A Behavioral Perspective for Improving Exercise Adherence.

Adherence to exercise is a crucial aspect of behavioral changes related to exercise. However, current models fail to predict behavioral change, and exercise programs struggle to foster adherence. In this Current Opinion article, we defined adherence as a process linking behavior and attitude. More specifically, exercise adherence is the process by which people's behaviors conform to their attitudes and vice versa. Behavioral change theories should be able to predict changes, transformations, and modifications of behaviors; however, this is not currently the case. Prediction models of behavior are mainly focused on how to predict behavioral changes by affecting attitudes; however, these models have not considered the target behavior as a facilitator of adherence. Herein, a behavioral perspective is considered in three directions: first, exercise is a therapeutic modality that has the potential to improve motivation; second, chronic exercise helps sustain effort over time and increase executive functions and willpower; and third, exercise is an active behavior that has the potential to facilitate attitude change.

Impact of a mixed method training programme on attitudes of future doctors toward intellectual disability.

Objective: The aim of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a mixed method training programme in improving attitudes of senior medical students toward intellectual disability (ID). Methods: This study was a quasi-experimental intervention study conducted with the senior medical students. The intervention groups received a mixed method training programme that included seminars, role-playing, social contact, and interactions with people with ID as simulated patients, which have been described in the literature as effective training methods. The control groups was shown a video unrelated to ID. The effectiveness of the intervention was evaluated by administering the Attitudes Toward Intellectual Disability Questionnaire (ATTID)-Short Form to both the intervention and control groups as pre-intervention, post-intervention, and 6-week follow-up. Results: A significant difference was found positively between pre-intervention post-intervention, and 6-week follow-up ATTID-Short Form scores in the intervention groups on factors of Discomfort, Knowledge of capacity and rights, Sensitivity or tenderness, Knowledge of causes, except for the Interaction factor. The differences between pre-intervention and 6-week follow-up scores were significantly greater in the intervention groups compared with the control groups on all factors except the Sensitivity or tenderness factor. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the mixed method training programme resulted a positive change in students' attitudes toward people with ID.

Uncovering the potential of evaluative conditioning in shaping attitudes toward sustainable product packaging.

Introduction: The necessity to promote pro-environmental behavior change in individuals and society is increasingly evident. This study aimed to investigate the effect of evaluative conditioning on consumers' perception of product packaging. Methods: We first produced two stimulus sets: one including images of supermarket products with different packaging and the other containing affective images of healthy nature (positive) and climate change impact (negative). These images were then paired in an evaluative conditioning experiment where respondents were informed about the impact of product packaging. Results: We found an effect of conditioning depending on the initial sustainability perception that participants had toward product packaging. Pairing products for which participants were uncertain about their sustainability with negative or positive affective images had a significant effect on the sustainable associations of the consumers in a negative or positive direction, respectively. However, the impact of conditioning on products that clearly had (un)sustainable packaging was not that strong. Discussion: These results provide new tools and evidence to further investigate the power of evaluative conditioning in pro-environmental attitude and behavior change.

Effective health communication depends on the interaction of message source and content: two experiments on adherence to COVID-19 measures in Türkiye.

OBJECTIVE: Following the COVID-19 outbreak, authorities recommended preventive measures to reduce infection rates. However, adherence to calls varied between individuals and across cultures. To determine the characteristics of effective health communication, we investigated three key features: message source, content, and audience. METHODS: Using a pre-test and two experiments, we tested how message content (emphasizing personal or social benefit), audience (individual differences), message source (scientists or state officials), and their interaction influence adherence to preventive measures. Using fliers advocating preventive measures, Experiment 1 investigated the effects of message content and examined the moderator role of individual differences. Experiment 2 presented the messages using news articles and manipulated sources. RESULTS: Study 1 found decreasing adherence over time, with no significant impact from message content or individual differences. Study 2 found messages emphasizing 'protect yourself' and 'protect your country' to increase intentions for adherence to preventive measures. It also revealed an interaction between message source and content whereby messages emphasizing personal benefit were more effective when they came from healthcare professionals than from state officials. However, message source and content did not affect vaccination intentions or donations for vaccine research. CONCLUSION: Effective health communication requires simultaneous consideration of message source and content.

Oppressed Groups Engender Implicit Positivity: Seven Demonstrations Using Novel and Familiar Targets.

Across seven preregistered studies in online adult volunteer samples (N = 5,323), we measured implicit evaluations of social groups following exposure to historical narratives about their oppression. Although the valence of such information is highly negative and its interpretation was left up to participants, implicit evaluations of oppressed groups shifted toward positivity, including in designs involving fictitious, well-known, and even self-relevant targets. The sole deviation from this pattern was observed in an experiment using a vignette about slavery in the United States, in response to which neither White nor Black Americans exhibited any change in implicit race attitudes. In line with propositional perspectives, these findings suggest that implicit evaluations (including, notably, implicit evaluations of well-known and self-relevant social groups) tend to change toward positivity in response to extremely negative information involving past oppression. However, macro-level phenomena, such as public awareness of histories of oppression, can modulate such updating processes.

Listening and attitude change.

We review research on the role of high-quality listening behavior in attitude change. We examine how listening behaviors can impact attitudes and the mechanisms underlying these effects. The article discusses research that explicitly examines high-quality listening, as well as research that examines behaviors that may indicate high-quality listening or that incorporates high-quality listening into larger interventions. The reviewed research suggests that receiving high-quality listening increases psychological safety and open-minded self-reflection, leading people to consider perspectives they otherwise would not. This in turn leads to less extreme, clearer, and more nuanced views on the topic of conversation. Finally, we highlight the need for further research to better understand the role of listening in attitude change, particularly in non-western cultures.

A 3D framework of implicit attitude change.

According to early theories, implicit (automatic) social attitudes are difficult if not impossible to change. Although this view has recently been challenged by research relying on experimental, developmental, and cultural approaches, relevant work remains siloed across research communities. As such, the time is ripe to systematize and integrate disparate (and seemingly contradictory) findings and to identify gaps in existing knowledge. To this end, we introduce a 3D framework classifying research on implicit attitude change by levels of analysis (individual vs. collective), sources of change (experimental, ontogenetic, and cultural), and timescales (short term vs. long term). This 3D framework highlights where evidence for implicit attitude change is more versus less well established and pinpoints directions for future research, including at the intersection of fields.

A New Podcast for Reducing Stigma Against People Living With Complex Mental Health Issues: Co-design Study.

BACKGROUND: Mental illness stigma refers to damaging stereotypes and emotional responses around the experience of mental health issues. Media-based interventions have the potential to reduce the public's stigmatizing attitudes by improving mental health literacy, emotional appeal, and the intimacy of address. As audio-based media facilitating storytelling, podcasts show potential for reducing stigma; however, it is unclear what features could make a podcast effective or engaging. OBJECTIVE: The Co-Design and Anti-Stigma Podcast Research (CASPR) study aimed to collaborate with key target audience members to inform the development of a new podcast. This podcast primarily aims to reduce listeners' stigmatizing attitudes toward people living with complex mental health issues. METHODS: This study was adapted from Experience-Based Co-Design methodology. The first part, information gathering, involved a web-based mixed methods survey with 629 Australian podcast listeners to explore their interest and concerns around podcasts. Then, a series of focus groups were held with a purposive sample of 25 participants to explore the potential benefits and challenges of the podcast format. Focus group participants included people with lived experience of complex mental health issues, media and communications professionals, health care professionals, and people interested in workplace mental health. The second part, co-design, constituted 3 meetings of a co-design committee with 10 participants drawn from the focus groups to design the podcast using brainstorming and decision-making activities. RESULTS: Most survey respondents (537/629, 85.3%) indicated a willingness to listen to a podcast about experiences of mental illness stigma; participants indicated preference for semistructured episodes and a mixture of light and serious content. Focus group participants identified potential challenges with appealing to listeners, making the content emotionally resonant and engaging, and translation to listeners' attitude change. The co-design committee collaborated to achieve consensus on the focus of individual episodes: domains where stigma and discrimination are common, such as workplaces and health care settings; the structure of individual episodes: storyboards that centralize guests with lived experience, featuring explicit discussions around stigma and discrimination; and overarching content principles, including a sincere, empathetic, and hopeful tone; using plain language; having clear calls to action; and providing listener resources. CONCLUSIONS: The co-design process informed a podcast design that features lived experience narratives with an explicit focus on stigma and discrimination, highlighting the realities of stigma while acknowledging progress in the space and how listeners can contribute toward social change. This study allowed for an in-depth discussion around the strengths and limitations of such a podcast according to different target audience members. The co-design committee designed key elements of a podcast that has the potential to minimize the limitations of the format while embracing the benefits of podcast-based storytelling. Once produced, the podcast will be evaluated for its impact on attitude change.

Beliefs around the causes of inequities and intergroup attitudes among health professional students before and after a course related to Indigenous Peoples and colonialism.

BACKGROUND: Addressing the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action on including anti-racism and cultural competency education is acknowledged within many health professional programs. However, little is known about the effects of a course related to Indigenous Peoples and colonialism on learners' beliefs about the causes of inequities and intergroup attitudes. METHODS: A total of 335 learners across three course cohorts (in 2019, 2020, 2022) of health professional programs (e.g., Dentistry/Dental Hygiene, Medicine, Nursing, and Pharmacy) at a Canadian university completed a survey prior to and 3 months following an educational intervention. The survey assessed gender, age, cultural identity, political ideology, and health professional program along with learners' causal beliefs, blaming attitudes, support for social action and perceived professional responsibility to address inequities. Pre-post changes were assessed using mixed measures (Cohort x Time of measurement) analyses of variance, and demographic predictors of change were determined using multiple regression analyses. Pearson correlations were conducted to assess the relationship between the main outcome variables. RESULTS: Only one cohort of learners reported change following the intervention, indicating greater awareness of the effects of historical aspects of colonialism on Indigenous Peoples inequities, but unexpectedly, expressed stronger blaming attitudes and less support for government social action and policy at the end of the course. When controlling for demographic variables, the strongest predictors of blaming attitudes towards Indigenous Peoples and lower support for government action were gender and health professional program. There was a negative correlation between historical factors and blaming attitudes suggesting that learners who were less willing to recognize the role of historical factors on health inequities were more likely to express blaming attitudes. Further, stronger support for government action or policies to address such inequities was associated with greater recognition of the causal effects of historical factors, and learners were less likely to express blaming attitudes. CONCLUSION: The findings with respect to blaming attitudes and lower support for government social action and policies suggested that educational interventions can have unexpected negative effects. As such, implementation of content to address the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions Calls to Action should be accompanied by rigorous research and evaluation that explore how attitudes are transformed across the health professional education journey to monitor intended and unintended effects.

Spillover effects of anti-sugar-sweetened beverage messages: From consumption decisions to policy preferences.

BACKGROUND: Intake of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) is associated with many negative health outcomes. Efforts to curb consumption generally take one of two approaches: (a) Individual change based on the communication of personal risk information or (b) policies that limit or disincentivize the behavior, such as restricting access or implementing taxes. METHODS AND RESULTS: Using samples of 2347 persons and 139 pro- and anti-SSB messages, this study tested whether individual-level persuasion attempts would spill over to voting intentions and whether that spillover would amplify or attenuate policy preferences. The influence of anti-SSB messages was seen in (a) direct, positive effects on intention to vote for restrictive policies and in (b) indirect, positive effects where change in intended consumption mediated message impact on change in voting intentions. Anti-SSB messages were generally more powerful than pro-SSB advertising at producing direct and indirect change. Yet, there was evidence of boomerang effects among small numbers of both SSB drinkers and nondrinkers. CONCLUSIONS: Anti-SSB messages that target individual consumption bring about intentions to reduce consumption and increased receptivity to restrictive SSB policies.

Social Movements as Parsimonious Explanations for Implicit and Explicit Attitude Change.

Recently, interest in aggregate and population-level implicit and explicit attitudes has opened inquiry into how attitudes relate to sociopolitical phenomenon. This creates an opportunity to examine social movements as dynamic forces with the potential to generate widespread, lasting attitude change. Although collective action remains underexplored as a means of reducing bias, we advance historical and theoretical justifications for doing so. We review recent studies of aggregate attitudes through the lens of social movement theory, proposing movements as a parsimonious explanation for observed patterns. We outline a model for conceptualizing causal pathways between social movements and implicit and explicit attitudes among participants, supporters, bystanders, and opponents. We identify six categories of mechanisms through which movements may transform attitudes: changing society; media representations; intergroup contact and affiliation; empathy, perspective-taking, and reduced intergroup anxiety; social recategorization; and social identification and self-efficacy processes. Generative questions, testable hypotheses, and promising methods for future work are discussed.

Lavagem cerebral: ciência, mito e pseudociência do controle psicológico / Lavado de cerebro: ciencia, mito y pseudociencia del control psicológico / Brainwashing: science, myth, and pseudoscience of psychological control

Resumo O interesse pela possibilidade de reconfigurar a mente humana foi recorrente na história da humanidade, sob diferentes formas aliadas principalmente à religião, à guerra e à política. Somente a partir de 1950, entretanto, é que psicólogos, psiquiatras e outros pesquisadores se dedicaram com maior profundidade ao tema, popularizado pelo termo genérico de lavagem cerebral. O objetivo deste artigo é revisar as bases teórico-conceituais e metodológicas desses esforços, assim como sua manifestação atualizada na psicologia social, quando se busca a modificação de atitudes, crenças e comportamentos. São analisados criticamente os usos da lavagem cerebral para gerar mudanças significativas por técnicas de pressões psicológicas e tortura física, os mitos de sua implementação e sua (ir)reversibilidade.

Resumen El interés por la posibilidad de reconfigurar la mente humana ha sido recurrente en la historia de la humanidad, en diferentes formas, principalmente aliadas a la religión, la guerra y la política. Sin embargo, sólo después de 1950, psicólogos, psiquiatras y otros investigadores se dedicaron con mayor profundidad al tema, popularizado por el término genérico de lavado de cerebro. El objetivo de este artículo es revisar las bases teórico-conceptuales y metodológicas de estos esfuerzos, así como su manifestación actualizada en la psicología social, cuando se busca modificar actitudes, creencias y conductas. Se analizan críticamente los usos del lavado de cerebro para generar cambios significativos a través de técnicas de presión psicológica y tortura física, los mitos de su implementación y su (ir)reversibilidad.

Abstract The interest in the possibility of reconfiguring the human mind has been recurrent in the history of humanity, in different forms, mainly allied to religion, war, and politics. Only after 1950, however, did psychologists, psychiatrists, and other researchers dedicate themselves in greater depth to the topic, popularized by the generic term brainwashing. The aim of this paper is to review the theoretical-conceptual and methodological bases of these efforts, as well as their updated manifestation in social psychology, when one seeks to modify attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. The uses of brainwashing to generate significant change through techniques of psychological pressure and physical torture, the myths of its implementation, and its (ir)reversibility, are critically analyzed.

Cognitive and affective reflection increases appreciation for less preferred subcategories of experiential goods.

Attitudes, particularly negative attitudes toward experiential goods, are difficult to change. As a result, people tend to choose and consume experiential goods from their preferred subcategory (e.g., prefer impressionist art so primarily choose to view impressionist paintings) while disregarding options from less preferred subcategories (e.g., ignore cubist or surrealist paintings). This research investigates the consequences of reflection while consuming experiential goods from less preferred subcategories. Namely, an initial, negative reflexive response can be overridden by a reflective appraisal which increases appreciation for experiential goods from less preferred subcategories. Six studies show how a reflective appraisal differs from a reflexive response (i.e., a reflective appraisal has more cognitive and affective thoughts than evaluative thoughts, respectively), that reflective appraisals can supplant reflexive responses to experiential goods in less preferred subcategories, and that reflective appreciation training encourages reflective appraisal. A reflective appraisal improves the intent to consume, enhances appreciation of the consumption, and increases the consumption of novel experiential goods in less preferred subcategories.

The Trends of Attitude Change and Interprofessional Collaboration Competencies among Medical and Nursing Students of Iran University of Medical Sciences.

Background: Nurses' and physicians' collaboration is a precedent for patient care. This study examined attitude change and interprofessional collaboration competencies among medical and nursing students of Iran University of Medical Sciences. Methods: This study was quantitative cross-sectional. The study tools were two questionnaires, Attitudes Toward Interprofessional Education and IPEC Interprofessional Collaborative Competencies, which were completed by 211 medical and nursing students in online or in-person forms. The collected quantitative data were analyzed by SPSS 19 software. Results: The results showed that nurses and physicians constituted 35.5% and 64.5% of the sample. The results of the independent T-test displayed no statistically significant difference in the mean age of both groups (P = 0.054). There was a statistically significant difference in the participants' attitudes toward interprofessional learning, and the medical group (46.68) obtained a higher mean score than the nurse group (34.92) (P = 0.001). The two groups with varying mean scores (179.34 for medical students and 131.72 for nursing students) were significantly different in their interpersonal collaboration competencies (P = 0.001). Considering Mauchly's test, there were statistically significant differences among medical students of varying academic years in their attitudes toward interprofessional education (P < 0.001). Nursing students were also different in their attitudes toward interprofessional education based on their academic years. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the attitude of nursing students towards interprofessional education and interpersonal collaboration competencies should be increased in line with medical students in order to improve the quality of medical and health services.

Causal Modeling of Descriptive Social Norms from Twitter and the Physical World on Expressed Attitudes Change: A Case Study of COVID-19 Vaccination.

The high infection rate of SARS-CoV-2 makes it urgent to promote vaccination among the public. Previous studies found that people tend to follow the behaviors desired in descriptive social norms, which exist in both social media (e.g., Twitter) and physical-world communities. However, it remains unclear whether and to what extent the descriptive social norms from the cyber and physical communities affect people's attitude change. This study, focusing on COVID-19 vaccination, developed a Directed Acyclic Graphs model to investigate the causal effects of the descriptive social norms of (i) Twitterverse and (ii) physical-world communities on people's attitude change as well as the temporal scales of the effects. It used a Long Short-Term Memory classifier to extract expressed attitudes and changes from relevant tweets posted by 843 sample users. We found that a people's attitude change toward the vaccination receives a more significant impact from Twitter-based descriptive social norms over the prior week, whereas the norms in the physical-world communities tend to be less influential but still notable with the time gap between 2 weeks and 1 month. The findings revealed the potential of using online social norm approaches to proactively motivate behavioral changes toward a culture of health.

Communicating beyond the information given can make the communicator's attitudes toward a social group more extreme.

Three experiments tested how communicating attributes of initially liked or disliked groups might create more extreme attitudes. We gave non-neutral participants information about previously unknown groups and asked them to write social media posts describing the group to others. Participants who wrote social media posts to friends (Experiment 1, n = 332) or undecided strangers (Experiments 2 and 3, ns = 113 and 816) exaggerated and elaborated on initial information, subsequently reporting more extreme attitudes. These effects, mediated by extremity of associations to the target group, were interpreted as consistent with theory and research on going beyond the information given. (100 words).

The Mediation Effect of Attitudes for the Association between Thoughts and the Use of Condoms in a Mobile-App Environment: From Thought to Intention.

The ubiquity of mobile devices and access to the internet has changed our daily life and, in some cases, promoted and facilitated social and sexual interrelationships. There are many applications of technology and campaigns promoting healthy behaviors and prevention of sexually transmitted infections. Can we develop a strategy for the same purpose using mobile devices, based on the theory of attitude change? We developed an app and tested it with 105 undergraduate students, where they had to actively think in favor of condom use with a high amount of elaboration, leading to attitudes and behavioral intention (BI) in concordance with contemporary theories about attitudes and behavioral change. PROCESS macro models were used to analyze potential mediations. Results show a significant correlation between thoughts and attitudes, and attitudes partially mediated the association between thoughts and condom use. Individuals with positive thoughts tended to positively correlate their thoughts with their attitudes, and, consequently, these attitudes with their BI. In this study, we showed that (1) it was possible to develop and test an app based on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM); (2) consistent with previous studies, attitudes partially mediated the association between thoughts and condom use (BI) in a mobile environment; and (3) applications of this strategy can be used to build new approaches for prevention in health care.

Using dialogues to increase positive attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccines in a vaccine-hesitant UK population.

Recently, Altay et al. (Altay et al. 2021. J. Exp.Psychol.: Appl. (doi:10.1037/xap0000400)) showed that 5 min of interaction with a chatbot led to increases in positive COVID-19 vaccination attitudes and intentions in a French population. Here we replicate this effect in a vaccine-hesitant, UK-based population. We attempt to isolate what made the chatbot condition effective by controlling the amount of information provided, the trustworthiness of the information and the level of interactivity. Like Altay et al., our experiment allowed participants to navigate a branching dialogue by choosing questions of interest about COVID-19 vaccines. Our control condition used the same questions and answers but removed participant choice by presenting the dialogues at random. Importantly, we also targeted those who were either against or neutral towards COVID-19 vaccinations to begin with, screening-out those with already positive attitudes. Replicating Altay et al., we found a similar size increase in positive attitudes towards vaccination, and in intention to get vaccinated. Unlike Altay et al., we found no difference between our two conditions: choosing the questions did not increase vaccine attitudes or intentions any more than our control condition. These results suggest that the attitudes of the vaccine hesitant are modifiable with exposure to in-depth, trustworthy and engaging dialogues.

Attitudes in an interpersonal context: Psychological safety as a route to attitude change.

Interpersonal contexts can be complex because they can involve two or more people who are interdependent, each of whom is pursuing both individual and shared goals. Interactions consist of individual and joint behaviors that evolve dynamically over time. Interactions are likely to affect people's attitudes because the interpersonal context gives conversation partners a great deal of opportunity to intentionally or unintentionally influence each other. However, despite the importance of attitudes and attitude change in interpersonal interactions, this topic remains understudied. To shed light on the importance of this topic. We briefly review the features of interpersonal contexts and build a case that understanding people's sense of psychological safety is key to understanding interpersonal influences on people's attitudes. Specifically, feeling psychologically safe can make individuals more open-minded, increase reflective introspection, and decrease defensive processing. Psychological safety impacts how individuals think, make sense of their social world, and process attitude-relevant information. These processes can result in attitude change, even without any attempt at persuasion. We review the literature on interpersonal threats, receiving psychological safety, providing psychological safety, and interpersonal dynamics. We then detail the shortcomings of current approaches, highlight unanswered questions, and suggest avenues for future research that can contribute in developing this field.