these users, all prefaced with this sentence: "The user [@account] you follow was suspended, and I suspect that this was because of hateful language." It was followed by different types of warnings, ranging from "If you continue to use hate speech, you might get suspended temporarily" to "If you continue to use hate speech, you might lose your posts, friends and followers, and not get your account back." The control group did not receive any messages.

Overall, the users who received these warning messages reduced the ratio of tweets containing hateful language by up to 10 percent a week later (there was no significant reduction among those in the control group). And, in cases in which the messaging to users was more politely phrased ("I understand that you have every right to express yourself but please keep in mind that using hate speech can get you suspended."), the decline reached 15 to 20 percent. (Based on previous scholarship, the authors concluded that respectful and polite language would be more likely to be seen as legitimate.) However, the impact of the warnings dissipated a month later.

The paper's other authors were Joshua A. Tucker and Jonathan Nagler, professors in NYU's Department of Politics, and Richard Bonneau, a professor in NYU's Department of Biology and Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. Tucker, Nagler, and Bonneau are co-directors of the NYU Center for Social Media and Politics, where Yildirim conducts research as a Ph.D. candidate.Twitter tests Safety Mode to block internet trolls

Provided by New York University 

Employer surveillance during COVID has damaged trust

by University of St Andrews

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Increasing use of staff surveillance by employers during the COVID-19 pandemic endangers trust in the workplace, according to a major new report by the University of St Andrews.

The study, for the European Commission's Joint Research Council, also warns employers not to sacrifice ethics for the sake of efficiency as it can backfire leading to mental health issues, productivity decline and staff resignations.

Webcam photographs, recording keystrokes and movement trackers have all been increasingly used by employers as millions of workers were forced to work from home in 2020.

The demand for employee monitoring software increased by 108 percent in April 2020, according to the major review of research literature on workplace surveillance from the past four decades.

Author Professor Kirstie Ball, of the School of Management at the University of St Andrews, said: "There is a clear need for trust to be rebuilt in the workplace between staff and employers post-COVID.

"Where monitoring has a specific purpose such as health and safety, it can actually reassure staff. Or in development and training it can provide valuable feedback.

"However, it can also have negative impacts too. A heavy focus on monitoring the quantity of output can reduce work quality.

"Where there is no explicit purpose for the monitoring, and information is collected for its own sake, negative attitudes can result including: perceptions of decreased fairness and justice, decreased satisfaction, increased stress and a decline in trust."

Excessive monitoring, according to the report, can be considered by staff as demonstrating a lack of confidence or belief in employees. Low trust in the workplace can then cause a vicious cycle.

Professor Ball said: "Employers impose punitive surveillance which causes the behaviors it was put in place to prevent, as employees try to resist or avoid it. The social support provided by managers for monitored workers is crucial to avoid some of these negative outcomes."

The report also notes that there is a danger of low managerial support for monitored employees.

Professor Ball added: "There is a real need for more research on how data is used by employers and policy may need to change to reflect these new ways of working."

The study for the EC's Joint Research Council covers a wide range of aspects including the new ways in which employees are monitored, mental health risks and the consequences of monitoring for work culture, employment relations and trust.Why using technology to monitor employees at work can be counterproductive

More information: K. Ball, Electronic Monitoring and Surveillance in the Workplace, Publications Office of the European Union (2021). DOI: 10.2760/5137, publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/ … ory/handle/JRC125716

Provided by University of St Andrews 

A pandemic of armchair experts: How we decide who and what to believe

by Daniel Read, The Conversation

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

We appear to live in an age of misinformation.

Certain broadcasters and social media celebrities openly promote fake facts or misrepresentations of science and data to their audience, many of whom do not seem to care whether they are right or wrong, as long as they are hearing what they want to hear.

The promotion of misinformation can be caused by an over-inflated belief in their own judgment and knowledge, or often, they simply relish the chance to proclaim their own contrarian or ideological views. Sometimes, it's just about self-interest.

Many of us have at least a few controversial beliefs. We might believe that the death penalty deters crime, or that raising the minimum wage decreases unemployment, or that raising business taxes will reduce innovation.

We might even believe that women are not as good at maths as men, or that the Earth is flat.

Some of these beliefs we will hold strongly.

But when we attempt to justify our beliefs, we often find the evidence pool is very shallow.

Researchers have identified a chronic illusion of explanatory depth, in that we overestimate our understanding of the world.

We can discover this by trying to justify our pet beliefs. To illustrate, when I interrogate myself about why I believe the death penalty is not a deterrent, I find there is not a lot there except for consensus beliefs among my peer group—some of whom I hope have looked into the evidence—some intuition, and vague memories of looking at some blog posts or newspaper articles. This is not a lot. But it is perhaps not surprising: we simply don't have time to be experts on everything.

Sometimes people are described as having fallen prey to the Dunning-Kruger effect, or even as "having" Dunning-Kruger. Donald Trump was one such person.

The Dunning-Kruger effect, however, is a population-level effect, so no individual can "have" it. It primarily means that just because someone is confident doesn't mean they are right. In fact, there are individual differences in confidence, with some people being absurdly sure of themselves, and others quite diffident.

But the confidence of highly confident but wrong people comes not from their ignorance, but from the fact that they are inherently confident about everything. Some researchers have described it as arrogance.

If he knew more, would Trump have been less confident? I doubt it; Trump was (or is) simply full of bluster, and his confidence was simply unrelated to his knowledge.

What determines the beliefs we adopt when we have a choice?

Scientific evidence can help, but often we believe what we want to believe anyway.

These beliefs might be "chosen" through indoctrination. They might be the result of self-interest or strongly held ideology, such as wealthy people believing taxes rob people of initiative. Or they might be required to fit into a social group.

How do specific beliefs become linked to specific social groups? In some cases, the link is quite clearly defined.

Strongly religious people generally do not believe in evolution, and atheists are not creationists. Partisanship also produces dispositions to belief. The moral values of conservatives involve different issues—such as respect for authority—than those on the left, who put more weight on harm prevention. Liberals tend to be more drawn to seeking out change and novelty, both personally and politically, while conservatives, in contrast, have a stronger preference for things that are familiar, stable and predictable.

Often, simply knowing a belief is endorsed by a member of "their" side is enough to get people to support it.

Many current controversies have this flavor, such as whether COVID vaccines or masks should be required, or whether nuclear power is good for the environment. We look to our peers, and to the authorities and ideologies we respect, and follow their lead.

We are also more likely to follow those who are highly confident, even though confidence is a poor predictor of accuracy. And, of course, those we follow, being human just like us, are probably doing the same thing.

Armchair experts are just behaving normally

Let's return to those high-profile broadcasters, social media celebrities and armchair experts who have been wilfully spreading an avalanche of misinformation.

They are really no different from everyone else.

If it is natural to believe things based on little evidence, and to believe things because they fit with our social group and partisan preferences, it should not surprise us that some hold beliefs quite at variance with ours. Or that they apparently do so despite, as it appears to us, overwhelming contradictory evidence—from their perspective we are doing the same thing. We should not be surprised if a TV reporter or Twitter celebrity is just as likely as anyone else to believe things based on flimsy evidence.

As individuals, we may have fallen on the side of accepted scientific wisdom (where the bulk of the evidence and experts sit) during the pandemic, but there will probably be other situations where we too have beliefs that are based on our own misjudgements, ideologies or personal gain.

The American writer and political activist Upton Sinclair famously wrote: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!".

Even a scientist, when hired directly by a pharmaceutical company to evaluate the efficacy of a new blockbuster drug, might be disposed to find evidence of the drug's effectiveness.

Conversely, there are probably reasons why a small—but prominent—number of scientists have taken a distinctly outlier stance regarding the pandemic, or other issues, such as climate change.

We need go no further than this to understand why there will be armchair experts proposing all possible positions, and when they gain attention and celebrity for doing so, they will stick with those positions.

To give up their position will be to lose all the attention, all the celebrity, and all their credibility. Imagine what would happen to Donald Trump if he were to come down on the side of poor refugees. Imagine what would happen to the radio hosts who have built up a larger following based on their unwavering libertarian views if they suddenly declared they had changed their minds about masks.

Once committed to a set of beliefs, the armchair expert is in it for the long run.

Social media use increases belief in COVID-19 misinformation

Provided by The Conversation 

GUN CONTROL WORKS

Delay laws on firearms purchases save lives

by Tilburg University

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Legislation that enforces a 'cooling off' period between purchasing and acquiring a firearm reduces impulse purchases. It also limits the number of homicides, especially in the domestic sphere. This is demonstrated by behavioral economist David Schindler of Tilburg University on the basis of a quantitative study in various U.S. States. The publication will appear in the journal Review of Economics and Statistics.

Peak in weapon purchases

Schindler and his coauthor Christoph Koenig examined a six-month period in 2012 and 2013, when gun sales in the United States soared to unprecedented heights. The spike was caused by a dramatic shooting incident at Sandy Hook Elementary School and the re-election of president Barack Obama. As a result of these events, many Americans expected stricter gun laws. To get ahead of these, they pre-emptively bought guns. In 35 of the U.S. states, these guns are sold directly over the counter, but in 15 other states, a delay has been deliberately built in between purchasing the gun and actually getting hold of it. This 'cooling off period' varies from two days to six months.

Impulsive buyers are deterred

Over a period of six months, the Tilburg researcher compared Google searches for firearm-related expressions, registered background checks for gun sales, and homicides across the United States. He found that there was equal interest in purchasing firearms in states with delay laws as in states without such laws, but that fewer weapons were eventually sold. This effect is visible with both a brief and a longer cooling-off period.These results led Schindler to believe that people who are prone to impulsive behavior postpone their gun purchase; for them it is less attractive to surrender money now, but only receive a gun in the future.

Fewer women killed at home

In addition to fewer arms purchases, delay laws also lead to fewer murders. Schindler found that states with delay laws had 2 percent fewer handgun-related homicides than states without delay laws. This means that in the period under review, in the 35 states without delay laws, about 200 murders could have been prevented if such laws had been in place. Victims of these 'extra' murders are mostly middle-aged women who were killed in their own homes after an argument. The results suggest that impulsive gun purchases can result in domestic violence, which delay laws have a somewhat dampening effect on.

Way out of the political deadlock

Schindler's research supports a conclusion from previous research: more guns lead to more murders. It also suggests a way out of a political deadlock in the United States: legislation that enforces a cooling-off period between purchase and possession of firearms limits the number of homicides without infringing on the right to bear arms, which is cherished by many in the U.S.

Gun control and homicides in the USA

More information: Christoph Koenig et al, Impulse Purchases, Gun Ownership, and Homicides: Evidence from a Firearm Demand Shock, The Review of Economics and Statistics (2021). DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_01106

Journal information: Review of Economics and Statistics 

Provided by Tilburg University 

Survey shows food-insecure students more likely to fail, leave school

by Mary Beth King, University of New Mexico

Credit: Pexels

A survey conducted by a team of researchers from The University of New Mexico finds that students who are food-insecure are more likely to fail or withdraw from classes or drop out of college entirely.

The survey was done by lead author Heather Mechler, UNM Office of Institutional Analytics; Kathryn Coakley, UNM Department of Individual, Family, and Community Education; co-PI Marygold Walsh-Dilley, Department of Geography; and co-PI Sarita Cargas, Honors College.

Their findings were recently published in the Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice in an article titled "Examining the Relationship Between Food Insecurity and Academic Performance: Implications for Diversity and Equity in Higher Education."

This article is an outcome of the larger UNM Basic Needs Project, which is co-led by Cargas and Walsh-Dilley. Mechler is a critical part of the team since students are surveyed through her office and she also is able to link survey responses to student academic outcomes. Coakley brings expertise on nutrition and public health, and is especially helpful for survey design and data analysis. Cargas is an important liaison with UNM administration and with policymakers, and works to develop solutions. Walsh-Dilley leads the qualitative data collection efforts and is involved in data analysis.

This study shows that food insecurity is a strong impediment to some students' ability to succeed academically, Mechler emphasized.

"When you are not eating enough and you are experiencing anxiety about how you're going to afford to feed yourself, you don't have much energy or focus left to devote to studying and going to class. Our analysis showed that if you have two students from the same background with the same personal characteristics, where one student is food secure and the other food insecure, the student who is experiencing food insecurity is twice as likely to leave college and over one-and-a-half times as likely to fail or withdraw from a course," Mechler observed.

Attaining a college degree can lead to many opportunities for a better, healthier, and more fulfilling life, she continued, adding, "However, it is disheartening that some students are locked out of these opportunities because they lack stable access to affordable nutrition."

The study is unique in that they included students pursuing graduate and professional degrees in the survey. Most of the research on food insecurity in higher education focuses on undergraduate students, but a significant number of students in these higher-level programs struggle with food insecurity.

"For the most part, there is a lower prevalence of food insecurity in graduate and professional students compared to undergraduate students, but it was higher than we had anticipated," Mechler noted.

"This research is really important because it helps to address educational inequality. Our research finds that the students most affected by food and housing insecurity are minority students, LGBTQ+ students, international students, student parents or those providing care for dependents," Walsh-Dilley said. "When students struggle to satisfy their basic needs, they are already at a disadvantage and are less likely to be successful academically. This is how inequality becomes reproduced over and over again. But, if we can support low-income students so that they are successful through college, then maybe we can break that cycle."

In the students' own words

Many students spoke about the stress they experience due to food or housing insecurity.

"I had never been that food insecure and the stress of… it's not just stress, it's like panic. I don't know where I'm going to live after these three months. I hope this job works out. I don't have money for food. Like yeah, panic. Being able to focus on school and being able to focus on my kids and be emotionally and mentally present for them was, in my experience… I mean, it was very difficult. It just saps all of your attention. It takes all of your mental energy."

"[Basic needs insecurity] impacts greatly in terms of stress. I mean, it's hard to study when you are like OK, when is the next shoe going to drop? Let's leave it at that. I don't want to sound too depressing but it is a major impact… So, that has a huge impact on studying and on being able to concentrate and wondering which shoe is going to drop. So, that's a big one."

Students often spoke about how the stress and anxiety of food and housing insecurity impacted their academic success.

"I mean, definitely it's a source of anxiety, right? It's a source of stress. It's a source of constant worry. I know for me, I don't perform very well academically or just living life if I'm under constant stress or constant anxiety… During that semester where I had to really be aware of how I was spending my money, it was a tough semester. I think I dropped down to just two classes or like six credit hours. I don't even think I did very well in one of them. So, I think I took one of them for credit/no credit. So yeah, I mean just a constant source of anxiety. That's definitely going to have an effect on your performance in terms of school and in terms of your mental health and your physical health and your relationships with friends or family. So yeah, it's not going to have a positive impact. That's for sure."

"I had to drop out of college the first time due to the insecurities."

One student summed it up thus:

"I mean, it's kind of hard to study when you are hungry."

The research continues. Mechler said they conducted another survey in April 2021, and are holding focus groups with students this Fall semester to learn more about how students experience food and housing insecurity.

"Our plan is to survey students each year, perhaps including other institutions in New Mexico to get more insight into how food insecurity differs by student population and location of the institution. We want to bring more understanding and awareness to the issue of college student food insecurity so that leaders and policy makers can address it," she said.

What can be done to help?

Many things can be done to help food insecure students. To start, Mechler said, faculty members can add language to their syllabi about resources available to students who need support with food, housing, and other necessities of life.

"Just mentioning it can normalize the act of getting assistance, and can help destigmatize the experience of food insecurity. Many students who are food insecure don't realize that there's a term for what they're going through, and may feel ashamed that they don't have the resources to go out with friends for a meal, grab a coffee before class, or buy sufficient groceries. By putting a name to an experience, you can help someone feel less alone," she noted.

Staff members can keep a list of resources at UNM and in the broader community that can help students find supplemental food, assistance with SNAP (food stamps) applications, and other supports.

"Navigating many of these systems can be intimidating, so having a trusted ally guiding you can make all the difference," Mechler observed.

Also, students can engage in research, class projects, or service learning opportunities that explore why people experience food insecurity, structural barriers that prevent people from getting help, and how they can change systems and processes to make sure everyone has access to the things they need. Mechler advised that students can help struggling friends or classmates by urging them to visit the Lobo Food Pantry or another food pantry and go with them to show support. Also, volunteers are needed to help operate the pantry, organize shelves, or stock incoming items.

Everyone can donate to the Lobo Food Pantry with financial contributions, she added, or by donating shelf-stable food, hygiene, and toiletry items directly to the pantry. The Lobo Food Pantry is open to all UNM students, regardless of financial need, and is open for a few hours every day during the week.

"The Dean of Students and the staff with LoboRespect have really done a fantastic job in securing resources for the pantry and being responsive to student needs. They are adding a refrigerator soon, which will expand the types of foods that they can offer. This is an extremely worthy cause to support with your time and resources," Mechler said. "It's inspiring to see how much good can result when people care about others and commit to helping them. Through this project, I have met people from all over the UNM community who are doing great work in this area. They all truly believe that every student deserves the chance to succeed."

The team will continue to work on this project, collecting data to see how these trends shift over time, and using these data to raise awareness and encourage the university and local and state policy makers to support food and housing security among students, Walsh-Dilley said, adding that several other manuscripts are under review and they are developing additional research about how to intervene to support students and how to extend this type of data collection at other New Mexico institutions.

"These findings make clear that food and housing insecurity significantly impacts student academic success," Walsh-Dilley said. "Access to food and housing are matters of educational inclusion and equity and we need to prioritize student basic needs if we care about addressing inequality among our students and our state."Food insecurity during college years linked to lower graduation rate

More information: Heather Mechler et al, Examining the Relationship Between Food Insecurity and Academic Performance: Implications for Diversity and Equity in Higher Education, Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice (2021). DOI: 10.1177/15210251211053863

Provided by University of New Mexico