Public Prejudice Research Articles

Hortensins, Type 1 Ribosome-Inactivating Proteins from Seeds of Red Mountain Spinach: Isolation, Characterization, and Their Effect on Glioblastoma Cells.

Ribosome inactivating proteins (RIPs) are specific N-β-glycosylases that are well-characterized in plants. Their enzymatic action is to damage ribosomes, thereby blocking protein translation. Recently, several research groups have been working on the screening for these toxins in edible plants to facilitate the use of RIPs as biotechnological tools and biopesticides and to overcome public prejudice. Here, four novel monomeric (type 1) RIPs have been isolated from the seeds of Atriplex hortensis L. var. rubra, which is commonly known as edible red mountain spinach. These enzymes, named hortensins 1, 2, 4, and 5, are able to release the β-fragment and, like many other RIPs, adenines from salmon sperm DNA, thus, acting as polynucleotide:adenosine glycosidases. Structurally, hortensins have a different molecular weight and are purified with different yields (hortensin 1, ~29.5 kDa, 0.28 mg per 100 g; hortensin 2, ~29 kDa, 0.29 mg per 100 g; hortensin 4, ~28.5 kDa, 0.71 mg per 100 g; and hortensin 5, ~30 kDa, 0.65 mg per 100 g); only hortensins 2 and 4 are glycosylated. Furthermore, the major isoforms (hortensins 4 and 5) are cytotoxic toward human continuous glioblastoma U87MG cell line. In addition, the morphological change in U87MG cells in the presence of these toxins is indicative of cell death triggered by the apoptotic pathway, as revealed by nuclear DNA fragmentation (TUNEL assay).

Research on Sustainable Development of Chinese New Energy Vehicle Enterprises --- Based on Consumer Psychology and Range Anxiety

In the past few decades, more and more people tend to buy new energy vehicles due to serious environmental pollution, rising oil prices, restricted measures from the government, high car utilization costs, and other problems. However, compared to traditional oil-driven vehicle, new energy vehicle also has many disadvantages, such as range anxiety, public prejudice etc. Because of this background, this article will focus on the issue of consumer psychology and range anxiety to new energy vehicles, discussing what kind of vehicle Chinese consumers tend to buy, how consumer psychology influences car purchase behavior, as well as the causes and solutions of consumers’ range anxiety of electric vehicles, which will help Chinese new energy vehicle enterprises better achieve sustainable development.

A Study of the Life of Thai Marriage Migrant Women in Korea: With a Focus on Their Economic Empowerment and Implications for Policy

Thai marriage migrant women in Korea are often perceived as less-educated, passive, financially dependent, and a helpless victim of domestic violence from a third-world country who migrated to Korea through matchmaking agencies to marry a much older Korean farmer or factory worker to provide her labor to his family. Despite the various efforts of the government to raise awareness of marriage migrants and multicultural families, the public prejudice against Thai marriage migrant women has not yet changed much. However, our interviews and interactions with Thai marriage migrant women gave us a different view of the matter. That is to say, many of them had a decent career in Thailand prior to marriage, and most importantly, they are eager to become a full and independent member of society through economic empowerment. In addition, to get themselves prepared for job market, they are proactively utilizing government-sponsored programs and other available resources. Although they do experience certain hardship as a foreigner, especially with regard to child-rearing, language and discrimination, it did not put a stop to their endeavor for self-empowerment. Keywords: Thai marriage migrant women in Korea, economic empowerment, vocational education, support for multicultural families

Family management experience of parents of children with chronic heart failure: A qualitative study

PurposeTo explore the experience of family management among parents of children with chronic heart failure. Design and methodsQualitative descriptive phenomenology was used as the research design. The sample included 16 parents. For data collection, semi-structured interviews were conducted. Colaizzi's seven-step analysis method was used for data analysis. Themes were encoded and created with Nvivo 12.0 Plus software. ResultsThree themes and ten sub-themes were identified: (1) weakened family socialization (diminished parental role in social education and insufficient socialization of children), (2) experience of five psychological stages (resistance, self-blame, worry, exhaustion, acceptance), and (3) family management dilemmas (low social awareness of the disease, heavy economic burden, and limited coping style). ConclusionThe experience of parents of children with chronic heart failure is complex. The children have low socialization and face public prejudice. Parents are stressed by social education, economics, and the five psychological stages they have experienced. Families face difficulties such as heavy economic burdens and limited coping styles. Practice implicationsTo address these complexities, pediatric nursing staff should take steps to improve family management and, as a result, children's quality of life. Our study provides a resource for pediatric nursing staff when implementing family management interventions.

Perceived barriers to psychiatric help-seeking in South Korea by age groups: text mining analyses of social media big data

BackgroundThe psychiatric treatment gap is substantial in Korea, implying barriers in seeking help.ObjectivesThis study aims to explore barriers of seeing psychiatrists, expressed on the internet by age groups.MethodsA corpus of data was garnered extensively from internet communities, blogs and social network services from 1 January 2016 to 31 July 2019. Among the texts collected, texts containing words linked to psychiatry were selected. Then the corpus was dismantled into words by using natural language processing. Words linked to barriers to seeking help were identified and classified. Then the words from web communities that we were able to identify the age groups were additionally organized by age groups.Results97,730,360 articles were identified and 6,097,369 were included in the analysis. Words implying the barriers were selected and classified into four groups of structural discrimination, public prejudice, low accessibility, and adverse drug effects. Structural discrimination was the greatest barrier occupying 34%, followed by public prejudice (27.8%), adverse drug effects (18.6%), and cost/low accessibility (16.1%). In the analysis by age groups, structural discrimination caused teenagers (51%), job seekers (64%) and mothers with children (43%) the most concern. In contrast, the public prejudice (49%) was the greatest barriers in the senior group.ConclusionsAlthough structural discrimination may most contribute to barriers to visiting psychiatrists in Korea, variation by generations may exist. Along with the general attempt to tackle the discrimination, customized approach might be needed.

Support for the social-cognitive model of internalized stigma in serious mental illness

One prominent social-cognitive model of internalized stigma by Corrigan and his colleagues (2012; 2002) proposes that individuals are exposed to societal stereotypes about mental illness, at least tacitly agree with them, and may apply them to oneself, engendering harmful self-beliefs. There is limited empirical support for this model in serious mental illness. Moreover, it is not clearly established how internalized stigma and its associated factors impact recovery in this population. The current study uses structural equation modeling (SEM) to assess the social-cognitive model's goodness of fit in a sample of Veterans with serious mental illness (Veteran sample, n = 248), and then validates the model in a second and independent sample of individuals receiving community-based psychiatric rehabilitation services (community sample, n = 267). Participants completed the Self-Stigma of Mental Illness Scale (SSMIS; Corrigan et al., 2006) and measures of self-esteem, self-efficacy, and recovery attitudes. Consistent with Corrigan and colleagues' formulation of internalized stigma, SEM analyses showed a significant indirect pathway from stereotype awareness, to stereotype agreement, to application to self, to self-esteem decrement, to poorer recovery attitudes. Additionally, there was a significant direct effect from stereotype awareness to self-esteem. This study shows that individuals with serious mental illness experience psychological harm from stigma in two ways: (1) through perceived public prejudice and bias, and (2) through internalizing these negative messages. In particular, stigma harms individuals' self-esteem, which then reduces their recovery attitudes.

Self-Contempt as a Predictor of Suicidality: A Longitudinal Study.

People with mental illness can internalize public prejudice and negative emotional reactions to their group, leading to self-contempt. This study examined self-contempt related to having a mental illness as predictor of suicidality among 77 people with mental illness in Southern Germany. Self-contempt, depressive symptoms, hopelessness, and suicidality were assessed at baseline; suicidality was measured again 3 months later. High self-contempt at baseline predicted increased suicidality at follow-up, adjusting for baseline suicidality, symptoms, diagnosis, age, sex, and hopelessness. These results suggest that self-contempt may be a risk factor for suicidality and call for specific interventions targeting self-stigma and its emotional consequences.

Comparative analysis of the perception of neuromarketing tools by consumers in Russia and China

Aim. The presented study aims to gauge the reactions of Russian and Chinese consumers to the use of neuromaketing tools. In the course of the study, several hypotheses are tested using statistical analysis.Tasks. The authors assess the awareness of the respondents in the field of interest and their attitude as consumers (individuals) to neuromarketing and the use of neurotechnology in Russia and China. Methods. The hypotheses are tested in practice using a questionnaire survey of the respondents (by means of a handout questionnaire or an online questionnaire). The assessment of the attitude to the use of neuromarketing tools by the citizens of the Russian Federation and China is examined. The respondents are asked questions with one answer, multiple answers, and Likert scale questions. Data are processed in IBM SPSS Statistics 24 using such statistical methods as frequency analysis, contrast of means, etc.Results. The opinion of Russian and Chinese consumers on the use of neurotechnology for commercial purposes is comprehensively assessed. The study analyzes the issues of the awareness of Russian and Chinese citizens about neurotechnology, their own consumer behavior, and their attitude to the use of neurotechnology. Consumer opinion is examined to determine the risk of public discontent and prejudice against the implementation of neurotechnology.Conclusions. Both Russia and China are facing potential threats to the development of neurotechnology from public opinion. The risk of a statutory ban on neurotechnology due to public discontent and low perception of the ethical aspect of this tool by consumers in Russia and China is vastly overstated by contemporary researchers and media. Consumers are actually rather tolerant of the examined tool and show no signs of discontent or fear. The long-term relevance of the obtained data isobvious.

Feministički iskazi u kritičkoj recepciji skupnih izložbi hrvatskih umjetnica

U ovome radu promatrat će se diskurs recepcije tri vala skupnih izložbi hrvatskih umjetnica tijekom XX. stoljeća s fokusom na feminističke strategije zagovaranja i osnaživanja ženske umjetnosti. Razmatrani korpus tekstova obuhvaća likovne kritike koje su pratile prvu skupnu – Intimnu izložbu održanu u okviru Proljetnoga salona 1916., potom izložbe Kluba likovnih umjetnica (1928. –1940.), sve do izložbi u čast Osmoga marta (1960. –1991.). Te su izložbe, iako su se odvijale u različitim uvjetima i društveno-političkim kontekstima, bile generator javne rasprave o umjetničkom stvaralaštvu žena, pa iako su provocirale mizogine i antifeminističke iskaze, kao reakcija na njih javljaju se i otvoreno feministički glasovi. Upravo ti feministički iskazi utjecali su na stvaralačku samosvijest u žena, ali i polako pripitomljavali društvo privikavanjem na prisutnost ženskih umjetnica, čime su sudjelovali u postupnom suzbijanju stereotipa i predrasuda te polaganom rastakanju dominantne patrijarhalne matrice na području hrvatske likovne umjetnosti XX. stoljeća.

FACTORS INFLUENCING RECRUITMENT TO A UK RANDOMISED CONTROLLED TREATMENT TRIAL; THE ROLE OF PATIENT-PREFERENCE

Background Recruitment to target is a major challenge for randomised controlled treatment trials (RCTs) in psychiatry. Strong patient preference may hamper recruitment of protocol-eligible participants, thereby compromising statistical power and limiting the external validity and generalisability of study findings to target populations. The Optimal Treatment in OCD (OTO) is a UK non-placebo feasibility trial of CBT and sertraline (two standard treatments) and their combination, randomly allocated, designed to ascertain the optimal community-based treatment for OCD. OTO aims to provide information about relevant design issues, to optimise feasibility of the definitive trial. Aim To identify the factors influencing recruitment to the RCT. Methods The study was approved by the relevant NHS ethics committee. Adult OCD outpatients were recruited at three UK centres. They were identified from routine referrals, primary healthcare services, community mental health clinics, other clinics attracting high levels of OCD, trust databases of patients likely to be suffering with OCD and the use of promotional materials. Patients subjected to screening were given detailed information about the treatments. Flexible and responsive clinical support was offered for the trial duration. Those eligible candidates declining to consent to participate were asked for their reasons. We report the data from one centre. Results 86 individuals satisfied the trial eligibility criteria. Of these, only 24 (27.9%) agreed to participate in the study. Of the remaining 62 (72.1%) who refused to participate, 35 (56.5%) gave treatment-related reasons. The commonest treatment-related reason was refusal to take pharmacological treatment (N=17; 27.4% all refusers). 12 of these individuals refused medication in general, while 5 refused sertraline. Another 8 (12.9% all refusers), showed a clear preference for CBT. However, 10 (16.1% all refusers) declined because they were reluctant to discontinue ongoing medication prior to randomisation. Conclusions and Future Directions Treatment–related preferences constituted a major obstacle to the recruitment of UK OCD patients to a non-placebo RCT of standard pharmacotherapy and CBT, to the extent that only 27.9% eligible patients were actually randomised. Over 40% (40.3%) of those refusing to enter the study gave as the reason a reluctance to receive pharmacotherapy or a bias toward receiving CBT, while 16.1% refused washout. These choices occurred despite patients being informed of the current evidence suggesting equivalent clinical effectiveness for CBT and SSRI and being offered clinical support during the washout phase. Trial designs that account for patient preference e.g. ‘patient-preference RCT’ ‘or ‘comprehensive cohort’ designs (Brewin & Bradley, 1989) or omit washout may increase recruitment but have methodological limitations. RCTs should gather information on the effect of pre-randomisation preference on outcomes to inform better trial design (Torgerson, Klaber-Moffett & Russell, 1996). New approaches to overcome public prejudice toward psychopharmacology are also needed to support robust trial design in psychiatry.

Matrimonials in the Morning Post: Literary Wife-Traps in Conservative Contexts

Matrimonials in the Morning Post:Literary Wife-Traps in Conservative Contexts Kellie Holzer (bio) Far from representing an open market for courtship,1 early nineteenth-century matrimonial advertisements were a conservative extension of traditional modes of courtship into the realm of print culture. Matrimonial advertisements circulated in a cultural milieu of disapproving readers. Alarming, and sometimes humorous, warnings against matrimonial advertising alleged its potential for deception, fraud, and danger.2 Female correspondents [End Page 199] were particularly threatened; readers imagined male advertisers as "Heartless, mercenary wretches, who ought to be shunned by all respectable females!" (Y. M. 41). Yet in spite of the public prejudice against them, matrimonial advertisements tended to have socially conservative functions. If we attend more closely to the varying print contexts in which matrimonial advertisements appeared, as well as analyze recurring discursive patterns within the advertisements, we find that matrimonial advertising often functioned to shore up traditional ideas about class, gender, sexuality, and marriage. A survey of matrimonials printed in the Morning Post illustrates how a newspaper's character, reputation, and circulation shaped the content of matrimonial advertising.3 Why the Morning Post? Recent scholarship on matrimonials focuses on their circulation among the aspirational classes.4 Matrimonials for and by members of the upper classes, especially those published prior to the 1870s rise of niche periodicals devoted to matrimonial advertising, have been overlooked, and yet these provide some of the most fervent defences of advertising as a respectable mode of courtship.5 In the Morning Post, matrimonials intermittently appear on the first page, surrounded by advertisements for goods, services, and employment opportunities. The Morning Post was well known for fashionable news and conservative politics. According to Wilfrid Hindle's history, the Morning Post was "recognized as a champion of Conservatism for over a century" (4) and "very much the organ of the leisured classes" (5). The newspaper had a reputation for snobbery in the first half of the nineteenth century. A Punch writer dubbed it the "Fawning Post" for its sycophantic reporting of the Royal family (Hindle 166). Evoking an elite female readership, a contemporary Fraser's Magazine critic described the newspaper as the oracle of the drawing-room, and the soft recorder of ballroom beauties and drawing-room presentations. . . . In all matters interesting to the female world of fashion this paper has always the best information, which it employs in a discreet manner, imparting just as much of private affairs as the public ought to know, and no more. (qtd. in Hindle 165) The conservative tone and fashionable reputation of the Morning Post are reflected in the matrimonials printed between 1820 and 1860. For one thing, advertisers describe themselves as gentlemen of property seeking ladies with matching resources and connections. In contrast to matrimonials included in the notices to correspondents sections of less-fashionable papers, which unapologetically published advertisers' pecuniary problems, there are far fewer matrimonials in the Morning Post that express socio-economic aspirations. The lack of such advertisements complicates the stereotype of the fortune hunter prevalent in public discourse about matrimonials.6 In fact, many of the Morning Post matrimonials explicitly state that "Money is no [End Page 200] consideration" (8 Nov. 1858) or "Whatever fortune the lady may possess will be strictly settled upon herself" (26 May 1860). The few Morning Post matrimonials that do appear to be motivated by economic reasons are genteelly regretful in tone, while still asserting the advertiser's social status. One such 1830 advertisement seeking a "Lady of ample fortune" apologetically explains that the advertiser "possesses at present a comfortable independence, and very considerable expectations hereafter, but being entailed property, it cannot be set apart for the purposes of a marriage settlement, which explains the necessity of this public intimation of his views. He would not, however, desire an union with any Lady not at least his equal in society" (9 April 1831). In reinforcing the class hierarchy and tacit rules for endogamous marriage within the upper social strata, these advertisements, contributed solely by male correspondents looking for wives, are noticeably gendered.7 Advertisements uniformly feature chivalric promises of honour and secrecy that reveal the articulation of gender, sexuality, and class, given that they are as...

Hoover's War on Gays: Exposing the fbi's “Sex Deviates” Program

Hoover's War on Gays fills an important gap in the history of the gay rights movement by providing a comprehensive account of the five-decade campaign of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (fbi) to intimidate and harass gay men, lesbians, and organizations that sought to advance their rights. Douglas M. Charles, an associate professor at Penn State University–Greater Allegheny, describes how fbi director J. Edgar Hoover's obsession with homosexuals began in 1937 with the kidnapping and murder of a young boy in Tacoma, Washington. As the fbi became involved in the hunt for a “sexual pervert,” the investigation triggered a “sex panic” that fueled public prejudice and intolerance of homosexuals. The topics of two sections of the book have garnered little attention from historians. Charles draws from fbi documents to describe Buell Dwight Huggins, who was expelled from the University of Illinois in 1940 after he was accused of soliciting a fellow student. Huggins later worked for the federal government and formed the predecessor organization of the Washington Mattachine Society in 1954. We also learn that the controversial homophile activist Edward Sagarin, under the pseudonym Donald Webster Cory, formed the short-lived Homosexuals Anonymous, which led to the formation of the Mattachine Society of New York in 1955.

Prejudice and discrimination from mental health service providers.

This column describes the experience of prejudice and discrimination that some mental health service users encounter in their interactions with service providers and organizations. The intent of this column is to highlight potential action steps to address the negative beliefs and attitudes of service providers that contribute to prejudice and discrimination. This description draws from published material and the authors' experience. If the most effective approaches to reduce public prejudice and discrimination toward people diagnosed with a mental illness are education and contact, then those methods may be useful methods to help mental health service providers view and engage persons served from a strengths-based recovery and wellness orientation.

Challenges Facing Early Childhood Education in Ghana. What do Stakeholders Say?

The study provides an overview of challenges confronting early childhood education in the Winneba municipality of the central region of Ghana. It looks at factors that might have contributed to such challenges and what measures can be put in place to address them. Using a descriptive survey type approach, 17 participants consisting of early childhood educators, heads of early childhood centers, parents, and the National coordinator of Early Childhood programmes in Ghana participated in the study. Findings revealed that among the challenges associated with early childhood education in the Winneba municipality include; public prejudice about the relevance of early childhood educational programs to the child’s education and development, lack of parental involvement and commitment to early childhood education, lack of teaching staff and infrastructure, and institutional barriers. Reasons identified for such challenges included lack of education on the part of the public about the place and relevance of early childhood education in the total educational setup. Recommendations manifesting in sensitization and education, partnership and commitment by the public were among the many suggestions provided by participants in addressing most of the identified challenges. Keywords: Early Childhood Education, Challenges, Winneba Municipality, Stakeholders, Ghana.

The "backbone" of stigma: identifying the global core of public prejudice associated with mental illness.

We used the Stigma in Global Context-Mental Health Study to assess the core sentiments that represent consistent, salient public health intervention targets. Data from 16 countries employed a nationally representative sampling strategy, international collaboration for instrument development, and case vignettes with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition depression and schizophrenia criteria. We measured knowledge and prejudice with existing questions and scales, and employed exploratory data analysis to examine the public response to 43 items. Across countries, levels of recognition, acceptance of neurobiological attributions, and treatment endorsement were high. However, a core of 5 prejudice items was consistently high, even in countries with low overall stigma levels. The levels were generally lower for depression than schizophrenia, and exclusionary sentiments for more intimate venues and in authority-based roles showed the greatest stigma. Negative responses to schizophrenia and depression were highly correlated across countries. These results challenge researchers to reconfigure measurement strategies and policymakers to reconsider efforts to improve population mental health. Efforts should prioritize inclusion, integration, and competences for the reduction of cultural barriers to recognition, response, and recovery.

Mechanische Bewegungseinschränkungen: Die klinische Praxis an einer psychiatrischen Universitätsklinik

Public opinion on psychiatric medicine is still dominated by images of repression; in particular, the aspects of involuntary admissions, restraint, isolation, or involuntary administration of medication contribute significantly to public prejudice. Furthermore, violations of individual privacy rights and the use of coercion in psychiatry is an ethical challenge. The aim of this study was to describe the "practice of mechanical restraint" at a university hospital in Austria. In this study, all admissions to the closed ward at the Department of Psychiatry of the University Clinic of Innsbruck between July and December 2009 were assessed through retrospective data analysis. 529 admissions were identified during the study period. In 148 admitted patients mechanical restraint was arranged at least once. Mechanical restraint was used most frequently and over the longest period of time in patients of the ICD diagnosis group F0. In most cases, "self- harm" had been the reason for restraint. Fourteen percent of the restraints were due to a "danger to others". In patients with "danger to others", a 5 point fixation was used significantly more often than in patients without danger to others, where a restriction by bedrail and/or abdominal belt was most common. A comparison of these data with those of other centers is limited due to diverse documentation systems. A unified approach in terms of an effective quality management would be desirable in this regard.

Factors affecting public prejudice and social distance on mental illness: analysis of contextual effect by multi-level analysis.

ObjectivesWhile there have been many quantitative studies on the public's attitude towards mental illnesses, it is hard to find quantitative study which focused on the contextual effect on the public's attitude. The purpose of this study was to identify factors that affect the public's beliefs and attitudes including contextual effects.MethodsWe analyzed survey on the public's beliefs and attitudes towards mental illness in Korea with multi-level analysis. We analyzed the public's beliefs and attitudes in terms of prejudice as an intermediate outcome and social distance as a final outcome. Then, we focused on the associations of factors, which were individual and regional socio-economic factors, familiarity, and knowledge based on the comparison of the intermediate and final outcomes.ResultsPrejudice was not explained by regional variables but was only correlated with individual factors. Prejudice increased with age and decreased by high education level. However, social distance controlling for prejudice increased in females, in people with a high education level, and in regions with a high education level and a high proportion of the old. Therefore, social distance without controlling for prejudice increased in females, in the elderly, in highly educated people, and in regions with a high education and aged community.ConclusionsThe result of the multi-level analysis for the regional variables suggests that social distance for mental illness are not only determined by individual factors but also influenced by the surroundings so that it could be tackled sufficiently with appropriate considering of the relevant regional context with individual characteristics.

P-437 - Influences of causal attribution on prejudice and social discrimination against mental illness - using vignettes

Introduction Since public prejudice and discrimination against person with mental illness could limit their social experiences and opportunities, it is important to give efforts for overcoming public's prejudice and discrimination. Recently NAMI or WPA is applying scientific education method to the public based on attribution theory in order to decrease the prejudice and discrimination. In this context, if the public perceive that a cause of mental illness is uncontrollable due to its biological nature, they show helping behavior with sympathy rather criticize on person with mental illness. Meanwhile, there is a limited study on whether this approach brings reducing public's prejudice and discrimination against mental illness. Objectives This study aims to analyze the influences of causal attribution, controllable causes or uncontrollable causes, on prejudice and discrimination with using vignettes. Methods The research conducted with 159 respondents who are currently university students and provided them the case vignettes that include typical alcoholism, mood disorder, schizophrenia (acute and chronic case), anti-social personality disorder, based on DSM-IV. Results In general the respondents preferred to bad character rather than biological causes in all types of mental illness. In terms of prejudice and discrimination, however, result showed that biological cause more negatively influences on prejudice and discrimination than bad character. Thus, peoples’ perception of cause of mental illness as uncontrollable biological nature makes more prejudice and discrimination. Conclusions The results of this study can provide contradiction on theory of cause attribution that argues public's helping behavior with sympathy on individual's uncontrollable cause of mental illness.

Loyalty Strategies and Military Defection in Rebellion

This article examines military defection (whether government soldiers, instead of fight ing for the regime, desert or fight for the opposition) during rebellions in Syria, Jordan, and Iran. It distinguishes between two strategies to maintain military loyalty in prae torian regimes?individual incentives (reward and punishment) and a policy of ethnic preference in the armed forces. These strategies produce very different outcomes for defection when a rebellion arises outside the military. An individual strategy is vulner able to a cascade of defection sweeping across the whole army when a rebellion breaks out. A group-based strategy, however, may generate out-group defection, but in-group defection is much less likely. This argument focuses on the availability of information about soldiers' preferences and about the likelihood that the regime will survive. A focus on information, in turn, highlights two different self-fulfilling prophecies. In an individualized incentive system, soldiers' true preferences are hidden. They will support the regime if they believe it will survive, and will defect if they do not; but the only way of making this judgment is based on others' behavior. Thus the belief that the regime will collapse provokes a cas cade of defection, bringing about the very collapse it predicts. In a group-based system, the belief that in-group members have a proregime preference and that out-groups are opposed to the regime helps generate precisely those preferences. Thus preferences can become public by matching public prejudice. The result is a durable cleavage between in-group and out-group, where out-group soldiers are likely to defect but in-group sol diers are likely to remain loyal. These self-fulfilling prophecies may help explain why observers sometimes over estimate the resilience of some regimes and underestimate the resilience of others.1 In essence, we have lacked a theory that takes into account the way political judgments change due to rebellion itself. Some regimes seem generally successful in quelling dis sent (for example, the Shah's Iran prior to 1978) whereas others seem prone to out group anger (for example, Jordan in the 1960s and Syria in the 1960s and 1970s), and observers believe that the former can stand up to rebellion more easily than the latter. However, in the latter cases, the visible antiregime preferences of out-groups imme diately suggest regime weakness but also solidify in-group loyalty, providing a bulwark for the regime against rebellion. In the former case, people's preferences are not visible, and the viability of a regime hinges upon the judgment that the regime will remain in power?a judgment that is vulnerable in the face of a rebellion. 333

The sodomy cases: Bowers v. Hardwick and Lawrence v. Texas

For America's gay community, the question of rights is often reduced to the issue of privacy. Until very recently, even though this right has been upheld by the Supreme Court in landmark cases relating to contraception and abortion, the issue of 'non procreational sex' continued to trigger a double standard for gay men. Now David Richards, a leading legal scholar who is himself gay, shows how two other landmark cases nearly twenty years apart shed light on America's evolving views of privacy. The Supreme Court's decision in Bowers v. Hardwick (1986) stemmed from a 1982 gay-sex arrest in an Atlanta home under a Georgia law that criminalized sodomy - a case not originally prosecuted, but then pursued in court to challenge the statute's constitutionality. Lawrence v. Texas (2003) followed a similar arrest in 1998 in Houston, where Texas law also criminalized sodomy - but only when practiced by members of the same sex. Richards views these cases as the nadir and apogee of the gay community's efforts to fight discrimination through the courts. In Bowers, the Supreme Court ruled that there was no constitutional protection for sodomy and that states could outlaw those practices. But in Lawrence, the Court overturned the Texas law - and the Bowers decision as well - because it denied due process protection to consenting adults whose sexual practices were conducted in private. Justice Kennedy's majority opinion reaffirmed a constitutionally protected right to privacy that prevented the government from regulating intimate behavior. Tracing the Court's deliberations, Richards shows how Lawrence unambiguously establishes that the right to a private life is an innately human right and that our constitutional right to privacy rests on the moral bedrock of equal protection. He shifts gracefully from the law to literature, and from the Courts to the wider culture, to offer a brilliant analysis of the relevant arguments, going beneath their surface to link them to the emotional and moral foundations of the controversies raging around these decisions. Both of these cases show a Supreme Court ready to take seriously the idea that homosexuals have human rights - and that these rights are the basis of judicially enforceable constitutional rights. In describing these challenges to public prejudice, Richards' book offers students and general readers new insight into the practice and theory of constitutional law.