Normative Behavior Research Articles

Environmental cognition and peer attitudes: Influencing tourists' waste‐sorting behavior in rural tourism destinations

AbstractThis research assesses the determinants impacting the behavior in rural tourism destinations regarding tourists' waste sorting (WSB), emphasizing the significance of social norms and peer networks. Survey data was gathered from 955 participants in rural tourist destinations across Henan, Shandong, and Anhui provinces. The empirical findings illuminate several crucial aspects: (1) social norms and peer networks wield a positive, catalyzing influence on tourists' WSB in rural tourism settings. (2) Peer attitudes shape tourists' WSB, and environmental cognition plays a pivotal mediating role. The novelty of this study lies in its comprehensive exploration of the influence of social norms and peer networks on tourists' WSB in rural tourism destinations, highlighting the unique interplay of cognitive, behavioral, and attitudinal factors in this context. (3) Cognitive norms and behavioral norms have a more significant impact on female tourists. (4) For frequent travel groups, social norms affect waste‐sorting behavior less.

SEMANTICS OF SILENCE IN POETICS OF O. F. BERGHOLZ

The phenomenon of silence in the creative heritage of O. F. Bergholz has not been studied to date. The category of silence is considered in the article as a nonverbal communicative act, a nonverbal form of spiritual experience and a behavioral strategy. In the center of attention is the poem “Except” (“Reached mute despair…”), written by Bergholz after a trip to the construction site of the Volga-Don Canal. The text mentions the icon of the Savior “Good Silence,” thanks to which the category of silence acquires axiological characteristics: forced silence is a strategic means and is realized as salvation from lies (good silence). At the same time, the lexeme silence rhyming with despair in a socio-political context means that the cowardly silencing of the people’s suffering deserves censure. In the poem “Except” with an allusion to Tyutchev’s “Silentium!” and in direct reference to true knowledge (“He knew”), the limitations of the verbal capabilities of language are noted (“no consonance/what he saw cannot be conveyed”). In the poem “February Diary,” silence is actualized as “the identity of speaker, the listener and the topic,” the expressiveness of silence as highest point of communication is emphasized, its conventionality is noted. In the poem “No, not from our meager books…,” the semantics of silence goes back to the author’s religious memory: in the final scene, the chain of generations closes in Christian silence/reconciliation. Silence as a special communicative behavior acquires a ritual character in a number of other texts: the heroine’s meeting with her father in the story “Day Stars” (chapter “The Secret of the Earth”) is saturated with silentium vocabulary; the call to silence on the eve of mortal battles in the poem “The hand pulls to the heart of the Motherland…” determines the normative behavior of a person in a borderline situation. Silence as conscious and effective resistance to the actions of the authorities (an act of disagreement) is manifested in the diary discourse of the poetess and the late cycle “Anna Akhmatova.” An extensive semantic palette of silence is revealed on the basis of Bergholz’s poetic, prose and diary texts.

ПОСЕЩЕНИЕ АРЖАН-СУУ: АЛТАЙСКИЕ ТРАДИЦИИ В СОПОСТАВЛЕНИИ С КЫРГЫЗСКО-КАЗАХСКИМИ ОБРЯДАМИ (по экспедиционным материалам)

This article is devoted to the widespread Altai tradition of ceremonial visits to healing springs in the summer and autumn periods, when it is believed that at this time, the reception of water procedures is the most productive. The authors rely not only on published sources on this topic, but also on their own field materials to fix this rite, which consists of several stages and observances of a number of ritual prohibitions and norms of behavior. At the same time, these materials have been collected for several years, not only from the Altai Republic but also from the sacred springs of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

A Overview on Decision Theory, Game Theory and Some Applications in Economics and Other Social Sciences

Decision theory and Game theory are the special branches of mathematics that are mostly applicable in social sciences, economics, and commerce as well as in engineering sciences, Biology etc. It is the study of strategy and conflict in which agent success in making choices depending on the choice of the other opponent. It was initially developed in economics to understand a large collection of economic behaviors of firms, markets and consumers. This theory has been used to attempt or to develop theories of ethical and normative behaviors as well. Applied game theory is helpful in understanding the rational behavior of economics and philosophy. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the following. First is to provide very brief overview of decision theory, game and game theory, second to discuss background and impact of game theory, third to analyze the prisoner’s dilemma game and finally to present applications of it and special attention to economics and other social sciences.

CHILD RECRUITMENT PHENOMENON BETWEEN PROHIBITION AND PRACTICE ACCORDING TO INTERNATIONAL LAW AND JURISPRUDENCE

This study aims to illuminate the alarming phenomenon of child recruitment, recognized as a profound deviation from normative societal behaviors due to its stark infringement on the rights of a vulnerable demographic. Internationally spotlighted in the 1980s, child recruitment in armed conflicts prompted global efforts aimed at curbing the induction of children into battles by both recognized and unrecognized militant factions. Despite these endeavors, the prevalence of child soldiers has escalated notably in subsequent decades, particularly amid the surge of internal armed conflicts. Such circumstances have relentlessly exposed recruited children to extreme violence and inflicted severe damage, often resulting in either mortality or permanent disability. In response, a unified international initiative has sought to mitigate this distressing trend by establishing numerous international accords and preemptive measures. The prohibition of child recruitment has been enshrined across a spectrum of international legal instruments and endorsed by international criminal tribunals. Yet, despite rigorous legal frameworks and judicial efforts to eradicate child recruitment and preclude their participation in armed engagements, the practice persists. This ongoing issue underscores a systemic failure among nations to enforce internationally agreed standards designed to combat this grave phenomenon.

Marriage without Love, Love outside Marriage: A Woman in the Eighteenth-century Noble Family

This article refers to a set of documents revealing the relations within the noble family of the Ural industrialist A. F. Turchaninov and one of his daughters, Natalia Koltovskaya, in the eighteenth century. The author considers general problems of the private life of people of a privileged Russian class, namely, marital relations, possibilities, and conditions of dissolution of marriage, the position of women in the family and their rights, and the attitude to extramarital affairs in secular society. The article examines the reasons for the emergence and development of a provincial woman’s sense of independence and inner freedom, the origins of her rebellion against patriarchal family structures, for the right to decide for herself, and the extent to which such manifestations of “freedom” could be considered typical of Russia at that time, or whether they should be considered an exception to the general norm of behaviour. The story of N. A. Koltovskaya’s escape from her family, her relations with Emperor Paul I and Senator G. R. Derzhavin, shows the conformism of the supreme power, which manifested itself, on the one hand, in the awareness of the latter of the importance of its role in protecting the family and the moral foundations of the upper class, and, on the other hand, in the possibility of the upper class to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the situation and, if necessary, of circumventing the existing rules of law, of influencing government bodies (the Senate) in one’s own interests and, in general, in the interference of the supreme power in the family life of its subjects. The appendix to the article contains four documents: two “women’s” letters – one from the mother to Catherine II and the other from the daughter to Paul I, as well as letters from her lover (translated from French) and her husband.

On the issue of creating an algorithm for assessing safety culture in modern healthcare institutions

Healthcare institutions with a high culture of patient safety are characterized by the appropriate level of mutual trust of employees, a general understanding of the importance of patient safety issues, the presence of an effective system of preventive measures to ensure the safety of both medical personnel and the patient, which has been implemented. Moreover, maintaining a high safety culture requires an understanding of certain norms of behavior and attitude towards the patient from the stand point of ensuring his maximum safety, which contributes to compliance with treatment standards and the development of safe behavior. The aim of the study was to create and scientifically substantiate an algorithm for analytical assessment of the level of safety culture in modern healthcare institutions. The research was conducted on the basis of the Dental Medical Center of Bogomolets National Medical University. Hygienic and medical-sociological methods and methods of expert assessment and statistical analysis were used in the work. Expert assessment maps of the leading components of safety culture served as the material of the conducted research. The organizational and target structure of the scientific work provided for the determination of the structural features of the leading components of safety culture and the development of a scoring scale for their assessment, the implementation of an expert evaluation of the specified components and the establishment of the degree of consistency of the opinions of experts, the calculation of the weighting coefficients of the influence of various components on the formation of a certain level of safety culture and the justification of objective statistical approaches to assessing the level of safety culture. In the course of the conducted research, a high degree of consistency of experts’opinions was revealed and the values of weighting coefficient swere calculated, which made it possible to develop generalized formulas for determining the values of indicators of the level of safety culture provision in modern healthcare institutions from the standpoint of assessing the degree of influence on the level of safety culture of the leading characteristics of dangerous actions of a person (doctor, specialist, etc.) (Component No. 1), identifying the degree of influence on the level of safety culture of both strengths and weaknesses in creating a safe medical environment (Component No. 2) and establishing the degree of influence on the level of safety culture of dangerous production factors inherent for medical environment (Component No. 3). It is sub­stantiated that the process of creating an algorithm for analytical assessment of the level of safety culture in modern healthcare institutions should involve the implementation of the following stages: establishing the degree of expression of the leading indicators that are components of each of its main components, using special scales (1ststage), determining the values indicators of ensuring the level of patient safety culture for each of the components using the appropriate generalized formulas (2ndstage), evaluation and meaningful interpretation of the values of indicators of the level of safety culture based on quantitative criteria (3rdstage), determination of collective, group or personalized, according to the content, strategies application of preventive measures aimed at increasing the level of safety culture in each specific case (4thstage).

ЛИНГВОКУЛЬТУРНЫЕ ЦЕННОСТИ В ЭПИЧЕСКОМ ДИСКУРСЕ (на материале якутского и алтайского эпических текстов)

This article is devoted to the identification of universal and national values in the epic texts Mighty Er Sogotokh and Maadai-Kara. The relevance of the study of the problem is due to the growing interest in the comparative study of linguistic and cultural features in multi-system languages based on the material of epic texts. The following methods are used in the work: the continuous sampling method, linguistic and cultural and interpretative analyses, and the comparative method. The material for the analysis was extracted by a continuous sampling method from the original texts of epic tales, provided with a line-by-line translation into Russian. The purpose of the work is to identify and describe universal and national-specific attitudes in the value perception of the surrounding world, reflected in the linguistic units of epic tales. The study revealed that both texts enshrine such basic values as family, attention to people, safety, respect for parents, Homeland, justice, health, etc., which show their relative stability in the temporal and spatial dimensions. The vital, cultural, moral, spiritual, terminal, and other values available in each community exist collectively in one context. It is also revealed that the life-affirming imperative is translated from the position of the characters, for example, the father and mother of the main characters or on behalf of the mistress of Altai, who have significant experience in pragmatic communication with the outside world and the nature of the worldview of the inhabitants of the space of their existence. Thus, a general picture of values is formed for transmission to the inexperienced, the young, or those who are looking for value supports to know themselves and others, are in search of answers to the multifaceted questions of human existence, etc. The prospect of further work is seen in a more detailed and in-depth development of the dominant values that determine the norms of behavior in various discursive practices of related languages.

The evolution of pluralistic ignorance

Pluralistic ignorance is a social–psychological phenomenon that occurs when individuals privately hold beliefs that differ from perceived group norms. Traditional models, based on opinion dynamics with private and public states, fail to account for a key aspect: when nonexpression aligns with normative behavior, initial social pressure can induce pluralistic ignorance. We show that pluralistic ignorance persists under infrequent imitation and strong initial minority influence. Although individuals can overcome this ignorance by the end of interactions, it reemerges in subsequent meetings. However, excessive imitation erases pluralistic ignorance, leading to a uniform state in which internal and external states align. Furthermore, incorporating memory into the internalization process shows that pluralistic ignorance peaks at moderate imitation levels.

The social factors behind the mask: contextual effects on trait impressions from faces wearing a face mask

The presence of face masks can significantly impact processes related to trait impressions from faces. In the present research, we focused on trait impressions from faces either wearing a mask or not by addressing how contextual factors may shape such inferences. In Study 1, we compared trait impressions from faces in a phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in which wearing masks was a normative behavior (T1) with those assessed one year later when wearing masks was far less common (T2). Results at T2 showed a reduced positivity in the trait impressions elicited by faces covered by a mask. In Study 2, it was found that trait impressions from faces were modulated by the background visual context in which the target face was embedded so that faces wearing a mask elicited more positive traits when superimposed on an indoor rather than outdoor visual context. Overall, the present studies indicate that wearing face masks may affect trait impressions from faces, but also that such impressions are highly flexible and can significantly fluctuate across time and space.

Exploring the drivers of pro-environmental behavioral intentions in an emerging nation

PurposeDrawing on the theory of planned behavior and value-belief norms theory, this study aims to explore the causes of pro-environmental behavioral intentions in the context of Sri Lanka.Design/methodology/approachData were garnered from 503 subjects with the aid of self-reported questionnaires. The formulated hypotheses were examined using a variance-based statistical approach (PLS-SEM).FindingsThe findings of the study revealed that personal values, particularly altruistic and biosphere values, significantly strengthen the psychological drivers of pro-environmental behavioral intentions. The study further found that religiosity enhances the association between personal norms and pro-environmental behavioral intentions and the place attachment augments the relationship between attitude and pro-environmental behavioral intentions.Practical implicationsThis study suggests that instilling altruistic and biosphere values in individuals can boost pro-environmental behavioral intentions. Campaigns and educational programs could focus on instilling these values to foster responsibility and empathy. Recognizing the influence of religiosity on pro-environmental behaviors and attitudes, this study suggests collaborative efforts between organizations and religious institutions. Religious leaders can integrate environmental stewardship into teachings, emphasizing ethical responsibilities.Originality/valueThe study pushes back the frontiers of environmental consciousness literature by highlighting the importance of personal values, psychological factors and contextual variables such as religiosity and place attachment in fostering pro-environmental behavior within the specific context of an emerging country – Sri Lanka.

Violence against minors: concept and types

Protecting children from violent criminal offenses that infringe on their life, health, morality and sexual inviolability is a priority national security task that unites the efforts of the family, the state and civil society. Domestic violence against minors has characteristic features related to the specifics of the mechanism of committing criminal offenses, the causes and conditions that determine it, the personality of the perpetrators, and the peculiarities of the victim’s behavior, which must be taken into account when developing special prevention measures. The analysis of legislation and specialized literature leads to the conclusion that today there is No. single approach to the definition of a number of the most important concepts related to the topic of this study. This primarily concerns the concepts of “family” and “violence”. The concept of “violence” is now widely used not only in everyday life, but is also included in the terminology of various sciences. Philosophy, psychology, criminal law, criminology, forensics and other sciences approach the problem of defining the concept of “violence” independently, without using existing definitions in related fields. The definition of violence may vary depending on the purpose of its use. This is due to the fact that violence itself has a rather “broad format”. It is a social and legal phenomenon that is not limited to the criminal law. In other words, violence can include criminal offenses, administrative offenses, as well as other forms of behavior that are not formally torts, but contradict generally accepted and approved norms of behavior, forming the prerequisites for violent crime as such. In this regard, it is necessary to clarify that in the context of this study, only the criminal law concept of violence will be used, assessed from the standpoint of criminal law as an offense and, accordingly, possessing all its features. Such a concept is necessary for a clear definition of the subject of research and its use to distinguish related issues in the process of studying empirical material.

Allegations of Democratic Election Fraud and Support for Political Violence Among Republicans

Are partisans more likely to endorse political violence when politicians accuse their rivals of election improprieties? I theorize that for Republican partisans in the United States, the answer to this question is yes. Republican partisans are primed to believe allegations of cheating by Democrats and view election improprieties through the lens of racial and xenophobic resentments. Allegations of Democratic election fraud prompt them to eschew nonviolent norms of political behavior and endorse political violence. I test these propositions using an original, online survey experiment involving 140 self-identified Republican subjects. I find that exposure to allegations by politicians that Democrats engage in election fraud prompts Republican partisans to increase their support for political violence. Furthermore, using mediation tests, I find that exposing Republicans to allegations of electoral fraud by Democrats reduces their trust of people of different races and religions which, in turn, increases their support for political violence.

Predicting collegiate athletes’ willingness to mentor teammates: applying the theory of normative social behaviour

ABSTRACT Given the benefits of peer mentorship among athletes, there is a need to identify antecedents of athletes’ mentorship engagement. Based on the theory of normative social behaviour, the present study tested the hypothesis that there would be a positive association between athletes’ perceptions of teammates’ peer mentorship (peer descriptive norm) and mentorship willingness, and that this relationship would strengthen as a function of increasing perceptions of coaches’ approval of peer mentorship (coach injunctive norm) and social identity. Specifically, we assessed athletes’ willingness to provide task instruction (instrumental) and friendship (psychosocial) mentorship to teammates who played (a) the same position, and (b) a different position, as them. Participants were 173 National Collegiate Athletic Association athletes from the United States who completed an online survey. Results of multiple regression analyses provided support for a positive peer descriptive norm-mentorship willingness relationship for some, but not all, mentorship willingness outcomes. Though the statistical significance of interaction terms and R2 changes were inconsistent, patterns of moderation were observed in some of the results based on simple slopes. That is, the simple slopes indicated preliminary support that the positive association between athletes’ perceptions of teammates’ peer mentorship and mentorship willingness may strengthen to the extent that athletes perceive that their coaches approve of peer mentorship and that athletes identify more strongly with their teams. The results suggest that coaches should overtly encourage and approve of peer mentorship, enhance their athletes’ identification with their teams, and provide their athletes with mentorship training opportunities.

Исторические подходы к исследованию лжи и их трансформация в культуре

The article analyzes the process of understanding the concept of lies in the history of culture. The relevance of the problem is due to the obvious transformation of the content of the concept over time, changes in the semantic volume and status of lies in different fields of knowledge. Based on the analysis of historical and philosophical material and modern domestic literature, historically formed approaches to the interpretation of the concept of lie are identified. Such approaches include religious, ontological, epistemological, ethical, axiological, instrumental, cultural and psychological approaches to the interpretation of lies. In the religious approach, God is the absolute truth; lies come from the devil and are a phenomenon of the lower world. In the ontological approach, lies are presented as a phenomenon in the world of things. In the epistemological approach, lying is not associated with a person; denotes the discrepancy between knowledge and reality and is a hypostasis of truth. The ethical approach connects truth with duty, and lies with violation of people’s rights and internal moral imperative (Kant). In cultural, axiological and instrumental approaches, lies are interpreted as a utilitarian value that ensures the realization of communicative needs and the achievement of cultural goals. The psychological approach associates lies with interpersonal communication between people and the volitional action of a person. The historical conditionality and interrelation of the selected approaches is shown. By tracing the evolution of approaches to studying lying, from religious condemnation to psychological inquiry, the article contributes to a deeper understanding of human behavior and societal norms.

Scaling up a brief alcohol intervention to prevent HIV infection in Vietnam: a cluster randomized, implementation trial

BackgroundEvidence-based interventions (EBIs) often address normative behaviors. If a behavior is also common among clinicians, they may be skeptical about the necessity or effectiveness of an EBI. Alternatively, clinicians’ attitudes and behaviors may be misaligned, or they may lack the knowledge and self-efficacy to deliver the EBI. Several EBIs address unhealthy alcohol use, a common and often culturally acceptable behavior. But unhealthy alcohol use may be particularly harmful to people with HIV (PWH). Here, we present an implementation trial using an experiential implementation strategy to address clinicians’ knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. Clinicians receive the experiential intervention before they begin delivering an evidence-based brief alcohol intervention (BAI) to PWH with unhealthy alcohol use.MethodsDesign: In this hybrid type 3 implementation-effectiveness cluster randomized controlled trial, ART clinics (n = 30) will be randomized 1:1 to facilitation, a flexible strategy to address implementation barriers, or facilitation plus the experiential brief alcohol intervention (EBAI). In the EBAI arm, clinicians, irrespective of their alcohol use, will be offered the BAI as experiential learning. EBAI will address clinicians’ alcohol-related attitudes and behaviors and increase their knowledge and confidence to deliver the BAI.Participants: ART clinic staff will be enrolled and assessed at pre-BAI training, post-BAI training, 3, 12, and 24 months. All PWH at the ART clinics who screen positive for unhealthy alcohol use will be offered the BAI. A subset of PWH (n = 810) will be enrolled and assessed at baseline, 3, and 12 months.Outcomes: We will compare implementation outcomes (acceptability, fidelity, penetration, costs, and sustainability) and effectiveness outcomes (viral suppression and alcohol use) between the two arms. We will assess the impact of site-level characteristics on scaling-up the BAI. We will also evaluate how experiencing the BAI affected clinical staff’s alcohol use and clinic-level alcohol expectations in the EBAI arm.DiscussionThis trial contributes to implementation science by testing a novel strategy to implement a behavior change intervention in a setting in which clinicians themselves may engage in the behavior. Experiential learning may be useful to address normative and difficult to change lifestyle behaviors that contribute to chronic diseases.Trial RegistrationNCT06358885 (04/10/2024), https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06358885.

Sport, neurodegenerative illness and the social determinants of health

ABSTRACT This article proposes a Social Determinants of Health framework as a counter to the prominence of bio-determinist tropes in understandings of the relationship between concussion and later life neurodegenerative conditions in athletic populations. It is argued that debates about concussion (or repetitive head impacts) causing CTE have been particularly influenced by broader social trends towards neuro-essentialism. This paradigm reduces complex social behaviour to brain matter and continues to dominate the field despite the recent diversification of evidence from autopsy-based studies of neuropathology to epidemiological studies comparing recorded causes of death among former elite athletes. In contrast, this article explores the ‘causes of causes’ of neurodegenerative conditions. It outlines the ways in which the distinct dynamics of: a) employment, b) education, income and wealth, c) health systems and services, and d) social environment and public safety relate to the specific occupational conditions of elite sport and likely negatively shape health outcomes of athletic populations. The article concludes by arguing that to more effectively address these particular health harms we must move beyond narrow, mono-causal models and evoke a cultural change that extends beyond making rule changes and adjusting psychological attitudes and behavioural norms, to redress the social structural parameters of elite sports participation. The continuation of narrower, neuro-centric and reductionist paradigms obscures the causes of the causes of neurodegenerative decline and limits the scope for change.

How K-pop Fans Utilize Conventional and Subcultural Frameworks to Construct Fan Identities: A Case Study of Seungri and the Burning Sun Scandal

ABSTRACT In this article, we examine how fans on social media platforms manage their identities when faced with moral dilemmas in which their self-images and parasocial relations with idols are jeopardized. In particular, we explore how fans use social identification and deviant labeling as strategies to position themselves as distinct but not deviant cultural consumers. We choose a particular case of stigmatization within the Korean pop culture context – the Burning Sun Scandal involving Korean idol Seungri – to demonstrate this process. Drawing on concepts from social identity, subcultures, and deviance scholarship, we show how fans involved in discussions about the Burning Sun scandal explicitly linked themselves to conventional and/or subcultural moral and behavioral norms, while altercasting fans who expressed differing opinions regarding the idol’s guilt versus innocence. Through the analysis of fans’ identity claims, this study provides insights into how fans manage positive self-identification against a backdrop of media discourses in which the moral reputations of celebrity idols are called into question.

Preliminary investigation and proposal of periodic orbits and their utilization for logistics in the cislunar regime

The world is in the midst of what is widely considered the second Space Age due to the vastly growing commercial space sector and progress with international initiatives such as the Artemis program, led by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Cislunar space is becoming a region of growing interest as nations, international organizations, and private corporations look to expand their presence and outreach. The planned development of space infrastructure, such as lunar habitats, mining operations, and other installations, is driving the need for studies regarding common orbital pathways to ensure logistical support for future cislunar missions. Along with common orbital pathways, comprehensive and internationally acknowledged space policy and doctrine is required to ensure the safety, stability, and peace of this new frontier of human endeavor. This study serves to address one of the mission sets that will come to shape the emerging economy of the wider Earth-Moon system, space logistics. Specifically, this study will discuss potential orbits for a cislunar space situational awareness network that would support a space traffic management service, along with three cislunar logistics missions: personnel and cargo transport, space tourism, and search and rescue. Characteristics considered for orbits include orbit stability, period, and the proximity to key nodes in cislunar space such as the Moon and Lagrange points. Using Circular Restricted Three-Body Problem (CR3BP) dynamics, fourteen sample cislunar periodic orbits are proposed to accomplish the cislunar missions discussed. This study adds to the limited work in the field of cislunar orbital design to generate novel orbits and apply them to logistical use cases. All missions, except tourism, feature a “touring” class of cislunar periodic orbits due to their unique geometries enabling them to traverse a wide range of cislunar space. Preliminary analysis indicates that all of the proposed orbits are classified as marginally unstable, and suggests that minimal propellant is required to maintain a space vehicle's intended cislunar trajectory. Finally, existing law, policy, and governance surrounding cislunar space logistics and operations is discussed specifically concerning space traffic management, transportation, and humans touring or being rescued from space. Special attention is given to both the ambiguity of the law and the limitations of current norms of behavior, patent and property concerns, and tense geopolitical situations that can further complicate peace. Overall, this study highlights the underdevelopment of current space law and policy with the ambiguity of present-day norms discussed.

Zebrafish (Danio rerio) behavioral phenotypes not underscored by different gut microbiota.

Different animal behavioral phenotypes maintained and selectively bred over multiple generations may be underscored by dissimilar gut microbial community compositions or not have any significant dissimilarity in community composition. Operating within the microbiota-gut-brain axis framework, we anticipated differences in gut microbiome profiles between zebrafish (Danio rerio) selectively bred to display the bold and shy personality types. This would highlight gut microbe-mediated effects on host behavior. To this end, we amplified and sequenced a fragment of the 16S rRNA gene from the guts of bold and shy zebrafish individuals (n=10) via Miseq. We uncovered no significant difference in within-group microbial diversity nor between-group microbial community composition of the two behavioral phenotypes. Interestingly, though not statistically different, we determined that the gut microbial community of the bold phenotype was dominated by Burkholderiaceae, Micropepsaceae, and Propionibacteriaceae. In contrast, the shy phenotype was dominated by Beijerinckaceae, Pirelullacaeae, Rhizobiales_Incertis_Sedis, and Rubinishaeraceae. The absence of any significant difference in gut microbiota profiles between the two phenotypes would suggest that in this species, there might exist a stable "core" gut microbiome, regardless of behavioral phenotypes, and or possibly, a limited role for the gut microbiota in modulating this selected-for host behavior. This is the first study to characterize the gut microbial community of distinct innate behavioral phenotypes of the zebrafish (that are not considered dysbiotic states) and not rely on antibiotic or probiotic treatments to induce changes in behavior. Such studies are crucial to our understanding of the modulating impacts of the gut microbiome on normative animal behavior.