Blowing snow contributes to Arctic warming

Peer-Reviewed Publication

WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS

When it comes to global warming trends, the Arctic is a troubling outlier. The Arctic warms nearly four times faster than the global average, and aerosols play an important role in that warming. Scientists have long known that pollutants from other regions can accumulate in the Arctic atmosphere where they alter atmospheric chemistry, absorb sunlight, and affect local weather patterns, leading to localized warming that melts ice and snow. Sea salt particles dominate aerosol mass concentration, but their production mechanisms and impact on Arctic climate have remained unclear.

Atmospheric scientists led by Jian Wang, director of the Center for Aerosol Science and Engineering (CASE) and professor of energy, environmental & chemical engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, investigated the production and impact of sea salt aerosols on Arctic warming. Their results, published Sept. 4 in Nature Geoscience, revealed abundant fine sea salt aerosol production from blowing snow in the central Arctic, increasing particle concentration and cloud formation.

“Over the past few decades, scientists have identified ‘Arctic haze’ as the primary source of aerosols in the Arctic during winter and spring. This haze results from the long-range transport of pollutants,” said Xianda Gong, first author on the study and a former postdoctoral researcher in Wang’s lab. “However, our study reveals that local blowing snow, which produces sea salt particles, contributes a more substantial fraction to the total aerosol population in the central Arctic.”

Wang’s team analyzed data collected by the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC). Such observations are difficult to obtain – the MOSAiC expedition entailed international collaboration and freezing an icebreaker into the central Arctic ice pack to drift with the sea ice for an entire year – but essential to understanding the full picture of atmospheric conditions in the Arctic.

“The MOSAiC expedition let us observe how aerosols and clouds evolve over the course of a year and led to this discovery,” Wang said. “Sea salt particles in the Arctic atmosphere aren’t surprising, since there are ocean waves breaking that will generate sea salt aerosols. But we expect those particles from the ocean to be pretty large and not very abundant. We found sea salt particles that were much smaller and in higher concentration than expected when there was blowing snow under strong wind conditions,” Wang said.

In the central Arctic, the coldest winter nights are the clearest, when heat from Earth can escape into space unimpeded. Under a cozy blanket of clouds, though, longwave radiation gets trapped and contributes to warming, so any process that leads to increased cloud formation and lingering cloudiness also boosts surface temperatures. Small aerosol particles, including those fine sea salt aerosols produced by blowing snow that Wang’s team discovered, turn out to be very good for cloud formation.

“These sea salt particles can act as cloud condensation nuclei, leading to cloud formation,” Gong said. “Considering the absence of sunlight in the winter and spring Arctic, these clouds have the capacity to trap surface long-wave radiation, thereby significantly warming the Arctic surface.”

Though scientists had not observed this phenomenon before, fine sea salt aerosols from blowing snow have always been part of the Arctic climate system. With this observational confirmation and systematic study, which revealed that sea salt particles produced from blowing snow account for about 30% of total aerosol particles, climate models can now be updated to include the effects of these fine particles.

“Model simulations that don’t include fine sea salt aerosols from blowing snow underestimate aerosol population in the Arctic,” Wang said. “Blowing snow happens regardless of human warming, but we need to include it in our models to better reproduce the current aerosol populations in the Arctic and to project future Arctic aerosol and climate conditions.”

***

Gong X, Zhang J, Croft B, Yang X, Frey MM, Bergner N, Chang RY-W, Creamean J, Kuang C, Martin RV, Ranjithkumar A, Sedlacek AJ, Uin J, Willmes S, Zawadowicz MA, Pierce JR, Shupe MD, Schmale J, Wang J. Artic warming by abundant fine sea salt aerosols from blowing snow. Nature Geoscience, Sept. 4, 2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-023-01254-8

***

This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric System Research Program (DE-SC0020259, DE-SC0021017) and NASA Radiation Sciences Program (80NSSC19K0618). Data used in this manuscript were obtained from the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) User Facility, a DOE Office of Science User Facility Managed by the Biological and Environmental Research Program. Data were also produced as part of the international Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC).

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JOURNAL

Nature Geoscience

DOI

10.1038/s41561-023-01254-8 

ARTICLE TITLE

Arctic warming by abundant fine sea salt aerosols from blowing snow

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

4-Sep-2023

 

Bit by bit, microplastics from tyres are polluting our waterways

Peer-Reviewed Publication

GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: URBAN STORMWATER PARTICLES FROM TYRE WEAR WERE THE MOST PREVALENT MICROPLASTIC, ACCORDING TO A NEW STUDY. view more 

CREDIT: KAROLINA GRABOWSKA

Urban stormwater particles from tyre wear were the most prevalent microplastic a new Griffith-led study has found.  

Published in Environmental Science & Technology, the study showed that in stormwater runoff during rain approximately 19 out of every 20 microplastics collected were tyre wear particles with anywhere from 2 to 59 particles per litre of water.  

“Pollution of our waterways by microplastics is an emerging environmental concern due to their persistence and accumulation in aquatic organisms and ecosystems,” said lead author Dr Shima Ziajahromi, a research fellow at the Australian Rivers Institute. 

“Stormwater runoff which contains a mixture of sediment, chemical, organic and physical pollutants, is a critical pathway for microplastics to washed off from urban environments during rain and into local aquatic habitats.  

“But to date, our knowledge of the amount of microplastics in urban stormwater, particularly tyre wear particles, is limited, as is the potential strategies we can use to minimise this source.”  

Tyre rubber contains up to 2500 chemicals with the contaminants that leach from tyres considered more toxic to bacteria and microalgae than other plastic polymers. 

“Due to the analytical challenges in measuring this source of microplastics in stormwater, research to date often lacks information about the actual number of tyre wear particles water samples,” said Dr Ziajahromi.  

Quantitative information of this type is crucial to improve our understanding of the amount of tyre wear particles in stormwater, assess the risk to the environment, and to develop management strategies. 

“Our study quantified and characterize microplastics and tyre wear particles in both stormwater runoff and sediment of stormwater drainage systems in Queensland,” said co-author Professor Fred Leusch, who leads the Australian Rivers Institute’s Toxicology Research Program. 

“We also assessed the effectiveness of a stormwater treatment device to capture and remove these contaminants from stormwater and evaluated the role of a constructed stormwater wetland for capturing microplastics in the sediment, removing it from stormwater runoff.  

“The device is a bag made of 0.2 millimetre mesh which can be retrofitted to stormwater drains. Although originally designed to capture gross pollutants, sediment, litter and oil and grease, it significantly reduced microplastics from raw runoff, with up to 88% less microplastics in treated water which had passed through the device.”  

Sediment samples collected from the inlet and outlet of a constructed stormwater wetland contained between 1450 to 4740 particles in every kilogram of sediment, with more microplastics in the sediment at the inlet than the outlet, indicating the wetland’s ability to remove them from stormwater.  

“Microplastics that enter constructed wetlands for stormwater drainage systems settle in the sediment and form a biofilm, leading to their accumulation over time, removing them from stormwater runoff,” said Dr Ziajahromi. 

“Urban stormwater runoff typically requires treatment for the removal of suspended solids and nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus in many jurisdictions in Australia, with some also requiring the removal of gross pollutants. However, regulations are lagging behind when it comes to microplastics and tyre wear particles.”  

“Our findings show that both constructed wetlands and the stormwater capture device are strategies that could be potentially used to prevent or at least decrease the amount of microplastics tyre wear particles being transported from stormwater into our waterways.” 

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JOURNAL

Environmental Science & Technology

DOI

10.1021/acs.est.3c03949 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Microplastics and Tire Wear Particles in Urban Stormwater: Abundance, Characteristics, and Potential Mitigation Strategies

 

Taxpayers should foot the bill if EU demands efficient removal of pharmaceuticals from wastewaters

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG

 

IMAGE: ERIK MALMQVIST, SENIOR LECTURER IN PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY, IS THE FIRST AUTHOR, AND JOAKIM LARSSON, PROFESSOR OF ENVIRONMENTAL PHARMACOLOGY, IS THE LAST NAME IN THE STUDY FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG. view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO BY MALIN FRANZÉN AND JOHAN WINGBORG.

Public sector should pay if EU demands efficient removal of pharmaceuticals from wastewaters, according to researchers at the Centre for Antibiotic Research, CARe, at the University of Gothenburg. Their argumentation analysis, published in the journal Public Health Ethics, raises important questions of responsibility.

As the use of medication increases, the problem of pollution and associated environmental impact grows as well. Pharmaceutical residues in urine and faeces are increasingly released into the environment via municipal wastewaters, posing risks to both public health and ecosystems.

Therefore, determining who should manage risks and bear the cost for more advanced wastewater treatment is a critical question. In the European Union, the guiding principle is that the polluter should pay, but researchers at CARe conclude that it would be more reasonable to let costs be borne by water consumers or taxpayers rather than pharmaceutical companies.

The European Union is expected to impose requirements for more efficient removal of pharmaceuticals at all major municipal treatment plants in Europe. Companies manufacturing medicines are often identified as those who should bear the cost, following the "polluter pays" principle. However, researchers at CARe highlight both ethical and practical limitations with this principle.

Who is the true polluter?

The core of the "polluter pays" principle is simple yet powerful: those causing pollution should bear the financial and administrative responsibility to counteract it. This not only encourages responsible behaviour, but it also seems fair that those contributing to creating a problem also contribute to its solutions. However, a crucial challenge is to identify the true polluter.

Pharmaceuticals are different from most other goods. Supranational systems approve them, states subsidize them, and regional councils and doctors decide on prescriptions before individuals can use them. Both society and individual consumers demand pharmaceuticals and thus contribute to emissions in different ways. Therefore, the justification for placing the burden of potential sewage purification solely on the manufacturer of a medicine can be questioned.

Significant societal consequences

If pharmaceutical companies are compelled to bear the costs of advanced sewage treatment, there is a substantial risk that, for purely economic reasons, they would rather refrain from selling medications in a given region. It is often challenging to replace a medication with a specific active substance with another more environmentally friendly one without jeopardizing patient benefit.

"The consequences of sales halts would, in many cases, be devastating for national healthcare. On average, it takes more than a decade for a new medicine to reach the market, and it often costs more than one billion euro. Developing 'green' pharmaceuticals is thus not a viable solution, except perhaps in the very long term," says Professor Joakim Larsson, Centre director of CARe.

Balancing responsibility and sustainability

Researchers at CARe propose a hybrid framework to balance responsibility and sustainable pharmaceutical supply and usage. This framework combines the "polluter pays" principle with a "capacity principle," according to which complex collective problems should be addressed by actors that have the financial and practical capabilities to handle them without causing excessively negative consequences for others. Within the hybrid framework, it matters less who causes the problem, and the focus is on solutions.

Upgrading sewage treatment plants to better remove pharmaceutical residues could then be a viable strategy. The importance of preserving access to clinically important medications justifies distributing the costs of upgrades among water consumers and/or taxpayers.

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JOURNAL

Public Health Ethics

DOI

10.1093/phe/phad012 

ARTICLE TITLE

Pharmaceutical Pollution from Human Use and the Polluter Pays Principle

 

Poor water quality disproportionately affects socially vulnerable communities

Peer-Reviewed Publication

IOP PUBLISHING

 

IMAGE: CLEAR GLASS OF WATER BEING FILLED view more 

CREDIT: IOP PUBLISHING

A new study published in IOP Publishing’s journal Environmental Research Letters examines the links between drinking water quality violations and social vulnerability in the United States, revealing that these violations disproportionately affect the most vulnerable communities. Approximately 70% of the population affected ranked in the highest social vulnerability category, with many different social parameters, beyond income, linked to different drinking water quality violations. 

The study, led by researchers from the Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas in Austin, used new water quality data that reflect actual water distribution, not administrative boundaries, along with improved definitions of disadvantaged communities and social vulnerability. The improved model identifies more than three times the number of affected people than predicted by current federal environmental justice assessment tools. 

While most Americans have access to safe drinking water, around one in ten people were exposed to a health-based water quality violation between 2018 and 2020. In the United States, supplying high quality water is increasingly challenging, due to an aging and underfunded drinking water infrastructure. The largest causes of health-based violations in community water systems are disinfectants and byproducts related to water treatment, followed by naturally occurring contaminants (such as arsenic and radionuclides) and human-caused contaminants such as nitrates. 

In assessing which communities and groups are most affected by water violations, previous research has been limited by data sets that are based on state and administrative boundaries that hide the cross border nature of water distribution, and by federal environmental justice assessment tools that have focused primarily on household income as an indicator of social vulnerability, potentially neglecting key, data-available aspects of vulnerability. This study instead looked at data based on community water systems across the whole country in relation to an improved measure of social vulnerability, the mSVI, developed from a tool from the Center for Disease Control, and informed by more recent literature and data analytics. 

Proposed federal drinking water infrastructure funding requires individual states to allocate over 49% of the funding to disadvantaged communities (DACs). However, states have substantial discretion in defining DACs, resulting in large variations in definitions across the US. This study suggests that a broader definition of DACs, beyond household income, should be considered, as mSVI captures three times more of the affected population than household income alone. 

Bridget Scanlon, Senior Research Scientist for The Bureau of Economic Geology at The University of Texas, says: "Our detailed analysis of the linkages of drinking water quality violations to social vulnerability can help inform guidance for effectively distributing infrastructure funding and designing interventions to ensure more equitable drinking water quality nationally.” 

Dr Scanlon published her research through a transformative agreement between IOP Publishing and The University of Texas System. This agreement enables corresponding authors at the university to publish their work in more than 70 IOP journals at no cost to them. Articles published under a transformative agreement are immediately available and free for everyone to read.  

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JOURNAL

Environmental Research Letters

DOI

10.1088/1748-9326/ace2d9 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Drinking water quality and social vulnerability linkages at the system level in the United States

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

5-Sep-2023

 

Future of land management and better landscape decision-making in UK to be showcased

Final conference for five-year Landscape Decisions Programme takes place at the Royal Society on 6 & 7 September

Meeting Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER

Insights into the future of land management in the UK and the importance of bringing together a wide range of views in the decision-making process will be highlighted at a conference to mark the end of a five-year research programme.

On 6-7 September 2023 the Landscape Decisions Programme, coordinated by the University of Leicester, will be holding its final conference at the Royal Society in London focusing on the topic of multifunctional landscapes.

It is the last major event for the programme, which over the course of 5 years has investigated how land can be managed better to realise benefits for society, individual wellbeing and the environment, both now and in the future.

Recommendations from its research include that tackling the climate emergency should involve those knowledgeable in the arts, business owners, farmers, landowners, developers and investors. It has also proposed a framework for making better and more transparent decisions about the use of our land, by encouraging decision-makers to gather evidence from four distinct viewpoints: Power and market gain relates to financial interests of organisations and people. Ecosystem services describe the value of environmental goods and services provided to society such as clean air and water. Place-based identity focuses on landscape character and the relationship between people and landscapes. The Ecocentric view seeks to treat all species equally in decision-making for the health of ecosystems and biodiversity.

The conference will showcase some of the research carried out as part of the Landscape Decisions Programme to over a hundred attendees, with speakers from academia and government to help bridge the gap between academic researchers and policymakers/stakeholders.

Keynote speakers include Sir Charles Godfray from the University of Oxford and Sophie Peter from the Institute for Social-Ecological Research, both experts on multifunctional landscapes. An exhibition of artworks curated by some of the projects that formed part of the programme will be accompanied by a debate on the power of arts for enabling transformative change in landscape decision-making.

Professor Heiko Balzter of the University of Leicester, who is coordinating the Landscape Decisions Programme, said: “The Landscape Decisions Programme has brought together a diverse community of researchers, land managers and stakeholders with the aim of improving the decisions we make about our landscapes. Our conference on 6-7 September will be the climax of a long and ground-breaking research programme. The event will take stock of what we all have learned in the process. Through panel discussions, we will examine what might come next for landscape research and land management in the UK, including England and the devolved administrations.”

The Landscape Decisions Programme, co-ordinated by the University of Leicester and funded by UK Research and Innovation, has examined how we can better make use of our land and make decisions about natural assets and the landscapes of the UK.

The programme has brought together a wide range of experts, including scientists, modellers, social scientists and artists, for a series of discussions and workshops bringing together research capable of enabling better landscape decisions.

Professor Balzter said: “It has been an immense privilege to be asked to lead this ambitious programme, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. Other research programmes will no doubt build on our legacy.”

More information on the Landscape Decisions Programme 2023 Conference: https://landscapedecisions2023.org/

 

Study confirms it: Opposites don't actually attract

A sweeping new analysis including data from millions of couples shows that birds of a feather flock together

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT BOULDER

Opposites don’t actually attract.

That’s the takeaway from a sweeping CU Boulder analysis of more than 130 traits and including millions of couples over more than a century.

“Our findings demonstrate that birds of a feather are indeed more likely to flock together,” said first author Tanya Horwitz, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience and the Institute for Behavioral Genetics (IBG).

The study, published Aug. 31 in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, confirms what individual studies have hinted at for decades, defying the age-old adage that “opposites attract.”

It found that for between 82% and 89% of traits analyzed—ranging from political leanings to age of first intercourse to substance use habits—partners were more likely than not to be similar.

For only 3% of traits, and only in one part of their analysis, did individuals tend to partner with those who were different than them.

Aside from shedding light on unseen forces that may shape human relationships, the research has important implications for the field of genetic research.

“A lot of models in genetics assume that human mating is random. This study shows this assumption is probably wrong,” said senior author and IBG Director Matt Keller, noting that what is known as “assortative mating”—when individuals with similar traits couple up—can skew findings of genetic studies.

Looking back more than a century

For the new paper, the authors conducted both a review, or meta-analysis, of previous research and their own original data analysis.

For the meta-analysis, they looked at 22 traits across 199 studies including millions of male-female co-parents, engaged pairs, married pairs or cohabitating pairs. The oldest study was conducted in 1903.

In addition, they used a dataset called the UK Biobank to study 133 traits, including many that are seldom studied, across almost 80,000 opposite-sex pairs in the United Kingdom.

Same sex couples were not included in the research. Because the patterns there may differ significantly, the authors are now exploring those separately.

Across both analyses, traits like political and religious attitudes, level of education, and certain measures of IQ showed particularly high correlations.  For instance, on a scale in which zero means there is no correlation and 1 means couples always share the trait, the correlation for political values was .58. 

Traits around substance use also showed high correlations, with heavy smokers, heavy drinkers and teetotalers tending strongly to partner up with those with similar habits.

Meanwhile, traits like height and weight, medical conditions and personality traits showed far lower but still positive correlations. For instance, the correlation for neurotocism was .11.

For some traits, like extroversion, there was not much of a correlation at all.

“People have all these theories that extroverts like introverts or extroverts like other extroverts, but the fact of the matter is that it’s about like flipping a coin: Extroverts are similarly likely to end up with extroverts as with introverts,” said Horwitz.

Rarely, opposites may attract

In the meta-analysis, the researchers found “no compelling evidence” on any trait that opposites attract. In the UK Biobank sample, they did find a handful of traits in which there seemed to be a negative correlation, albeit small.

Those included: chronotype (whether someone is a “morning lark” or “night owl”), tendency to worry and hearing difficulty.

More research must be done to unpack those findings, they said.

The trait for which couples were most likely to be similar was, not surprisingly, birth year.

But even seldom-studied traits, like how many sexual partners a person had had or whether they had been breastfed as a child, showed some correlation.

“These findings suggest that even in situations where we feel like we have a choice about our relationships, there may be mechanisms happening behind the scenes of which we aren't fully aware,” said Horwitz.

Next-generation implications

The authors note that couples share traits for a variety of reasons: Some grow up in the same area. Some are attracted to people who are similar to them. Some grow more similar the longer they are together.

Depending on the cause, there could be downstream consequences.

For example, Horwitz explains, if short people are more likely to produce offspring with short people and tall people with tall people, there could be more people at the height extremes in the next generation. The same goes for psychiatric, medical or other traits.

There could also be social implications.

For instance, some small previous studies have suggested that people in the U.S. are growing more likely to couple up with people with similar educational backgrounds—a trend that, some theorize, could widen the socioeconomic divide.

Notably, the new study also showed that the strength of correlations for traits differed across populations. They likely also change over time, the authors suspect.

The researchers caution that the correlations they found were fairly modest and should not be overstated or misused to promote an agenda (Horwitz points out that assortative mating research was, tragically, co-opted by the eugenics movement).

They do hope the study will spark more research across disciplines, from economics to sociology to anthropology and psychology.

“We’re hoping people can use this data to do their own analyses and learn more about how and why people end up in the relationships they do,” she said.

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JOURNAL

Nature Human Behaviour

DOI

10.1038/s41562-023-01672-z 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Evidence of correlations between human partners based on systematic reviews and meta-analyses of 22 traits and UK Biobank analysis of 133 traits

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

31-Aug-2023

U$A

Faster postal service linked to better voter turnout

Peer-Reviewed Publication

WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY

PULLMAN, Wash. – A more efficient U.S. Postal Service can increase voter turnout in all states regardless of their mail voting laws, according to a Washington State University study.

WSU researcher Michael Ritter analyzed election data from 2012 through 2020, when the pandemic encouraged many more people than usual to vote by mail. He found that in general more accessible mail voting laws, such as universal mail-in voting and no-excuse mail voting, increased the probability that individuals would vote. Restrictive laws, such as requiring a witness’s signature or identification for mail-in ballots, had a negative effect.

Faster postal service helped increase the likelihood of voting especially in those restrictive states – raising the probability individuals would vote by 3.42%.

“Across the board, this study shows that having better postal administration makes it more likely there will be more positive voter turnout outcomes linked to all mail voting laws,” said Ritter, lead author of the study published in the Election Law Journal. “But in states that have the most restrictive mail voting laws, having better postal administration makes a huge difference – it may not seem huge, but for individuals who sometimes are on the fence about voting by mail or not voting at all, it can tip the balance.”

For this study, Ritter created models to estimate the probability whether individuals would become voters in the 2018 and 2020 elections in connection to mail voting laws and postal service efficiency. He drew on data from midterm and presidential elections from 2012-2020, the mail voting laws of each state and the efficiency of local postal services based on their average, on-time, first class mail delivery, which can vary by zip code.

Mail delivery speed can determine whether a ballot arrives in time to be counted, Ritter said. Other research has indicated that a “non-trivial” number of mail ballots were not counted during the 2020 election because they were not delivered in time.

This study found that in states with the most restrictive mail voting laws, such as Alabama, the probability an individual would vote was 62%. This was lower than in states with universal all-mail voting, like Washington, Oregon, Utah and Colorado, where the probability of a person becoming a voter in 2018 and 2020 was 70%. For the 33 states with no-excuse absentee laws, meaning voters can request a mail-in ballot for any reason, the probability was 65%.

In addition, so-called “cure” laws pushed voter probability higher, increasing it by as much as 3.2%. These laws mean officials will contact voters if there are problems with their mail-in ballot, such as a missing signature, giving voters a chance to correct it and have their vote counted.

Postal efficiency was particularly disrupted in 2020 with the pandemic causing huge numbers of people to vote by mail while the postmaster general at the time was reducing the numbers of postal processing machines. Then-President Trump also falsely warned that mail-in voting was rife with fraud. Ritter noted that many studies have shown that voter fraud of any kind in the U.S. is very rare.

Even with the pandemic officially over and a new administration in office, disputes over mail-in voting are likely to continue, Ritter said, making evaluation of the postal administration’s role in elections even more important.

“Mail voting is very popular for the elderly, the disabled and even for individuals who just simply want more convenience to cast a ballot,” he said. “My research and research from others in the field have indicated that mail voting is a key driver of higher turnout, so it will likely continue to be very pivotal in the 2024 election.”

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JOURNAL

Election Law Journal Rules Politics and Policy

DOI

10.1089/elj.2022.0060 

ARTICLE TITLE

Assessing the Impact of the United States Postal System and Election Administration on Absentee and Mail Voting in the 2012 to 2020 U.S. Midterm and Presidential Elections

 

Does a “surprise” factor in gift-giving affect beneficiaries’ gratitude? Scientists answer

Researchers from Japan find that not expecting a gift or counterfactually imagining not receiving a gift does not really improve a beneficiary’s level of gratitude on receiving a gift

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SOPHIA UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: A NEW STUDY FROM SOPHIA UNIVERSITY, JAPAN, DEMONSTRATES THAT WHEN AN ABSENCE OF BENEFITS OR GIFTS IS SIMULATED FOR BENEFICIARIES EITHER BEFORE OR AFTER THEY RECEIVE THE BENEFITS, THERE IS NO INCREASE IN THEIR GRATITUDE. THIS ADDS TO THE LITERATURE ON UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFERENT DETERMINANTS OF THE EMOTION OF GRATITUDE. view more 

CREDIT: AKITOMO YAMAMOTO OF SOPHIA UNIVERSITY

Gratitude is a strong emotion, usually felt by a person who benefits from an intentional good deed of another person. Receiving gifts or benefits can instill a feeling of gratitude in people who receive them, i.e., beneficiaries, encouraging them to be more prosocial, while also helping to create a bond with their benefactors. This has led several researchers to examine the determinants of gratitude. Interestingly, beneficiaries often have preconceived beliefs about receiving a benefit. For instance, they may have no prior expectations of receiving a 'surprise' gift or could counterfactually imagine the absence of those benefits, despite receiving them. Although several studies have investigated the connection between expectations or counterfactual thinking and gratitude, there is insufficient information on whether imagining the absence of benefits increases beneficiaries’ gratitude upon receiving them.

In both studies Dr. Yamamoto and his co-author Masataka Higuchi, also from Sophia University, provided participants with manipulated vignettes to read as part of the simulations. While some participants received vignettes with absence simulations (absence simulation group), others received vignettes without absence simulations (control group). All participants were social psychology students at a Japanese university.

To this end, a study published in Japanese Psychological Research on 07 July 2023 investigated whether simulating the absence of benefits increases beneficiaries’ gratitude, via two psychological experiments. "Study 1 examined the effect of prior expectation of not receiving benefits, and Study 2 examined the effect of posterior counterfactual thinking regarding the benefits, with the hypothesis that simulating the absence of benefits increases gratitude in both studies," explains lead author Dr. Akitomo Yamamoto, a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Faculty of Human Sciences, Sophia University. "These studies are part of a continuous investigation into whether gratitude, which is an emotional response to others' benevolence, can be influenced by factors unrelated to the nature of the benevolence itself,” he continues.

In the first study, participants were presented with a scenario where a beneficiary (the participants themselves) may receive a gift from a benefactor. The absence simulation group is then informed that the benefactor did not prepare a gift—ergo setting no prior expectation of receiving a benefit. In contrast, the control group was informed that the benefactor did seem to prepare a certain gift. In the final vignette, both groups were told that the beneficiary receives the gift. Subsequently, the participants were asked to rate their gratitude on a nine-point unipolar scale (0-8).

In the second study, the participants read a vignette where a beneficiary (the participants themselves) received a certain benefit from a benefactor. The absence simulation group was then asked to imagine not receiving the benefit and the control group was asked to again imagine the benefit-receiving event. Both groups were asked to note down the consequences of their respective simulations and rate their gratitude.

Interestingly, the research team found that in both studies, simulating the absence of benefits did not significantly increase the participants’ gratitude as compared to the respective control groups. This negates the researchers’ original hypothesis and instead suggests that simulating the absence of benefits does not increase the beneficiaries’ feeling of gratitude.

These findings can help enhance our understanding of gratitude and how beneficiaries’ beliefs may or may not control this emotion. They could also have implications for the practice of gift-giving. "Our findings suggest that infusing your gifts with genuine thoughtfulness for the recipient, rather than focusing on peripheral elements like making it a surprise, is essential to make the recipient feel grateful," concludes Dr. Yamamoto.

 

Reference

【Title of original paper】The Effect of Simulating the Absence of Benefits on Gratitude: Prior Expectations and Posterior Counterfactual Thinking

【Journal】Japanese Psychological Research

【DOI】10.1111/jpr.12463

【Authors】Akitomo Yamamoto, Masataka Higuchi

【Affiliations】Sophia University

 

About Sophia University

Established as a private Jesuit affiliated university in 1913, Sophia University is one of the most prestigious universities located in the heart of Tokyo, Japan. Imparting education through 29 departments in 9 faculties and 25 majors in 10 graduate schools, Sophia hosts more than 13,000 students from around the world.

Conceived with the spirit of “For Others, With Others,” Sophia University truly values internationality and neighborliness, and believes in education and research that go beyond national, linguistic, and academic boundaries. Sophia emphasizes on the need for multidisciplinary and fusion research to find solutions for the most pressing global issues like climate change, poverty, conflict, and violence. Over the course of the last century, Sophia has made dedicated efforts to hone future-ready graduates who can contribute their talents and learnings for the benefit of others, and pave the way for a sustainable future while “Bringing the World Together.”

Website: https://www.sophia.ac.jp/eng/

 

About Dr. Akitomo Yamamoto from Sophia University

Dr. Akitomo Yamamoto is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Sophia University’s Faculty of Human Sciences, Department of Psychology. He has over 8 years of research experience, and has published 10 scientific articles in the field of social psychology. His academic interests include social emotion, gratitude, and indebtedness. Dr. Yamamoto received his PhD from Sophia University’s Graduate School of Human Sciences. Apart from his position at Sophia University, Dr. Yamamoto is also employed as a part-time lecturer at Bunkyo University and Toyo University.

 

Funding information

N/A

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JOURNAL

Japanese Psychological Research

DOI

10.1111/jpr.12463 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

The Effect of Simulating the Absence of Benefits on Gratitude: Prior Expectations and Posterior Counterfactual Thinking