Death Reminders

Discussing school shootings as current or historical events in social studies classrooms can be a difficult endeavour, as it requires confronting death and making sense of violent human behaviour. This chapter asserts that existential anxiety plays a role in helping us better understand these tragedies. Terror management theory (TMT) accounts for existential anxiety as a driver of human behaviour and can be a powerful conceptual tool to help students and teachers unpack the difficult subject matter of school shootings, as well as provide insight for behavioural responses that may emerge in the classroom in response to these discussions. As a result, TMT contributes a classroom of care that fosters a sense of student agency for which to imagine a preferable future.

The Difficulties the Caregivers of Cancer Patients Experience in the Covid-19 Pandemic

Purpose This is a qualitative study using interpretive phenomenological analysis to determine the difficulties experienced by caregivers of cancer patients during the Covid-19 pandemic. Methods Fourteen cancer patients were interviewed between 20 December 2020 and 20 January 2021 using maximum diversity sampling. The data were collected using semi-structured interview forms, one-on-one interviews, and online interview technique. Results The experiences of caregivers of cancer patients regarding the Covid 19 pandemic were presented under four themes, namely emotional problems, economic problems, neglect of health, and behavioural responses associated with Covid 19”. Conclusions It was found that caregivers of cancer patients were emotionally affected, faced economic difficulties, neglected their own health, and developed behavioural responses to the risk of Covid-19 during the pandemic.

Sex-specific Stress and Behavioural Responses to Human Experimenters in Rats

The sex of the experimenter may cause stress in animal models and be a major confounding factor in preclinical research. We studied the effects of the sex of the experimenter on female and male rat anxiety behaviours using thigmotaxis in the open field test, anxiety-induced changes in brain and back temperature using infra-red thermography, and alterations in plasma concentrations of stress hormones, corticosterone and oxytocin. Female rats displayed consistently exacerbated anxiety-related behaviours along with increased infrared cutaneous temperature during repeated exposure to male experimenters. Experimental stress further intensified thermal responses to a male experimenter, especially in female rats. These behavioural responses to a male experimenter in females were associated with higher circulating corticosterone and lower oxytocin levels. Similar responses were induced by a T-shirt worn by a human male. These findings suggest that emotional and physiological responses of female rats to a male experimenter are influenced by visual and olfactory cues. These results emphasize the need to standardize and report experimenter sex throughout a study to avoid ambiguity in interpretation of the results.

Behavioural responses to SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing in England: REACT-2 study

Background: This study assesses the behavioural responses to SARS-CoV-2 antibody test results as part of the REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-2 (REACT-2) research programme, a large community-based surveillance study of antibody prevalence in England. Methods: A follow-up survey was conducted six weeks after the SARS-CoV-2 antibody test. The follow-up survey included 4500 people with a positive result and 4039 with a negative result. Reported changes in behaviour were assessed using difference-in-differences models. A nested interview study was conducted with 40 people to explore how they thought through their behavioural decisions. Results: While respondents reduced their protective behaviours over the six weeks, we did not find evidence that positive test results changed participant behaviour trajectories in relation to the number of contacts the respondents had, for leaving the house to go to work, or for leaving the house to socialise in a personal place. The qualitative findings supported these results. Most people did not think that they had changed their behaviours because of their test results, however they did allude to some changes in their attitudes and perceptions around risk, susceptibility, and potential severity of symptoms. Conclusions: We found limited evidence that knowing your antibody status leads to behaviour change in the context of a research study. While this finding should not be generalised to widespread self-testing in other contexts, it is reassuring given the importance of large prevalence studies, and the practicalities of doing these at scale using self-testing with lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA).

Identifying the most effective behavioural assays and predator cues for quantifying anti-predator responses in mammals: a systematic review protocol

Background Mammals, globally, are facing population declines. Strategies increasingly employed to recover threatened mammal populations include protecting populations inside predator-free havens, and translocating animals from one site to another, or from a captive breeding program. These approaches can expose predator-naïve animals to predators they have never encountered and as a result, many conservation projects have failed due to the predation of individuals that lacked appropriate anti-predator responses. Hence robust ways to measure anti-predator responses are urgently needed to help identify naïve populations at risk, to select appropriate animals for translocation, and to monitor managed populations for trait change. Here, we outline a protocol for a systematic review that collates existing behavioural assays developed for the purpose of quantifying anti-predator responses, and identifies assay types and predator cues that provoke the greatest behavioural responses. Methods We will retrieve articles from academic bibliographic databases and grey literature sources (such as government and conservation management reports), using a Boolean search string. Each article will be screened for the satisfaction of eligibility criteria determined using the PICO (Population—Intervention—Comparator—Outcome) framework, to yield the final article pool. Using metadata extracted from each article, we will map all known behavioural assays for quantifying anti-predator responses in mammals and will then examine the context in which each assay has been implemented (e.g. species tested, predator cue characteristics). Finally, with mixed effects modelling, we will determine which of these assays and predator cue types elicit the greatest behavioural responses (standardised difference in response between treatment and control groups). The final review will highlight the most robust methodology, will reveal promising techniques on which to focus future assay development, and will collate relevant information for conservation managers.

Simulated encounters with a novel competitor reveal the potential for maladaptive behavioural responses to invasive species

During the early stage of biological invasions, interactions occur between native and non-native species that do not share an evolutionary history. This can result in ecological naïveté, causing native species to exhibit maladaptive behavioural responses to novel enemies, leading to negative consequences for individual fitness and ecosystem function. The behavioural response of native to non-native species during novel encounters can determine the impact of non-native species, and restrict or facilitate their establishment. In this study we simulated novel encounters between a widespread invasive fish species, the Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus), and a threatened native Manyara tilapia (Oreochromis amphimelas). In the first experiment single adult O. niloticus were presented with a stimulus chamber (a transparent plastic cylinder) which was empty during control trials and contained a pair of juvenile O. amphimelas in stimulus trials. In the second experiment, the reciprocal set up was used, with pairs of juvenile O. amphimelas as the focal species and adult O. niloticus as the stimulus. Both species approached the stimulus chamber more readily during stimulus trials, a behavioural response which would increase the prevalence of interspecific interactions in situ. This included physical aggression, observed from the competitively dominant O. niloticus towards O. amphimelas. Despite an initial lack of fear shown by O. amphimelas, close inspection of the stimulus chamber often resulted in an energetically costly dart response. Under field conditions we predict that naïve native individuals may readily approach O. niloticus, increasing the likelihood of interactions and exacerbating widely reported negative outcomes.