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Simple Summary: This study explored how people's relationships with their dogs were associated with mental health and how this compared to their relationships with other humans. Our results found that owners who had a strong attachment to their dogs tended to have poorer mental health outcomes. The connection between a strong attachment to dogs and poor mental health may be partly due to these owners having an anxious attachment style towards other people, suggesting these owners may turn to their dogs for emotional support due to a lack of dependable human connections. The relationship between a strong attachment to dogs and poorer mental health was also influenced by gender, with this relationship being significant for women, but not for men. Together, these results highlight a potential risk to mental health for owners who rely on their strong bond with their dogs to compensate for feeling anxious about their relationships with other humans. For these owners, it may be worth considering how they can improve their connections with other humans to be able to better support their mental health. It is unclear how pet ownership is related to mental health, with some previous research suggesting pet owners have better mental health, while other research suggests they have worse mental health. Some researchers have suggested that it may be more useful to investigate the bond people feel with their pets and how this may impact mental health; however, this too has led to mixed results. This study examined how owners' attachment to their dogs was associated with mental health and how this compared to their attachment relationships with other humans in a sample of 607 dog owners. Our findings indicate that both strong and insecure attachments to dogs are linked to poorer mental health outcomes, as was having an insecure attachment style in their human relationships. The adverse impact of strong attachment to dogs on mental health was mediated by these owners having an anxious attachment style toward other people, which in turn was associated with poorer mental health. The relationship between a strong attachment to dogs and poorer mental health was also moderated by gender, with this relationship being significant in women but not significant for men. Together, these results suggest a possible risk to mental health for owners who form a strong attachment to their dogs to compensate for anxious attachments in human relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While globalisation brings opportunities for cultural enrichment, it may also present challenges as individuals attempt to make sense of and integrate fragmented and often conflicting cultural influences into a coherent self‐concept. A qualitative inquiry into contemporary Australians' cultural identity experiences indicated that some people perceive themselves as a product of multiple influences from diverse contacts and learnings, and they mix and reconcile these influences into their self‐concept. Building on this prior work, the current study developed and tested a new quantitative measure of polycultural identity. Using two diverse Australian samples (N = 301; N = 525) recruited from Prolific, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported a single‐factor structure and a high Cronbach's α among the final 10 items. Correlational analyses revealed that, as expected, the Polycultural Identity Scale (PIS) was more strongly linked with the endorsement of polycultural ideology than multicultural ideology and was uncorrelated with colourblind ideology. Also, as expected, the PIS correlated moderately with generalised identity blendedness, interest in diverse contact and endorsement of global citizenship but not with identity compartmentalisation or generalised identity harmony. The PIS has the potential to provide valuable insights into the dynamics of multifaceted cultural identity and how individuals organise and synthesise a breadth of cultural influences into a meaningful self‐concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patients' expectations are a major contributor to the unnecessary prescribing of antibiotics, yet limited research has examined how physicians can calibrate these expectations. The studies we conducted tested how varying messages could impact patients' expectations for antibiotics and their experience of medical appointments. All the participants read a short scenario about an appointment for mild sinusitis symptoms, with the patient's expectation of antibiotics. In Study 1, the participants (n = 1069) were randomly assigned to read a positively framed, neutral, or negatively framed message regarding unnecessary antibiotics. In Study 2, the participants (n = 1073) read a message emphasizing either the societal or personal harms of unnecessary antibiotics, or a message without additional rationale. None of our pre-registered hypotheses were supported, but our exploratory analyses indicated that the societal message increased concern about antibiotic resistance. The participants who were more concerned about resistance were less likely to ask for antibiotics, more satisfied when the physician did not prescribe them, and more likely to recommend the physician to a friend. Discussing the consequences of the different courses of action did not appear to negatively impact physician–patient rapport. These studies demonstrate an inexpensive method with which to pre-test various messages about antibiotic consumption, and suggest that such messages are not negatively received by patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This research examines differential responses to ethical vegetarian appeals as a fuction of individuals' personalities. Background: Ethical vegetarian appeals are persuasive messages promoting the adoption of a plant‐based diet on moral grounds. Individuals may vary in their receptivity to such appeals, depending on their morally relevant traits (e.g., agreeableness), beliefs (e.g., speciesism), and motives (e.g., concerns about animal welfare). Methods: We explored (Study 1, N = 907) and then attempted to confirm (Study 2, N = 980) differential responses to three vegetarian appeals—two highlighting moral concerns (animal welfare, the environment) and a third focusing on individual health (control condition). Results: Both studies revealed several differential effects of our vegetarian appeals on the perceived effectiveness of the appeal and resultant intentions to reduce meat consumption. These mostly consisted of differences in receptivity to appeals focused on animal welfare. However, only one such effect observed in Study 1 was clearly replicated in Study 2: People who more strongly believed that eating meat was "normal" rated the vegetarian appeals focused on animal welfare as less effective. Conclusion: Ethical vegetarian appeals may elicit different responses from different people, particularly those focused on animal welfare, depending on how normative one believes meat‐eating to be. Such insights can inform behavior change efforts in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]