Effects of Perceptions of Climate Change and Flood Risk on Coping Behavior: A Case Study of Taipei, Taiwan

Globalization and population growth have put great pressure on the environment over the last few decades, and climate change has increased associated negative effects. Researchers examine the interactions between human and the environment. Among them, the relationship between place attachment and pro-environmental behavior has attracted particular research attention. However, few studies have addressed the relationships among flood risk perceptions, place attachment, and climate change coping behavior in a densely populated urban area. This study examines the effects of perceptions of climate change and flood risk on coping behavioral intention, and determines whether place attachment plays a mediating or moderating role therein in Taipei, the flood-prone capital city of Taiwan. A total of 1208 questionnaires were collected. An analysis of the mediation effects based on a three-level regression model (Phase I) suggested that place attachment is not a mediator. Adjustment of the model and analysis of moderation effects using structural equation modeling (Phase II) suggested no moderation effect. In Phase III, the mediation effect was reexamined, with the replacement of dependent variables (adaptation/mitigation) with high-effort/low-effort coping behaviors, and one dimension of place attachment was replaced with four dimensions thereof (place dependence and place identity, place satisfaction, place affect, place social bonding). The results thus obtained reveal that the paths of place satisfaction exhibit significant mediating effects between attitudes and high-effort coping behavior. Some paths exhibit significant mediating effects between perceptions and low-effort coping behavior through place satisfaction. Another four paths exhibit partial significant mediating effects through place dependence and place identity and place social bonding. These results suggest that affective attachment of people to local places results in a behavioral tendency to protect or improve those places. The main contribution of this study is its support of meta-analyses of the effects of each dimension of place attachment to provide a better understanding of the effects of place attachment on flood risk perception and coping behavior.

genomicSimulation: fast R functions for stochastic simulation of breeding programs

Simulation tools are key to designing and optimising breeding programs that are many-year, high-effort endeavours. Tools that operate on real genotypes and integrate easily with other analysis software are needed for users to integrate simulated data into their analysis and decision-making processes. This paper presents genomicSimulation, a fast and flexible tool for the stochastic simulation of crossing and selection on real genotypes. It is fully written in C for high execution speeds, has minimal dependencies, and is available as an R package for integration with R's broad range of analysis and visualisation tools. Comparisons of a simulated recreation of a breeding program to the real data shows that the tool's simulated offspring correctly show key population features. Both versions of genomicSimulation are freely available on GitHub: The R package version at https://github.com/vllrs/genomicSimulation/ and the C library version at https://github.com/vllrs/genomicSimulationC

Self-Management of Diabetes in Black Men: The Flint MANUP Intervention Study

The story of John Henry, the “steel-drivin’ man”, is well known to Black men in the United States. John Henry is considered a hero because he demonstrated tremendous strength and self-determination. The MANUP diabetes program used the John Henryism, defined as high-effort active coping in the face of adversity, as the basis of a diabetes intervention for Black men. MANUP conducted four community-based focus groups identifying topics of concern to Black men with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Interestingly, the men reported that high-effort active coping was crucial for successful diabetes self-management. MANUP then developed and implemented a longitudinal culturally targeted self-management program for 33 Black men with T2D in Flint, Michigan. MANUP included discussion groups, physical activity, and an app incorporating text-messaging, group-chat, and a blood glucose monitoring dashboard to improve glycemic control (A1c). This single-group, repeated measures intervention assessed A1c three times over a six-month period. Improvements in A1c were observed at: baseline – time 2: 8.9% vs 8.6%, p=0.14; time 2 – time 3: 8.6% vs 8.1%, p=0.21; and baseline – time 3: 8.9% vs 8.1%, p=0.005. After controlling for age and insulin use, the significant reduction in A1c over 6 months remained (p=0.01). These findings demonstrate that combining mobile health technology and moderate physical activity with culturally targeted discussion topics can improve T2D self-management and reduce A1c in Black men. More community-driven longitudinal intervention studies that improve diabetes self-management among Black men are needed to achieve gender and racial health equity.

Challenging the notion of a task-negative network: default mode network involvement under varying levels of cognitive effort

Everyday cognitive functioning is characterized by constant alternations between different modes of information processing, driven by fluctuations in environmental demands. At the neural level, this is realized through corresponding dynamic shifts in functional activation and network connectivity. A distinction is often made between the Default Mode Network (DMN) as a task-negative network that is upregulated in the absence of cognitive demands, and task-positive networks that are upregulated when cognitive demands such as attention and executive control are present. Such networks have been labelled the Extrinsic Mode Network (EMN). We investigated changes in brain activation and functional network connectivity during repeated alternations between levels of cognitive effort. Using fMRI and a block-design Stroop paradigm, participants switched back and forth between periods of no effort (resting), low effort (word reading, automatic processing) and high effort (color naming, cognitive control). Results showed expected EMN-activation for task versus rest, and likewise expected DMN-activation for rest versus task. The DMN was also more strongly activated during low effort contrasted with high effort, suggesting a gradual up- and down-regulation of the DMN, depending on the level of demand. The often reported anti-correlation between DMN and EMN was only present during periods of low effort, indicating intermittent contributions of both networks. These results challenge the traditional view of the DMN as solely a task-negative network. Instead, the present results suggest that both EMN and DMN may contribute to low-effort cognitive processing. In contrast, periods of resting and high effort are dominated by the DMN and EMN, respectively.

Auditing versus monitoring and the role of commitment

This paper studies the effect of timing and commitment of verification in a principal-agent relationship with moral hazard. To acquire additional information about the agent’s behavior, the principal possesses a costly technology that produces a noisy signal about the agent’s effort choice. The precision of this signal is affected by the principal’s verification effort. Two verification procedures are discussed: monitoring where the principal verifies the agent’s behavior simultaneously with his effort choice and auditing where the principal can condition her verification effort on the realized outcome. As it is well known, the principal prefers to audit the agent’s behavior if she can commit to her verification effort at the time of contracting. The main contribution of this paper is to highlight the importance of commitment by the principal to her verification effort. In particular, I show that, when the principal cannot commit to her verification effort ex-ante, the principal strictly prefers monitoring to auditing if the gains from choosing high effort are sufficiently high.

Learned Industriousness as a Translational Mechanism of Excess Goal Pursuit: An Example in Eating Disorders

Researchers have long grappled to understand the persistence of behaviors that are non-hedonic and, ostensibly, aversive. At times, such behaviors can be taken to excess in the form of psychopathology. Eating disorders characterize a prototype of psychiatric disorders in which behaviors that most people find unpleasant (e.g., restrictive eating, excessive exercise) are rigidly and repeatedly performed. The learned industriousness theory, which has roots in behavioral neuroscience, provides a theoretical account for such phenomena. Informed by humans and animal data, this theory posits that effort (intense physical or mental activity) can be conditioned to acquire secondary rewarding properties through repeatedly pairing high-effort behavior with reward. Over time, effort sensations would become less aversive and more appetitive because they signal impending reward, increasing eagerness to engage in effortful behavior. In this manuscript we: 1) review biobehavioral data supporting learned industriousness; 2) highlight evidence that this theory may account for persistence of certain eating disorder behaviors; and 3) consider clinical and research implications of this model, including the translation to other psychiatric presentations.

The role of conspiracy beliefs for COVID-19 prevention: A meta-analysis

While conspiracy theories about COVID-19 are proliferating, their impact on health-related responses during the present pandemic is not yet fully understood. We meta-analyzed correlational and longitudinal evidence from 53 studies (N = 78,625) conducted in 2020 and 2021, demonstrating under what conditions COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs influence prevention responses. Conspiracy beliefs were associated with reluctance toward prevention measures both cross-sectionally and over time. They primarily reduced high-effort and pervasive responses (vaccination, social distancing), whereas low-effort responses (wearing masks, hygiene) seemed unaffected. Alarmingly, conspiracy beliefs had an increasing effect on prevention responses as the pandemic progressed and predicted support for alternative treatments that lack a scientific basis (e.g., chloroquine treatment, complementary medicine). Conspiracy beliefs are a non-negligeable and growing threat to public health.

First impression biases in the performing arts: taste-based discrimination and the value of blind auditioning

I develop a game-theoretic framework to study the repercussions of an evaluator’s bias against a specific group of applicants. The evaluator decides upfront between holding an informed or a blind audition. In the latter, the evaluator learns neither the applicant’s ability nor the gender. I show that, above a threshold bias, the evaluator prefers a blind audition to provide high effort incentives exclusively for high-ability applicants. Consequently, committing to no information can be beneficial for the evaluator. I also show that a highly biased evaluator’s preferences align with those of a highly able female. I extend the framework to performance uncertainty and gender-blind CVs and compare blind auditions to affirmative action. The framework is relevant for auditory-based applications: my results can explain why blind auditions have increased the probability of a female orchestra musician being hired via taste-based discrimination and challenge explanations grounded in statistical discrimination.

The Causal Structure of the Effort-Reward Imbalance Model and Absenteeism in a Cohort Study of German Employees

The present study contributes to previous research by assessing the validity of the causal structure of the Effort-Reward Imbalance model in relation to the psychosocial mechanisms involved in sickness absenteeism. To this end, data from the German Cohort Study on Work, Age, Health and Work Participation are analysed (lidA Study, n = 6,270). The main hypotheses concerning short- and long-term sick-leave rates are investigated with six hurdle regression models. The results suggest that a high effort-reward imbalance, and high efforts and low rewards at work are associated with an increasing likelihood of sick leave. However, the combination of high effort-reward imbalance and high overcommitment was associated with lower sick-leave rates, in contradiction to the hypothesis postulating cumulative adverse effects of increased effort-reward imbalance and high overcommitment on health-related outcomes. Long-term sick-leave rates among workers of higher occupational and educational status were substantially lower in comparison to those among workers of lower status categories. Even though most hypotheses of the Effort-Reward Imbalance model are suitable for explaining the patterns of absenteeism in this sample, the results point to more complex motivational processes and socioeconomic characteristics of employees moderating and mediating the associations between perceived efforts and rewards at work and absenteeism.

Lateral Habenula Inactivation Alters Willingness to Exert Physical Effort Using a Maze Task in Rats

An impairment in willingness to exert physical effort in daily activities is a noted aspect of several psychiatric conditions. Previous studies have supported an important role for the lateral habenula (LHb) in dynamic decision-making, including decisions associated with discounting costly high value rewards. It is unknown whether a willingness to exert physical effort to obtain higher rewards is also mediated by the LHb. It also remains unclear whether the LHb is critical to monitoring the task contingencies generally as they change, or whether it also mediates choices in otherwise static reward environments. The present study indicates that the LHb might have an integrative role in effort-based decision-making even when no alterations in choice contingencies occur. Specifically, pharmacological inactivation of the LHb showed differences in motivational behavior by reducing choices for the high effort (30cm barrier) high reward (2 pellets) choice versus the low effort (0 cm) low reward (1 pellet) choice. In sessions where the barrier was removed, rats demonstrated a similar preference for the high reward arm under both control and LHb inactivation. Further, no differences were observed when accounting for sex as a biological variable. These results support that effort to receive a high-value reward is considered on a trial-by-trial basis and the LHb is part of the circuit responsible for integrating this information during decision-making. Therefore, it is likely that previously observed changes in the LHb may be a key contributor to changes in a willingness to exert effort in psychiatric conditions.