Enhancing Attention and Interest in Plants to Mitigate Plant Awareness Disparity.

Plant awareness disparity (PAD, formerly plant blindness) is the human inability to notice plants in everyday life. It is suggested that the main underlying factors of PAD are: 1. the inability to recognize individual plants and 2. stronger preferences for animals, which prevents building positive attitudes toward them. The presentation of individual plants should trigger more positive responses toward them than the presentation of groups of plants. Strong preferences for animals predict that the presence of an animal on a plant might enhance positive perceptions of the plant by people. We experimentally investigated the perceived attractiveness and willingness to protect (WTP) plants presented individually and in groups and with or without various pollinators in a sample of Slovak people (N = 238). In contrast to the first prediction, only one of four plants (dog rose, but not saffron, spruce, or beech tree) received higher attractiveness scores when presented individually than in a group. None of these species received higher WTP scores when presented individually, rather than in a group. The effect of the presence of pollinators on flower attractiveness and WTP was distinguished between vertebrates and invertebrates; only flowers with birds and bats increased their attractiveness scores, while flowers with invertebrates, including a butterfly, honeybee, beetle, and the syrphid fly, received similar or lower scores than the same plant species without pollinators. WTP plants significantly increased only when the scarlet honeycreeper and the cave nectar bat were present on flowers as pollinators. People showed significantly stronger preferences for items that associate 1. plants with pollinators and 2. plants with animals that distribute animal seed than for items focused solely on plants. Connecting animals and plants should help reduce PAD. This aim cannot be achieved, however, by presenting individual plants and/or plants with randomly chosen pollinators.

Seed Dispersal by Ants in Three Early-Flowering Plants.

Interactions between ants and plants vary from being occasionally beneficial to neutral and negative. Ant-mediated dispersal of obligatory myrmecochorous plants is considered mutualistic interaction, providing benefits to plants in terms of seed dispersal. Ants are rewarded by providing elaiosome, sugar, lipid and protein-rich appendages attached to seeds (diaspores). We experimentally examine rates of diaspore removal rates among three species of plants (snowdrop Galanthus nivalis, hollow root Corydalis cava and European wild ginger Asarum europaeum) under field conditions in two study sites in Central Europe. Diaspore morphology is altered by manipulating both elaiosome and seed size. The small-sized acorn ant Temnothorax crassispinus interacts with the snowdrop and hollow root and the moderately-sized red ant Myrmica ruginodis interacts with European wild ginger. Experimental manipulation with elaiosomes yields largely non-significant results. Diaspore removal rates are generally low (snowdrop 10%, hollow root 26%, European wild ginger 34%) probably due to the small size of ants relative to heavy diaspores. Many ants are observed to consume elaiosomes in situ (cheating). We conclude that ant-plant relationships in this case are not mutualistic but rather neutral/slightly negative, because the plants do not obtain any apparent benefits from their interactions with ants.

Animal Welfare Attitudes: Effects of Gender and Diet in University Samples from 22 Countries.

Animal Welfare Attitudes (AWA) are defined as human attitudes towards the welfare of animals in different dimensions and settings. Demographic factors, such as age and gender are associated with AWA. The aim of this study was to assess gender differences among university students in a large convenience sample from twenty-two nations in AWA. A total of 7914 people participated in the study (5155 women, 2711 men, 48 diverse). Participants completed a questionnaire that collected demographic data, typical diet and responses to the Composite Respect for Animals Scale Short version (CRAS-S). In addition, we used a measure of gender empowerment from the Human Development Report. The largest variance in AWA was explained by diet, followed by country and gender. In terms of diet, 6385 participants reported to be omnivores, 296 as pescatarian, 637 ate a vegetarian diet and 434 were vegans (n = 162 without answer). Diet was related with CRAS-S scores; people with a vegan diet scored higher in AWA than omnivores. Women scored significantly higher on AWA than men. Furthermore, gender differences in AWA increased as gender inequality decreased.

Factors Influencing the Sponsoring of Animals in Slovak Zoos.

Anthropogenic disturbance causes biodiversity loss, and consequently the captive conservation (ex situ) of threatened animals may be an effective strategy in protecting species. We used estimated body mass, phylogenetic closeness with humans, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) conservation status, and species attractiveness scores, to examine the factors influencing the adoption likelihood of a species in all Slovak zoos. In general, vertebrates received more funding than invertebrates, and mammals were the preferred taxa by private contributors. In terms of funding, we propose that the perception of mammals as phylogenetically close to humans, and attractiveness factor, contribute to an advantage over less attractive and phylogenetically distant species. Conservation status also contributed to the amount of donations; however, the magnitude of these relationships was weak when compared to the effect of animal taxa. These results suggest that Slovak zoos might be more successful in raising donations by breeding threatened species, and raising public awareness about these animal species. Displaying popular, flagship species of non-mammal taxa may increase interest among the public as well, and may translate into a significant growth in the amount of donations.

Engineered Pyrogenic Materials as Tools to Affect Arsenic Mobility in Old Mine Site Soil of Mediterranean Region.

The application of pyrogenic materials in immobilization processes of metalloids represents a burning issue in environmental and waste applications and management. The main objective of this study was to characterize the effect of biomass pretreatment by Cu, Fe and Mg blending and pyrolysis temperature on As sorption efficiency as a model of anionic metalloids from model solutions and As immobilization in old mine soil by pyrogenic materials. The physico-chemical characterization of engineered materials produced in slow pyrolysis process at 400 and 700°C from metal-blended hard wood chips (30% w/w) showed increasing of surface areas (1.4-1.8-fold), changes in pH, and more than 50% decrease in total C content. The batch sorption processes of As ions by Cu-modified pyrogenic materials (CuPM), Fe-modified pyrogenic materials (FePM), and Mg-modified pyrogenic materials (MgPM) showed increasing uptake in order CuPM700 (Qmax 2.56 mg g-1) < CuPM400 (Qmax 3.88 mg g-1) < FePM700 (Qmax 5.90 mg g-1) < MgPM700 (Qmax 7.42 mg g-1) < MgPM400 (Qmax 9.59 mg g-1) < FePM400 (Qmax 10.55 mg g-1). Engineered pyrogenic materials produced at 400°C showed higher immobilization effect on soluble As in soil pore water of old mine site soil from Mediterranean area. FePM400 reduced mobility of arsenic > 3.2 times and MgPM400 > 5 times compared to control. Promising pyrogenic material MgPM400 showed immobilization effect also on additional heavy metals (Cd, Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb, Sr, Zn) present in studied soil.

The Perception of Spontaneous and Volitional Laughter Across 21 Societies.

Laughter is a nonverbal vocalization occurring in every known culture, ubiquitous across all forms of human social interaction. Here, we examined whether listeners around the world, irrespective of their own native language and culture, can distinguish between spontaneous laughter and volitional laughter-laugh types likely generated by different vocal-production systems. Using a set of 36 recorded laughs produced by female English speakers in tests involving 884 participants from 21 societies across six regions of the world, we asked listeners to determine whether each laugh was real or fake, and listeners differentiated between the two laugh types with an accuracy of 56% to 69%. Acoustic analysis revealed that sound features associated with arousal in vocal production predicted listeners' judgments fairly uniformly across societies. These results demonstrate high consistency across cultures in laughter judgments, underscoring the potential importance of nonverbal vocal communicative phenomena in human affiliation and cooperation.

Detecting affiliation in colaughter across 24 societies.

Laughter is a nonverbal vocal expression that often communicates positive affect and cooperative intent in humans. Temporally coincident laughter occurring within groups is a potentially rich cue of affiliation to overhearers. We examined listeners' judgments of affiliation based on brief, decontextualized instances of colaughter between either established friends or recently acquainted strangers. In a sample of 966 participants from 24 societies, people reliably distinguished friends from strangers with an accuracy of 53-67%. Acoustic analyses of the individual laughter segments revealed that, across cultures, listeners' judgments were consistently predicted by voicing dynamics, suggesting perceptual sensitivity to emotionally triggered spontaneous production. Colaughter affords rapid and accurate appraisals of affiliation that transcend cultural and linguistic boundaries, and may constitute a universal means of signaling cooperative relationships.

Parasites enhance self-grooming behaviour and information retention in humans.

Self-grooming is a common behavioural strategy used by various animals to reduce parasite loads. We experimentally tested the adaptive significance of self-grooming model in a sample of Slovak participants. Propensity to self-grooming was activated by visual presence of parasites with verbal information about health risks caused by parasites suggesting that the programmed grooming model works in humans. People who think of themselves as more vulnerable to disease transmission reported higher frequency of self-grooming suggesting that there is a link between the immune system and parasite avoidance behaviour. Considering that the emotion of disgust plays a role in activation of parasite avoidance behaviour, we suggested that knowledge of disgusting stimuli (parasites) would be better retained than knowledge of non-disgusting (hormones), and, thus, non-life-threatening stimuli. As expected, knowledge on parasites tested immediately after the experiment was significantly better than knowledge on hormones suggesting that survival-relevant information is better retained than survival-irrelevant data. However, scores on memory tests did not seem to be influenced by the individual's immune system. Overall, this study showed that self-grooming in humans is functional when disease threat is salient. Human memory systems are tuned to information relevant to survival providing further evidence that human cognition is shaped by natural selection.

Beautiful fruits taste good: the aesthetic influences of fruit preferences in humans.

Although diversity of fruit/seed colouration has received a great amount of attention since Darwin, little is known about its role in eating preferences in humans. We have determined that humans prefer certain fruits/seeds over others and that their willingness to eat them has been significantly influenced by the perceived aesthetic of the presented fruits and seeds. Participants were unable to discriminate between edible and poisonous fruits/ seeds based on their colour. Females rated all the groups of fruits/seeds as more attractive than males with this supporting the role of females in picking fruit in our evolutionary past. Red fruits were rated as more attractive than green or brown fruits. The results support the idea that fruit/seed colouration plays an important role in plant--disperser coevolution and that aesthetic judgment in humans have been shaped by natural selection.

Risk of parasite transmission influences perceived vulnerability to disease and perceived danger of disease-relevant animals.

Adaptationist view proposes that emotions were shaped by natural selection and their primary function is to protect humans against predators and/or disease threat. This study examined cross-cultural and inter-personal differences in behavioural immune system measured by disgust, fear and perceived danger in participants from high (Turkey) and low (Slovakia) pathogen prevalence areas. We found that behavioural immune system in Turkish participants was activated more than those of Slovakian participants when exposed to photographs depicting disease-relevant cues, but not when exposed to disease-irrelevant cues. However, participants from Slovakia, where human to human disease transmission is expected to be more prevalent than in Turkey, showed lower aversion in Germ Aversion subscale supporting hypersensitiveness of the behavioural immune system. Having animals at home was less frequent both in Turkey and in participants who perceived higher danger about disease relevant animals. Participants more vulnerable to diseases reported higher incidence of illness last year and considered perceived disease-relevant animals more dangerous than others. Females showed greater fear, disgust and danger about disease-relevant animals than males. Our results further support the finding that cultural and inter-personal differences in human personality are influenced by parasite threat.