Archaeologist's book examines human adornment

by Mary Beth King, University of New Mexico

Mattson logging Chaco artifacts. Credit: UNM Newsroom

Across countries, continents, and centuries, humans have felt compelled to adorn themselves. A new book edited and co-authored by Hannah Mattson, Southwestern archaeologist and an assistant professor of Anthropology at The University of New Mexico, explores personal adornment as components of human identity and practice, as well as symbols of wealth, power, and status.

"Personal Adornment and the Construction of Identity: A Global Archaeological Perspective" explores the ways personal adornment was intertwined with the creation and transformation of social identity in the past, drawing on case studies spanning 9,000 years of human history and 10 different countries. The adornments detailed in the book by the international team of authors are from the pre-Hispanic northern Southwest; the Franchthi Cave in Greece; pre-contact Pacific Nicaragua; Nahuatl-speaking communities of Mesoamerica; the Castro Culture of northwestern Iberia; the early Viking Age; Sapelo Island off the coast of Georgia; and the ancient city of Hasanlu in Iran.

When paired with the broad temporal and geographic scope collectively represented by these studies, we gain a deeper appreciation for the subtle but vital roles these items played in human lives.

Mattson, who organized and edited the volume, specializes in the archaeology of Chaco Canyon and the larger Ancestral Pueblo region, personal adornment and social identity, ceramic technology, and public archaeology and has studied ancient jewelry assemblage from Pueblo Bonito at Chaco Canyon for over a decade.

"This book helps challenge a traditional and widespread view that these kinds of artifacts are purely decorative or somehow supplementary to the basic functioning of human society," Mattson explained. "Most often, the meanings of personal ornaments are assumed to relate to wealth and social status when found in archaeological contexts. The broad temporal and geographic scope of the studies compiled in this volume demonstrate that these materials are not only intricately enmeshed in all facets of identity—such as group affiliation, gender, age, role or profession, subscription to ideologies, social standing—but also that these are in a constant state of flux and negotiation."

"While there are other compilations on archaeological approaches to studying ornaments more generally or on jewelry from specific time periods and regions, to my knowledge this is the only work specifically focused on the topic of social identity and ornamentation with a global scope," Mattson said.

"Objects of adornment have been a subject of archaeological, historical, and ethnographic study for well over a century. Within archaeology, personal ornaments have traditionally been viewed as decorative embellishments associated with status and wealth, materializations of power relations and social strategies, or markers of underlying social categories such as those related to gender, class, and ethnic affiliation. Personal Adornment and the Construction of Identity seeks to understand these artifacts not as signals of steady, pre-existing cultural units and relations, but as important components in the active and contingent constitution of identities. Drawing on contemporary scholarship on materiality and relationality in archaeological and social theory, this book uses one genre of material culture—items of bodily adornment—to illustrate how humans and objects construct one another."

Basque ethnic identity and collective empowerment are associated with wellbeing

Provided by University of New Mexico 

1,500 endangered languages at high risk of being lost this century

by Australian National University

Professor Lindell Bromham (left) and her colleagues are researching how to preserve 

endangered languages across the globe. Credit: Jamie Kidston/ANU

A world-first study warns 1,500 endangered languages could no longer be spoken by the end of this century.

The study, led by The Australian National University (ANU), identified predictors that put endangered languages at high risk.

Co-author Professor Lindell Bromham said that of the world's 7,000 recognized languages, around half were currently endangered.

"We found that without immediate intervention, language loss could triple in the next 40 years. And by the end of this century, 1,500 languages could cease to be spoken."

Published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, they study charts the widest range of factors ever putting endangered languages under pressure.

One finding was that more years of schooling increased the level of language endangerment. The researchers say it shows we need to build curricula that support bilingual education, fostering both indigenous language proficiency as well as use of regionally-dominant languages.

"Across the 51 factors or predictors we investigated, we also found some really unexpected and surprising pressure points. This included road density," Professor Bromham said.

"Contact with other local languages is not the problem—in fact languages in contact with many other Indigenous languages tend to be less endangered.

"But we found that the more roads there are, connecting country to city, and villages to towns, the higher the risk of languages being endangered. It's as if roads are helping dominant languages 'steam roll' over other smaller languages."

The researchers say the findings also have important lessons for preserving many of the endangered languages spoken by Australia's First Nations peoples.

"Australia has the dubious distinction of having one of the highest rates of language loss worldwide," Professor Felicity Meakins, from the University of Queensland and one of the study's co-authors, said.

"Prior to colonization, more than 250 First Nations languages were spoken, and multilingualism was the norm. Now, only 40 languages are still spoken and just 12 are being learnt by children.

"First Nations languages need funding and support. Australia only spends $20.89 annually per capita of the Indigenous population on languages, which is abysmal compared with Canada's $69.30 and New Zealand's $296.44."

Professor Bromham said that as the world enters the UNESCO Decade of Indigenous Languages in 2022, the study's findings were a vital reminder that more action was urgently needed to preserve at-risk languages.

"When a language is lost, or is 'Sleeping' as we say for languages that are no longer spoken, we lose so much of our human cultural diversity. Every language is brilliant in its own way.

"Many of the languages predicted to be lost this century still have fluent speakers, so there is still the chance to invest in supporting communities to revitalize indigenous languages and keep them strong for future generations."Language extinction triggers loss of unique medicinal knowledge

More information: Lindell Bromham, Global predictors of language endangerment and the future of linguistic diversity, Nature Ecology & Evolution (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41559-021-01604-y. www.nature.com/articles/s41559-021-01604-y

Journal information: Nature Ecology & Evolution 

Provided by Australian National University 

'Gentrification' changes the personality make-up of cities in just a few years, study suggests

by University of Cambridge

Openness and housing cost trajectories from 2006 to 2014 in three major U.S. cities

 (New York, Chicago, and San Francisco). Credit: American Psychological Association

Rising house prices may change the personality make-up of US cities within a few years, with residents becoming increasingly open-minded—not just as wealthier people move in, but also among longer-term locals.

This is according to a University of Cambridge-led study of almost two million people in the US living across 199 cities. Psychologists tracked annual personality scores over nine years (2006 to 2014) and compared the data to local housing markets.

The researchers found that just a $50 rise in a city's average housing prices saw the characteristic of "openness" increase significantly among residents (relative to other US cities). Openness is one of five major personality traits, and captures levels of curiosity and creativity.

Changes in housing prices were associated with shifts in 'Openness' in US cities where the trait was already very high compared to the rest of the country, such as New York and Chicago.

Even in San Francisco, long famous for its open-minded residents, citywide levels of 'Openness' rose sharply over the nine-year period as average housing costs jumped by almost $200.

Previous research has shown that house prices largely reflect the prevalence of "social amenities": from restaurants to theaters, sports venues, green spaces and well-performing schools.

The study's authors point out that such amenities appeal to open-minded people, and argue that greater access to these facilities helps to drive "local cultures of openness".

"Theorists going back to Karl Marx have argued that economic development drives national shifts in personality and culture," said Dr. Friedrich Götz, lead author of the study published today in the journal American Psychologist.

"We can now see how rapidly those changes occur in smaller and more nimble communities such as cities, where major cultural shifts can be experienced in just a few short years, rather than decades or centuries," he said.

The trait of 'Openness' is strongly associated with liberal votes and attitudes as well as entrepreneurial activity. It is also linked to socioeconomic status: the desire and freedom to explore new experiences can be a side effect of sufficient wealth and security.

Data modeling was used to discount socio-economic status at an individual level by incorporating education and self-reported "social class" into calculations. The team also separated out the cities from overall national and state-level trends for 'Openness'.

The psychologists then investigated two main ways that house prices and associated amenities are linked to personality shifts within urban populations.

"Selective migration" is when certain types of people move to cities or neighborhoods, having been attracted by the local culture. "Social acculturation" refers to changes in individual personalities, in this case through exposure to greater opportunities—from arts scenes to diverse cuisines—and more open-minded neighbors.

Researchers attempted to disentangle these effects by separating out the data into "established populations"—those who lived in a city prior to 2006, the earliest year in the study—and "newcomer populations": those who relocated between 2006 and 2014.

The study showed both factors at play: rising housing costs predicted a significant increase in 'Openness' among both established and newcomer populations in cities right across the US.

"Substantial personality shifts within cities can and do occur within a couple of years," said Dr. Jason Rentfrow, the study's senior author from Cambridge's Department of Psychology.

"Cities are magnets for certain types of people, even as they become increasingly unaffordable—particularly for young people. These cultural changes may go on to affect the personality of long-term residents."

"Research has shown that openness is related to economic resilience, creative capital and innovation, as well as liberal politics and arts," adds coauthor Tobias Ebert. "The geographical clustering of personality reinforces existing social and economic differences across the country. We can see this reflected in contemporary political divisions."

The study author's point to cities such as Pittsburgh: once home to blue-collar industry, it was devastated by the manufacturing collapse in the 1970s, yet by the mid-1980s had become a hub for medicine and higher education—leading to rising housing costs and a cultural transformation that continues to attract the young and open-minded.

The researchers analyzed all major personality traits, such as neuroticism and extroversion, as part of the study—but only openness was connected to housing costs. Importantly, the price of housing appears to drive local culture, but not vice versa: increases in openness did not predict more expensive housing.

Resilient personality of cities could help in a recession

More information: Local Housing Market Dynamics Predict Rapid Shifts in Cultural Openness: A 9-Year Study Across 199 Cities, American Psychologist (2021). DOI: 10.1037/amp0000812

Journal information: American Psychologist 

Provided by University of Cambridge 

16-country study shows how news shapes governments' humanitarian aid

by City University London

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A new study shows that media coverage of crises can increase governments' allocation of emergency humanitarian aid—whether or not the crisis merits it.

This is because intense, national news coverage triggers other accountability institutions (the public, civil society, elected officials) who put pressure on governments to announce additional funding.

Dr. Martin Scott (University of East Anglia), Dr. Mel Bunce (City, University of London) and Dr. Kate Wright (University of Edinburgh) interviewed 30 senior policymakers in 16 of the world's largest democratic, humanitarian donors. In 2020, these donor countries were collectively responsible for over 90 percent of all humanitarian funding.

The researchers found that news coverage only appeared to influence emergency humanitarian aid budgets. These relatively small, emergency budgets are kept in reserve to respond to rapidly deteriorating, or sudden-onset crises.

According to their interviewees, governments' annual humanitarian aid allocations—which are much larger—are unaffected by news coverage.

However, the researchers found that a lack of news coverage did influence policy-making about annual aid allocations.

This was because policymakers assumed that other governments were much more influenced by news than they were. So, they tried to compensate for what they assumed would be less funding for these 'forgotten crises'.

Dr. Wright said: "These findings have important implications for government donors, news organizations and aid agencies, and for wider understanding of how news coverage may influence foreign policy".

Dr. Bunce explained, "If you wanted to influence donors via the news media, this research suggests you should target national news outlets (rather than international or local ones). You should also target countries that put more resource into untagged emergency aid (rather than annual aid allocations). And look at countries where there are career-oriented foreign ministers running aid agencies that have limited independence".

Dr. Scott added, "For government departments seeking to resist such media influence, and defend their needs-based decision-making, they should consider building stronger public (and ministerial) understanding of humanitarian principles".Mainstream media coverage of humanitarian crises falls short, new survey finds

More information: Martin Scott et al, The Influence of News Coverage on Humanitarian Aid: The Bureaucrats' Perspective, Journalism Studies (2021). DOI: 10.1080/1461670X.2021.2013129

Provided by City University London 

 

Hate speech on social media is fueled by users' shared moral concerns

by University of Southern California

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

People whose moral beliefs and values align closely with other members of their online communities—including those on social networks Gab and Reddit—are more prone to radicalization, according to new USC research.

Researchers at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences had theorized that a high level of consistency in similar moral concerns within online communities is linked to an increase in radical intentions—that is, readiness to participate in illegal or violent political action.

In new research published this week in Social Psychological and Personality Science, they found the degree of shared moral concerns or "moral convergence" within an online cluster predicts the number of hate-speech messages posted by members.

"Our research team has looked at how morality motivates people to engage in various types of behavior, from donation during a disaster to taking extreme actions, even violence, to protect their group," said study lead author Mohammad Atari, who recently defended his Ph.D. in the department of psychology at the USC Dornsife College and is now a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University. "They feel like others are doing something morally wrong and it's their sacred duty to do something about it, even if that means posting hate speech and committing hate crimes."

Scientists first analyzed posts on an alternative social media network popular with the alt-right and right-wing extremists called Gab. The platform, which claims to champion free speech and isn't moderated for hate speech, provided the researchers with a unique opportunity to investigate the dynamics that could lead to radicalization.

They found Gab users who had a similar moral profile with their immediate group—meaning they felt similarly about core moral issues including care, fairness, loyalty, purity and authority—were more likely to disseminate hate speech and use language intended to dehumanize or even call for violence against outgroup members.

The researchers replicated the observations in the Gab study by looking at another extremist network in the online community Reddit. They analyzed a subreddit called "Incels"—involuntary celibate men who blame women for their inability to find sexual partners—and found those who were more like-minded in their morality produced more hateful, misogynistic speech.

Working together, scientists at USC and other institutions a few years ago developed a model for detecting moralized language. It's based on a prior, deep-learning framework for a computer program that can reliably identify text evoking moral concerns associated with different types of moral values and their opposites. The values, as defined by the Moral Foundations Theory, are focused on care/harm, fairness/cheating, loyalty/betrayal, authority/subversion and purity/degradation.

Moral Foundations Theory is a social and cultural psychology theory that explains the evolutionary origins of human moral intuitions based on innate, gut feelings rather than logical reasoning.

"Morality binds us together and gives our society structure and direction for taking care of those in need, and a vision for a just and prosperous future for the group. But morality also has a dark side, in that extreme forms of it can lead to the opposite of a lot of these positive principles," said Morteza Dehghani, an associate professor of psychology and computer science. He leads USC Dornsife College's Computational Social Science Lab, where he, Atari and others investigate how morality intertwines with prejudice and hate.

Social media platforms allow extremists to find each other and, as Dehghani describes, "feed each other's visions of the world and anger towards the outgroup."

Experimental studies further revealed the role of morality

In three controlled experimental studies, the research team further demonstrated that leading people to believe that others in their hypothetical or real group shared their views on moral issues increases their radical intentions to protect the group at any cost, even by resorting to violent means. When U.S. study participants were led to believe that other Americans shared their moral views, they became more willing to "fight and die" for their country and the values it stands for.

"These findings highlight the role of moral convergence and familial-like bonds in radicalization, emphasizing the need for diversity of moral worldviews within social networks," said Atari.

But, he acknowledged, that's easier said than done. More study is needed to determine the most effective interventions for online communities to introduce different views, which may hold the key to stopping radicalization.

'Stop the Steal' had roots in online radicalization

The real-world threats posed by online radicalization were recently illustrated by the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol. Those who were convinced the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from former President Donald Trump organized online under the hashtag #StoptheSteal on Facebook and on Gab, which served as a hub for organizing the insurrection.

These radicalization studies were already well underway before the Jan. 6 insurrection. Even so, Atari said the events of Jan. 6 further motivated the research team that had been trying to understand online radicalization.

He added that identifying as conservative or liberal does not necessarily predict who is predisposed to radicalization. "When people are motivated by morality, regardless of their political affiliation, it clouds their judgment," Atari said.Slamming political rivals may be the most effective way to go viral—revealing social media's 'perverse incentives'

More information: Mohammad Atari et al, Morally Homogeneous Networks and Radicalism, Social Psychological and Personality Science (2021). DOI: 10.1177/19485506211059329

Journal information: Social Psychological and Personality Science 

Provided by University of Southern California 

Why we still fall for influencers, salesmen and politicians who lie

by Bahador Bahrami, The Conversation

Capturing the public’s attention is about standing out in a crowd of influencers.

 Credit: Peshkova | Shutterstock

Our society is driven by social influence. The salesman who wants to sell you a car, the politician who wants your vote and the Tiktok influencer who wants you to "like" their videos have one thing in common: they are vying for your attention.

For scientists—in psychology, politics and computer sciences—understanding quite how we attract people's attention is a challenge. In a recent study, we found that social influence is best understood as a competition.

People often think of social influence as a one-to-one relationship between the influencer and their target. But every election has at least two candidates. Similarly, thousands of videos are uploaded on TikTok every day, each hoping to be the one that goes viral. And, every time a salesman sells a car, his competing colleagues lose a customer.

Influencing is a zero-sum game. More than how to influence people, the question is how to be more influential than others.

Game theory

We designed a laboratory model of social influence in the form of a game to be played by three people: one client and two advisers. The client has to buy one of two lottery tickets but has no information about which is better. The advisers, who have private access to such information, and compete for being hired by the client.

Our model, much like social influence in real life, is a zero-sum game: one adviser's success is the other's failure. This allowed us to use game theory to find an optimal strategy for the adviser.

Our analysis of game theory showed that a clear strategy can be formulated: if you already have influence (if you are hired), be vague and stay close to the truth. If, conversely, you are ignored, be loud, exaggerate and, if necessary, just lie to stand out.

We conducted seven experiments with more than 800 participants who played the role of the client. We found that strategic distortion of the truth outperformed honest advising in winning over and retaining individual clients in up to 80% of the time. When advisers were strategically dishonest, they also succeeded in swaying groups of clients who elected their adviser democratically in each round.

This strategy, of course, is familiar to anyone who lived through the Brexit campaign, as former UK prime minister David Cameron clearly describes in his book, For the Record. According to Cameron, Boris Johnson played precisely the card we would expect the disadvantaged candidate (the one challenging the incumbent) to play. Cameron advocated remaining in the EU, so Johnson embraced the leave campaign.

Cameron writes that Johnson was making a strategic choice to differentiate himself from the incumbents. Johnson, he says, "risked an outcome he didn't believe in because it would help his political career." And, he adds, because Johnson was certain the leave side would lose, backing it brought little risk of breaking up the government he wanted to lead one day. "It would be a risk-free bet on himself," Cameron writes.

Competition characteristics

Central to this model were the three hallmarks of competition for social influence: information asymmetry, delegation of future decisions and intractable uncertainty.

Information asymmetry occurs when influence seekers (politicians or advisers) know more about an issue than the people they seek to influence (voters or clients). In the political arena, the issues at stake are often multidimensional and too complex for people to be fully informed about. In the Brexit vote, for example, the regions most strongly favoring Leave were also—to the surprise of many voters—the most dependent on European Union markets for their local development.

Competition for social influence also often involves a delegation of power: voters or clients granting politicians or fund managers the power to make future decisions on their behalf.

Finally, predicting the future is hard. Political science writer Philip Tetlock, in his 2017 book, Expert Political Judgment shows how pundits who are regularly tasked to predict uncertain future events in finance, politics, or sports often turn out to be wrong. Competition for social influence thus tends to take place under high outcome uncertainty. Evaluating advice accuracy is difficult under high uncertainty. This creates opportunities for competing advisers to seek influence strategically because few would remember the failure of their radical but dishonest predictions.

Public support

Our findings suggest that the success of dishonesty is due to our willingness to jump to conclusions in hindsight. This chimes with what research shows on how we assess the choices we have made.

If an adviser was the only one to predict a bad outcome before it happened, we tend to think that they must have known something that others did not. While this may sometimes be true, often it is just pure luck. A strategic adviser takes advantage of this willingness we have to trust our hindsight to inflate their confidence or even, dishonestly advise against the available evidence simply to stand out.

An honest adviser, when ignored, is less effective (than their dishonest rival) in persuading the client to shift: commitment to honesty stops them from positioning themselves as a radical alternative if there is no evidence to justify it.

These kinds of strategies are repeatedly and ruthlessly employed by attention-hungry influencers because they work. Our analysis helps explain why politicians who are repeatedly found out to have lied could continue to enjoy public support. We hope that our work will generate awareness in the public and help us all to see through such manipulative and dishonest strategies and protect the citizens against them.Cheaters drawn to the opportunity to cheat

Provided by The Conversation 

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

 Fake news and fact-checking: Study examines social media use during the pandemic

by Nottingham Trent University

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Social media was used to both spread misinformation and for fact-checking during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study which explores how individuals perceive and make sense of information they encounter during times of global crisis.

Psychologists at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) carried out 24 semi-structured interviews with people aged 18–56 to understand how they made sense of and interacted with news they suspected to be fake.

According to an Ofcom report commissioned in the first week of the UK lockdown, 49% of individuals used social media to access news and information about COVID-19, and 46% stated they had seen false or misleading information related to the pandemic.

Participants in the study described how they encountered information overload in the initial weeks of the pandemic and struggled with complex messaging from official sources, so turned to 'simplified' social media news feeds.

However, they would still use various sources to triangulate the trustworthiness of news stories. These included daily UK government briefings, the World Health Organization, traditional print and broadcast media, and the social media channels of reputable organizations.

They also on relied on opinion leaders within their networks, such as "experts" in the form of social posts from medics, patients and nurses.

Some revealed that they psychologically distanced themselves from people who were perceived as generating debate about news and fake news and would avoid platforms such as Facebook, where opinion and misinformation were seen to be more prevalent, in favor of those such as Instagram and Snapchat.

Their news consumption on social media was transformed from actively engaging in content creation and sharing, to instead observing news stories as they unfolded on their social media channels.

Despite this reluctance to engage with the spread of misinformation, some participants revealed that they too had shared content before assessing the validity of information. This happened when they judged information on its ability to support social connections and on whether it would offer new insights or an amusing or positive update. Common-sense assumptions and biases—such as political views—also impacted on information appraisal.

Dr. Lee Hadlington, senior lecturer in Cyberpsychology at NTU's School of Social Sciences, said: "We know that the consequences of fake news are far from trivial. Research has already shown that it can lead to the misallocation of resources, foster feelings of inefficiency, alienation and cynicism, undermine the legitimacy of established organizations and, importantly, become a barrier to communicating essential information at a time of crisis.

"Our findings indicate that the coronavirus pandemic has acted as a perfect storm for fake news, with individuals using social media to stay social, engaging in some fact-checking and distancing themselves from people they see as "fake-newsers," or those who share fake news with their networks. However, we also saw that emotional reactions to the negative information, whether in humor, frustration, or in worry, led to information being shared."

Based on the results of the study, the researchers recommend that the social media industry, clinicians, researchers, governments, social media users and their communities join together to raise awareness of the impact of fake news on behavior and wellbeing. They also suggest that guidelines and policies are developed accordingly, including public awareness campaigns and strategies to identify fake news and curb exposure to it on social media platforms.

The paper, "Perceptions of fake news, misinformation and disinformation amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: A qualitative exploration," is soon to be published in the journal Psychology of Popular Media.Study shows verified users are among biggest culprits when it comes to sharing fake news

Provided by Nottingham Trent University 

School bullying occurs mostly among students of the same gender

by Asociacion RUVID

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

A study by the universities of Valencia (UV) and the Catholic University of Valencia finds that the harassment and the response it provokes is different among high school students depending on gender. It concludes that school bullying is not cross-cutting and that the reaction as a witness to the aggression is different: girlstend to seek outside help and boys either get involved at the time or do not act.

The boys stand out more in the "opposite answers," meaning some choose to try to cut the situation short at the moment, but others are inclined to do nothing. For their part, girls usually take an intermediate position where they discuss the situation with outsiders: teachers or relatives. It is one of the conclusions reached by researchers from the Faculty of Sciences of Physical Activity and Sport (FCAFE) of the UV Mario Alguacil, Paloma Escamilla and Sergio Aguado, in collaboration with Alba Bonet and Carlos Pérez, of the Catholic University of Valencia.

The most striking result for the authors is the verification that harassment is not cross-genre. Boys receive it from other boys and girls from other girls. In addition, the feeling of isolation or repetition in these behaviors does not change between them. That is, gender does not cause them to harass or be harassed to a greater or lesser extent.

According to Alguacil, "these data allow us not only to know the existence of situations of harassment in the secondary stage but also to quantify and classify these actions, so that we can know more what actions related to harassment are carried out by boys and girls, and what is their perception and reaction to both the harassment suffered and the one inflicted or witnessed."

"Specifically, this study provides information to better understand the differences in perception and action on gender-based harassment," says the FCAFE professor. "It's about knowing the problem more and better, as well as the variables that may be associated with it, to be more effective in both prevention and management of the actions that occur," he explains.

To achieve these results, the research group surveyed 318 high school female students and 274 high school male students. They were asked to complete a standardized, commonly used questionnaire for this type of study. Composed of 25 questions, organized in two blocks, information was obtained on the relational life of students and abuse between peers suffered, inflicted or witnessed and action taken.Teachers' sexist attitudes have a major impact on secondary education

More information: Alba Bonet Morro et al, Estudio comparativo de género sobre el acoso escolar: estrategias y acciones (Gender comparative study on bullying: strategies and actions), Retos (2021). DOI: 10.47197/retos.v44i0.88111

Provided by Asociacion RUVID 

Held up by history: Roman ruins provide building blocks for Serbian village

by Miodrag Sovilj

Archeologists work at the site right next to Stari Kostolac's coal mine and a power plant on

 the outskirts of what was once a major Roman settlement and military garrison.

Amid the devastation after World War I, Verica Ivanovic's grandfather used whatever construction materials he could find to build the family's home including, unbeknown to him, bricks from the Roman Empire.

The house and its ancient foundation are still used by the family in central Serbia's Stari Kostolac—on the outskirts of what was once a major Roman settlement and military garrison then known as Viminacium.

It was only years later that the family realised the bricks were cobbled together from the ruins belonging to structures from the once powerful empire.

Emilija Nikolic, a research associate from the Belgrade Institute of Archaeology, estimates that the bricks found on Ivanovic's house likely originate from the third or fourth century AD.

"It's kind of awkward, I know it's Roman. But everyone was doing it," Ivanovic, 82, told AFP.

The fields around Viminacium remain an archaeological gold mine teeming with ancient coins, jewellery, and other artefacts.

In an abandoned backyard near Ivanovic's home lies the remnants of an ancient Roman wall.

"We were ploughing potatoes in a field. I looked down and saw a cameo... When I turned it with my hoe, I saw a beautiful female face," said Ivanovic. "It's in a museum now."

According to archeologists, Viminacium was once the provincial capital of Rome's Moesia 

region and supported a population of roughly 30,000 inhabitants during its heyday.

Buried treasure

For centuries, residents near Stari Kostolac have used the bricks and mosaic tiles and other pieces from antiquity that were found in abundance in the area to fill everyday needs.

"Historians in the 19th century noted that a peasant from a nearby village used a sarcophagus as a pig feeder," Nikolic told AFP.

Today, the sarcophagus—which features images from the ancient Greek myth of Jason and the Golden Fleece—resides in a museum.

According to archaeologists, Viminacium was once the provincial capital of Rome's Moesia region and supported a population of about 30,000 inhabitants during its heyday.

Tens of thousands of artefacts have been unearthed from the area so far, including a Roman bath with heated floors and walls, a fleet of ships, and hundreds of sculptures.

The ancient city is also believed to have been home to one of the largest necropolises discovered in territory belonging to the former Roman empire, with about 14,000 tombs unearthed.

Viminacium started to decline following the Hun invasion in the mid-fifth century AD and was completely abandoned by the time Slavs arrived in the region at the beginning of the seventh century.

Tourists visit the necropolis at the site—scans show below lie the remnants of the entire

 ancient city—including temples, an amphitheatre, a hippodrome, a mint and an imperial 

palace.

What lies beneath

The archaeological site is also the only major Roman settlement that has no modern city built on top of it, according to experts.

"You can't see Londinium anymore because modern London is there. No Lutetia nor Singidunum—Paris and Belgrade are built on top of it," said Miomir Korac, director of the Belgrade Institute of Archaeology.

Sprawling underneath Stari Kostolac's corn fields are the remnants of the entire ancient city—including temples, an amphitheatre, a hippodrome, a mint and an imperial palace, according to extensive scannings, Korac said.

Just two to three percent of the area has been excavated and explored by experts to date.

But centuries after its fall, the ancient garrison city is under siege again.

For more than four decades, nearby mining projects, including the recent expansion of a coal project and a power plant, have increasingly encroached into the area.

Archeologist Dragan Jacanovic points out a brick bearing a Roman stamp—for centuries, 

locals have used the bricks, mosaic tiles and other pieces from antiquity found in the area

 for everyday needs.

Last year, miners unearthed several ancient ships during a dig, with archaeologists dating the oldest vessel to the first century BC.

"It has definitely put (the site) in danger, as many ancient buildings have already been destroyed by building the mine," Nikolic said. "We have saved what we could."Dutch unearth Roman canal, road near UNESCO heritage sites

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© 2021 AFP

 

Forgiveness and well-being at work can boost employee morale

by David Bradley, Inderscience

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

A new theoretical contribution to the research literature published in the International Journal of Business Excellence looks at workplace "forgiveness" and employee wellbeing and happiness. The analysis of the various factors linking forgiveness to wellbeing and the role gender plays was carried out by Rinki Dahiya of the Indian Institute of Management Sirmaur, in Himachal Pradesh, India. It leads the author to offer some useful guidance for managers hoping to boost employee morale, happiness and nurture wellbeing.

The concept of positive organizational behavior has emerged in recent years as a component of understanding how to improve business practices with a focus on the wellbeing of the employees of the business in question. Over the years, researchers have thus looked at psychological wellbeing, spiritual wellbeing, subjective wellbeing, physical wellbeing, and prosocial behavior in various environments and contexts. Moreover, recent research has homed in on the idea that determinants of life satisfaction can be seen in the context of optimism, humor, forgiveness, and finding meaning in life. The present paper looks at how forgiveness relates to happiness and wellbeing.

Dahiya found that forgiveness at work act is a predictor of happiness and also gender has a role as a moderator in this regard. The "findings suggest a need for psychological interventions to foster forgiveness and cultivate happiness in the organizational context," she writes.

Organizations might increase mistake tolerance and introduce earlier interventions when needed as well as promoting forgiveness in the workplace in order to cultivate happiness. If managers and supervisors can create a more forgiving work environment, then employee wellbeing should improve to the benefit of the workforce as a whole and to the organization's goals, and ultimately its outputs and profit margins.

Staff wellbeing programmes help social relationships and reduce bullying

More information: Rinki Dahiya, Refusing to forgive is your own loss: relationship between forgiveness and employee happiness, International Journal of Business Excellence (2021). DOI: 10.1504/IJBEX.2021.119459

Provided by Inderscience