Category Archives: Human Behavior

Human Behavior

How humans use their sense of smell to find their way | Penn Today – Penn Today

It was a sweet tooth that turned sixth-year psychology Ph.D. student Clara Raithel onto the human sense of smell.

As a masters student, I was studying how the brain responds to the sweet taste under various conditions, for example, whether we approach certain food with an indulgent or restrictive mindset, she says. I realized you cant really study eating behaviors without understanding how peoples brains respond to odors. I decided to look for grad school experiences where I could study the human sense of smell.

In the laboratory of Jay Gottfried, Arthur H. Rubenstein University Professor in Psychology and Neuroscience, Raithel found the perfect mentor. Gottfried has studied olfactionessentially, the science of smellfor nearly two decades. Since I was a little kid, Ive loved the sense of smell, Gottfried says. Humans have five senses, and they work in tandem, in an integrated way.

But for almost no reason at all, people tend to pick smell as the sense theyd be fine without if they had to lose one, he says. Gottfried felt smell had been highly misjudged, and as a neuroscientist, wanted to prove it by taking a deep dive into questions of odor coding and navigation.

By the time Raithel joined his lab in 2018, Gottfried and colleagues had already experimented with the ways in which humans navigate abstract smells such as banana or rose in two-dimensional spaces, finding that certain parts of the brain linked with memory and emotions help people understand which aromas surround them. Now he wanted to take the work in a more natural direction, creating a three-dimensional virtual reality smellscape (think landscape, but for the nose) that people could attempt to move through.

For the new experiment, 28 participants each entered the smellscape four times. The placement of eight odor objects in the environmentsmells like orange or bananaalways stayed the same. What changed was where participants were placed in the virtual reality arena and which target odor they needed to find.

The results surprised and excited the researchers. Although the human sense of smell has been poorly regarded across the five different senses, we are now able to establish that human subjects can actually navigate spaces using their nose in the context of a particular type of virtual reality environment, Gottfried says.

We also demonstrated that this behavior was associated with the emergence of a particular neural signature indicative of what we might call cognitive maps, Raithel adds. This neural signature not only appeared in areas traditionally associated with navigation behavior, but also in olfactory-related brain regions. Their findings suggest that these two sets of brain regions share a common spatial code, something that hadnt previously been known.

Read more at OMNIA.

More here:
How humans use their sense of smell to find their way | Penn Today - Penn Today

Human Behavior

Wrestling With Evil in the World, or Is It Something Else? – Psychiatric Times

PSYCHIATRIC VIEWS ON THE DAILY NEWS

Over 13 years ago, on March 2010, I wrote an article for Psychiatric Times titled Wrestling with Evil in Prison Psychiatry. My writings on prison psychiatry actually won health care journalism recognition.

Having never before applied the word evil in psychiatry, I ended up doing so in regards to one patient. Nothing else seemed to apply, neither gang involvement, antisocial personality disorder, or his religious beliefs. At that time, for clinical applicability, I came up with this definition of evil:

Evil is unacceptable, destructive behavior, exhibited without remorse and without a more general moral framework, which cannot be explained solely by psychopathology.

The word is most often used in relationship to religious beliefs, and especially in situations that seem horrific. Since that prison encounter, I have come to conclude that any evil-seeming behavior is likely intertwined with whatever psychopathology may be present.

I feel a sense of deja vu as the Mideast and Ukrainian-Russian wars go on. Evil has been tossed back and forth as an explanation of the atrocities that have taken place in the invasions, but without explaining its genesis. Here, gang behavior seems as prominent as any other evil explanation.

Then there is the recent mass shooting in Maine, the only news to get the Mideast war off the front page of the mainstream news. Here, though, there seems to be a clearer psychiatric explanation, with the perpetrator having a history of auditory hallucinations. He spent 2 weeks in an inpatient facility this summer after apparently threatening a military facility, but more information will be required to understand the role of mental illness and its treatment in his crime.

Ultimately, almost by definition, human nature and human behavior seem to be at the genesis of any such violent horror. Freud wrote much about it, especially in his book Civilization and Its Discontents, even suggesting a death wish. Regardless of the need for better gun safety, it behooves us in psychiatry to try to increase our knowledge and interventions to reduce evil.

Dr Moffic is an award-winning psychiatrist who specialized in the cultural and ethical aspects of psychiatry, and is now in retirement and refirement as a private pro bono community psychiatrist. A prolific writer and speaker, he has done a weekday column titled Psychiatric Views on the Daily News and a weekly video, Psychiatry & Society, since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged. He was chosen to receive the 2024 Abraham Halpern Humanitarian Award from the American Association for Social Psychiatry. Previously, he received the Administrative Award in 2016 from the American Psychiatric Association, the one-time designation of being a Hero of Public Psychiatry from the Speaker of the Assembly of the APA in 2002, and the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill in 1991. He is an advocate and activist for mental health issues related to climate instability, physician burnout, and xenophobia. He is now editing the final book in a 4-volume series on religions and psychiatry for Springer: Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, Christianity, and now The Eastern Religions, and Spirituality. He serves on the Editorial Board of Psychiatric Times.

Read more here:
Wrestling With Evil in the World, or Is It Something Else? - Psychiatric Times

Human Behavior

Shimmying like electric fish is a universal movement across species – Earth.com

Navigating the world around us might seem like a complex task, but it turns out, we all have something in common with an electric knifefish. Whether its a dog sniffing around or a human glancing in a new setting, the core behavior of trying to understand ones surroundings remains the same.

Recent research reveals that such movements arent unique to humans or even larger animals. It extends across a wide spectrum of organisms, from single-celled amoeba to complex beings like us.

Amoeba dont even have a nervous system, and yet they adopt behavior that has a lot in common with a humans postural balance or fish hiding in a tube, said study co-author Noah Cowan, a professor of mechanical engineering at Johns Hopkins.

These organisms are quite far apart from each other in the tree of life, suggesting that evolution converged on the same solution through very different underlying mechanisms.

This fascinating discovery originated from a study that was focused on the workings of the nervous system during movement to enhance perception. Observations of the electric knifefish, a creature emitting weak electric discharges to sense its location, were key.

In darkness, the fish shimmied back and forth more frequently than in the light. The darkness made the fish increase their movement, mimicking a rapid explore mode to understand their environment better.

The concept of switching between an explore mode during uncertainty and an exploit mode when familiar with the environment isnt restricted to these fish.

We found that the best strategy is to briefly switch into explore mode when uncertainty is too high, and then switch back to exploit mode when uncertainty is back down, said study first author Debojyoti Biswas, a Johns Hopkins postdoctoral researcher.

Supported by a model simulating these key sensing behaviors, the team identified similar patterns in amoeba, moths, cockroaches, moles, bats, mice, and even humans.

Not a single study that we found in the literature violated the rules we discovered in the electric fish, not even single-celled organisms like amoeba sensing an electric field, said Cowan.

To further illustrate the ubiquitous nature of these movements, Cowan related it to everyday human behavior.

If you go to a grocery store, youll notice people standing in line will change between being stationary and moving around while waiting, said Cowan.

We think thats the same thing going on, that to maintain a stable balance you actually have to occasionally move around and excite your sensors like the knifefish. We found the statistical characteristics of those movements are ubiquitous across a wide range of animals, including humans.

Beyond just understanding the natural world, the implications of this research are vast. The findings have the potential to revolutionize robotics, especially in applications like search and rescue drones and space rovers.

Next, the experts will test whether their insights hold true for other living things, including plants.

Electric knifefish are a diverse group with over 200 species that are found primarily in Central and South America. These fish are known for their ability to generate electric fields, which they use for navigation, communication, and sometimes for capturing prey.

Electric knifefish have an organ that produces weak electric discharges. This is distinct from the strong electric discharges produced by electric eels, a different group of fish.

They use their electric field to sense their surroundings. Objects around them distort this field, and the fish can detect these distortions to understand their environment, much like a sonar.

Different species, and even individual fish, may have unique electric organ discharge patterns. This allows them to communicate and recognize each other.

They are primarily found in freshwater environments, especially in slow-moving or stagnant waters like swamps, ponds, and riverbanks.

Electric knifefish are typically nocturnal, using their electric fields to navigate in the darkness.

The study is published in the journal Nature Machine Intelligence.

Like what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates.

-

Check us out on EarthSnap, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

See the original post:
Shimmying like electric fish is a universal movement across species - Earth.com

Human Behavior

Why do dogs get the zoomies? – Care.com

Every morning, my mini dachshund Walter sprints into the day. Yes, sprints. The second the door of his cozy little crate opens, hes rounding the corner out of the bedroom and down the hallway as fast as his short little legs can carry him. While I admittedly love the way Walter enters every day with such gusto, Ive also never understood why in the world he does it.

Zoomies are a sudden explosion of activity from your dog often manifesting as the tucking of their hindquarters as they race wildly, or zoom, around the house or yard, says Dr. Karyn M. Wesley, an assistant professor at the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Arizona. There may be many causes for zoomies, but ultimately, we consider this behavior to be normal in dogs.

Here, experts explain why dogs get the zoomies and the most common times they occur, plus what pet owners should do when their pup gets a crazy case of the zoomies.

The most common reason for the zoomies is that a pet has pent-up energy that it needs to release, says Dr. Lori Teller, a clinical professor at Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences. The zoomies arent specific to certain dog breeds, Teller adds, but they may be more common in high-energy dogs, especially those that do not get regular exercise.

However, a lack of exercise is not the only cause of dog zoomies, Wesley says. The zoomies are also a way for dogs to release their emotions, she explains. Many dogs simply have the zoomies because they feel big emotions such as excitement. And just like expressing emotions is healthy for humans, its also perfectly healthy for dogs.

Have a dog that never gets the zoomies? Thats normal as well, explains Dr. Christa Kahuda, the owner and medical director at Charleston Harbor Veterinarians in Charleston, South Carolina. Some dogs may have more outlets for their energy during the course of the day and are too tired for zoomies, Kahuda says. Others may be less likely to exhibit the behavior based on breed, age and personality.

The zoomies are also a way for dogs to release their emotions. Many dogs simply have the zoomies because they feel big emotions such as excitement.

The official scientific term for dog zoomies is frenetic random activity periods or FRAPs. The key word here that dog owners should note? Random. It is most common for zoomies to start without warning, Wesley says. When they take off running, they may jump on furniture, run in circles, take sharp turns, and some may bark.

But despite their unpredictable nature, zoomies do serve a purpose, and some circumstances can tell you a lot when it comes to determining whats causing your dog to zoom. These are a few of the most common types dog zoomies and why they happen, according to experts:

The cause: An abundance of stamina

Puppies get the zoomies because they tend to have higher exercise requirements and more energy to burn than older dogs, Teller explains. In fact, zoomies appear to be most common in younger animals in general, and puppies can start experiencing zoomies at just a few weeks old. Many dogs continue to get the zoomies their entire lives, Wesley adds. But as dogs age, the frequency and duration of zoomies often decline.

The cause: Hours of built-up energy

It is common for dogs to get zoomies at night after spending a day home alone or in a crate since theyve had limited activity to release their energy, Wesley says. The same goes for early morning zoomies for dogs that sleep in a crate like Walter. At these times, dogs may feel the need to expel their built-up energy suddenly with a FRAP, says Wesley.

The cause: Having to be still for too long

Dogs often get the zoomies after a bath, as well as after or even during a training session, says professional dog trainer and behaviorist Sally Grottini who has over 30 years of experience working with canines. This can come from frustration from not being able to move around enough, and the dog suddenly feels the need to get out a burst of energy, Grottini says.

The cause: Excitement or overstimulation

Zoomies during playtime are often due to pure excitement, Wesley says. This is even more likely to occur when your dog is in a new environment, like a new daycare or dog park. For example, Walter used to get the zoomies every time hed enter the playspace at his daycare as a puppy. (He ran so many laps that he garnered the nickname The Blonde Bullet!) According to Kahuda, these zoomies were likely due to a mix of Walters excitement as well as his need to get out his puppy energy. He has lots of excess energy and loves running it off!

Zoomies most often come out of the blue when least expected, and it is the dog using excess energy.

Signs of a happy dog are actually different from signs of the zoomies. Dogs may exhibit happiness when they see a favorite person or when theres the expectation of something good coming, such as when youre making their dinner. This can cause uncontrollable movement, explains Grottini. They may run, jump, spin in a circle, but this is not really zoomies as much as it is over excitement for something they know they enjoy, she says. Zoomies most often come out of the blue when least expected, and it is the dog using excess energy.

That said, experts agree that its safe to say dogs are not unhappy when they get the zoomies. We cant read their minds, but based on their body language, they appear to be having a good time when they have the zoomies, Teller says.

In general, experts recommend letting dogs simply enjoy getting out their energy when the zoomies strike, unless they are in danger of hurting themselves or others. If the time of day is predictable, you can even consider taking your dogs outside to zoom, Teller says. Otherwise, try to make sure they have an unobstructed area to zoom, then sit back and enjoy the fun.

Once the zoomies start, they may be hard to stop until your dog decides theyre tired, Wesley adds. Some human behaviors can intensify a zoomie session, like chasing your dog or making excited noises. Once you have ensured your valuables and fragile items are out of the path of the wild zoomies, I would try leaving the room or [staying] quietly out of harms way. Your calm energy may help your dogs excitement subside more quickly.

Again, dog zoomies are normal and not a cause for concern. However, to keep your dog safe, try to discourage zoomies from occurring around stairs or slippery floors like tile or hardwood to keep them safe indoors, says Wesley. Outside, make sure the space is enclosed and do your best to remove hazards like holes, water and sharp objects.

Think your dog is zooming a bit too much? Take note of the timing of your dogs bursts of energy. If your dog always zooms after being home alone, after extended periods of rest, or in the middle of your sleep schedule, this may be your dogs way of telling you they need more exercise or mental stimulation, Wesley explains. In that case, she recommends adding these activities to your dogs day to avoid a build-up of explosive energy:

Read more here:
Why do dogs get the zoomies? - Care.com

Human Behavior

How Stuart Robinson’s misconduct went overlooked for years – Washington Square News

The ensuing case would detail Robinsons harassment and unequal treatment of mens and womens sports teams at the university, and be the first publicly-recorded allegation of a decadeslong pattern of behavior.

The complaint claimed that Robinson allotted unequal resources to and purposefully derailed womens athletics programs, such as in one case, where he allegedly refused to plow womens lacrosse fields during the winter at the same time that he dedicated a large amount of funding to new facilities for mens teams. After years of proceedings, Students case ended without a jury trial. As a result, the state paid Student a sum of $200,000.

New Paltz chose to protect the abuser rather than their staff and students. NYU either ignored Robinsons past or was too lazy to do the proper hiring diligence to protect NYU from Robinson, a former coach at New Paltz told WSN. Sadly, Robinsons victims could have avoided the degradation.

Multiple people close to the New Paltz athletics department said that many staff members and student-athletes were impacted by Robinsons behavior, but that few were in a position to take legal action. Many said they made complaints to the universitys human resources department or to the Title IX office, and others said they went to their union. When no action was taken, some decided to leave the university. New Paltz did not respond to questions about allegations against Robinson during his time at the university.

He had been called into investigations within the administration about his behavior, one source said. Nothing was ever done with it, and that was very frustrating.

The way that female coaches were treated was unheard of, another source said. If that was my daughter, I would have hit him with my car.

Robinsons alleged harassment was not limited to athletics department staff. Rachael Purtell, a former student-athlete at New Paltz who played for Student, said she experienced sexual harassment involving Robinson. When Purtell reported her experience to the universitys department of human resources and Title IX office, she said nothing changed. This pattern would continue at NYU.

I observed Stuarts impact on the department in the forms of disparities in scheduling, facility maintenance, funding and uniform quality disadvantaging the womens sports teams, Purtell wrote to WSN. This was a consensus among the student-athletes as was the fact that sexually harassing behaviors were normalized and condoned within the department.

The university has maintained that it was not aware of Robinsons history when it hired him as athletics director. According to email correspondence obtained by WSN, now NYU president Linda Mills was a member of the committee that selected Robinson. The university did not respond to questions about Mills role in Robinsons hiring.

NYU has told WSN that it used a search firm to conduct a background check on Robinson during the hiring process, which it said included looking into candidates civil and criminal legal history. University spokesperson John Beckman said in a statement that NYU was not aware of Students case before it was reported by WSN.

NYU had not seen the lawsuit before it was reported in the WSN, and the search firm has indicated that it likewise had not seen the lawsuit before it appeared in the WSN, Beckman wrote. Thats a source of concern to us, and we intend to look into this matter to see how that can be avoided in the future.

See the rest here:
How Stuart Robinson's misconduct went overlooked for years - Washington Square News

Human Behavior

Whatchamacolumn: Homeless camps back in the news – News-Register

By Jeb Bladine President / Publisher October 27, 2023

Its clear, as reporter Scott Unger continues News-Register coverage of homelessness in McMinnville, that the laws of physics have analogies in human behavior: When you squeeze one part of a balloon, another part expands, and thats how homeless camps respond to enforcement of laws against illegal camping.

Consider the past decade: Homeless camping downtown triggered a public outcry leading to aggressive enforcement, and camp sites spread to city streets, Marsh Lane and Dustin Court. One controversial response was to let homeless RVs turn parking lots at Joe Dancer Park into a homeless RV campground. When the program drew strong public protest, residents of that well-kept homeless village moved back onto public streets from whence they came.

Now, as illegally parked RVs continue to be confiscated, Marsh Lane has become more of a tent city with growing piles of debris and garbage.

Behind the scenes, theres a complicated, contentious body of court decisions on enforcement of homeless camping laws. It began in 2018 when a Boise panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals declared: as long as there is no option of sleeping indoors, the government cannot criminalize indigent, homeless people for sleeping outdoors, on public property, on the false premise they had a choice in the matter.

One-time Oregon congressional candidate Diarmuid OScannlain, now a senior 9th Circuit Court judge, joined 14 other judges this year in protesting the original decision. OScannlain wrote that it wrongfully forced cities to surrender their sidewalks and other public places to homeless encampments, and that the full 9th Circuit Court should reconsider our unfortunate constitutional mistake.

Cities can enforce limits on sleeping at certain locations and in certain times. As Unger reported last week, McMinnville police recently filed 36 prohibited camping notices and five arrests for prohibited camping in a three-day period.

However, results of enforcing homeless camping laws in McMinnville are little more than whack-a-mole. We havent solved homeless camping problems, and were paying high public costs just moving them from one place to another.

Weve tried everything but city-run homeless camps. Portland, in contrast, opened its first of several city-sanctioned homeless camps in July. Responses from homeless residents range from safer than on the streets to feels like a minimum-security prison.

McMinnville toyed with that idea in 2019, but surrendered to citizen opposition; Sheridan City Council discussed similar ideas in August.

Perhaps in McMinnville, despite the controversy, its time to test those waters again.

Jeb Bladine can be reached at jbladine@newsregister.com or 503-687-1223.

Go here to see the original:
Whatchamacolumn: Homeless camps back in the news - News-Register

Human Behavior

Stunted Growth in Infants Reshapes Brain Function and Cognitive … – Neuroscience News

Summary: Research reveals that infants with stunted growth show cognitive ability disruptions as early as six months.

The study demonstrates that visual working memory in these infants is compromised, leading to higher distractibility and poor cognitive outcomes by age one. This is the first time stunted growth has been linked to functional brain differences in infancy.

The findings underscore the importance of early intervention to counter cognitive disadvantages later on.

Key Facts:

Source: University of East Anglia

Children who are too short for their age can suffer reduced cognitive ability arising from differences in brain function as early as six months of age, according to new research from the University of East Anglia.

Researchers compared the visual working memory the memory capacity that holds visual cues for processing in children who had stunted growth with those having typical growth.

Published today in the journalNature Human Behaviour, the study found that the visual working memory of infants with poor physical growth was disrupted, making them more easily distracted and setting the stage for poorer cognitive ability one year later.

Stunted growth had previously been linked with poor cognitive outcomes later in life, but this is the first time that this association has been found in infancy. It is also the first time stunted growth has been linked to functional differences in how the brain works in early development.

Led by Prof John Spencer of UEAs School of Psychology, the team of researchers studied more than 200 children in the first ever brain imaging study of its kind.

We expected that poor growth might impact cognition in early development, but it was striking to see this at the level of brain function, said Prof Spencer.

Typically-developing infants in our study showed engagement of a working memory brain network and this brain activity predicted cognitive outcomes one year later. But the stunted infants showed a very different pattern suggesting that they were quite distractable.

This distractability was associated with a brain network typically involved in the allocation of attention to objects or tasks, suppressing distraction, and maintaining items in working memory said Dr Sobana Wijeakumar, first author of the study. Dr. Wijeakumar is an Assistant Professor in the School of Psychology at the University of Nottingham.

The brain activity and cognitive abilities of the infants were assessed at six to nine months, and cognitive ability was followed up one year later. The results showed that infants with so-called stunted growth, often caused by poor nutrition or ill-health, had significantly poorer cognitive abilities at both stages than their typically-developing counterparts.

Interestingly, the children who bucked the trend and did well in their second year of cognitive testing despite having restricted growth were those whose visual memory had been unexpectedly strong at the six to nine months stage.

The discovery suggests that efforts to improve working memory and tackle distractibility in children during their crucial early months may reduce or prevent cognitive disadvantages later in life. This research also highlights the importance of studying brain function in early development.

The research was led by the University of East Anglia in collaboration with the University of Nottingham, the Community Empowerment Lab, Durham University, University of Iowa, Rhode Island Hospital, Brown University, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Stunting in infancy is associated with atypical activation of working memory and attention networks is published byNature Human Behaviour.

This publication is based on research funded in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The findings and conclusions contained within are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect positions or policies of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Funding: Further funding came from the US National Institutes of Health and the Leverhulme Trust.

Author: Lisa Horton Source: University of East Anglia Contact: Lisa Horton University of East Anglia Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News

Original Research: Closed access. Stunting in infancy is associated with atypical activation of working memory and attention networks by John Spencer et al. Nature Human Behavior

Abstract

Stunting in infancy is associated with atypical activation of working memory and attention networks

Stunting is associated with poor long-term cognitive, academic and economic outcomes, yet the mechanisms through which stunting impacts cognition in early development remain unknown.

In a first-ever neuroimaging study conducted on infants from rural India, we demonstrate that stunting impacts a critical, early-developing cognitive systemvisual working memory. Stunted infants showed poor visual working memory performance and were easily distractible.

Poor performance was associated with reduced engagement of the left anterior intraparietal sulcus, a region involved in visual working memory maintenance and greater suppression in the right temporoparietal junction, a region involved in attentional shifting.

When assessed one year later, stunted infants had lower problem-solving scores, while infants of normal height with greater left anterior intraparietal sulcus activation showed higher problem-solving scores.

Finally, short-for-age infants with poor physical growth indices but good visual working memory performance showed more positive outcomes suggesting that intervention efforts should focus on improving working memory and reducing distractibility in infancy.

The rest is here:
Stunted Growth in Infants Reshapes Brain Function and Cognitive ... - Neuroscience News

Human Behavior

Social medias role in modeling human behavior, societies – kuwaittimes

By Ghadeer Ghloum

KUWAIT: The extent of the power of social media on societies and individuals, especially after the revolution of smartphones and wide spread of multiple social media platforms, is no secret today. Now, almost every individual can open their own page or channel and broadcast through it whatever they perceive, which holds the possibility of being true or misleading, besides the difficulty of censoring and controlling violent scenes on different social media platforms, which may contribute to subconsciously normalizing inhumanity among individuals.

To dig deeper into this issue, Kuwait Times interviewed Associate Professor of Communication and Culture Studies at Kuwait University Dr Haneen Al-Ghabra, Professor of Mass Communication at Kuwait University Dr Khaled Al-Qahs and Psychologist and Therapist Jumanah Mohammad. Ghabra said the media is an integral factor that affects society just like other parts of society, such as the laws that make up the country, economy, education sector, etc. The influence of any structural institution such as the media will affect individuals values, ethics and behaviors, which means it can affect our thoughts around racism, classism, nationalism and even issues of violence.

For instance, stereotypes about Muslims being terrorists were spread in US media, which led to the Muslim travel ban law in 2017 in the US. This does not stop there, as it seeps into other sectors such as schools. Hence, we cannot deny the medias impact on humans attitudes and behavior.

On his part, Qahs said studies indicate that social media has diverse and multiple effects on the audience receiving the messages and content delivered to them. The process does not end with just sending the message (media content) from the sender to the final receiver. There are various effects on the ideas, values and behaviors of the audience, such as changing attitudes or perspectives, cognitive changes, socialization, collective excitement, emotional arousal, social control, reality construction and reinforcement of the status quo. However, media is not the sole cause of influencing humans. It operates through a network of elements and influences to create impact, such as the time we spend using social media, the nature of what we watch and our life experiences.

Moreover, Ghabra spoke about the relationship between exposure to inhuman actions through media and humans behavior, as she said that the problem with the ethics and responsibility of reporting does not only fall upon the media it is much deeper than that. It is the ideologies that circulate; for example, if we look at the promotion of violence against women, it is not necessarily that the media and popular culture are promoting it. It is the ideology of patriarchy that taught individuals, both women and men, that men are superior to women, and this can also seep into our education, our upbringing (family), certain interpretations of religion and so forth.

Hence, people that write and produce the news, films, music, TV shows and so forth have already internalized this sort of thinking unknowingly, and this is reflected in different forms of media and popular culture. Qahs added that many researchers in the field of media and its relationship with society have been concerned with the phenomenon of increasing violence in media content. Some studies suggest that the spread of violence in societies is due to the audiences exposure to content that contain verbal and physical violence. These studies have yielded several findings about violence, such as the fact that the audience (especially children and teenagers) learn violence through observation and watching, especially in TV series and movies.

Qahs also clarified that people do not automatically apply the aggressive behavior they observe but internalize it to moments of anger and stress. The repetition of viewing leads to desensitization towards violence and aggressive behavior, resulting in a lack of concern and tolerance towards violent behavior in the media, making people more inclined to tolerate violence in all its forms. Therefore, it is necessary to educate society about the dangers of the spread of violence, and the need to monitor media content, particularly the depiction of intense violence in news bulletins, TV series and movies.

Ultimately, Mohammad explained how individuals can protect themselves from adopting and normalizing wrongful behavior, as she said individuals should avoid excessive consumption of content that goes against human values and ethics, in order to prevent the burying of condemnation and the development of acceptance towards such content or actions. On the other hand, they should strengthen their thinking and good behavior through reading or engaging in dialogues with experts in the field, in order to close any intellectual gaps that social media influences may exploit, as the consequences can be significant.

Here is the original post:
Social medias role in modeling human behavior, societies - kuwaittimes

Human Behavior

The gift of reformation – Living Lutheran

Toward the end of his life, church reformer and educator Martin Luther (1483-1546) looked back on an important moment in his faith development. As a young university professor, he was studying Pauls Letter to the Romans when he came to a new understanding. Previously he believed the righteousness of God was a standard by which God measures human behavior. As he wrestled with Romans, Luther began to see the righteousness of God as a gift that God gives us.

This insight transformed the way Luther read the Scriptures. He described the wisdom of God as how God makes us wise, the strength of God as how God makes us strong and so on.

Several years after this breakthrough, Luther wrote an introduction to a collection of sermons (A Brief Instruction on What to Look for and Expect in the Gospels) to help preachers communicate the life-giving encounter with Gods gracious action that he had experienced. Luther was critical of those who looked to Jesus primarily as an example to be followed. This, he thought, turned Jesus into a new Moses. Instead, Luther insisted that we should accept and recognize [Jesus] as a gift, as a present that God has given you and that is your own. We should read the Scriptures, he wrote, as a book of divine promises in which God promises, offers, and gives us all [Gods] possessions and benefits in Christ.

This is a powerful message. This is good news.

Luther didnt intend to start a new church. He wanted to reform the Christian church to place this Gospel good news at its center. In addition to good preaching, education was key to this work of reformation.

Luther wrote catechisms to encourage the teaching and learning of the faith. We might think of the Small Catechism, which many lifelong Lutherans remember from confirmation class, and the Large Catechism, written for pastors and teachers, as the 16th-century equivalent of a student workbook and an instructors manual.

The constant refrain in the Small Catechism is the question What does this mean? Its important for us to recognize that this was a real question for Luther. More than a formula for memorization, he intended the questions and answers in the Small Catechism as a way for Christians to understand the gifts of Gods grace that are at the heart of the Ten Commandments, the Apostles Creed, the Lords Prayer, and the sacraments of baptism and communion.

Luther insisted that we should accept and recognize Jesus as a gift, as a present that God has given you and that is your own.

These gifts were personal for Luther. The gifts of Gods grace are intended to be received! By us! Writing about communion, he said the most important words are given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Explaining the meaning of the Apostles Creed, he doesnt describe the work of the Triune God as abstract but emphasizes that the Creator of all has created us, the Savior has redeemed us and the Spirit makes us holy.

These gifts are personal but not private, as we see when Luther wrote that the Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens and makes me holy together with the whole Christian church on earth.

In order for Christians to read the Scriptures for themselves, Luther and the other reformers insisted on the importance of a basic education for allboys and girls, regardless of the social or economic status of their families.

The University of Wittenberg, where Luther and his colleague Phillip Melanchthon taught, quickly became the largest school in Germany. Even William Shakespeare knew of its reputation since his character Hamlet returns to Denmark from his studies at Wittenberg.

Students came to Wittenberg from throughout Europe and returned to their home countries to promote education and to share the Reformation insight of grace as Gods gift to us in Jesus Christ. The Reformation was definitely a team effort!

The Castle Church in Wittenberg is a monument to this effort. Statues of Luther, Melanchthon and other German reformers are placed around the nave. In 1983, for the 500th anniversary of Luthers birth, a dozen stained-glass windows were installed in the church featuring the work of students who had spread the Reformation to their countriesJan aski of Poland, Leonhard Stckel and Matthias Dvai Biro of Hungary, and Johannes Honter of Transylvania (now Romania), among others.

Luther insisted that we should accept and recognize Jesus as a gift, as a present that God has given you and that is your own.

Lutherans of German or Scandinavian descent, like many in the ELCA, may not be familiar with the spread of Lutheranism into Eastern Europeyet spread it did, already in Luthers lifetime. A Lutheran witness continued in Eastern Europe even under four decades of Communist repression following World War II.

This September, hundreds of Lutherans from around the globe are gathering in Krakow, Poland, for the 13th Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF). Founded in 1947, the LWF is a communion of 149 member churches in 99 countries, representing over 77 million Christians in the Lutheran tradition. How the Reformation has spread! Of the 10 largest church bodies in the LWF, three are in Africa (Ethiopia, Tanzania and Madagascar) and two are in Asia (India and Indonesia). The ELCA, with nearly 3.3 million members, is part of a much larger global family!

As we in the ELCA challenge ourselves to engage new, younger and diverse members, lets remember that this is not new behavior for Lutherans. From the beginning, Lutherans have reached out beyond themselves, bearing witness to the life-giving good news of Gods gift in Jesus Christ. May our Reformation heritage be the gift that keeps on giving!

See the original post here:
The gift of reformation - Living Lutheran

Human Behavior

After pandemic, birds are surprisingly becoming less fearful of humans – Study Finds

LOS ANGELES When the COVID-19 pandemic forced UCLA to switch to remote instruction, the campus became quieter and less populated. Still, it wasnt deserted by all inhabitants. A group of approximately 300 dark-eyed juncos, birds that have made the university grounds their home for about two decades, continued to thrive. Now, a recent study finds birds may be changing their opinion of humans thanks to all that time apart.

Seeing a unique research opportunity, UCLA scientists, who had previously been studying these birds fear and aggression levels in urban settings, embarked on an experiment. They sought to understand: with reduced human interaction for a year, would the juncos become more apprehensive when the campus buzzed back to life?

Their findings went against their initial assumptions. Once campus life returned to normal, the birds acted drastically less fearful of humans, according to the study.

To gauge this fear response, the team measured the distance a person could approach the bird before it flew off. Pre-pandemic data from 2018 and 2019 showed that juncos would typically fly off when someone approached within about 65 inches. By 2022, when campus activity largely resumed, this distance dropped to just 39 inches.

What makes this observation intriguing is that the birds, whether born during the pandemic or before it, showed no significant difference in behavior. This was determined using identification bands on the juncos legs.

The dark-eyed juncos are especially interesting subjects because they primarily feed and nest on the ground, which results in frequent human encounters. Earlier research indicated that the campus birds were already more at ease with humans than their counterparts in less urbanized areas.

Study author Eleanor Diamant, former UCLA doctoral student and current postdoctoral scholar at Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, highlighted that the current findings dont align with the predominant biological theories about how wild birds adapt to urban environments. Neither the habituation theory which posits birds become less fearful through frequent human interaction nor the idea that urban birds are inherently less scared, seem to fit the juncos observed behavior during the campus closure and reopening.

If less fearful birds had chosen to live on campus in the first place, we would have expected their fear response to be essentially unchanged. If they were habituated, we would have thought theyd become more fearful during the closure and then less fearful after, or not shift their behavior at all, Diamant says in a university release. But these birds didnt shift fear response with humans absent and they shifted toward much less fearful after humans came back.

Pamela Yeh, a UCLA professor, and the studys senior author, proposed two explanations. Either the birds fear continues to decrease with each new event or, after diminishing, it resets to a standard level.

The effects of humans on wild animals are really complex and what we expect isnt always what we get, notes Yeh. So our research shows both the complexity of the juncos response to humans and of their response to other changes.

A striking element of the study is the reflection on the broader challenges faced by North American birds. It is estimated that the continent has nearly three billion fewer adult birds than in 1970, with the dark-eyed junco population dropping by about 175 million. This decline has largely been attributed to human disruptions in their natural habitats.

The research not only underscores the multifaceted reactions animals exhibit toward human behavior but also emphasizes the potential of such unforeseen global events to illuminate these complexities.

For me, the takeaway is that theres so much complex animal behavior that we dont know about, even though they are our neighbors in cities, concludes Diamant. There are these surprising reactions animals have to collective human behavior. We might not know what they are because we cant test for them, but only these kinds of massive and unexpected events like the pandemic bring them into focus.

The study is published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences.

The rest is here:
After pandemic, birds are surprisingly becoming less fearful of humans - Study Finds