Covid-19 Vaccines and Institutional Trust

Major public and private laboratories entered into a race to find an effective Covid-19 vaccine. With the arrival of the vaccines, governments have to implement vaccination programs to achieve the necessary immunization levels to prevent further transmission of the disease. In this context, the ethical dilemma of compulsory vaccination vs. voluntary vaccination has been raised. Underlying this dilemma lies the problem of the ethical models on which the political decisions of governments in health matters based. The chapter proposes and argues the need to base health policy decisions on an ethical “first person” model, based on personal responsibility, that allows us to move from a normative ethic to an ethic of responsible behavior. This change in the ethical model, together with certain proposals for political action, will help us to restore institutional trust, so that the necessary levels of collective immunity against Covid-19 can be achieved through the voluntary vaccination of the citizens.

One of us or one of them? The effects of the model’s and observer’s characteristics on placebo analgesia induced by observational learning

Previous studies have proved that observational learning can induce placebo analgesia, but the factors that influence observationally induced placebo analgesia have not yet been extensively examined. The primary goal of this study was to investigate the effect of information about the role that the observed person (model) plays in the experiment on the magnitude of the observationally induced placebo effect. This study also examined the contribution of the observer’s empathy, conformity and fear of pain to the placebo analgesia induced by observational learning. The effects induced in two experimental groups and one control group were compared. Participants in the experimental groups observed a model introduced as either another participant taking part in the study or a coworker of the experimenter. The model rated the intensity of pain induced by electrocutaneous stimuli preceded by color stimuli. One-half of all participants watched a model rating pain stimuli preceded by the color orange as higher than stimuli preceded by the color blue; for the other half, the ratings were the opposite. There was no observation in the control group. Subsequently, all participants received pain stimuli of the same intensity preceded by orange and blue stimuli and rated the intensity of the experienced pain. Placebo analgesia was found in both experimental groups. However, the way the observed model was introduced to participants did not affect the magnitude of placebo analgesia. Thus, the study showed that the role played by the model is not crucial for observationally induced placebo analgesia. The examined observer’s individual characteristics did not predict the magnitude of placebo effect.

A successful person, society and civic activism

Subject. The article provides considerations on the formation and development of a successful person model in the modern Russian society. Objectives. The study is an attempt to model a successful person in the Russian society, when the ideological subsystem of the institutional matrix is changing. Methods. The study relies upon the theory of institutional matrices by S. Kirdina, theories of human and social capital. We focus on the assumption viewing a person as a carrier of social capital, which conveys a success, socio-economic position, social status, civic activism, doing good to your family and the public, confidence in people and association with your region. The empirical framework comprises data of the sociological survey of the Russian population in 2018. The data were processed through the factor analysis. Results. We devised a model of a successful person in today's Russian society, which reveals that a success, first of all, depends on the economic wellbeing and has little relation to civic activism. The potential involvement (intention, possibility, preparedness) in the social and political life significantly dominates the real engagement of people. The success has a frail correlation with constituents of the social capital, such as confidence in people and doing good to the public. Conclusions and Relevance. Based on the socio-economic wellbeing, that is consumption, the existing model of a successful person proves to be ineffective. The sustainability of socio-economic wellbeing seriously contributes to the social disparity of opportunities, which drive a contemporary Russian to a success in life.

El derecho a la información en las zonas despobladas como oportunidad de empleo y desarrollo en el medio rural: caso de los medios digitales hiperlocales en las comarcas de Aragón, España

The problem of depopulation, which is present on all political and social agendas, has received little attention from the field of Communication. In this research, this pending issue is addressed from two points of view: first, the fundamental right that citizens of rural areas have to be able to access local information and high-quality public services, and second, the possibilities of employment and settlement in rural areas that, thanks to the development of the Internet, the birth of small hyperlocal digital media is fostering in sparsely populated areas. The objective of this contribution is to analyze the case of the counties of Aragon where, in the last five years, some 30 small media outlets have appeared to guarantee local information and create jobs. With the aforementioned purpose, an exhaustive search was carried out to draw a map of digital-native hyperlocal media in Aragon and analyze their general characteristics, to thereby extract a profile of the new distribution of hyperlocal communication in rural areas of this autonomous community. This snapshot is completed with a survey of 393 local advertisers on their perception of the profitability of inserting their advertising into different media. This research allows us to conclude that the new media respond to a one-person model, created by young journalists, sometimes victims of an ERE (redundancy plan) in a traditional medium, and that they take advantage of free or low-cost digital resources to build hyper-proximal media. These media are financed mainly by institutional advertising and local companies. Each of them, however, presents significant differences that sometimes arise motivated by the demand for content or formats corresponding to the region in which they are developed. Resumen El problema de la despoblación, presente en todas las agendas políticas y sociales, ha sido poco atendido desde la Comunicación. En esta investigación se aborda este asunto pendiente desde dos puntos de vista: en primer lugar, el derecho fundamental que los ciudadanos de las zonas rurales tienen a poder acceder a información de proximidad y servicio público de calidad y en segundo lugar, las posibilidades de empleo y asentamiento en el medio rural que, gracias a internet, el nacimiento de pequeños medios de comunicación digitales hiperlocales están propiciando en zonas poco pobladas. Esta contribución tiene como objetivo analizar el caso de las comarcas de Aragón donde, en los últimos cinco años, ha aparecido una treintena de pequeños medios de comunicación que trabajan para garantizar la información de proximidad y crear empleo. Con el citado propósito, se ha realizado una búsqueda exhaustiva que permite dibujar el mapa de medios hiperlocales nativos digitales en Aragón y analizar las características generales de todos ellos, con el fin de extraer un perfil del nuevo mapa de la comunicación hiperlocal en zonas rurales de dicha comunidad autónoma. Se completa la fotografía con una encuesta a 393 anunciantes locales sobre su percepción acerca de la rentabilidad de insertar su publicidad en distintos medios. Esta investigación permite concluir que los nuevos medios responden a un modelo unipersonal, creado por jóvenes periodistas, en ocasiones víctimas de un Expediente de Regulación de Empleo (ERE) en un medio tradicional y que aprovechan los recursos digitales gratuitos o de bajo coste para construir medios de hiperproximidad. Estos medios están financiados mayoritariamente por publicidad institucional y de empresas locales. Cada uno de ellos, no obstante, presenta significativas diferencias que, a veces, surgen motivadas por la propia demanda de contenidos o formatos de la comarca en la que se desarrollan.

Destination Fascination and Destination Loyalty: Subjective Well-Being and Destination Attachment as Mediators

Following the Reasonable Person Model, this study examines the effects of destination fascination on subjective well-being and destination attachment as well as looking at the subsequent outcome of destination loyalty. A total of 936 responses were collected from tourists to national parks (302), forest recreational areas (300), and theme parks (334). The results of this study prove the effect of destination fascination on improving subjective well-being and destination attachment and shows the effects of subjective well-being and destination attachment on enhancing destination loyalty. Subjective well-being and destination attachment fully mediated effects from destination fascination to destination loyalty. Moreover, extensive validity of the proposed model was verified by engaging different destination types. The findings of this study enrich the base of knowledge about destination fascination in the tourism academy and contributes practical implications for destination management and marketing.

“Moulding his human personality”: Personality Change and Formation to Priesthood in the Catholic Church

The official documents on formation to priesthood in the Catholic Church encourage the use of personality psychology. Generally, the documents understand human personality to be dynamic. What does this mean in the light of the contemporary debate on the psychology of personality change? This article attempts to summarize the salient features of this debate, pointing out its relevance to priestly formation. Supporting a “whole-person model” of personality as proposed by Dan McAdams, the article considers the possibility of personality change at some levels in the context of religious experience facilitated by seminary formation. This article is also aimed at enlightening formation guides to make an informed decision in the choice of appropriate models of personality in the accompaniment of their candidates.

The Person Model Theory and the Question of Situatedness of Social Understanding

Humans are hyper-social beings, highly dependent on others and on successfully interacting with them. Which theory can adequately describe our ability to understand others? In the literature we have an intense debate among proponents of theory-theory, simulation theory, and interaction theory. I argue first that none of these accounts is adequate but that we need to go in the direction of what I call the “person model theory.” The second important question is which types of embodiment (or further aspects of 4E) are systematically relevant for social understanding according to the person model theory? I argue that there are clear cases of embodiment of social understanding, while extendedness and/or enactment seem to be only clearly implemented in early infancy. Furthermore, 4E features of being embodied, enacted, extended, or embedded can only be ascribed to an implementation, a token of a specific type which makes the 4E features intensely context-dependent.