Is the left or the right ever right?

Both democrats and republicans have the propensity to view the other side as unethical and immoral. Humans have the tendency to engage in confirmation bias. They do not interpret events objectively and instead favor information that they believe to be true and ignore information that doesn’t align with their beliefs. A great study that exhibits confirmation bias was conducted by researchers at Yale University (Kahan, Dawson, Peters, Slovic 2016). Researchers presented subjects with a task that would rely on their ability to produce logical conclusions from empirical data. Subjects were presented a data table about how many people’s rash got better and worst from a new skin rash treatment. The researchers then presented them the identical data except this time the data was titled cities that did or didn’t ban gun and did or didn’t experience a raise in crime. Those who scored the greatest in numeracy (the ability to draw valid conclusions from empirical data) were better at drawing valid conclusions from the table about the new skin rash treatment. However, those who scored higher in numeracy were worst at drawing valid conclusions from the information when the table was about gun control. I expected numerate participants to change their beliefs due to existing data. Yet, the scientist’s initial hypothesis was correct those who were numerate were more likely to interpret the data in a way that supported their political beliefs. When the data didn’t support their beliefs they interpreted the chart a way that supported their pre-existing ideals.

The charts only variation is the label not the numbers in them.

Do vaccines cause autism? Will giving children access to a comprehensive sexual education increase the teen pregnancy rate? The information is out there yet there are still disagreements on the answers to these questions. The confirmation bias states that once people develop an initial hunch they look for information that supports it and disbelieve evidence that doesn’t support it.

Preconceptions shape our interpretations of events and are usually wrong.  I believe that in this case the confirmation bias could’ve been caused for many reasons. One reason is the availability heuristic. The availability heuristic states that if something pops up easily in our head we are more likely to accept it as true. Therefore, the people interpreting the information were more likely to interpret the information as false if the idea didn’t easily pop up in their head.

The inability to perceive the data accurately could also have been caused by the overconfidence phenomenon. The overconfidence phenomenon was proven in many social psychology experiments. For instance, a researcher may ask participants how many dollars a year are collected in tolls from the George Washington Bridge. When participants give an answer they are extremely confident in there answer even if they have no reason to believe they are right. So if the participants instantly saw ‘gun-ban’ and had previously came to the conclusion that gun bans make cities more dangerous they were more likely to answer the question over confidently because even if there’s data, they still think they’re right.

People may have had exhibited the over-confidence effect due to belief perseverance. People tend to believe what they initially believed even when they receive information that discredits it because they think to themselves why they’re still right. Even when they receive information that discredits their belief, they use the proof to emphasize they are right. One way to fix this would be to have people think of reasons why the opposite hypothesis may be true. Another way to resolve this would be to force the person to search for information that they don’t agree with. If they have less confidence in how right their beliefs are they may be less likely to display the over-confidence phenomenon. A second way to reduce the over-confidence phenomenon would be promptly give people information that disproves their beliefs. A significant way I could reduce confirmation bias in this situation is by explaining to people that people often are guilty of making illusory correlations and finding correlations in events that aren’t there. They may think that after their town banned guns it became less safe because there was one shootout. Yet there may be no correlation there at all.

I believe that stopping confirmation bias’ is currently of utmost importance. People cannot continue to vote for public officials who don’t believe in climate change. The future of every creature on the planet is in the hands of those who interpret empirical evidence in an unbiased way.

Citation :

Kahan, Dan M., et al. “Motivated Numeracy and Enlightened Self-Government.” Behavioural Public Policy, vol. 1, no. 01, 2017, pp. 1–45., doi:10.1017/bpp.2016.2.

 

 

“The Difficult Journey of Women in Medicine”

The medical field is full of highly-skilled and demanding occupations that require strong mental health and acuity. Using social psychological concepts we can understand that this requirement for women, in a profession that’s predominantly made up of and tailored for men, needs extra strength and resilience. All newly-minted doctors have a significant amount of depression and anxiety due to the demanding and exhaustive work they do, but according to JAMA Internal Medicine it is far more difficult and present in women (Khullar).

One of the reasons behind this is that a woman, even though a medical professional, still shoulders the majority of household duties. Still fulfilling gender and societal norms women endure a work-home conflict that their male colleagues don’t experience. The medical field today promotes equal opportunity by law, but the institution, even though not driven by prejudices, exhibits sexism within the institutionalized practices that subordinate women (Myers, 254). Arguments for this is in the article by Dhruv Khullar. She states that little has changed in medical training procedures. Its reminiscent of days passed when almost all residents were men with few household duties. “Support for those trying to balance home and work life hasn’t kept pace with changing demographics, nor has the division of domestic labor shifted to reflect the rise of women in the medical work force. “(Khullar). The trend of accepting of women in the medical field has drastically changed, but unfortunately gender attitudes towards women have done little to support their personal lives which in turn affect their professional lives.

Our next reason and concept is implicit prejudices that usually occur automatically from preconceived notions about women. On many occasions in the article women are subjected as in-subordinates, not only by their male colleagues, but by patients alike. Women doctors who acknowledge their male counterparts formally don’t receive the same acknowledgement or aren’t called by their titles. Even women doctors who lead panels and studies with male counterparts are often referred to by their first name. Furthermore, women doctors in full medical assemble (white lab coat, professional attire, etc.) are called nurses or assumed to be medical assistants by patients. Another strong example of the implicit biases towards women was detailed by Heather Sarsons, Ph.D. who did a study to find out if surgeons’ gender affects their referrals after a good or bad patient outcome:

Ms. Sarsons finds that physicians are much less likely to refer patients to a female surgeon after a patient death, but barely change their referrals to a male surgeon. A bad experience with one female surgeon also makes physicians less likely to establish referral relationships with other female surgeons. There was no similar effect for men. (Khullar)

Not only does this show a prime example of implicit prejudices towards women but gives light to the fact that prejudices tend to over-generalize groups of people with stereotypes.

More than a third of medical physicians are women compared to just 7% of women back in the 1960s (Khullar). The opportunity in our time and day are abundant and encouraged for women, but the medical field was designed for men and remains implicitly and even possibly explicitly sexist towards women. We have to evaluate every action and policy to balance the odds, generate awareness, and create a supportive and enriching journey for women doctors everywhere. -FRANK JAMES CASILLAS III

Khullar, Dhruv. (2017, Dec 7). Being a Doctor Is Hard. It’s Harder for Women. New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/07/upshot/being-a-doctor-is-hard-its-harder-for-women.html

Myers, D. G. (2012). Exploring Social Psychology (Seventh Ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Violent Relationships Can Result From Childhood Corporal Punishment

A recent article published by CNN brought up the issue of how spanking and other types of violent punishments effects a child’s future relationships. The article was focused around a study published in the past couple of weeks in the Journal of Pediatrics. The basis of the study was to ask seven hundred and fifty-eight kids between the ages of nineteen and twenty how often they had been spanked or slapped as form of punishment when they were younger. The study’s lead author, Jeff Temple, a psychiatry professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch, stated that, “Kids who said they had experienced corporal punishment were more likely to have recently committed dating violence.”

Dr. Bob Sege, a spokesman for the American Academy of Pediatricians who specializes in the prevention of childhood violence, commented to CNN about the published study stating that the results, “were not surprising.” The study was factual proof that children who experience any type of violence at home will be more likely to use violence later on in their lives. Social learning theory, for example, suggests that children who are spanked may become more likely to adopt aggressive behaviors because their parents have modeled aggression to them as an acceptable form of behavior. This theory is defined by Exploring Social Psychology by David G. Myers as a theory that we learn social behavior by observing and imitating and by being rewarded and punished. By observing and experiencing corporal punishment at such a young age, a child will be more likely to imitate the act continuing into their adult life.

Parents are extremely important and looked up to in a child’s eyes. They learn from their parents social norms and how people should behave toward each other. The article continued to state the obvious negative effects of spanking. Thirty-six studies of spanking were analyzed and it was found that parents who said they had spanked their children were three times more likely to say their children had aggressive behavior in the following years.

Parental spanking can be seen as a form of instrumental aggression. This type of aggression is a type that aims to injure, but only as a means to some other end. It is motivated by goals other than harming the target. This relates very well to the idea of spanking because the underlying goal of spanking would not necessarily be to harm the child to a large extent, but to prompt reaction from the child showing that they learned some sort of lesson. The key word of this concept is “aggression.” The ultimate goal of this article was to give evidence as to why any type of aggression, such as spanking, should not be shown or taken out on a child of all people.

Spanking is a form of corporal punishment. The article states that the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has taken action against all types of corporal punishment. The committee’s Global Initiative has persuaded fifty-three countries since 2001 to pass laws banning corporal punishment, even in the privacy of a home.

 

References:

LaMotte, Sandee, and Carina Storrs. “Can Spanking Lead to Relationship Violence?” CNN, Cable News

Network, 6 Dec. 2017, www.cnn.com/2017/12/05/health/spanking-dating-violence-study/index.html.

Myers, David G. Exploring Social Psychology. 7th ed., McGraw-Hill, 2012. Berlin, Lisa J., et al. “Correlates and Consequences of Spanking and Verbal Punishment for Low-IncomeWhite, African American, and Mexican American Toddlers.” Child Development, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2009, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2987237/.

Trump Vs Ball

In today’s news or sports reports it is common to see the faces of either President Donald Trump making news in sports for all the wrong reasons or the father of NBA rookie Lonzo Ball Lavar Ball. These two names have been the headlines of news for their respective reasons whether on twitter or through media influence and branding of his children in each case. All of that came to a head when these two brash and cocky individuals collided on the case of Lavar’s son Li Angelo Ball who was arrested in China for shoplifting a pair of expensive glasses along with two other teammates.

Trump claims to be the reason for the UCLA basketball players release taking to twitter to look for credit in his role of getting the kids out of the prison. Trump displayed mediation and arbitration as a neutral third party to find a basis to have the kids released from the prison. Lavar on the other hand wanted nothing to do with Trump claiming his role was over-hyped in the freedom of the children. He also believed Trump’s warrant for thank you wasn’t necessary in his interview with ESPN saying “who?”, “What was he over there for?” When asked further comments on the situation Lavar declined to answer but also continued to deny Trump’s role on how the kids were able to come back to the states. Trump’s attempt to help the family with a deal with Lavar and the Chinese government. It did warrant a thank you if Trump did play a role in the release of the kids but the ego of Lavar seems to refuse to let anyone get the upper hand on him. This later resulted in a response from Trump saying that he should have let the kids sit in jail. Trump later did receive a thank you from the three basketball players at a press conference held by Ucla.

Donald Trump’s actions showed a sense of integrative agreement in which he could put himself in the spotlight as a public hero to the world and by saving Li Angelo and the other two kids from a hefty jail sentence would do the Ball family a huge favor. In this case it ultimately did not turn out the way Trump wanted do to the character of the man he was dealing with in Lavar Ball who is never afraid to stand up in front of a camera and say what he wants to say.

In my opinion I believe that these two men let their pride take over when it comes to what they do. Everything move they make today is viewed in the public and they seem to love the attention and making sure people know what they are up to. They are both going to be attracting this type of noise whether as the president or the NBA in terms of media. The two of them made sure they made headlines together when it came to this recent collision course.

-Paget Bramble

Citations

Hoffman, Benjamin. “Trump blasts Lavar Ball: I should have left them in jail” (2017, November 19) https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/19/sports/lavar-ball-trump.html

Haynes, Chris. “Donald Trump responds to LaVar Ball by tweeting he should have left UCLA players in jail”(2017, November 19) http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/21471202/us-president-donald-trump-tweets-response-lavar-ball

 

Prejudice and Discrimination at Hartford University

The University of Hartford, or UHart, is known for its diversity and wide varieties of study. However, UHart has recently been the home to a very controversial issue. Chennel Rowe, a freshman at UHart from New York City, was living with “The Roommate from Hell”. Chennel Rowe and Brianna Brochu were paired to be roommates through their freshman year of college. Rowe was becoming increasingly sick about a month and a half in living with Brochu, and she claimed to have felt unwelcome in her own room. Rowe’s sickness got so severe that she was unable to speak or sleep due to extreme pain in her throat. Her school’s medical services recommended she see an Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor because her illness had gotten too serious. Rowe was unaware of what was causing her sickness but she would soon find out. The day that Rowe began to move her belongings out of her current room into her new one, Brochu asked for confirmation of her room change and it was granted. Immediately after Brochu was seen texting on her phone and by the time Chennel got downstairs, her neighbor informed her of a post made by Brochu. On Brochu’s Instagram read “Finally did it ya girl got rid of her roommate! After 1½ months of spitting in her coconut oil, putting moldy clam dip in her lotions, rubbing used tampons [on] her backpack, putting her toothbrush where the sun doesn’t shine and so much more I can finally say goodbye to Jamaican Barbie”. It seems that Brochu had prejudice feelings towards Rowe and this caused to her to discriminate against her.

Brochu had no logical reasons to dislike her former roommate, she even began to mistreat her before getting to know her. In this case we see that Brochu made racial slurs towards Rowe such as Jamaican Barbie”, and contaminated her personal belongings. Prejudice is a fixed opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience.-It is quite evident that Brochu had prior negative judgements associated with black people and individualized those on Rowe. Those judgments are called prejudices. Evidence of this evidence is shown in a live video posted by Chennel Rowe. Brochu’s prejudice in regards to Rowe also caused her to display unwarranted negative behaviors towards her, otherwise known as discrimination. Although these are broad terms, Brochu’s behavior can be explained …When breaking down the idea of Prejudice, it is easy to get a better understanding of our dual attitude system. Our dual attitude system can come in the form of implicitness and explicitness. Implicit prejudice refers to automatic attitudes towards the same target. This basically means that you know something or feel a certain way about something without actually knowing that you know or feel that way. If she had shown implicit behaviors, she would have maybe expressed those feelings in a more subtle manor being that she was unaware of the subconsciously. In this case maybe the outcome would have varied. Nonetheless, explicit prejudice refers to conscious attitudes towards the same target. In this case Brochu expresses explicit prejudice. This is seen through her direct negative feelings of wanting to find a way to get her out of the room. She was aware of her attitude when considering Rowe, and these attitudes were neither pleasant nor friendly.

This case went viral after Chennel Rowe posted a live video on her Facebook account describing how the situation unfolded. She gives much more detail as to what was done to her and how she was being treated generally by her roommate. Rowe also touched on the fact that she had no control on how the issue played out. She decided to use her social media outlet as a way to bring more attention to the issue. This actually sped up the investigation process and Brochu was charged with misdemeanor criminal mischief and breach of peace. The NAACP as well as Rowe and her lawyers want to push for hate crime charges, so trial is continued to December 18th, 2017. Click here to watch Chennel Rowe’s live video!

Miller, J. R. (2017, November 01). Roommate from hell’s sick sabotage involved bloody tampons, licked utensils. Retrieved December 13, 2017, from https://nypost.com/2017/11/01/roommate-from-hells-sick-sabotage-involved-bloody-tampons-licked-utensils/

Press, A. (2017, November 21). Roommate from hell not expected to face hate crime charge. Retrieved December 13, 2017, from https://nypost.com/2017/11/21/roommate-from-hell-not-expected-to-face-hate-crime-charge/

Kiana Charles

 

 

Scientists Start To Tease Out The Subtler Ways Racism Hurts Health

In a recent article released on November 11, 2017 by National Public Radio: Health News, there was an overview of some instances in which a man named Dr. Roberto Montenegro had been subject to hurtful displays of discrimination against him.

He speaks of the night that he had gone out with friends to celebrate the great achievement of receiving his PhD, which brought him one step closer to his dream of becoming a physician-scientist. At the end of dinner, Dr. Montenegro and his girlfriend left to pick up their car from the valet. While waiting in line, a Jaguar pulled up to the curb. A woman got out of the Jaguar and passed two other couples before stumbling upon Dr. Montenegro and his girlfriend. She dropped her keys in Dr. Montenegro’s hands, assuming that he was a valet because of his race. The other valet’s were Latino, like Dr. Montenegro and so the woman made an incorrect assumption. This happened twice that night.

Discrimination is unjustified negative behavior toward a group or its members. There is a clear show of discrimination and stereotyping. In this situation, Dr. Montenegro experienced an instance in which the woman in the Jaguar made an overgeneralization. She presumed that all Latino people hold low paying jobs and in this case, that Dr. Montenegro could not have been a highly educated and professional Doctor. Her behavior was clearly discriminatory because she directly singled out Dr. Montenegro as a valet.

Another concept that could be at play in this situation is a process of stereotyping called subtyping. Subtyping occurs when a person responds to a member of a target group who disassociates from their stereotype by seeing them as “exceptions.” They put this member of the target group in a separate subcategory apart from members who confirm the stereotype. For instance, the woman driving the Jaguar, after realizing that Dr. Montenegro was not a valet, could’ve simply believed that he was an “exception,” to her personally confirmed belief in the stereotype that all Latino people.

Dr. Montenegro explains how he has endured many other instances of discrimination and felt just as confused and shocked each time. He now has an M.D. in addition to his Ph.D. and is a postdoctoral fellow in child psychiatry at Seattle Children’s Hospital. He seeks to find out if repeated experience of discrimination has effect on the human body and what those effects would be.

“Assessing mediators between discrimination, health behaviours and physical health outcomes: a representative cross-sectional study,” is one of the first studies to demonstrate that discrimination is associated with physical health outcomes and behaviors through distinct pathways. The results of the study helped to demonstrate that stress, lack of control and feeling powerless as a reaction to racism emerged as significant mediators of the relationship between racism and self-rated general mental health.

Dr. Montenegro, similarly to the results of the cross-sectional study, hypothesizes that chronic stress might be a key way racism contributes to health disparities. The idea is that the stress of experiencing discrimination over and over might wear you down physically over time. The study stated previously has found proof to this idea. Dr. Montenegro, after experiencing continuing experiences with discrimination, may suffer similar symptoms later on in life just as the participants in this study. It was shown that discrimination was negatively related to many health behaviors in the participants. For example stress levels were elevated and people were less likely to engage in leisure time, physical activity, and fruit and vegetable consumption due to prolonged depressive moods. Hopefully, with more knowledge on this subject Dr. Montegro and others will be aware of the health issues and seek ways to fight it.

 

CITATIONS

Bichell, Rae Ellen. “Scientists Start To Tease Out The Subtler Ways Racism Hurts Health.” NPR, NPR, 11Nov. 2017, www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/11/11/562623815/scientists-start-to-tease-out-the-subtler-ways-racism-hurts-health.

Myers, David G. Exploring Social Psychology. 7th ed., McGraw-Hill, 2012.

Bastos, J. L., Celeste, R. K., Silva, D. S., Priest, N., & Paradies, Y. C. (2015). Assessing mediators between discrimination, health behaviours and physical health outcomes: A representative cross-sectional study. Social Psychiatry And Psychiatric Epidemiology, 50(11), 1731-1742. doi:10.1007/s00127-015-1108-0

 

 

How Social Media Affects Our Behavior

The media has completely taken over and is now a basic part of everyone’s life. Everywhere you look there’s someone somewhere that’s looking at their phone, ipad, etc… and they’re either reading or sending something. There’s been many studies done that looks into the medias affects on social behavior where people have been tested on how being exposed to violent content triggers them to therefore conduct violent acts. According in D.G. Myers’ Exploring Social Psychology,

Many people now spend more screen time in front of their computers than in front of the television. In many ways, the Internet allows an even greater variety of options for viewing violence than television does, including violent videos, violent pictures, and hate-group websites (Donnerstein, 2011). It also allows people to create and distribute violent media themselves, and to bully others through e-mail, instant messaging, or on social networking websites (Donnerstein, 2011). Among U.S. youth, those who frequently visited violent websites were 5 times more likely to report engaging in violent behavior (Ybarra & others, 2008).

There was a major controversy presented throughout sports media where the fans took advantage of the power they had through media to voice their opinions and express how they felt about the player’s decision to protest the national anthem. The issue initially presented itself last season with Colin Kaepernick taking a kneel during the national anthem as it was his silent protest fighting against racial injustice in this country. Kaepernick had then told the Media in an exclusive interview after the game “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” he continued explaining “To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder” (Arthur, Kenneth, Rolling Stone, 2017). After the President decided to voice a couple of his thoughts on to twitter such as “Sports Fans should never condone players that do not stand proud for their National Anthem or their Country. NFL change Policy!,” for example along with calling Kaepernick “a son of a B” for his actions encouraged a huge social uproar.

      The NFL being one of the most popular sports to be watched by people in this country was dealing with a big social conflict between two extreme sides who have completely opposite outlooks on what should be done. One side views the protest to be very disrespectful to the veterans and people who risk their lives to serve our country; as a response these patriotic people took to the media by video tapping themselves burning team merchandise, no longer supporting any corporations associated with the NFL, and taking a stance against viewing the sport itself. Since the organization was being viewed as doing nothing to fix this issue, fans begun to get somewhat more hostile by harassing the league to make a fix immediately. In other words, people are demanding the NFL to basically shut down the player’s first amendment, the right to freedom of speech, in order to bring their viewers back and calm the angered fans down. The aggressive push from the fans and with the help of certain corporations such as Papa John’s who blamed the football organization for their decline in sales due to them being the main sponsors of the league and took to the media to say that the NFL should’ve “nipped things in the butt” when they had a chance. Leading to the NFL commissioner and the players compromising on an agreement where the league would give “nearly $100 million” to various charities that focus on social justice and causes important to African-American communities, ESPN reported. This initiative would surpass all of the NFL’s current charitable campaigns, including its support for the military and breast cancer awareness. The NFL also hopes this would put an end to the players’ protests during the national anthem (Masisak, Corey, NYpost, 2017).

Researchers have explored how viewing violent media triggers violent behavior and considered three possibilities thus providing evidence that social media has a great influence on social behavior. People are (a)aroused based on their personal stance on the protest and conform with the others that act and speak up the way they do. Then the media (b)disinhibits people – inhibiting violent thoughts where in these cases people consider displaying themselves disrespecting player’s jerseys as well as harassing the league. Lastly it also evokes (c)imitation which is somewhat like (b) but the violent thoughts become actual actions people are taking to make their point; conforming with the rest of the upset fans doing what the majority does. Another example of imitation, is that there’s a video online of the Seattle Seahawks’ defensive end Michael Bennett who was harassed but Las Vegas police even after  calmly letting the officer know who he was and complying with everything asked validates imitation as evidenced by the officer’s actions whom after provided with proper identification and any other information asked for still proceeded to act with hostile force towards the player possibly because Bennett is known to be a player who protest the national anthem and the officer presumably being a patriotic person took advantage of the power he had being protected under the badge.

-Gary Pace

 

 

References

Arthur, Kenneth. “Why Fan Reaction to NFL Protests Is About Racism, Not Patriotism.” Rolling Stone, Rolling Stone, 26 Sept. 2017, www.rollingstone.com/sports/news/fan-reaction-to-nfl-national-anthem-protests-about-racism-w505387.

Masisak, Corey. “NFL’s $100M Plan to End Anthem Protests Is Dividing Players.” New York Post, New York Post, 29 Nov. 2017, nypost.com/2017/11/29/nfls-100m-plan-to-end-anthem-protests-is-dividing-players/.

Myers, David G. Exploring Social Psychology 7th Edition . McGraw-Hill, 2004.

Rapaport, Daniel. “Watch: Police Release Videos of Michael Bennett Incident.” SI.com, 29 Sept. 2017, www.si.com/nfl/2017/09/29/police-video-michael-bennett-las-vegas.

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