The "Casting Couch" Scenario: Impact of Perceived Employment Benefit, Reporting Delay, Complainant Gender, and Participant Gender on Juror Decision-Making in Rape Cases.

Recent legal and media reports of contemporary and historical rape and sexual assault cases have focused on the entertainment industry, particularly around the notion of the "casting couch." This scenario, in which a powerful figure obtains sometimes nonconsensual sexual acts from subordinate actors in exchange for employment, was used to explore the influence of rape myths and Sexual Economics Theory on mock-juror decision-making. Participant-jurors (n = 907) viewed video and written testimony of a complainant, accusing a male producer of rape. Complainant gender (male, female), delay before reporting the incident to the police (immediately, 6 months, 10 years), and complainant casting in the production were randomly varied (acting role secured, not secured). The strongest effects were that females (79.7%) were significantly more likely than males (62.7%) to deliver a guilty verdict and to recommend longer prison sentences for the offence. When the complainant did not secure the acting role, and they delayed reporting the incident for six months, there was an interaction between complainant gender and verdict. No interacting complainant gender effects on trial outcomes were found in the other delay conditions, or when the actor secured employment. Defendant guilt attributions to the male and female complainant were also differently influenced by rape myth belief levels and homophobic attitudes, but not beliefs in a just world. The casting couch euphemism, reported worldwide, suggests industry acceptance, and may sanitize the act of demanding sex and even committing rape. However, these results have important implications for any occupational setting in which men in positions of power may sexually exploit junior staff.

Eyes on the enterprise: problematising the concept of a teaching-research nexus in UK higher education.

Existing research into the relationship between teaching and research in higher education is mainly normative and atheoretical, resulting in assumptions of a close and beneficial connection between them. We problematise the idea of a nexus by undertaking a critical examination of the concept through the lens of educational ideologies to theorise the changes over time that shape the ways teaching and research are practised. Two hundred seven academic staff in the Humanities and Social Sciences were surveyed in 10 universities in England and Wales; the universities were identified as having strength in teaching, research, or in both. Along with analysis of interviews with senior managers at these universities, findings suggest that systemic forces which separate teaching and research are evident in institutional contexts with implications for the idea of a nexus. While the nexus may exist in theory, in practice, we argue that teaching and research can be pulled in different directions by institutional priorities. Furthermore, in institutions which adopt an enterprise ideology, there are signs of a nascent nexus emerging between research and innovation.

Calorie-restricted mice that gorge show less ability to compensate for reduced energy intake.

Caloric restriction in mice can trigger gorging behaviour, which is characterized by periods of excessive food ingestion in a short time. Animals that gorge are thought to have a reduced metabolism compared to those that nibble their food over a longer period and might therefore be more able to compensate for reduced energy intake. We examined whether mice that gorged showed less weigh loss during restriction. We placed female mice (n=60) on a restriction of 75% of their ad libitum food intake (FI) for 22 days. FI and body mass (BM) were measured at 1, 2 and 24 h after food provision. Ten controls remained feeding ad lib and we selected the 10 strongest gorgers and 10 strongest non-gorgers for comparison. Mice had BM, FI, resting metabolic rate (RMR), body composition, body temperature, daily energy expenditure (DEE) and circulating levels of the regulatory hormones leptin and ghrelin measured. Gorgers had a significantly lower BM at the end of restriction than non-gorgers or controls, indicating that they were less able to compensate for the reduced energy. Both groups of restricted mice had reduced RMR, however reduced activity was only used as an energy saving mechanism in non-gorgers. Gorging mice had a significantly lower level of circulating leptin than controls and non-gorgers but no differences in ghrelin levels. Gorging mice were, in fact, less able to compensate for reduced energy intake, as they reduced RMR by a similar extent as non-gorgers, but did not reduce activity compared to non-gorgers on the same restriction level. The reduced leptin levels may drive the gorging behaviour.