Discriminated groups create safe spaces online

University of Gothenburg

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A study of 51 countries revealed that 38% of women had personally experienced online harassment. Bullying and harassment have led people to create their own digital safe spaces.

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Credit: Lillie Klefelt Ek

Online threats, hatred and harassment have led people who feel discriminated against to create digital spaces where they can feel safe. According to a new thesis from the University of Gothenburg, these spaces are characterised by clear rules and constant maintenance and monitoring.

Much of social life today takes place online. Unfortunately, the worst aspects of interpersonal relationships also appear in the digital world. A study of 51 countries revealed that 38% of women had personally experienced online harassment. Bullying and harassment have led people to create their own digital safe spaces, which is the topic of Nadia Ruiz Bravo's thesis, at the Department of Applied IT at the University of Gothenburg.

“Many women have shared with me their experiences at game jams, which tend to be mostly populated by men, and how they have been discriminated against for being women,” says Nadia Ruiz Bravo.

What sometimes happens is that the displaced create their own environments, free from oppression. These are called digital safe spaces. These groups are focusing on fostering support and bringing well-being to their participants.

Safe and secure

“Digital safe spaces are formed by online groups searching for somewhere to rest from harassment and oppression and where they can feel safe and secure,” says Nadia Ruiz Bravo.

One example is the Women Game Jam, organised annually since 2018 and aimed mainly at women and non-binary people. Men are not completely excluded from these events but are in the minority.

“Digital safe spaces are often created on large platforms such as Discord or Facebook with layers of security and rules set by the organisers. Digital safe spaces can be used for any number of purposes, but they are often used to escape from online harassment and find support among people who may understand what they are going through. The rules adherence is monitored by moderators in the group. Together with the organisers, they have control over the space and can, if needed, kick out or block people who don't follow the rules,” says Nadia Ruiz Bravo.

Raids against safe spaces

There are good reasons for the strict policy. There have been several cases of women's minority groups’ spaces being ‘raided.’ i.e., a rapid surprise attack often carried out by hateful groups with the intention to hijack and destroy digital safe spaces. In the case of the video game spheres, raids towards digital safe spaces created for and by women can be interpreted as an expression of clinging to old gender structures, says Nadia Ruiz Bravo.

The video game industry has evolved from the tech industry and has inherited a masculine approach that has been difficult to change. Even today, there are talented female game developers who do not seek employment in the gaming industry. In a report from 2024 the percentage of women in the industry is 23%.

“Many women do not trust their skills in game development. But once they've been in female-dominated game jams, they realise their skills are enough. They blossom and have subsequently applied for and got jobs in the video game industry,” says Nadia Ruiz Bravo.

Not only for gamers

So, these digital safe spaces can play a crucial role in individuals' lives. And it's not just in the video game industry. On several other platforms, digital safe spaces are being created. One example is a safe space created in the forum platform Reddit, where there are closed groups for people who have been sexually abused or patients with Alzheimer’s disease. These groups are highly regulated due to the sensitive themes being discussed in those spaces. What the digital safe spaces have in common is that members feel the need to be protected from something. The group creates a community where they feel they belong.

“But these spaces are sensitive. There is a risk of organisers and moderators burning out due to the intensive work required to maintain these spaces. In addition, the perception of what is safe and secure may not be shared by everyone in the group, making the maintenance difficult. That's why I recommend pausing the groups occasionally and evaluating what has happened in the group. At the same time, there is an incredible power in finding community with others all over the world. I wish more people who are in vulnerable situations could find the digital safe spaces they need,” says Nadia Ruiz Bravo.

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Method of Research

Observational study

 

Body image perceptions take shape from early childhood, psychologists reveal

Durham University

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An example of the visual stimuli used as part of the study which asked children and young adults to rate body sizes after visual exposure to different body sizes and weights.

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Credit: Durham University

Our perceptions of body image are shaped by what we see from as early as seven years old, according to new research by Durham University (UK).

These body ideals continue to be influenced by visual exposure to different body weights into adulthood, the research also found.

The results show that people’s perceptions of body weight are flexible and adult-like from seven years of age onwards and have implications for our understanding of body size and the perceptions, and possible misperceptions, of weight in health and wellbeing.

Professor Lynda Boothroyd, from Durham University’s Department of Psychology, carried out a first-of-its-kind study to examine the flexibility of body weight perceptions in children and young adults.

The study, published in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, found that children as young as seven years old adjust how heavy or light they rate other people’s bodies after seeing a series of pictures of low or high weight bodies.

The analysis uncovered a significant shift in weight perceptions after exposure to images depicting various body weights. The results showed that the manner in which our brains represent what constitutes “heavy” or “light” develops at a very young age.

The research, which involved more than 200 individuals aged seven through to adulthood, also indicated that media influences known to shape adult body perceptions can almost certainly impact children to the same degree, starting from early childhood and continuing to evolve into adulthood.

Lead author, Professor Lynda Boothroyd said: “It has been clear for many years that we need to be wary about visual media which present only a narrow range of bodies, because this affects adults’ body perceptions.

“Now we know that’s true for children, too. Even very neutral images can adjust their ideas about what is heavy or thin if they see enough of the same kind of body.”

The experimental study adds to the wealth of research at Durham University on body perception and body ideals in both children and adults.

Professor Boothroyd’s team at Durham has previously shown that adults’ ideas about what is an ‘attractive’ body weight or muscle mass are affected by visual experience. This includes the effect of television access on body perceptions among remote communities in Latin America and, in a separate study, finding that White Western women have lower body appreciation and experience greater pressure from the media to be thin compared to Black Nigerian and Chinese women across all ages.

Looking ahead, the team is now investigating how best to address body image concerns in young adults across the globe in a major £2 million (€2.5M) research project and developing novel play-based techniques to investigate children’s understandings of body weight and body ideals from a younger age.

Professor Boothroyd added: “Researchers often assume that children’s body perceptions and their ideas about body image work the same way as adults. We’ve shown that that’s true, down to seven years, for basic perceptual impacts on body weight perception. But there’s more to explore in how that converts into their own body image and their own feelings about weight."

This new study included data gathered during the University's 'Junior Scientist' event, which actively involves families from the local communities around Durham, UK, in various research and educational activities.

Additionally, the research involved stimuli provided by Northumbria University and contributions from a Post-doctoral Research Associate at the University of Manchester.

Ends

MEDIA INFORMATION

Interviews

Professor Lynda Boothroyd, Department of Psychology at Durham University, is available for interview on Monday 4 March and Tuesday 5 March and can be contacted via l.g.boothroyd@durham.ac.uk or on +44 (0)191 334 3289.

Alternatively, please contact Durham University Marketing and Communications Office on communications.team@durham.ac.uk or tel: +44 (0)191 334 8623. 

Available pictures

Pictures available via this link: https://bit.ly/3Qrv0c2  

Image 1 caption: An example of the visual stimuli used as part of the study which asked children and young adults to rate body sizes after visual exposure to different body sizes and weights.

Image 2 caption: Professor Lynda Boothroyd, Durham University.

Research paper 

Body size aftereffects are adult-like from 7 years onwards, published in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, L Boothroyd et al, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106203.

An embargoed copy of the paper is available from Durham University Communications Office. Please email communications.team@durham.ac.uk.

Additional information

• Read more related work by Professor Boothroyd on body image and body ideals.

About Durham University (UK) 

Durham University is a globally outstanding centre of teaching and research based in historic Durham City in the UK.

We are a collegiate university committed to inspiring our people to do outstanding things at Durham and in the world.

We conduct research that improves lives globally and we are ranked as a world top 100 university with an international reputation in research and education (QS World University Rankings 2025).

We are a member of the Russell Group of leading research-intensive UK universities and we are consistently ranked as a top 10 university in national league tables (Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide, Guardian University Guide and The Complete University Guide).

For more information about Durham University visit: www.durham.ac.uk/about/

END OF MEDIA RELEASE – Issued by Durham University Marketing and Communications Office 

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Journal

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

DOI

10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106203 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Body size aftereffects are adult-like from 7 years onward

Article Publication Date

5-Mar-2025

 

New study examines how physics students perceive recognition

Cornell University

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ITHACA, N.Y. – Experts see peer recognition as important to student success in physics, and a new study gives college-level physics instructors insight into how students perceive the message from their classmates that “you’re good at physics.”

Even when women receive similar amounts of recognition from peers as men for excelling in physics classes, they perceive significantly less peer recognition, the researchers found. “Men are internalizing their recognition differently than women,” said Natasha Holmes, professor of physics at Cornell University.

Holmes is corresponding author of the paper “Bias in Physics Peer Recognition Does Not Explain Gaps in Perceived Peer Recognition,” which is under embargo until 5am EST on March 5, 2025 in Nature Physics.

“This research fits into the broader goal of physics education research, to understand how we support students to make sure they are successful, and how we figure out where we can intervene,” Holmes said. “We know from the research that having teachers and parents recognize students as being good at physics is important, but peers’ recognition is a huge part. Small interactions can take place that either pull someone in or push someone out.”

With the goal of advancing physics teaching and learning, physics education research uses data-driven outcomes to explore what students are learning and how to help instructors promote student learning. The subfield has been active within physics for decades in the U.S., Holmes said, and to have this study published in a leading international physics journal signals its growth and acceptance broadly. The article is the first on physics education research to be published in Nature Physics since editors invited submissions from the subfield in March 2024.

Past studies, including at Cornell, have examined how undergraduate physics students receive recognition from peers for being good at physics; other studies have looked at how they perceive those messages.

This is the first study to examine the relationship between receiving and perceiving messages of positive recognition, said first author Meagan Sundstrom, Ph.D. ’24, a postdoctoral researcher at Drexel University. The team developed and tested three possible relationships based on prior literature, each of which could inspire future study, she said.

Sundstrom designed the study to directly compare the number of nominations students receive from their peers for being strong in their physics course (a stand-in for received peer recognition) to the extent to which students feel recognized by their peers (perceived peer recognition.) The study included more than 1,700 undergraduate students enrolled in 27 courses at eight institutions in the U.S.

Although men and women received proportional recognition from peers in their physics lab classes, men received disproportionate recognition in their physics lecture classes. But men reported significantly higher perceptions of peer recognition than women in both lab and lecture courses.

“For students receiving the same amount of peer recognition … women report significantly lower perceived peer recognition than men,” the researchers wrote.

“We learned that the place for intervention is on perception of recognition – on how students are internalizing the recognition they are receiving,” Holmes said.

The study provides a guide for further research to find out why peer recognition has different impacts, and to design and test specific classroom techniques to support all students’ sense of physics recognition, Holmes said.

In addition, factors outside physics classrooms feed into the ways students perceive themselves in science contexts.

“We are up against a lot of socio-cultural dynamics in that internalization,” Holmes said. “But to test short-term approaches within classes, I think we can broaden what it means to identify as a good physicist and to make sure there are self-reflection activities for students to break down the ways in which they are physicists.”

The study was supported by the National Science Foundation.

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Journal

Nature Physics

DOI

10.1038/s41567-025-02789-w 

Article Title

Bias in physics peer recognition does not explain gaps in perceived peer recognition

Article Publication Date

5-Mar-2025

 

For some, childhood adversity can promote resilience to anxiety disorders

Yale University

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New Haven, Conn. — Research has shown that young people who face adversity such as traumatic or stressful events during brain development are 40% more likely to develop anxiety disorders by adulthood. But most people who endure these experiences during childhood and adolescence prove to be resilient to these mental health effects.

A new Yale study finds that when this adversity occurs during brain development may affect how susceptible people are to anxiety and other psychiatric problems as adults.

According to the study, published March 5 in the journal Communications Psychology, experiencing low-to-moderate levels of adversity during middle childhood (between the ages of 6 and 12) and adolescence may foster resilience to anxiety later in life.

The researchers found that those individuals who developed resilience to mental health challenges exhibited distinct patterns of brain activation when asked to differentiate between danger and safety, a process that is known to be disrupted in people with anxiety disorders.

“Greater levels of childhood adversity are associated with higher risk of mental health problems in adulthood, but our findings suggest the story is more nuanced than that,” said Lucinda Sisk, a Ph.D. candidate in Yale’s Department of Psychology and lead author of the study.

“Our findings suggest that a distinct pattern of discrimination between threat and safety cues — specifically, greater activation of the prefrontal cortex in response to safety — is linked with lower levels of anxiety, helping us better understand the heterogeneity we see in mental health among people who experienced adversity growing up.”

For the study, the researchers assessed patterns of adversity exposure in 120 adults across four stages of development: early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Using neuroimaging technology, they examined participants’ corticolimbic circuitry (a network of brain regions that integrates emotion, cognition, and memory), extracting measures of neural activation as participants viewed cues that signaled either threat or safety. This offered insights into how the process of discriminating between danger and safety is related to exposure to adversity, they said. 

The researchers then analyzed the data using a person-centered model which identified cohesive groups among the participants. Specifically, the model identified three latent profiles among the participants: those with lower lifetime adversity, higher neural activation to threat, and lower neural activation to safety; those who’d experienced low-to-moderate adversity during middle childhood and adolescence, had lower neural activation to threat, and higher neural activation to safety; and those with higher lifetime adversity exposure and minimal neural activation to both threat and safety. Individuals in the second profile had lower anxiety than those in the other two profiles, researchers found.

“The people who showed low or moderate levels of adversity exposure in middle childhood and adolescence had statistically lower levels of anxiety than either the first group, which had the lowest levels of adversity overall, or the third group, which had the highest levels of adversity exposure,” Sisk said.

The study demonstrates that scientists can parse the variability of mental health outcomes in people who experience adversity while their brains are developing, said Dylan Gee, an associate professor of psychology (with tenure) in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and co-senior author of the study.

It also provides novel insight that will help to identify people who may be at heightened risk for developing anxiety disorders and other psychiatric problems, Gee said.

“This is one of the first studies to show both that the timing of adversity exposure really matters and what underlying neural processes might contribute to risk or resilience to anxiety following adversity,” she said. “If the same stressor occurs at age 5 versus age 15, it is affecting a brain that is at a very different point in its development.

“This study provides insight into the sensitive periods when the brain is especially plastic, and children’s experiences are likely to have the most impact on their mental health later in life,” she added. “It also indicates that the brain’s ability to effectively distinguish between what is safe and what is dangerous helps to protect against the development of anxiety disorders following childhood adversity.”

Arielle Baskin-Sommers, an associate professor of psychology (with tenure) in FAS is co-senior author on the study. Other study coauthors are Taylor J. Keding, Sonia Ruiz, Paola Odriozola, Sahana Kribakaran, Emily M. Cohodes, Sarah McCauley, Jason T. Haberman, and Camila Caballero, all of Yale; Sadie J. Zacharek of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Hopewell R. Hodges of the University of Minnesota; and Jasmyne C. Pierre of the City College of New York.

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Journal

Communications Psychology

 A sustainable iron catalyst for water oxidation in renewable energy

A breakthrough iron-based catalyst achieves near-perfect efficiency for water oxidation, offering a sustainable solution for hydrogen production

Institute of Science Tokyo

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Poly-Fe5-PCz is a promising and efficient catalyst for water oxidation, offering a viable solution for hydrogen production and energy storage.

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Credit: Science Tokyo

A newly developed pentanuclear iron complex (Fe5-PCz(ClO₄)₃) can offer an efficient, stable, and cost-effective solution for water oxidation. By electrochemically polymerizing the complex, researchers from Institute of Science Tokyo obtained a polymer-based catalyst, poly-Fe5-PCz, and achieved water oxidation with up to 99% Faradaic efficiency and exceptional stability, even under rigorous conditions. This breakthrough offers a scalable alternative to rare metal catalysts, advancing hydrogen production and energy storage for renewable energy.

Water oxidation plays a vital role in renewable energy technologies, especially in hydrogen production and artificial photosynthesis. By splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen, it provides a clean, sustainable energy source. However, replicating the efficiency and stability of natural photosynthetic systems in artificial catalytic setups—especially in aqueous environments—remains a significant challenge. Catalysts based on rare and expensive metals like ruthenium have shown high activity for water oxidation but are not practical for large-scale use due to their cost and limited availability.

To address this, a team of researchers led by Professor Mio Kondo from Institute of Science Tokyo (Science Tokyo), Japan, developed a more sustainable and cost-effective catalytic system using abundant metals. Their findings were published in Nature Communications on [Date].

The study introduces a novel pentanuclear iron complex, Fe5-PCz(ClO₄)₃, which possesses a multinuclear-complex-based catalytically active site and precursor moieties for charge transfer sites. Kondo explains, "By electrochemically polymerizing this multinuclear iron complex, we create a polymer-based material that enhances electrocatalytic activity and long-term stability. This approach combines the benefits of natural systems with the flexibility of artificial catalysts, paving the way for sustainable energy solutions."

The researchers synthesized the Fe5-PCz(ClO₄)₃ complex using organic reactions like bromination, nucleophilic substitution, Suzuki coupling reactions, and subsequent complexation reactions. The synthesized complex was characterized by mass spectrometry, elemental analysis, and single-crystal X-ray structural analysis. The researchers then modified glassy carbon and indium tin oxide electrodes by polymerizing Fe5-PCz using cyclic voltammetry and controlled potential electrolysis to afford a polymer-based catalyst, poly-Fe5-PCz. The charge transfer ability and electrocatalytic performance of poly-Fe5-PCz were evaluated through electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) experiments with oxygen production quantified by gas chromatography, respectively.

The results were highly promising. Kondo explains, “Poly-Fe5-PCz achieved up to 99% Faradaic efficiency in aqueous media, meaning nearly all the applied current contributed to the OER. The system also exhibited superior robustness and a reaction rate under rigorous testing conditions compared to relevant systems. Additionally, poly-Fe5-PCz demonstrated enhanced energy storage potential and improved electrode compatibility, making it suitable for a wide range of renewable energy applications.” Its high stability was further confirmed by long-term controlled potential experiments, a key advantage for hydrogen production and energy storage technologies.

The study's findings have significant implications for sustainable energy. The use of iron—an abundant, non-toxic metal—ensures the system is both eco-friendly and cost-effective, offering a viable alternative to precious metal-based catalysts. Its stability under operational conditions addresses a major challenge in artificial catalytic systems, where long-term catalyst degradation often limits performance. Moreover, the system's performance in aqueous environments makes it suitable for applications in water splitting.

 “Optimizing poly-Fe5-PCz synthesis and scalability could further enhance its performance, paving the way for industrial-scale hydrogen production and energy storage. Our study opens new possibilities for integrating the system into broader energy technologies, paving the way to a more sustainable future,” concludes Kondo.

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About Institute of Science Tokyo (Science Tokyo)

Institute of Science Tokyo (Science Tokyo) was established on October 1, 2024, following the merger between Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) and Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech), with the mission of “Advancing science and human well-being to create value for and with society.”

https://www.isct.ac.jp/en

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Journal

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/S41467-025-57169-Y 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Iron-Complex-Based Catalytic System for High-Performance Water Oxidation in Aqueous Media

Article Publication Date

5-Mar-2025

 

Combating deepfakes with CAPTCHA-like verification for GenAI video

CMU, MIT Researchers create CHARCHA, a secure, personalized verification protocol for generative video content

Carnegie Mellon University

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CHARCHA Protocol Actions and their backend detection

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Credit: Carnegie Mellon University

Researchers at the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), created CHARCHA ( Computer Human Assessment for Recreating Characters with Human Actions), a secure and personalized verification protocol that allows an individual’s likeness to appear in generative video content. The team was inspired to create CHARCHA to respond to ethical issues in generative AI, such as unauthorized deepfakes.

“When we realized how easy it was to scrape data from the internet and create realistic AI content without consent, we knew we wanted to develop a safeguard,” said Mehul Agarwal, co-lead researcher and 2024 Master’s of Machine Learning student at CMU. “ We are reacting to the growing ability of malicious actors to misuse generative AI and trying to stay ahead of the curve.”

The CHARCHA system was inspired by CAPTCHA’s verification legacy. Whereas CAPTCHA uses text or image tests to differentiate between humans and bots, CHARCHA relies on real time physical interactions to differentiate between them. The program asks users to perform a set of randomized physical actions in front of a webcam, such as turning their head from left to right, squinting their eyes, or smiling with teeth. The live verification process, which takes about 90 seconds, analyzes the actions to ensure that the person is present and imitating the proper requests. By ensuring the person is interacting with the system, CHARCHA prevents pre-recorded video or still images from bypassing verification.

“Built-in algorithms analyze micro-movements to verify that the user is physically present and not a simulation,” said Gauri Agarwal, co-lead researcher and CMU School of Computer Science alumni working at the MIT Media Lab. “Once it is satisfied that you’ve completed the action accurately and in real time, the program will use those images to train our model.”

The CHARCHA process offers a unique level of autonomy to the users who choose to interact with it. Through using the program, users do not have to abandon generative AI content entirely but can instead personalize music videos or other content with confidence.

“Many platforms store data indefinitely, and they have unclear policies on how AI-generated content may be used,” said Mehul. “CHARCHA shifts the responsibility to users by allowing them to verify themselves before any images can be generated. It does not rely on external privacy policies and gives people greater control over their likeness.”

Gauri and Mehul Agarwal presented CHARCHA at the 2024 Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS), where it gained significant interest from multiple industry leaders.

“I think the positive response from our audience at the conference really highlights the need for security surrounding generative AI tools,” said Gauri. “This helped confirm our belief that CHARCHA could be an essential tool for the future.”

The team has created a website to further promote CHARCHA, where users can join a waitlist to create their own music video ethically with consent.