Does blame always shift? Examining the impact of workplace safety communication language on post-accident blame attributions for multiple entities.

The under-researching of Latinx employees in the organizational diversity literature is of critical importance as extant research indicates that findings relevant to frequently studied minority employees may not be applicable to Latinx employees. One factor that differentiates Latinx employees in the U.S. from other racial and ethnic minorities is their use of, or perceived use of, language. In this research, we investigated how inclusion efforts that incorporated multiple languages into the workplace impacted employment outcomes for Latinx employees following a workplace accident. In three separate studies, we found that factors such as the language used to communicate a safety warning (Studies 1 & 2) and employee ethnicity (Studies 2 & 3) influenced blame attributed to a low-level leader (the job foreman), but they had no relationship with blame attributed toward the injured employee who was the target of communication. Consequently, these findings differ from attribution theory research which has posited that blame shifts from one entity to another. Additionally, extant research on employment discrimination has typically focused on differential outcomes for occupational minorities. Our findings, however, suggest that researchers should examine the conditions in which equal treatment (despite perceived differences in needs) could place traditionally marginalized populations at a systematic disadvantage and, consequently, may actually be indicative of workplace discrimination.

Long-Term, All-Day Exposure to Circadian-Effective Light Improves Sleep, Mood, and Behavior in Persons with Dementia.

BACKGROUND: Persons with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) frequently experience sleep-wake (circadian) cycle disturbances that lead them to remain awake at night, causing stress and fatigue for families and caregivers. Light therapy shows promise as a nonpharmacological treatment for regulating sleep in this population. OBJECTIVE: We investigated the long-term impact of a circadian-effective lighting intervention on sleep, mood, and behavior problems in persons with ADRD. METHODS: This 25-week clinical trial administered an all-day lighting intervention to 47 patients with ADRD in 9 senior-care facilities, employing wrist-worn actigraphy measures and standardized measures of sleep quality, mood, and behavior. RESULTS: The intervention significantly improved Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index scores, from an estimated mean±SEM of 11.89±0.53 at baseline to 5.36±0.63 at the end of the intervention. Additional improvements were noted for sleep efficiency data from actigraph measurements. The intervention significantly reduced Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia scores (mean±SEM of 11.36±0.74 at baseline and 4.18±0.88 at the end of the intervention) and Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory scores (mean±SEM of 47.10±1.98 at baseline and 35.33±2.23 at the end of the intervention). CONCLUSION: A regular circadian-effective daytime lighting intervention can improve sleep at night and reduce depression and agitation in patients with dementia living in controlled environments. More importantly, the positive effects of the tailored lighting intervention on these outcomes appear to be cumulative over time.

Effects of a Tailored Lighting Intervention on Sleep Quality, Rest-Activity, Mood, and Behavior in Older Adults With Alzheimer Disease and Related Dementias: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: We investigated the effectiveness of a lighting intervention tailored to maximally affect the circadian system as a nonpharmacological therapy for treating problems with sleep, mood, and behavior in persons with Alzheimer disease and related dementias (ADRD). METHODS: This 14-week randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover design clinical trial administered an all-day active or control lighting intervention to 46 patients with ADRD in 8 long-term care facilities for two 4-week periods (separated by a 4-week washout). The study employed wrist-worn actigraphy measures and standardized measures of sleep quality, mood, and behavior. RESULTS: The active intervention significantly improved Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index scores compared to the active baseline and control intervention (mean ± SEM: 6.67 ± 0.48 after active intervention, 10.30 ± 0.40 at active baseline, 8.41 ± 0.47 after control intervention). The active intervention also resulted in significantly greater active versus control differences in intradaily variability. As for secondary outcomes, the active intervention resulted in significant improvements in Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia scores (mean ± SEM: 10.30 ± 1.02 at baseline, 7.05 ± 0.67 after active intervention) and significantly greater active versus control differences in Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory scores (mean ± SEM: -5.51 ± 1.03 for the active intervention, -1.50 ± 1.24 for the control intervention). CONCLUSIONS: A lighting intervention tailored to maximally entrain the circadian system can improve sleep, mood, and behavior in patients with dementia living in controlled environments. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: Registry: ClinicalTrials.gov, title: Methodology Issues in a Tailored Light Treatment for Persons With Dementia, URL: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01816152, identifier: NCT01816152.

Effects of red light on sleep inertia.

Introduction: Sleep inertia, broadly defined as decrements in performance and lowering of alertness following waking, lasts for durations ranging between 1 min and 3 hrs. This study investigated whether, compared to a dim light condition (the control), exposure to long-wavelength (red) light delivered to closed eyelids during sleep (red light mask) and to eyes open upon waking (red light goggles) reduced sleep inertia. Methods: Thirty participants (18 females, 12 males; mean age=30.4 years [SD 13.7]) completed this crossover, within-subjects, counterbalanced design study. Self-reported measures of sleepiness and objective measures of auditory performance and cortisol levels were collected on 3 Friday nights over the course of 3 consecutive weeks. Results: Performance improved significantly during the 30-min data collection period in all experimental conditions. Subjective sleepiness also decreased significantly with time awake in all experimental conditions. As hypothesized, performance of some tasks was significantly better in the red light mask condition than in the dim light condition. Performance scores in the red light goggles condition improved significantly after a few minutes of wearing the light goggles. Discussion: The results show that saturated red light delivered through closed eyelids at levels that do not suppress melatonin can be used to mitigate sleep inertia upon waking.

Reconsidering the Role of Design Standards in Developing Effective Safety Labeling: Monolithic Recipes or Collections of Separable Features?

OBJECTIVE: This research investigated whether safety labeling design guidelines, such as the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Z535 series, contribute to better warnings. BACKGROUND: Studies investigating the impact of safety label formatting on warning effectiveness have produced mixed findings. Additionally, research has failed to find a consistent relationship between measures of predicted and actual compliance. One commonality is that all of these studies have investigated the ANSI Z535 guidelines as a binary variable rather than as an integrative system of separable features. METHOD: We measured predicted compliance using both a within-subjects and a between-subjects design, but actual compliance using only a between-subjects design. Data were analyzed using both analysis of variance and linear/probit regressions to test the relationships between warning features recommended in the ANSI Z535 guidelines and measures of behavioral compliance. RESULTS: Predicted compliance assessed via a within-subjects design differed greatly from predicted compliance assessed via a between-subjects design. Levels of predicted and actual compliance were most similar when both measures were assessed using a between-subjects design. Consistent with previous research, location had a strong relationship with actual compliance, but surprisingly, presence of an ANSI-style orange warning header had a negative relationship with compliance. CONCLUSION: The choice of experimental design and analytical methods can dramatically influence a study's results and conclusions drawn. This research identified several aspects of experimental design that should be considered in future research on warning effectiveness. APPLICATION: Testing features recommended in the ANSI Z535 guidelines under varying conditions can contribute to the development of more effective warnings.

Effect of presentation modality in direct-to-consumer (DTC) prescription drug television advertisements.

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) drug advertising markets medications requiring a physician's script to the general public. In television advertising, risk disclosures (such as side effects and contraindications) may be communicated in either auditory (voice) or visual (text) or both in the commercials. This research examines presentation modality factors affecting the communication of the risk disclosures in DTC prescription drug television commercials. The results showed that risk disclosures presented either visually only or both visually and auditorily increased recall and recognition compared to no presentation. Risk disclosures presented redundantly in both the visual and auditory modalities produced the highest recall and recognition. Visual only produced better performance than auditory only. Simultaneous presentation of non-risk information together with risk disclosures produced lower recall and recognition compared to risk disclosures alone-without concurrent non-risk information. Implications for the design of DTC prescription drug television commercials and other audio-visual presentations of risk information including on the Internet, are discussed.