SootheWell Heating Pad SootheWell Heating Pad

ToneUp Ab Roller ToneUp Ab Roller ToneTwist Core Trainer ToneTwist Core Trainer

Shop Now
SkinTherapy Acne Treatment SkinTherapy Acne Treatment

GlowUp Facial Steamer GlowUp Facial Steamer GoodGlow Self-Tanning Mousse GoodGlow Self-Tanning Mousse




Americans share fake news to fit in with social circles

  • Journalism and Facts
  • Social Media and Internet
  • Politics

Fear of exclusion contributes to spread of fake news, research finds

Read the journal article

  • Tribalism and Tribulations (PDF, 495KB)

WASHINGTON — Both conservative and liberal Americans share fake news because they don’t want to be ostracized from their social circles, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

“Conformity and social pressure are key motivators of the spread of fake news,” said lead researcher Matthew Asher Lawson, PhD, an assistant professor of decision sciences at INSEAD, a business school in France. “If someone in your online tribe is sharing fake news, then you feel pressure to share it as well, even if you don’t know whether it’s false or true.”

The research was published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

The proliferation of fake news contributes to increasing political polarization and distrust of democratic institutions, according to the Brookings Institution. But fake news doesn’t always proliferate due to dark motives or a call for action. The researchers began studying the issue after noticing people in their own social networks sharing fake news seemingly without malicious intent or ideological purpose.

“Political ideology alone doesn’t explain people’s tendency to share fake news within their social groups,” Lawson said. “There are many factors at play, including the very basic desire to fit in and not to be excluded.”

One experiment analyzed the tweets and political ideology of more than 50,000 pairs of Twitter users in the U.S., including tweets sharing fake or hyper-partisan news between August and December 2020. (Political ideology was determined through a network-based algorithm that imputes ideology by looking at the types of accounts Twitter users follow.) The number of tweets between pairs of Twitter users in the same social circles were measured. Twitter users were less likely to interact with each other over time if one of them shared a fake news story and the other did not share that same story. The same effect was found regardless of political ideology but was stronger for more right-leaning participants.

A second experiment analyzed 10,000 Twitter users who had shared fake news in the prior test, along with another group that was representative of Twitter users in general. Twitter users who had shared fake news were more likely to exclude other users who didn’t share the same content, suggesting that social pressures may be particularly acute in the fake news ecosystem.

Across several additional online experiments, participants indicated a reduced desire to interact with social connections who failed to share the same fake news. Participants who were more concerned about the social costs of not fitting in were also more likely to share fake news.

While fake news may seem prolific, prior research has found that fake news only accounts for 0.15% of Americans’ daily media consumption, and 1% of individuals are responsible for 80% of fake news sharing. Other research found that election-related misinformation on Twitter decreased by 73% after Donald Trump was banned from the platform.

Many complex factors contribute to people’s decisions to share fake news so reducing its spread is difficult, and the role of social media companies isn’t always clear, Lawson said.

“Pre-bunking” methods that inform people about the ways that misinformation spreads and highlighting the importance of the accuracy of news can help reduce the spread of fake news. However, finding ways to ease the social pressure to conform in online spaces may be needed to start winning the war on misinformation, Lawson said.

Article: “Tribalism and Tribulations: The Social Costs of Not Sharing Fake News,” Matthew Asher Lawson, PhD, INSEAD, Shikhar Anand, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, and Hemant Kakkar, PhD, Duke University, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, published online March 9, 2023.

Introduction

Nearly 7% of the world population is obese1 and about 66% of the adults in the United States are overweight or obese.2 Obesity is associated with a number of adverse medical conditions including increased risk of gallbladder disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, coronary heart disease (CHD), osteoarthritis, cancer death and reduced life expectancy.3–8 Obesity is also associated with adverse social and psychological consequences, including bias, discrimination and decreased quality of life.9,10

More effective treatment strategies are urgently needed for obesity management. The total caloric intake or energy density of one’s diet appears to be associated with obesity11–14 and a diet that induces a negative energy balance continues to be an important part of obesity management. Strategies to achieve the difficult task of eating less than desired include reduction of the energy density of foods by increasing food volume by the addition of fluids,15,16 bulk17–19 or their combination;20 or by increasing satiety by various anorectic drugs or macronutrient combinations of high satiety value.

Satiety is positively associated with the protein, fiber and water content of foods and negatively with fat and palatability ratings.21,22 However, within food groups, there may be as much as a twofold difference in satiety values, suggesting that certain foods promote greater satiety independent of macronutrient content or energy density. An egg is an example of such a food that has a 50% greater satiety index compared to white bread or ready-to-eat breakfast cereal.21 Compared to an isocaloric bagel breakfast of equal weight, an egg breakfast had a greater satiating effect, which translated into a lower caloric intake at lunch.23 The resulting decrease in energy consumption lasted for at least 24 h after the egg breakfast.

This study was undertaken to exploit the short-term satiating benefits of an egg breakfast23 for weight loss in a longer-term trial. The objectives were to determine if the incorporation of an egg breakfast in the diet by overweight or obese subjects would (1) induce reduced energy intake and unintentional weight loss, even when not attempting weight reduction; or (2) enhance weight loss when following a reduced energy diet. We compared the effects of an egg vs isocaloric bagel breakfast of equal weight on weight loss, indices of body size and composition, dietary compliance, food cravings and health-specific quality of life.Materials and methods

The study was approved by the institutional review boards at Pennington Biomedical Research Center and at Saint Louis University. Written informed consent was obtained from the participants. We certify that all applicable institutional and governmental regulations regarding the ethical use of human volunteers were followed during this research.

Participants

Of the 160 participants enrolled, 8 did not complete the trial. The final study sample included 152 participants (131 women and 21 men; mean age 45.0±9.4 years; black participants 47.7% and white participants 52.3%). Demographic characteristics of the participants are provided inTable 1

The Integrative Buddhist Psychology to reduce the Violence Problem in Family in Suratthani Province

Authors

Abstract

This objectives of this research were: 1) to study and analyze the problems of family violence in Suratthani Province 2) to study and analyze the using Buddhist principles and Rogers’s counseling psychological discipline for integration to reduce the problem of family violence in Suratthani province. This research was conducted in the areas of Suratthani province using qualitative research methodology. The data were collected from 24 informants who were heads of family, never used violence in family using the In-depth-interview and from 9 participants using focus group discussion. Both data were analyzed and synthesized according to research’s objectives.

The results of this research found that

  1. the problems of family violence in Suratthani Province found that they were in 13 Districts, the kinds of family violence consisted of 1) body (hurt, died) 71.1 % 2) gender (rape, immoral conduct, gangbang) 13.1 % 3) mind (detain, look down, revile) 10.2 % ��� 4) other (neglect, abandon) 5.6 %, the causes of the problem of family violence in Suratthani province consisting of 1) infidelity 2) jealousness 3) drinking alcohol 4) Drug example amphetamine 5) economic problem and being out of work 6) body and mental health problem 7) borrowing money 8) restive habit 9) gamester. The violence in family that happened in Suratthani province affected to close person and society directly and indirectly, that is, 1) economic effect 2) social effect and 3) public health effect. To prevent and to solve the violence problem family in Surat thani province in past were done by itself family and by government sector that had responsibility about that problem directly.
  2. to use the Buddhist principles and Rogers’s counseling psychological discipline for integration to reduce problem of violence family in Suratthani found that the Buddhist principles for solving violence family in Suratthani province consisting of the Tree Admonitions or Exhortations of the Buddha or Buddha-ovada, the Noble Eightfold Path, four Brahmavihàra, four Gharavasa-dhamma, four Sangahavatthu and the Four Noble truths, but principles of counseling psychology according to Karl Roger’s concept for solving a violence in family in Surat thani Province consisted of three important basic concepts, that is, 1) to understand of human nature 2) to develop for balance of self and 3) true love of person who was a leader of family which generate from good relation between them. In using of Buddhist principles and Roger’s principle of counseling psychology, the person who was family leader had to persist in and follow in 2 principles, especially the use of logic and not to use of emotion, to be good modeling for family’s member and to give a time in doing various activities together with family and to counsel always when family’s member got various problems.