Palestinian digital rights and Big Tech accountability in the context of genocide

IFEX Articles
7amleh – Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media
18 September 2024

Graphic content / A man wearing bloodstained clothes speaks on his phone outside of a hospital after a deadly Israeli strike, in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip, 9 July 2024. Bashar TALEB / AFP via Getty Images

The report explores how digital platforms violate rights by systematically censoring Palestinian voices and pro-Palestinian content during the Gaza genocide.

This statement was originally published on 7amleh.org on 16 September 2024.

7amleh – The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media, after almost one year of the war on Gaza, published a new report titled “Palestinian Digital Rights, Genocide, and Big Tech Accountability”. This report highlights the extensive use of technology in committing and exacerbating human rights violations, both by the Israeli government, which has utilized artificial intelligence to target Palestinians, and by tech companies, which have played a significant role in facilitating censorship, withholding information, and indirectly contributing to the efforts of the Israeli government in the context of the ongoing genocide in Gaza over the last year. The report compiles and analyses one year of Palestinian digital rights violations, and emphasizes the urgent need for immediate action to protect digital rights, and for developing accountability mechanisms for tech policies to prevent genocide.

The report examines the role of digital platforms in violating digital rights amidst the genocide through systematic censorship of Palestinian voices and pro-Palestinian content. These violations are facilitated by discriminatory policies and restrictions on the social media accounts of Palestinian journalists and content creators. 7amleh, through its platform 7or – The Palestinian Observatory of Digital Rights Violations, documented over 5,100 cases of digital censorship, and spread of harmful content on major platforms such as Meta and X between 7 October 2023 and September 2024. Additionally, the spread of disinformation campaigns was highlighted and shown to undermine freedom of expression, access to information, and the right to security, with false information being used to justify collective punishment against Palestinians and hinder humanitarian aid efforts while more than two million people in Gaza face the threat of starvation.

The report’s investigations revealed that some online platforms profit financially from harmful advertising content. For instance, Facebook, owned by Meta, ran targeted ads inciting the assassination of individuals and advocating for the forced expulsion of Palestinians from the West Bank to Jordan. Furthermore, YouTube’s advertising policies were found to be non-compliant with human rights standards. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs promoted advertisements about the ongoing war on Gaza on YouTube, reflecting its ideology to audiences in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, with a budget of $7.1 million in two weeks after 7 October 2023, in violation of the platform’s own policies.

The report also delves into how artificial intelligence, data collection, surveillance, and automation are interconnected in warfare and have an adverse impact on Palestinian digital rights in the context of Gaza. It underscores the necessity of holding big tech companies accountable and the importance of establishing strict regulations to prevent the use of these technologies in committing international crimes and violations. Israel’s use of internet and wireless communication shutdowns as an illegal warfare tactic during its military campaign in Gaza, aimed at disrupting vital internet and communication services for Palestinians and targeting critical infrastructure, is also documented. The report addresses the historical context of this tactic and its violation of international humanitarian law, presenting it as a major obstacle to documenting severe human rights violations in Gaza.

The report calls for an immediate end to the war as a necessary condition for advancing the protection of Palestinian human and digital rights. It stresses that public and private sector actors must actively collaborate to put an end to the systematic and deliberate discriminatory policies and practices online against Palestinians and those defending Palestinian human rights globally. The report also presents a set of recommendations directed at big tech companies, online platforms, telecommunications companies, and international stakeholders.

For the full report, please visit the link here.

Iranian hackers tried but failed to interest Biden's campaign in stolen Trump info, FBI says

Eric Tucker And David Klepper, The Associated Pressa day agoa day ago

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump makes a campaign stop at Pubkey Bar and Media House, Wednesday, Sept.18, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Iranian hackers sought to interest President Joe Biden's campaign in information stolen from rival Donald Trump's campaign, sending unsolicited emails to people connected to the Democratic president in an effort to interfere in the 2024 election, the FBI and other federal agencies said Wednesday.

There's no evidence that any of the recipients responded, officials said, preventing the hacked information from surfacing in the final months of the closely contested election.

The hackers sent emails in late June and early July to people who were associated with Biden's campaign before he dropped out. The emails “contained an excerpt taken from stolen, non-public material from former President Trump’s campaign as text in the emails,” according to a U.S. government statement.

The announcement is the latest effort to call out what officials say is Iran’s brazen, ongoing work to interfere in the 2024 election, including a hack-and-leak campaign that the FBI and other federal agencies linked last month to Tehran. The Justice Department has been preparing charges in that breach, The Associated Press has reported.

The FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have said the Trump campaign hack and an attempted breach of the Biden-Harris campaign are part of an effort to undermine voters’ faith in the election and to stoke discord.

The Trump campaign disclosed on Aug. 10 that it had been hacked and said Iranian actors had stolen and distributed sensitive internal documents. At least three news outlets — Politico, The New York Times and The Washington Post — were leaked confidential material from inside the Trump campaign. So far, each has refused to reveal any details about what it received.

Politico reported that it began receiving emails on July 22 from an anonymous account. The source — an AOL email account identified only as “Robert” — passed along what appeared to be a research dossier that the campaign had apparently done on the Republican vice presidential nominee, Ohio Sen. JD Vance. The document was dated Feb. 23, almost five months before Trump selected Vance as his running mate.

In a statement, Morgan Finkelstein, a spokesperson for Kamala Harris’s campaign, said the campaign has cooperated with law enforcement since learning that people associated with Biden’s team were among the recipients of the emails.

“We’re not aware of any material being sent directly to the campaign; a few individuals were targeted on their personal emails with what looked like a spam or phishing attempt,” Finkelstein said.

Eric Tucker And David Klepper, The Associated Press

Social media companies at odds with national sovereignty: Standoff between X, South American states

While social media enables instantaneous flow of information globally, they sometimes become subject of controversy for contradicting local legislation, laws and sovereign rights

Dilara Karatas |18.09.2024 - TRT/AA




US billionaire Elon Musk's X social media platform has recently been at odds with several countries, with X's dispute with two populous South American countries, Brazil and Venezuela, being the most recent examples.


With the increasing development of technology, more than 5 billion people around the world have become social media users. While these interactive and multidimensional platforms for communication and information sharing provide instant information flow globally, they sometimes become the subject of controversy for contradicting local legislation, laws and sovereign rights.

The owners of social media platforms, which have become increasingly powerful in cyberspace, are also trying to shape and direct public opinion.

The most striking example of this is the way Musk has used X to publicize his views in these conflicts.


Musk has used X to comment on political developments both in the US and around the world, engaging in a debate with the Venezuelan president over the elections, and in Brazil, challenging binding laws and accusing a Supreme Court judge of censorship.

In the first part of the dossier, titled Social media companies at odds with national sovereignty, Anadolu compiled the problems X has experienced with the Brazilian and Venezuelan governments and the measures taken by South American countries.

Musk withdraws X's representative in Brazil

X, one of the most preferred social media platforms in the world, has been inaccessible since late August in Brazil, where it has more than 20 million active users.

The Brazil-X dispute began in April when Brazilian Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes ordered the suspension of hundreds of X accounts for spreading disinformation about the January 2023 raid on the Congress Palace by far-right Jair Bolsonaro supporters.


Musk initially reacted but ultimately complied with Moraes' decision. Then, in April, Moraes asked X to block several accounts accused of spreading misinformation about Bolsonaro's defeat in the 2022 general election.


This time, Musk announced that they would not comply with this request, arguing that the X representative was “threatened with arrest” if he did not comply with “censorship orders” in Brazil, and announced that he had decided to close his office in that country immediately.

Fines imposed on X were collected from Starlink and X's frozen accounts


Under Brazilian law, foreign companies doing business in Brazil must have a legal representative in the country who acts as a bridge between the company and local authorities. The legal representative has the authority to sign contracts on behalf of the foreign entity, conduct legal investigations, and accept legal subpoenas.

Musk's platform was operating in the country with a local legal representative and office in line with Brazilian law.


However, after X withdrew its representative in the country, the Brazilian Supreme Court gave the company 24 hours to make a new appointment, announcing that otherwise access to the platform would be banned. However, X failed to appoint a legal representative within the given deadline.


The court then banned access to the social media platform X in the country, stating that this decision would be valid until a representative was appointed and fines were paid.

After Musk announced that they would not comply with the decision, Starlink, the satellite internet system owned by Musk, announced that it would allow its 250,000 users in Brazil to continue using X, but reversed this decision after assets of the companies were frozen.

Brazil then decided to collect fines from the frozen accounts of Starlink and X.

Musk harshly responded to the move, saying: “There is no legal basis for this whatsoever. Starlink is a different company with different shareholders. Moraes, the charlatan in judges' robes, cannot even cite a law that Starlink has broken!”

On Sept. 13, the Supreme Court announced the collection of the total fine from the frozen accounts and ordered the lifting of the freeze on Starlink and X's bank accounts.


Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva also reacted to Musk's stance against local legislation in Brazil, commenting that the world does not have to tolerate his “extreme right-wing views” because he is rich.

Musk's ‘election rigged’ reaction ignites spark

Venezuela was another South American country that Musk got into a controversy with.

From July 27 to August 1, Musk made 32 direct posts against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on his X account and made indirect posts by responding to other users.

After Maduro won the presidential election in his country for the third time on July 28, Musk argued that “the election was rigged” and took this view to X with harsh comments directly targeting Maduro, sparking the war of words between the two.

Musk, who openly supported Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado in his posts on X, reposted the post in which Argentine President Javier Milei described Maduro as a “dictator” with the phrase “Shame on you, dictator Maduro.”


In another post, the US billionaire wrote: “I'm coming for you, Maduro. I'll take you to Gitmo (Guantanamo Bay) on a donkey.” His use of the expression was also met with reaction from many users.

In response, Maduro declared Musk Venezuela's “archenemy” and said: “Do you want a fight, Elon Musk? I am ready, I am the son of Bolivar, the son of Chavez, I am not afraid of you.”

Musk responded sarcastically, saying that if he won the duel, he would ask Maduro to resign from the dictatorship and send him to Mars for free with SpaceX.


On August 9, Maduro ordered a 10-day access ban on X, with the phrase “Get out of Venezuela for 10 days, X. Get out, Elon Musk.”


Is X politically neutral?

When Musk tried to buy Twitter in April 2022, he argued that he did so because Twitter had failed to fulfill its potential as a “platform for free speech.”

Shortly after buying Twitter, Musk emphasized that the platform needed to be “politically neutral to deserve the public's trust.”

However, experts believe that Musk, who has the most followers on X with 196.6 million, is increasingly using the social media platform as a microphone to spread his political views.


*Writing by Efe Ozkan

Africa needs its own medical research for its health issues, experts say

September 18, 2024
By Mohammed Yusuf

 Scientists at the Africa Health Research Institute in Durban, South Africa, work on a variant of the COVID-19 virus on Dec. 15, 2021. Some health experts in Africa are saying the continent needs to do more of its own research on the ailments most affecting Africans.


Addis Ababa, Ethiopia —

One of the hurdles to improving health care systems for African countries is the shortage of scientists and lack of meaningful medical research on the continent, experts say.

An organization hopes to change that by enabling researchers and policymakers in three large African countries to develop more extensive and relevant research.

According to a 2017 report by the World Economic Forum, Africa is home to 15% of the world’s population and 25% of the world’s disease burden — but produces just 2% of the world’s medical research.

The report said of the medical research that does occur, much of it fails to prioritize diseases or health problems most pressing for Africans.

A group of African health researchers and institutions are now pushing for the continent’s medical research to be more focused on the continent’s own medical problems.

The African Population and Health Research Center is bringing together scientists, academics, policymakers and government officials from Ethiopia, Kenya and Nigeria.

Their goal is to strengthen African leadership in research and development, ensuring that the findings from these researchers are relevant and accessible to decision-makers, leading to better health care systems across the continent.

Catherine Kyobutungi, head of the organization, said African-led research can help solve health problems on the continent much more easily and quickly.

"If we want the research to be done by Africans in Africa on African issues, that is [how] the priorities for what research should be done are defined, not just by academics, but by the people who are going to use that research for decision-making,” she said.

"What we are trying to achieve is to shift what research is and what it is for and to create an army of African scientists that do research to solve African problems in real time, not after 50 years," Kyobutungi said.

Dr. Hadiza Galadanci, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Bayero University in Nigeria, said her country accounts for about 28% of maternal deaths worldwide each year.

She and researchers from four African countries, Birmingham University in the United Kingdom and the World Health Organization published research on the best way to save women who were dying from postpartum hemorrhage, or excessive bleeding after childbirth. Their innovation — a calibrated obstetric drape, which is placed beneath a birthing mother — allows physicians to collect and precisely measure blood and fluid loss.

"The drape is just put under ... the woman when she's going to deliver. And then, as soon as she delivers, any blood that comes out goes to the drape. So, we have an objective assessment,” Galadanci explained, saying that the process allows for more specific treatment.

“When we did this, we found out that we could reduce the rate of severe [postpartum hemorrhage] leading to maternal death by 60%."

African researchers face challenges ranging from a lack of reliable data and funding to poor infrastructure to cultural and religious issues.

With the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Africa Research Connect was developed to connect and enhance the visibility of scientists, institutions, policymakers and donors.

Jude Igumbor, an associate professor at Wits School of Public Health in South Africa, wants to improve the visibility of African scientists and their work.

"What we give African scientists is they are able to find each other for collaboration,” he said.

The African Population and Health Research Center is calling on donors to fund African institutions and researchers directly instead of going through other organizations, saying that doing so helps the money create opportunities and hone the skills of researchers on the continent.

LORD OF WAR

America Wants to be an “Arsenal of Democracy”

The National Interest

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Support for Ukraine is hardly a liability in an election year.

by Melinda Haring Follow Melinda Haring on TwitterL Scott Cullinane Follow @ScottPCullinane on TwitterL John Jameson

September 18, 2024 

In a December 2023 interview with Radio Free Europe, Washington Post foreign affairs columnist David Ignatius said, “Europeans worry whether America [is] reverting to a neo-isolationist, anti-globalist, America-first country.” 

Rightfully so. Allies across the globe see a chaotic presidential campaign combined with dissension, angry exchanges, and stalled votes in Congress, especially the ones related to military assistance to Ukraine. Some of that angst was heard at the recent NATO Summit held in Washington.

Despite the noise, American values haven’t shifted. The United States is still the “arsenal of democracy,” and there’s still overwhelming bipartisan public support for policies that help democratic allies fight oppression. How do we know this is true? We called the American people and asked them. 

This wasn’t a poll; it was a call to action. In April, prior to the vote on Ukraine funding, Winning Connections, a Washington, D.C.-based firm, called thousands of Americans from all walks of life on behalf of the U.S. aid and advocacy organization Razom for Ukraine. They asked one question related to funding for Ukraine:

“Do you think Congress should do more to help Ukraine?”

When they received a call, tens of thousands of Americans not only said “yes” to more U.S. support for Ukraine, but they also were willing to be connected to their member of Congress to tell their elected leaders to back the people who were fighting Putin’s aggression.

Connecting Ukraine supporters to their members of Congress was only one tactic Razom employed to remind elected leaders that the American people support both freedom at home and abroad. Among other approaches, Razom placed a large billboard calling for help to support Ukraine near Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) home church in Benton, Louisiana.

These reminders to Johnson and others in Congress about American values helped bring votes for aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan to a floor vote.

For merely bringing the Ukraine aid bill to the floor, Johnson faced attacks from fringe elements within his own party, including a discharge petition vote that could have cost him his job. 

Nevertheless, the bill to provide $60.8 billion for Ukraine passed by an overwhelming margin: 311-112. Bills for aid to Israel and Taiwan also passed by large margins. In stark contrast, Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who proposed providing $0 to Ukraine, called the Ukraine aid package “a steaming pile of bullshit” and brought the motion to vacate to the floor in an effort to remove Johnson was booed. Her vote failed 359-43.

Moreover, not long after the Ukraine vote, Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE), Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), and Sen. Peter Ricketts (R-NE), who had backed the Ukraine aid package, faced opponents in a primary held on May 14. There was no backlash to their vote for the aid package. In fact, they won by an overwhelming margin. The same can be said of Rep. Erin Houchin (R-ID), who also backed aiding Ukraine. In Utah’s GOP Senate primary to fill Mitt Romney’s seat held on June 25, Rep. John Curtis (R-UT), who supported aid to Ukraine, defeated Trent Staggs, who ran on a Ukraine-skeptic platform. Others in competitive races, like Texas Republican Tony Gonzales, who backed the aid package, also won against an anti-Ukraine challenger. 

Being pro-Ukraine is not a liability; quite the opposite. Polling by the Reagan Institute released this summer backs this up. 

But just because the votes for foreign assistance have public backing doesn’t cancel the noise, especially in a major election year. Plus, Russia, China, and Iran are spending billions on disinformation campaigns in the United States and around the globe to undermine the will of the electorate and sow discord. Further evidence of this was just revealed by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence during a July media briefing summarizing intelligence on foreign threats to the election.

In 1940, when the United Kingdom was fighting the evils of Hitler’s Germany alone, President Franklin D. Roosevelt used the phrase “arsenal of democracy” in a national radio address to explain why Americans should provide military supplies to the UK in the fight against fascism. Eighty-four years later, U.S. support for foreign assistance to freedom fighters overseas in Ukraine and elsewhere holds firm. The American people told us so.

Scott Cullinane is the Director of Government Affairs at Razom for Ukraine. 

Melinda Haring is a Senior Advisor at Razom for Ukraine and tweets @melindaharing.

John Jameson is the President and Founder of Winning Connections, a national direct voter contact firm.

Image: Phil Pasquini / Shutterstock.com

Sacred chapel destroyed during German Peasants’ War rediscovered

Image Credit : LDA

By:Mark Milligan
Date: September 18, 2024
Archaeology

Archaeologists from the State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology (LDA) of Saxony-Anhalt have rediscovered the Mallerbach Chapel at the site of the Kaltenborn monastery.

Between 1524 to 1525, a large number of peasants, urban lower classes, and lesser nobles living in the German-speaking areas in Central Europe rebelled against a combination of economic, social, and religious factors. These include:
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Economic hardship and inequality: Peasants faced heavy burdens from taxes, dues, and rents imposed by landlords, the church, and secular rulers.


Feudal oppression: Many peasants grew increasingly resentful of the limitations placed on their freedoms by feudal lords, including restrictions on hunting, fishing, and access to communal lands.

Religious influence: The Reformation inspired many peasants who saw in it a call for social and economic reform against a corrupt church.


Legal grievances: Peasants sought greater control over local governance and justice. They were frustrated by the arbitrary decisions made by their lords and demanded more influence over the laws and rules that governed their daily lives.

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Image Credit : LDA

Following the outbreak of the Peasants’ War, insurgents from the nearby villages of Riestedt and Emseloh plundered the Kaltenborn monastery near Allstedt in the German district of Mansfeld-Südharz, leading to the monastery’s decline and eventual dissolution in 1538.


According to a press statement by the LDA: “It’s destruction – an act of rebellion against the Cistercian convent of Naundorf, which was in charge of the Chapel of St. Mary and to which the Allstedt residents were subject to taxes – can be seen as the first flare-up and harbinger of the coming uprising of the ‘common man’ against the authorities.”

Recent excavations at the monastery site have located the 12th/13th century Mallerbach chapel, a sacred place of worship for pilgrims who came to witness a weeping image of the Virgin Mary.

Archaeologists have uncovered the original floor plan of the chapel, which measures around 17 metres in length with a rectangular choir and semicircular apse. Excavations have also found the altar foundations, as well as traces of burning from the time of the German Peasants’ War.

Header Image Credit : LDA

Sources : State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology (LDA)

Marxists.orgwww.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1850/peasant-war-germany/

The Peasant War in Germany by Frederick Engels 1850

Jun 6, 2023 ... The Peasant War in Germany was the first history book to assert that the real motivating force behind the Reformation and 16th-century peasant war was socio- ....

The hidden health risks of styrene and ethylbenzene exposure

by TranSpread

 SEPTEMBER 18, 2024

Associations of UBE-S/EB with the prevalence and incidence risk of T2DM. Credit: Eco-Environment & Health (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.eehl.2024.07.001

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a critical public health issue, with its prevalence expected to rise sharply worldwide. Recent evidence points to environmental pollution, specifically exposure to hazardous chemicals like styrene and ethylbenzene, as a contributing factor for the disease.

Found in plastics, synthetic rubbers, and resins, these pollutants are pervasive in the environment and pose significant health threats. Addressing these challenges requires a deeper understanding of how environmental and genetic factors combine to influence T2DM risk.

A new study, published in Eco-Environment & Health, followed 2,219 adults from the Wuhan-Zhuhaicohort over six years to investigate the effects of styrene and ethylbenzene exposure on T2DM development. Using urinary biomarkers and genetic risk scores, the study assessed the combined impact of environmental exposure and genetic predisposition.

The findings demonstrate that exposure to styrene and ethylbenzene significantly elevates the risk of T2DM. The research highlights that individuals with high exposure levels had a substantially increased risk, which was further intensified by genetic susceptibility. Participants with both high exposure and high genetic risk faced the greatest likelihood of developing T2DM, illustrating a potent additive interaction.

This suggests that the joint impact of environmental pollutants and genetic factors on T2DM is more severe than their individual contributions, underscoring the need to control environmental exposures, particularly for those with genetic vulnerabilities.

Dr. Bin Wang, an author of the study, commented, "Our research provides critical insights into how environmental pollutants like styrene and ethylbenzene exacerbate the genetic risk of T2DM. Understanding the dual influence of genetic and environmental factors is essential for improving public health strategies aimed at protecting high-risk groups."

The study's implications emphasize the urgency of stricter regulation of pollutants such as styrene and ethylbenzene. By informing public health policies and focusing on reducing pollutant exposure, particularly in vulnerable populations, these findings can pave the way for more effective prevention strategies.

Additionally, recognizing the gene-environment interaction in T2DM can foster more personalized and precise approaches to diabetes management and prevention, benefiting those with high genetic risk profiles.

More information: Linling Yu et al, Styrene and ethylbenzene exposure and type 2 diabetes mellitus: A longitudinal gene-environment interaction study, Eco-Environment & Health (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.eehl.2024.07.001

Provided by TranSpread

Air pollution may affect lupus risk

Study shows political leanings influence happiness, meaning, and psychological richness

by University of Florida

SEPTEMBER 18, 2024

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Psychologists have long found that conservatism is linked to happiness and meaning in life, but a new study reveals that liberalism is associated with its own mental upside: psychologically rich and interesting lives.

The findings are published in the Journal of Personality.

"No one was looking at a third dimension of a good life. A life full of a variety of enriching, perspective-changing experiences," said Erin Westgate, Ph.D., a University of Florida professor of psychology and co-author of the new study. "Yes you want your life to be happy and meaningful. But you want it to be interesting as well."

By surveying thousands of people across the U.S. and South Korea, Westgate and her collaborators at other institutions replicated the established link between conservatism and both meaning and happiness. But they found for the first time that a psychologically rich life is more associated with liberal traits.

The surveys focused on ideology, not partisanship. Although the questionnaires asked people to rate their conservatism or liberalism, they did not ask about voting preferences or alignment with political parties.

Happiness is associated with lots of positive feelings and good days. Meaning stems from feeling like you have made a difference and contributed to your community. The third dimension, psychological richness—which Westgate and her co-authors defined in earlier research—is associated with new experiences and learning.

All three factors of "the good life" are correlated with one another. A happy person is more likely to lead a meaningful, psychologically rich life and vice versa. But by analyzing six different surveys within their single study, Westgate and her co-authors were able to uncover the underlying associations between political ideology and the three factors of a life well lived.

Westgate collaborated on the study with psychologists at the University of Chicago, Rutgers University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Kyung Hee University in South Korea.

More information: Shigehiro Oishi et al, Differing worldviews: The politics of happiness, meaning, and psychological richness, Journal of Personality (2024). DOI: 10.1111/jopy.12959

Journal information: Journal of Personality 

Provided by University of Florida Why we're so bad at daydreaming, and how to fix it

Can toddlers help explain the origins of our bias for wealth?

by Jason Pohl, University of California - Berkeley

 SEPTEMBER 18, 2024

Credit: cottonbro studio from Pexels

Income and wealth inequality in the U.S. remain near all-time highs. Analysts say this disparity is a "major issue of our time." Experts have spotlighted deep policy failures fueling the problem and helpful economic fixes to alleviate the suffering.

Now researchers say our biases favoring the rich over the poor may take root earlier than was previously believed—perhaps when we are very young toddlers.

A new study led by a UC Berkeley psychologist suggests that biases towards those with more resources can be traced to beliefs formed as young as 14 months. However, researchers say a preference for richer people may not necessarily be driven by kids' positive evaluations of them.

Instead, it might be caused by a negative assessment of those with less.

"Taken together, this suggests that somewhere early in this second year of life—12 to 15 months of age—we're really seeing the development of these wealth-based biases come into play," said Arianne Eason, a UC Berkeley assistant professor of psychology and the paper's lead author. "And once they come in, they are relatively strong."

The research findings were published this month in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

Through a series of seven experiments, the team measured how toddlers demonstrated preferences for people with differing amounts of particular kinds of resources they desired—toys and snacks. Besides a bias toward the more "wealthy" person who had more resources, the children showed dislike and avoidance of those whom researchers labeled in the experiments as the "poorer" individuals.

Together, the results point to the deep-seated ways humans form ideas about what to value.

The research was partly inspired by Eason's previous work with children. In graduate school, Eason worked in a lab that studied how infants and children thought resources were and should be distributed. That research consistently demonstrated that young toddlers and preschoolers generally preferred people who distributed resources equally. Wealth-based biases, in contrast, were thought at the time to emerge later in development, perhaps through direct conversations and socialization.

But Eason increasingly wondered less about how people distribute resources and more about how children understood the mere possession of them. To find answers, Eason and her collaborators focused on young children at an age when learning about the social world happens rapidly.

To begin, they needed to determine whether toddlers even retained information about who had more items that were a proxy for "wealth." They introduced 35 children to two people in a room, both of whom had a clear bowl. One of the bowls was filled with things like toys or snacks; the other was almost empty.

Later, each person brought out a new bowl and left the room. This time, though, the bowls were opaque. While the participants couldn't see how many items were in the bowls—or if there were any toys or snacks at all—they were significantly more likely to select the bowl belonging to the person who had previously had more. It was clear that the young toddlers could retain that information.

Next, researchers wanted to test what they did with the knowledge and how it factored into deciding who to help when grown-ups had a shortage of resources—in this case, blocks to build a tower. Toddlers were more likely to choose the person who earlier in the study had more resources. That indicated a longer-lasting preference for those individuals who were wealthier.

Over and over, the children showed that they tracked wealth, preferred to help those who were richer and were more likely to play with those who had more resources.

The rich kept coming out ahead.

"It's very clear that toddlers can track well and have these behavioral preferences in favor of people who have more," Eason said, adding that the effects were diminished for those younger than about 13 months of age.

The team then tracked the eye movements of the young toddlers as a video played on a screen. An adult on the screen doled out unequal amounts of resources—Legos and crackers, this time. Initially, the children's gaze was barely different. But then they listened to either a positive recording that said of the adult in the video, "She's a good girl, she did a good job," or a negative one that said, "She's a bad girl, she did a bad job."

The ones who heard the positive message spent their time looking equally at the rich and the poor individuals. Meanwhile, those in the negative message group focused more of their attention on the poorer person.

"It's not that toddlers had a preference for rich people," Eason said. "They may have actually had a dispreference for poor people."

Eason and her co-authors say their work shows that undoing wealth inequality will require a concentrated effort among adults to change the way young children think about and act toward poorer people. That must happen, they say, with the help of people and institutions in the kids' lives who can help combat the negative attitudes that children begin noticing around the time they're learning to walk.

"These are early-ingrained tendencies," Eason said. "That means we have to work hard to undo them and put in a lot of concerted effort. But that doesn't mean we should shy away from it."

To be sure, part of the wealth-based bias could be linked to evolution, she said. Perhaps humans naturally gravitate toward those with resources that will help keep them alive.

But Eason said there's more at play. Her research points to systemic ways we should begin thinking about inequality, and the origin of that wealth-based bias "starting point." That's the only way to combat the biases among many adults that benefit the wealthy and perpetuate policies against the poor.

"Just because wealth biases occur in the second year of life doesn't mean that that has to be the way the world is," Eason said. "We are highly flexible as people. We can build policies that go against some of our initial tendencies in order to create the outcomes we want to see."

More information: Arianne E. Eason et al, The haves and have-nots: Infants use wealth to guide social behavior and evaluation., Journal of Experimental Psychology: General (2024). DOI: 10.1037/xge0001567

Journal information: Journal of Experimental Psychology 

Provided by University of California - Berkeley 

Scientists Just Discovered How Many Chemicals In Food Packaging Can Leach Into Humans

“Exposure to these materials can cause issues for human health.”

By Korin Miller

Published: Sep 18, 2024

When you're on the go, it’s pretty convenient to grab a packaged snack. But new research finds that a slew of chemicals from that the wrappings can wind up in your body.

The study, which was published in the Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology, discovered that thousands of chemicals from food packaging can leach into the items themselves.

That doesn't sound great—and it's not. But how concerned about this should you be? A toxicologist explains.

Meet the expert: Jamie Alan, PhD, an associate professor of pharmacology and toxicology at Michigan State University.
What did the study find?

For the study, researchers looked at 14,000 chemicals that come into contact with food during the packaging process and compared that to worldwide databases on human exposure to potential chemical toxins.

From there, the researchers analyzed biomonitoring databases that look for the presence of chemicals in blood, pee, breast milk, and tissue samples, among other things. They also looked at large health and nutrition databases and compared their information.

The researchers found 25 percent of the known food contact chemicals can be found in human bodies. That included 194 chemicals from human biomonitoring programs, including 80 that have hazardous properties the researchers labeled as being “of high concern.”

The findings “highlight opportunities for improving public health,” the researchers wrote in the study.

Which chemicals were found in the body?

There were a lot of different chemicals found in the body, but some of the biggest included bisphenol A (BPA), perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and phthalates.

Are the chemicals used in food packaging harmful to human health?

Some are worse than others. BPA, for example, is a known endocrine disruptor that’s been linked to behavioral disorders in kids, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, among other things.

PFAs are also known hormone disruptors, while phthalates have been linked to everything from obesity to cancer.

But the science around this is evolving, meaning we're learning more about these chemicals with time, says Jamie Alan, PhD, an associate professor of pharmacology and toxicology at Michigan State University.
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“In general, it is pretty well-accepted that exposure to these materials can cause issues for human health,” Alan says. “We also know that many people have been exposed to many of these compounds throughout their lifetime. What we don’t have a great handle on is how these materials cause health issues and we also don’t have a great idea of what level of exposure is concerning.”

Still, Alan says that the findings are “concerning, for sure.”

How can I avoid chemicals from food packaging?

It’s important to point out that chemicals are everywhere, making them tough to avoid. But when it comes to chemicals in food packaging, Alan says the best way to avoid them is to limit how much foods you eat that come from a package. That can mean buying loose produce at the grocery store or shopping at your local farmer’s market, if one exists near you.

Additionally, "glass food storage seems to be a bit safer" than plastic, Alan says. She also recommends not heating up food in plastic containers and using water filters on your tap whenever possible.


“Taking steps to minimize exposure is important,” Alan says. “Also, in general, our body is well equipped to handle expected levels of environmental insults.”

Still, Alan says, “we need more data.”