Form Of Social Pressure Research Articles

Shouldn’t We Know This Already? UK Women’s Views About Communicating the Link Between Alcohol Consumption and Risk of Breast Cancer

ABSTRACT Alcohol is a causal factor in about 10% of breast cancer (BCa) cases, but awareness of this link is low. This study explored how to raise awareness and inform the development of an intervention using the COM-B model (capability, opportunity, motivation, behavior) framework. Eight online focus groups were conducted with 36 participants (6 expert stakeholders,and 30 women aged 40–65). Participants reflected on a package of information about alcohol and BCa and discussed how to impart this information and encourage women to reduce drinking. Thematic analysis of focus group transcripts was undertaken. Three themes were identified: understanding ineffective messaging; transitions and challenges; and message acceptability. Current health information about alcohol was perceived as judgmental and BCa was put down to chance. Mid-life consisted of many challenges that could lead to increased consumption, but menopause transition may be a key moment for alcohol reduction. Barriers and enablers to communicating risk information and encouraging alcohol reduction were mapped onto the COM-B model. Psychological capability (relating to knowledge), social opportunity (in the form of social pressure) and automatic motivation (relating to drinking to cope) were barriers to behavior change. These will be targeted in an alcohol reduction intervention. It is important to tailor information to women’s experiences, taking into account the social benefits of drinking, and encourage the development of healthy coping strategies. Acceptable intervention messages may include personal stories, clear statistics, and suggest healthy alternatives to drinking. It is vital that messaging does not appear judgmental or patronizing.

The anti-anxiety drug lorazepam changes implicit behaviors but not explicit evaluations of sense of agency under authoritative pressure: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

Previous research on coercion has neglected the fact that agents under authoritative pressure may also suffer from coercive power, which can trigger anxiety-like emotional negativity on its victims. Furthermore, high levels of neuroticism and/or anxiety have been found to be associated with the compliance of various forms of social pressure. In this study, we investigate the effects of the anxiolytic GABA A (gamma-Aminobutyric acid) modulator, lorazepam, on behavioral and neural responses to coercive power. Here, we applied a virtual obedience to authority paradigm alongside lorazepam administration (versus placebo), and during functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning. Our results show that lorazepam administration exerted differential effects on the reaction times (RTs) when initiating harming versus helping behaviors, with longer harming RTs compared to helping RTs, despite comparable subjective ratings regarding perceived coercion. Coercive harming significantly increased activity in the amygdala, hippocampus, orbitofrontal cortex, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). Lorazepam administration decreased amygdala and hippocampus activity, but increased dlPFC and right temporoparietal junction activations. The lower activity in the hippocampus predicted higher ratings for perceived coercion. Furthermore, lorazepam significantly decreased the functional connectivity of the hippocampus with the dlPFC during coercive harming. In conclusion, we provide evidence -by incorporating multimodal indices, including neuroimaging, neuropharmacological interventions, and behavioral assessments- to posit that the GABA A agonist, lorazepam, might aid as a possible intervention in service of coping strategies against coercion.

Pressure to play: Social pressure in online multiplayer games

Videogames raise concerns about excessive gaming that lead to neglect of social relationships and obligations. In this article we develop an empirically grounded, sociological explanation for why players engage in excessive gaming. Theorizing that online multiplayer games encourage social capital acquisition, we examine if, how, and why social pressure leads players to engage in excessive gaming. Based on in-depth interviews with 21 players, we identify three forms of social pressure: social persuasion among gaming friends; social obligation in highly organized and hierarchically structured game-groups; and social coercion in highly competitive game-groups.

Kant, coercion, and the legitimation of inequality

ABSTRACT Immanuel Kant’s political philosophy has enjoyed renewed attention as an egalitarian alternative to contemporary inequality since it seems to uncompromisingly reassert the primacy of the state over the economy, enabling it to defend the modern welfare state against encroaching neoliberal markets. However, I argue that, when understood as a free-standing approach to politics, Kant’s doctrine of right shares essential features with the prevailing theories that legitimate really existing economic inequality. Like Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman, Kant understands the state’s function as essentially coercive and, in justifying state coercion, he adopts a narrow conception of political freedom that formally preserves the right to choose while denying that the range of choices one actually has can be a matter of justice. As a result, Kant cannot identify various forms of social pressure as potential injustices even as he recognizes their power to create and sustain troubling inequalities. For both Kant and the neoliberals, the result is that economic relations almost never count as unjust forms of coercion, no matter how unequal they are. Views that identify coercion as the trigger for duties of justice are thus particularly ill-suited to orient us to contemporary inequality.

Permanently on Call: The Effects of Social Pressure on Smartphone Users’ Self-Control, Need Satisfaction, and Well-Being

While many smartphone users experience social pressure to be available, only some perceive this as a burden. It was hypothesized that this form of social pressure is especially detrimental when it reduces self-control and hinders need satisfaction. Study 1 experimentally tested whether the fulfillment of intrinsic needs (i.e., autonomy, competence, and relatedness) in mobile communication mediates these associations. Results show that social pressure negatively affected autonomy and competence, but did not influence relatedness. Repeated-measures data from Study 2 suggest that social pressure leads to self-control failure, which is associated with reduced competence. This research is the first to develop and test a theoretical model of the effects of social pressure to be available on self-control, need satisfaction, and individuals' well-being.

Haruskah Aku Bekerja? (Studi Fenomenologi Keputusan Bekerja pada Pemuda Penyandang Disabilitas di Empat Wilayah di Jawa Tengah)

Coping is one form of strategy to deal with stigma and all forms of social pressure that lead obstacles to the growth of young people with disabilities. In this case, coping can be interpreted as a person's effort to overcome the obstacles experienced with certain strategies. In the context of persons with disabilities, the community often views persons with disabilities as a weak marginal group as being dependant to family so that there is no demand to work like humans in general. In addition, there are little opportunity for them to work in the formal sectors causes many of them to be coping with their own efforts for being independent. Therefore, this paper seeks to explore more about coping strategies carried out by youth with disabilities to decide to work. This paper comes from the results of field research with phenomenological qualitative methods in May-June 2018 through FGD and in-depth interviews conducted in four regions in Central Java Province namely Demak Regency, Semarang City, Semarang Regency, and Boyolali Regency. The results of the study indicate that the decision to work or not work from young people with disabilities comes from the response of external factors. Coping is then born into three level : the appraisal-focused level, emotions (the emotion-focused), and actions (problem-focused), which are not linear but can occur differently for each individual depending on the context of growth and development.

The effect of using social pressure in cover letters to improve retention in a longitudinal health study: an embedded randomised controlled retention trial

BackgroundRetention of participants in cohort studies is important for validity. One way to promote retention is by sending a persuasive cover letter with surveys. The study aimed to compare the effectiveness of a covering letter containing social pressure with a standard covering letter on retention in a health cohort study. Social pressure involves persuading people to behave in a certain way by the promise that their actions will be made know to others. We implemented a mild form of social pressure, where the recipient was told that information about whether they responded to the current survey would be noted by the research team and printed on future correspondence from the research team to the recipient.MethodsThe design was an embedded randomised controlled retention trial, conducted between July 2015 and April 2016 in Salford, UK. Participants in the host health cohort study were eligible. They received either: (1) a covering letter with two consecutive surveys (sent six and twelve months after recruitment), containing a social pressure intervention; or (2) a matching letter without the social pressure text. The primary outcome was retention in the host study, defined as return of both surveys. Randomisation was computer-generated, with stratification by household size. Participants were blinded to group assignment. Researchers were blinded for outcome ascertainment.ResultsAdults (n = 4447) aged over 65 years, with a long-term condition and enrolled in the host study, were randomly allocated to receive a social pressure covering letter (n = 2223) or control (n = 2224). All 4447 participants were included in the analysis. Both questionnaires were returned by 1577 participants (71%) sent the social pressure letters and 1511 (68%) sent control letters, a risk difference of 3 percentage points (adjusted odds ratio = 1.16 (95% confidence interval = 1.02–1.33)).ConclusionA mild form of social pressure made a small but significant improvement in retention of older adults in a health cohort study. Investigation of social pressure across other research contexts and stronger social pressure messages is warranted.Trial registrationThe host cohort study, the Comprehensive Longitudinal Assessment of Salford Integrated Care (CLASSIC) study is associated with the CLASSIC PROTECTs trial, which is registered on the ISRCTN registry. Trial registration number: ISRCTN12286422. Date of registration 19 June 2014.

Evolution of cooperation under social pressure in multiplex networks.

In this work, we aim to contribute to the understanding of human prosocial behavior by studying the influence that a particular form of social pressure, "being watched," has on the evolution of cooperative behavior. We study how cooperation emerges in multiplex complex topologies by analyzing a particular bidirectionally coupled dynamics on top of a two-layer multiplex network (duplex). The coupled dynamics appears between the prisoner's dilemma game in a network and a threshold cascade model in the other. The threshold model is intended to abstract the behavior of a network of vigilant nodes that impose the pressure of being observed altering hence the temptation to defect of the dilemma. Cooperation or defection in the game also affects the state of a node of being vigilant. We analyze these processes on different duplex networks structures and assess the influence of the topology, average degree and correlated multiplexity, on the outcome of cooperation. Interestingly, we find that the social pressure of vigilance may impact cooperation positively or negatively, depending on the duplex structure, specifically the degree correlations between layers is determinant. Our results give further quantitative insights in the promotion of cooperation under social pressure.

Ferguson on Facebook: Political persuasion in a new era of media effects

In 2014, media outlets deemed political satirist John Oliver's show the best of the year. Described as “the online water-cooler,” his show has become a talking point for many on social media. In this study, we tested the effects of such political comedy and the influence of social pressure in a simulated Facebook environment (N = 189). Participants in this experiment were asked to view a video clip from Oliver's show (high or low salience topic) and in two of the four conditions, a series of Facebook comments contradicting Oliver's views (as a form of social pressure) were provided. Results support a message-consistent persuasive effect of political comedy for both high and low salience issues but finds that message-incongruent commentary reduces this persuasive effect. Thus, the current study provides further insight regarding persuasive effects of sharing political information on social media and new opportunities for exposing entertainment seekers to politics.

Understanding the Governance of Corporations: Linking Theory and Practice Through an Examination of the Factors Shaping UK Supermarket Strategies on Climate Change

This paper starts from the premise that our understanding of the extent to which, and of the conditions under which, we might rely on new or neoliberal forms of governance beyond the state to deliver particular public interest objectives is limited, especially when they seek to instigate changes in corporate behaviour. In response, we briefly explore some of the key elements of debates on ‘governance from the outside’ where public, private, and civic actors engage in activities that seek to shape the behaviour or performance of a corporation, and ‘governance from the inside’ where the behaviour of a corporation is shaped by, for example, its structures and systems, resources and opportunities, and cultures and values. We hypothesise that the ability of a particular set of governance conditions to change the behaviour or performance of a business will be shaped by the strength and alignment of (a) the range of external governance pressures surrounding the business and (b) the internal governance conditions within that business. We then consider the reasons why firms within one key sector (UK supermarkets) have responded to one key issue (climate change) in recent years. We argue that a specific set of governance conditions brought about a step change in UK supermarkets' approach to climate change in 2007/08, and that this has triggered a period of improvement in their climate-related performance. However, we suggest that this process of improvement is bounded by the presence of a business case that simultaneously supports incremental change and constrains the potential for more transformative change. We conclude by suggesting that if the business case weakens, then governance conditions are likely to be characterised either by collective inaction or by socially led governance, with its influence being determined by whether the diverse forms of social pressure that are central to it are stronger and better aligned than any associated forms of business resistance. We argue that this has significant implications for our understanding of the extent to which new or neoliberal forms of governance beyond the state can be relied upon to ensure that corporations—or indeed other actors—might help to deliver public interest objectives.

The Evolutionary Roots of Our Environmental Problems: Toward a Darwinian Ecology

It is widely acknowledged that we need to stabilize population growth and reduce our environmental impact; however, there is little consensus about how we might achieve these changes. Here I show how evolutionary analyses of human behavior provide important, though generally ignored, insights into our environmental problems. First, I review increasing evidence that Homo sapiens has a long history of causing ecological problems. This means that, contrary to popular belief, our species' capacity for ecological destruction is not simply due to "Western" culture. Second, I provide an overview of how evolutionary research can help to understand why humans are ecologically destructive, including the reasons why people often overpopulate, overconsume, exhaust common-pool resources, discount the future, and respond maladaptively to modern environmental hazards. Evolutionary approaches not only explain our darker sides, they also provide insights into why people cherish plants and animals and often support environmental and conservation efforts (e.g., Wilson's "biophilia hypothesis"). Third, I show how evolutionary analyses of human behavior offer practical implications for environmental policy, education, and activism. I suggest that education is necessary but insufficient because people also need incentives. Individual incentives are likely to be the most effective, but these include much more than narrow economic interests (e.g., they include one's reputation in society). Moralizing and other forms of social pressure used by environmentalists to bring about change appear to be effective, but this idea needs more research. Finally, I suggest that integrating evolutionary perspectives into the environmental sciences will help to break down the artificial barriers that continue to divide the biological and social sciences, which unfortunately obstruct our ability to understand ourselves and effectively address our environmental problems.

Social Responses to Political Violence in the Basque Country

In the Basque country of Spain, a violent political conflict has continued from the time of the Franco dictatorship. A terrorist group directs indiscriminate violence against the population. Over the past 10 years, a grassroots reaction against violence has built a pacifist protest. Groups of citizens have organized collective action. This article studies the strategies of these pacifist groups to gain support from Basque society. It shows how they gain an audience's attention in different sectors of the audience that tend to identify with each group. Through routine street mobilization and many other forms of social pressure, they have markedly changed the social landscape, constructing a new citizen consensus. Their activities affect political leaders, Spanish and Basque governments, and social conditions, seriously diminishing the terrorist group's influence.

Effects of social pressure on erections and evaluations of erotica

Two forms of social pressure—demand for erection and social in‐flunce—were tested on pairs of men viewing either nudes or explicit erotica. To test demand for erection, each man was told that hearing bio‐feedback of a co‐participant's erections might either increase or decrease his own arousal. To test social influence, each man heard bogus feedback of the other's erections, whereas controls heard true biofeedback of their own arousal. Four dependent variables included ratings of the erotica and percentage of erection attained during three trials. For 43 men viewing female nudes, from an average maximum erection of 35% for controls, erections rose to 61% or fell to 23%, depending on high or low feedback from the co‐participant. For 45 men viewing explicit intercourse, erections remained at consistently high levels regardless of feedback manipulations. In contrast to the impact of social influence, demand for erection had limited effect.

Religious toleration in Republican Rome

It is a familiar fact that the religious tradition of Republican Rome did not depend on overt coercion of the citizen to maintain itself and its rituals. The censor did have powers to discipline those he found wanting in dutifulness towards thesacra; Cato once removed the public horse from one Veturius partly on religious grounds, though partly because he was too fat to ride it. In the courts, irreligion on the defendant's part was one of the most familiar themes of abuse; Cicero never underestimated the emotional impact of religious prejudice in his day. But the only formal charge of irreligion we hear of is that ofincestumwith a Vestal Virgin and, with that uncommon exception, there is nothing at Rome which corresponds even to the Greekasebeiaproceedings, let alone to the persecutions or inquisitions of later Christian Europe. This does not prove that religious obligations were not felt or imposed through other forms of social pressure, but the apparatus of the State and the State's religious authorities seem not to have been directly concerned.