It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Saturday, August 12, 2023
Font size can 'nudge' customers toward healthier food choices
PULLMAN, Wash. -- Restaurants can persuade patrons to choose healthier foods by adjusting the font size of numbers attached to nutritional information on menus, according to a study headed by a Washington State University researcher.
Lead researcher Ruiying Cai, an assistant professor in the WSU School of Hospitality Business Management, said U.S. restaurants with more than 20 locations are already required to show the calorie content of food on their menus. By representing these values incongruously — using physically larger numbers on the page when they’re attached to lower-calorie options, and smaller numbers for high-calorie foods — Cai said businesses can successfully “nudge” customers toward healthier choices.
“When restaurants use a larger font size for the calorie content of healthy foods, even though the number itself has a smaller value, it will increase consumers’ preference to order the healthier item,” Cai said.
For the study, recently published in the International Journal of Hospitality Management, participants were asked to choose between a less healthy item like a smoked beef burger and a healthier option like a grilled chicken sandwich. They were then randomly assigned to two groups. In the first group, number values and font size rose and fell together. In the second group, the relationship between the numbers’ magnitude and their size was incongruent, meaning the font size became smaller as the number values rose and vice versa.
Researchers also posed questions to gauge how health-conscious participants were and gave varying time limits to some to measure the effect time constraints have on their decisions. Cai said the study results showed that participants in second group, who saw low calorie counts printed in large fonts, were more likely to lean toward the healthier option. Respondents who indicated they were less health-conscious were also the most affected, particularly when there was a tight timeframe to make the choice.
People who had a high level of health awareness were less likely to be swayed, Cai said, but this is likely because they already favored healthy food.
“Even if you use some of the smart tricks, it does not work as well as for those who are not so knowledgeable about health,” Cai said.
The study leverages a phenomenon called the “numerical Stroop effect,” which uses incongruity to emphasize the lower numbers and slightly slow the decision-making process, to help coax customers toward healthier menu options.
In its classic form, the Stroop effect is described as a delay in reaction time related to stimuli. For example, if the word “purple” is written in green font, it takes respondents longer to call out which color they’re seeing than if the word and the color match. Clinicians use this principle to measure attention capacity and processing speed in patients. Similarly, the numerical Stroop effect is observed when the physical size of the number does not match its actual magnitude — as when the number 50 is in a larger font than the number 80.
Restaurants have an interest in encouraging patrons to make healthier choices, Cai said. However, simply labeling the food as healthy may not have the intended effect.
“Healthy food items could be profitable for restaurants, but whenever a ‘healthy’ label is attached, people may assume it does not taste good,” she said. “We're trying to provide restaurants with subtle cues, rather than saying it out loud.”
Cai's coauthors were Laurie Wu and WSU alumna Lu Lu; both are associate professors at Temple University's Fox School of Business.
The numerical stroop effect on consumer preference to order healthy food
Addressing sustainability in a round-about way
Nestled in the heart of the University of Warwick campus, lies Britain’s 2024’s Roundabout of the Year. It has been recognised for its colourful kaleidoscope of vibrant flowers that supports a flourishing ecosystem of bees, butterflies
IMAGE: WARWICK UNIVERSITY CLOSE UP PIC 1 BY CHRIS HEADONview more
CREDIT: CREDIT CHRIS HEADON
One of the University of Warwick’s picturesque roundabouts has been crowned Roundabout of the Year 2024, recognising its impact on promoting biodiversity and protecting the local ecosystem of bees, butterflies, and insects.
Featured in ‘The Best of British Roundabouts Calendar 2024’, the roundabout has captivated the UK Roundabout Appreciation Society judges with its design and the inclusion of diverse plant species of Centaurea cyanus, Bellis perennis, Narcissus, Camassia, and Alliums.
This recognition highlights the University of Warwick’s dedication to enhancing the overall appeal and functionality of its campus. The Garden team has worked hard to combine design with practicality so that the University’s planted areas are both aesthetically pleasing and enhance the local ecosystem.
Warwick University, founded on farmland in 1965, has transformed into a cutting-edge 200-hectare campus that embraces biodiversity. Resembling a thriving mini city, the campus combines wildlife areas, including ancient woodlands and a specially planted nature reserve to mark the millennium.
As climate change challenges us all in the UK our wildlife needs places of shelter and resources to help it survive in extreme weather. Last summer’s heat wave and protracted winter caused stress on the ecosystem and gardeners at Warwick are working hard to ensure the University’s green spaces are designed to improve biodiversity while integrating nature into urban spaces.
The University of Warwick is committed to protecting and enhancing campus biodiversity and recognises the urgent need to provide suitable habitats for plants, insects, and animals to flourish amidst the challenges of climate change. The campus serves as a diverse patchwork of interconnected habitats, fostering wildlife through sensitive management.
Dr. Dave Chandler, a lecturer in entomology and ecology at Warwick’s School of Life Sciences, emphasises the importance of managing these green spaces for wildlife: “In many ways, the University campus represents much of modern Britain, where we need to manage green spaces in urban areas so that people in towns and cities can live alongside nature.
“Even in small spaces, such as roundabouts, the planting of diverse flowers, that attract insects, and other pollinators, are a crucial resource for the many species of bees and other insects that inhabit the campus and also act as food for a range of animals including birds and bats, which in turn affect the whole of the biodiversity in the campus area.”
Renowned for his remarkable contribution to celebrating British roundabouts, Kevin Beresford, President of the Roundabout Association and creator of the Best of British Roundabouts series, has been on a twelve-month quest to discover the nation's most extraordinary circular intersections.
He commented: “The University of Warwick roundabout stood out among the rest due to its unwavering commitment to environmental sustainability.
“Through meticulous planning and sustainable practices, this traffic circle serves as a reminder of the power of conservation and the beauty of nature in the UK. It is a vibrant testament to the harmonious coexistence of nature and human innovation.”
Kevin Beresford's latest creation, Best of British Roundabout Calendar 2024, serves as a captivating tribute to the artistry and enchanting beauty found in everyday landscapes. Featuring a diverse range of scenes, from awe-inspiring sculptures in Grimsby to the serene honey-coloured stone fountain in Bath, the calendar showcases the vibrant roundabout designs that are thriving across the UK.
Kelly Baker, Grounds and Gardens Manager, who leads the grounds and gardens team at the University of Warwick takes pride in the remarkable planting efforts that have contributed to this achievement.
She said, "We are deeply honoured to receive the Roundabout of the Year 2024 title, especially for our role in enhancing biodiversity."
"By initiating re-wilding efforts on our campus, creating wildlife-friendly areas, and restoring natural habitats, we are contributing to the preservation of our ecosystem. Our strategic selection and arrangement of plants and flowers ensure a continuous display of bloom and foliage throughout the seasons, promoting ecological balance and integrating nature into our urban spaces."
-ends-
Warwick university roundabout far zoom by Kingfisher Whisper Photographer
A roadmap to help AI technologies speak African languages
From text-generating ChatGPT to voice-activated Siri, artificial intelligence-powered tools are designed to aid our everyday life — as long as you speak a language they support. These technologies are out of reach for billions of people who don’t use English, French, Spanish or other mainstream languages, but researchers in Africa are looking to change that. In a study published August 11 in the journal Patterns, scientists draw a roadmap to develop better AI-driven tools for African languages.
“It doesn’t make sense to me that there are limited AI tools for African languages,” says first author and AI researcher Kathleen Siminyu of the Masakhane Research Foundation, a grassroots network of African scientists who aim to spur accessible AI tools for those who speak African languages. “Inclusion and representation in the advancement of language technology is not a patch you put at the end — it’s something you think about up front.”
Many of these tools rely on a field of AI called natural language processing, a technology that enables computers to understand human languages. Computers can master a language through training, where they pick up on patterns in speech and text data. However, they fail when data in a particular language is scarce, as seen in African languages. To fill the gap, the research team first identified key players involved in developing African language tools and explored their experience, motivation, focuses, and challenges. These people include writers and editors who create and curate content, as well as linguists, software engineers, and entrepreneurs who are crucial in establishing the infrastructure for language tools.
Interviews with the key players revealed four central themes to consider in designing African language tools:
First, bearing the impact of colonization, Africa is a multilingual society where African language is central to people’s cultural identities and is key to societal participation in education, politics, economy, and more.
Second, there is a need to support African content creation. This includes building basic tools such as dictionaries, spell checkers, and keyboards for African languages and removing financial and administrative barriers for translating government communications to multiple national languages, which includes African languages.
Third, the creation of African language technologies will benefit from collaborations between linguistics and computer science. Also, there should be focus on creating tools that are human centered, which help individuals unlock greater potential.
Fourth, developers should be mindful of communities and ethical practices during the collection, curation, and use of data.
“There’s a growing number of organizations working in this space, and this study allows us to coordinate efforts in building impactful language tools,” says Siminyu. “The findings highlight and articulate what the priorities are, in terms of time and financial investments.”
Next, the team plans to expand the study and include more participants to understand the communities that AI language technologies may impact. They will also address barriers that may hinder people’s access to the technology. The team hopes their study could serve as a roadmap to help develop a wide range of language tools, from translation services to misinformation-catching content moderators. The findings may also pave the way to preserve indigenous African languages.
“I would love for us to live in a world where Africans can have as good quality of life and access to information and opportunities as somebody fluent in English, French, Mandarin, or other languages,” says Siminyu.
###
UNESCO and the Knowledge for All Foundation supported this study through funding and administrative support.
Patterns (@Patterns_CP), published by Cell Press, is a data science journal publishing original research focusing on solutions to the cross-disciplinary problems that all researchers face when dealing with data, as well as articles about datasets, software code, algorithms, infrastructures, etc., with permanent links to these research outputs. Visit: https://www.cell.com/patterns. To receive Cell Press media alerts, please contact press@cell.com.
IMAGE: THIS ILLUSTRATION SHOWS CHATGPT AND CHEMISTS TEAMING UP TO GLEAN NEW INSIGHTS ON HOW TO MAKE MOFS, WHICH COULD HAVE APPLICATIONS IN CLEAN ENERGY.view more
CREDIT: ADAPTED FROM THE JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, 2023, DOI: 10.1021/JACS.3C05819
Developing new materials requires significant time and labor, but some chemists are now hopeful that artificial intelligence (AI) could one day shoulder much of this burden. In a new study in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, a team prompted a popular AI model, ChatGPT, to perform one particularly time-consuming task: searching scientific literature. With that data, they built a second tool, a model to predict experimental results.
Reports from previous studies offer a vast trove of information that chemists need, but finding and parsing the most relevant details can be laborious. For example, those interested in designing highly porous, crystalline metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) — which have potential applications in areas such as clean energy — must sort through hundreds of scientific papers describing a variety of experimental conditions. Researchers have previously attempted to coax AI to take over this task; however, the language processing models they used required significant technical expertise, and applying them to new topics meant changing the program. Omar Yaghi and colleagues wanted to see if the next generation of language models, which includes ChatGPT, could offer a more accessible, flexible way to extract information.
To analyze text from scientific papers, the team gave ChatGPT prompts, or instructions, guiding it through three processes intended to identify and summarize the experimental information the manuscripts contained. The researchers carefully constructed these prompts to minimize the model’s tendency to make up responses, a phenomenon known as hallucination, and to ensure the best responses possible.
When tested on 228 papers describing MOF syntheses, this system extracted more than 26,000 factors relevant for making roughly 800 of these compounds. With these data, the team trained a separate AI model to predict the crystalline state of MOFs based on these conditions. And finally, to make the data more user friendly, they built a chatbot to answer questions about it. The team notes that, unlike previous AI-based efforts, this one does not require expertise in coding. What’s more, scientists can shift its focus simply by adjusting the narrative language in the prompts. This new system, which they dub the “ChatGPT Chemistry Assistant,” could also be useful in other fields of chemistry, according to the researchers.
The authors acknowledge funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Kavli ENSI Graduate Student Fellowship and the Bakar Institute of Digital Materials for the Planet.
The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS’ mission is to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and all its people. The Society is a global leader in promoting excellence in science education and providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple research solutions, peer-reviewed journals, scientific conferences, eBooks and weekly news periodical Chemical & Engineering News. ACS journals are among the most cited, most trusted and most read within the scientific literature; however, ACS itself does not conduct chemical research. As a leader in scientific information solutions, its CAS division partners with global innovators to accelerate breakthroughs by curating, connecting and analyzing the world’s scientific knowledge. ACS’ main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.
To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org.
Washington, D.C. – Following the first stay-at-home orders issued in the U.S. to curb the spread of COVID-19, gastrointestinal viruses such as norovirus, rotavirus and adenovirus all but disappeared from California communities, and remained at very low levels for nearly 2 years. The research is published in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.
Interestingly, these viruses surged back to pre-pandemic levels in late 2022, said Niaz Banaei, M.D., professor of Pathology and Medicine (Infectious Diseases), Stanford University, and Medical Director of Clinical Microbiology Laboratory, Stanford Health Care. “Adenovirus F40/41, the adenovirus strains most frequently associated with gastroenteritis, actually jumped to levels two-fold higher than pre-pandemic levels.”
Banaei suspects that the surge in viral infections was enabled by the waning of collective community immunity from lack of exposure during the pandemic. “Something similar has been described for the surge in respiratory syncytial virus infections in 2022,” he said.
To identify changes in the prevalence of gastrointestinal pathogens, the investigators compared detection rates for community acquired gastrointestinal pathogens before, during and after California’s COVID-related shelter-in-place. To that end, they used a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) panel test called the BioFire FilmArray GI panel, which tests for 22 of the most common pathogens that cause diarrhea and analyzed about 18,000 tests that were taken from January 2018 to December 2022.
The motivation for the research was the change in the rate of positives for certain pathogens during the COVID-19 pandemic, said Banaei. “It immediately became clear that the pandemic lockdown and shelter-in-place had created a natural experiment to investigate the transmission dynamics of pathogens causing gastroenteritis.”
The research offers a unique window into the biology of gastrointestinal pathogens, raising some new research questions, said Banaei. “Why did some disappear while others persisted unaffected during lockdown? Why are some now surging to levels we haven’t seen before?” Improved understanding of these phenomena could lead to ways to interrupt pathogens’ spread, particularly in low- to middle-income countries where gastroenteritis remains a major cause of illness and death, especially among children. “It may also help us prepare for future unforeseen pandemics.”
###
The American Society for Microbiology is one of the largest professional societies dedicated to the life sciences and is composed of 30,000 scientists and health practitioners. ASM's mission is to promote and advance the microbial sciences.
ASM advances the microbial sciences through conferences, publications, certifications, educational opportunities and advocacy efforts. It enhances laboratory capacity around the globe through training and resources. It provides a network for scientists in academia, industry and clinical settings. Additionally, ASM promotes a deeper understanding of the microbial sciences to diverse audiences.
JOURNAL
Journal of Clinical Microbiology
Novel socio-environmental vulnerability index pinpoints sustainability issues in Brazilian river basins
The innovative approach highlights vulnerability to deforestation, fire and drought, as well as poverty. The results can help formulate public policies for sustainable development
FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO
IMAGE: WOMAN WASHING CLOTHES IN THE PARNAÍBA RIVER NEAR NAZÁRIA, PIAUÍ STATE, BRAZILview more
CREDIT: WILSON DIAS/AGÊNCIA BRASIL
Brazilian researchers combined environmental physical, social and economic indicators to create an index that measures a region’s vulnerability and used it to analyze the basins of the Parnaíba River and São Francisco River in the Northeast of Brazil. The index is named SEVI (for Socio-Environmental Vulnerability).
The Parnaíba and São Francisco basins are considered crucial to agricultural expansion and biodiversity conservation. They contain more than 780 municipalities and part of the semi-arid Caatinga and savanna-like Cerrado biomes, which are threatened by deforestation as well as adverse effects of climate change.
The study shows that the main obstacles to improving the socio-environmental vulnerability of the Parnaíba basin, the second largest river basin in the Northeast, are deficits in infrastructure, income, and conditions for human development, all of which impair adaptive capacity, defined by the researchers as “the ability of a system to evolve in order to accommodate environmental hazards or anthropogenic impacts”. In the São Francisco basin, the most significant causes of vulnerability are population density, soil degradation/desertification, and climate factors, especially temperature and precipitation.
These findings are reported in an article on the study published in the journal Sustainability. The authors are affiliated with the National Space Research Institute (INPE) and the National Disaster Surveillance and Early Warning Center (CEMADEN). The study was supported by FAPESP and by Forests 2020, part of the United Kingdom Space Agency’s International Partnerships Program (IPP) involving experts on forest monitoring in Indonesia, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Belize, Ghana and Kenya, as well as the UK.
“The study showed that sustainable development projects should take specific characteristics of each region into consideration and brought to light the deficiencies of some public policies. We analyzed a problem that affects agricultural areas in several countries, especially in the developing world,” biologist Rita Marcia da Silva Pinto Vieira, first author of the article, told Agência FAPESP. She was at INPE when the study was conducted.
Including socio-economic indicators allowed the researchers to strengthen the argument that sustainability is not linked only to climate, environmental factors and soil degradation but also to human activity and biodiversity.
“Vulnerability indicators typically focus on one factor in isolation. By integrating environmental and socio-economic data, we showed that vulnerability has as much to do with exposure to environmental, social and political stress as it does with the system’s capacity to adapt. The index highlights areas where vulnerability is particularly acute,” said Lincoln Muniz Alves, a climatologist at INPE and penultimate author of the article.
The last author is Jean Pierre Ometto, a senior researcher in the Impact, Adaptation and Vulnerability Division of INPE’s Department of Earth Sciences (DIIAV-CGCT).
Methodology
The SEVI index resulted from a combination of indicators relating to adaptation (human development, infrastructure and income), sensitivity (days without rain, land use and cover, temperature, and soil type), and exposure (population density and soil degradation or desertification).
The methodology was based on the environmentally sensitive areas (ESA) approach developed by MEDALUS (Mediterranean Desertification and Land Use), a project conducted in eight European Union countries in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The indicators and overall index were weighted from very low to very high.
The area of the regions analyzed totaled about 962,000 square kilometers (km²), with a population of some 20 million, mostly urban. Sixteen million people live in the São Francisco basin. The river runs through six states from Minas Gerais to the Alagoas-Sergipe border. Four million live in the Parnaíba basin.
According to the SEVI index, vulnerability levels were “very high” and “high” in 53% of the São Francisco basin, pointing to 337,569 km² with socio-environmental fragilities, partly coinciding with desertification hotspots officially recognized by the Environment Ministry. In the Parnaíba basin, the proportion was 37% (121,990 km²).
Adaptive capacity was “very low” and “low” in 57% of the area analyzed (549,830 km²). Exposure was “very high” and “high” in 62.8% and 30.7% of the São Francisco and Parnaíba basins respectively. Sensitivity was also high in a significant proportion of both (341,726 km² and 123,666 km²). These results mainly reflected population density, soil degradation, desertification, and the number of days without rain, which directly influences the risk of wildfires during the dry season.
The authors of the article expect these problems to become steadily worse as a consequence of climate change. Previous research using global models projected a drop of 46% and 26% in streamflow in the São Francisco and Parnaíba rivers respectively in the decades ahead, and socio-environmental vulnerability is set to increase significantly, especially in areas where the population is poor, as extreme weather becomes more frequent.
Furthermore, deforestation has hit the region hard in recent years. In the Cerrado, it affected 10,689 km² in 2022, more than in any year since 2015 (11,129 km²), and in the Caatinga, it increased 25% compared with 2021, according to INPE’s monitoring program (PRODES).
This year, the number of deforestation alerts for the Cerrado jumped 35% in the first five months compared with the corresponding period of 2022, according to INPE’s early warning system (DETER).
Protected areas
The researchers also analyzed conservation units located in both basins, concluding that units in the Parnaíba basin were less vulnerable. In the São Francisco basin, 32.4% of the area (12,477 km²) was highly vulnerable within a 5 km buffer zone, indicating human pressure from deforestation and burning in fully protected areas.
On the upside, Lapa Grande State Park in Minas Gerais was the most well-preserved conservation unit in the region, with low vulnerability in 84.6% of its area.
“The study pinpointed the areas with high vulnerability and emphasized the importance of conservation units. In our recommendations, we stress that the sustainable practices used in these units can also be implemented in adjacent areas,” Alves said.
For the authors, it is critically important to extend conservation units, introduce sustainable land management practices in adjacent buffer zones, and develop strategies for the protection of ecosystem services and local vegetation.
These management practices and their modernization should be shared with farmers in the region, according to the article. Many smallholders located in the areas with high socio-environmental vulnerability lack funds, and their traditional land-use practices deplete natural resources and aggravated poverty.
Contributions
According to the authors, the information on socio-environmental vulnerability with regional characteristics provided by the SEVI index contributes to support for programs such as the National Climate Change Adaptation Plan (PNA), as well as public policies aimed at rehabilitating degraded areas.
“We used specific variables for the Caatinga and Cerrado, but the methodological framework we developed for SEVI can certainly be applied elsewhere, using the peculiarities of each region and biome,” Vieira said.
About São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)
The São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) is a public institution with the mission of supporting scientific research in all fields of knowledge by awarding scholarships, fellowships and grants to investigators linked with higher education and research institutions in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. FAPESP is aware that the very best research can only be done by working with the best researchers internationally. Therefore, it has established partnerships with funding agencies, higher education, private companies, and research organizations in other countries known for the quality of their research and has been encouraging scientists funded by its grants to further develop their international collaboration. You can learn more about FAPESP at www.fapesp.br/en and visit FAPESP news agency at www.agencia.fapesp.br/en to keep updated with the latest scientific breakthroughs FAPESP helps achieve through its many programs, awards and research centers. You may also subscribe to FAPESP news agency at http://agencia.fapesp.br/subscribe.
Socio-Environmental Vulnerability to Drought Conditions and Land Degradation: An Assessment in Two Northeastern Brazilian River Basins
Social media use interventions alleviate symptoms of depression
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
Receiving therapy for problematic social media use can be effective in improving the mental wellbeing of people with depression, finds a new study by UCL researchers.
The research, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, found that social media use interventions could help adults for whom social media use has become problematic or interferes with their mental health.
Problematic use is when a person’s pre-occupation with social media results in a distraction from their primary tasks and the neglect of responsibilities in other aspects of their life.
Previous research* has suggested that social media use can become problematic when it starts to interfere with a person’s daily life and leads to poor mental wellbeing, including depression, anxiety, stress and loneliness.
To address these issues, and improve users’ mental health, social media use interventions have been developed and evaluated by researchers. Such techniques include abstaining from or limiting use of social media, alongside therapy-based techniques such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).
The researchers analysed 23 studies which featured participants from across the globe, between 2004 and 2022. They found that in more than a third of studies (39%), social media use interventions improved mental wellbeing.
Improvements were particularly notable in depression (low mood), as 70% of studies saw a significant improvement in depression following the intervention.
Therapy-based interventions were most effective – improving mental wellbeing in 83% of studies, compared to a 20% of studies finding an improvement where social media use was limited and 25% where social media was given up entirely.
Lead author, Dr Ruth Plackett (UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health), said: “Mental health issues are on the rise, as is the number of people who use social media.
“Health and care professionals should be aware that reducing time spent on social media is unlikely to benefit mental wellbeing on its own.
“Instead, taking a more therapy-based approach and reflecting on how and why we are interacting with social media and managing those behaviours could help improve mental health.”
Study author and GP Dr Patricia Schartau (UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health), added: “As primary care physicians, we should proactively explore social media use and its effects on mental health in patients who present with anxiety and/or low mood in order to give those patients the opportunity to benefit from treatment including some of the more effective interventions outlined in our review.”
In 2022 it was estimated that 4.59 billion people globally used at least one form of social media and the sites have dramatically changed how people communicate, form relationships and perceive each other.
While some studies report that social media can be beneficial to users and provide them with increased social support, other evidence links social media with depression, anxiety and other psychological problems – particularly in young people.
The researchers hope that their findings will help to develop guidance and recommendations for policymakers and clinicians on how best to manage problematic social media use.
However, further research is needed in order to investigate who may benefit most from social media use interventions.
Dr Plackett holds a Fellowship (award number MH013) funded by the the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Research Schools Mental Health Programme. This research is also independent research supported by the NIHR ARC North Thames. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.
Study limitations
Current experimental research is of low quality, with issues of selection bias making it difficult to generalise the findings.
Further experimental and longitudinal research is needed with representative samples to investigate who may benefit most from social media use interventions.
Legal restrictions placed on the amount of time young people in China can play video games may be less effective than originally thought, a new study has revealed.
To investigate the effectiveness of the policy, a team of researchers led by the University of York, analysed over 7 billion hours of playtime data from tens of thousands of games, with data drawn from over two billion accounts from players in China, where legal restrictions on playtime for young people have been in place since 2019.
The research team, however, did not find evidence of a decrease in heavy play of games after these restrictions were put in place.
The video games industry has witnessed a surge in popularity, and as many as 4 billion people are now estimated to engage in gaming worldwide each year.
Many countries across the globe have expressed concerns about the number of hours young people spend playing video games and the potential impact of this on wellbeing. In response to these concerns, in 2019 China restricted playtime for people under 18.
China is one of the first countries to explore legal means of restricting gameplay for young people with the aim of limiting the potential risks of gaming to wellbeing, and the policy was assumed to be effective, with some bodies suggesting that it had resolved issues relating to disordered gaming.
Dr David Zendle, from the University of York’s Department of Computer Science, said: "Policymakers around the world have been discussing how to understand the impact of video gameplay, particularly on young people, for some time now, and how to ensure a healthy relationship with games. The UK government, for example, has recently issued guidelines for high quality research into gaming and wellbeing to inform future decision making.
“The restrictions in China allowed us to look, for the first time, at the real behavioural impact of regulation on reducing the time people spent in gameplay and whether this policy had the desired effect.
“We found no evidence of a decrease in the prevalence of heavy play and more research is needed to understand why, but the work certainly highlights that this kind of analysis can be useful for policymakers, anywhere in the world, to move forward confidently in discussions around regulations in the digital space.”
Dr Catherine Flick, from De Montfort University, said: “We hope that the work will provide a case study for understanding how a government’s policy decisions affect - or do not affect - the lives of real people on a grand scale, and form a blueprint for future data-led public policy evaluation to lead to better and more effective policymaking.”
This research represents the first time big data has been used to evaluate the effect of public policy in games.
Leon Y. Xiao, from the IT University of Copenhagen, emphasised the importance of independent research when evaluating policymaking: “Given previous industry-affiliated claims that this policy has ‘solved video game addiction,’ it made sense in a Chinese context to consider scaling it up to other domains. In fact, the Chinese government is currently consulting on limiting screen time amongst young people by law, although parents may override those limits.
“These results now suggest that the potential effectiveness of such policymaking could benefit from being monitored by non-industry-affiliated, independent researchers.”
The research is published at a time when there are growing global efforts to regulate technology and its impact on society. The UK's Online Safety Bill, the European Parliament's rules on in-game purchases, and the ongoing focus on regulating social media in the USA, are current examples of how governments worldwide are seeking to address digital challenges, particularly concerning the protection of children. The research suggests a path forward for such efforts.
Professor Anders Drachen, from the University of Southern Denmark, emphasised the potential of this data-led approach in evaluating technology regulation, stating “It is now possible to tractably analyse billions of hours of digital behavioural data, which can help lead to a better understanding of how to develop effective policies around online behaviour. This study is an example of how we can use such data to assess whether a policy actually impacts citizens or companies in the way it is intended to.”
The research is published in the journal, Natural Human Behaviour. and was conducted by members of the Digital Observatory Research Cluster, a non-profit cross-institutional academic research group focused on delivering data-driven insights and observations about digital life.
