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Objective Studies have shown that synchronized motion between people positively affects a range of emotional and social functions. The mirror-game is a synchrony-based paradigm, common to theater, performance arts, and therapy, which includes dyadic synchronized motion, playfulness, and spontaneity. The goal of the current study is to examine the effects of the mirror-game on subjective and cognitive indices in late life. Method Thirty-four older adults (aged 71-98) participated in a within-group study design. Participants conducted two sessions of 9-minute movement activities: the mirror-game and the control condition - a physical exercise class. Several measures were taken before and after experimental sessions to assess socio-emotional and attentional functions. Results The mirror-game enhanced performance on the attention sub-scale and led to faster detections of spoken words in noise. Further, it enhanced perceived partner responsiveness and led to an increase in positive reported experience. Conclusions Our preliminary findings suggest that the mirror-game, rather than the exercise class, may have an immediate impact on mood and some attentional functions. Clinical implications The mirror-game is a novel intervention, with potential benefits of social-emotional and cognitive functioning, which can be easily implemented into the daily routine care of older adults. Future studies should explore the effect of the mirror-game on additional cognitive and socio-emotional aspects.

Water fluoridation is a controversial issue in public health. Despite the uncertainty regarding its efficacy and safety, health officials continue to communicate it as ‘unequivocally’ safe and effective. Our focus is on how health officials and policy-makers in Israel frame the issue of water fluoridation in terms of certainty while promoting a mandatory fluoridation policy. According to van Asselt and Vos, the uncertainty paradox describes situations in which uncertainty is acknowledged, but the role of science is framed as providing certainty. Our study is an analysis of documents and media articles emphasizing the paradoxical language used by official representatives on the controversial topic of fluoridation. A central contribution of this study is that we coin the term ‘uncertainty bias,’ in which policy-makers do exactly what they accuse laypeople of doing, framing uncertainty in biased terms. We found that in order to establish mandatory regulation, health ministry officials expressed information i...

The current research focuses on the 2013 polio outbreak in Israel as a case study to analyze the sources of information used in new media platforms, examining whether the new media have changed the ways in which we communicate about health issues. Specifically, we tracked and coded polio-related references on Hebrew news websites, blogs, forums, and Facebook posts. Overall, 24,388 polio-related references constituted our sampling frame. The findings suggest that there is a moderate-level correlation between the platform and the type of sources chosen by users. Beyond the differences between various platforms, we found that online information platforms rely not only on popular or pseudoscientific sources, but also on high-quality information. In fact, the analysis indicates that online news websites, forums, blogs, and Facebook posts create a unique blend of information, including scientific literature, medical professionals, and government representatives, as well as pseudoscientific research. These findings suggest a more optimistic view of the Internet as a source for health-related information in times of crises. Although the fact that members of the public are exposed to scientific sources does not indicate to what degree this affects their actual decision making. Exposure to a wider variety of sources may enhance health literacy, resulting in a better understanding of information needed to make informed decisions.

This study focuses on newspaper coverage of the Hickox quarantine incident, using it as a case study to examine how the media characterized the spread of disease in an ongoing crisis situation characterized by uncertainty. The study builds on Slovic et al.’s research, who argue that risk perception is comprised of both emotional and analytical aspects. We employed a qualitative approach, first examining articles on Hickox’s story in The New York Times and New York Daily News between October 25 and 31, 2014; and second, readers’ comments in response to these articles. The findings from the newspaper articles show that in their treatment of the quarantine debate, the media did not address the issue of uncertainty, and thus continued the health authorities’ neglect of this issue. Although the media gave expression to various sides of the debate, it emphasized those who objected to the quarantine policy, thus raising the claim that the conflict was between ‘science’ and the public’s ‘irrational fears,’ and th...

This study addresses the issue of valence framing effect in the context of immunization, a preventive behavior often addressed by the equation of benefit versus risk. The authors examined how framing (support vs. oppose) the issue of HPV vaccination in Israel's immunization routine affects attitudes regarding vaccine regulations. The study also examined issue involvement as a moderator of valence framing effect. The results demonstrate that participants in the positive framing condition tended to express greater support for voluntary immunization than participants in the negative framing condition (77.5% and 48.5%, respectively). Among those who supported the mandatory HPV immunization policy, the negative framing condition was more prominent than the positive condition (51.5% and 22.5%, respectively). The analysis of interaction between valence framing and issue involvement showed that the latter tends to moderate the direct effect of framing on attitudes towards vaccination. Findings indicate that even attitudes towards such consequential preventive behaviors as vaccination could be affected by different framing of the issue, especially for those who are less involved. Implications of predilection for freedom of choice regarding vaccination are also discussed.

This study examines vaccination hesitancy or refusal following the 2013 polio outbreak in Israel, based on two theoretical models. The first is Sandman’s theoretical model, which holds that risk perception is comprised of hazard plus outrage. The second model is the affect heuristic that explains the risk/benefit confounding. It aims to expose the barriers that inhibited parental compliance with OPV vaccination for their children. The study employed mixed methods – a questionnaire survey (n = 197) and content analysis of parents’ discussions in blogs, Internet sites, and Facebook pages (n = 2499). The findings indicate that some parents who normally give their children routine vaccinations decided not to give them OPV due to lack of faith in the health system, concerns about vaccine safety and reasons specific to the polio outbreak in Israel. Some vaccinated due to a misunderstanding, namely, they believed that OPV was supposed to protect their children, when it was actually for overall societal well-bein...

Knowing about one's health rights can be critical for obtaining equitable and appropriate health care. A model drawing on a culture-centered approach was used to develop and present health rights information materials for a disadvantaged cultural minority-the Ethiopian immigrant community in Israel. The model is based on the supposition that the design of health rights information materials should address both concerns and barriers identified by members of the cultural community and illustrate specific means to address them. Stories of community members' actual experiences served as the basis for several types of narratives presented in video clips, a photonovella, and an illustrated booklet. More than 100 people participated in the study in five focus groups and 50 personal interviews. Findings indicate participants felt the materials developed using this approach were informative and represented their concerns and cultural barriers to realizing these rights from their perspective and would help motivate them to realize their health rights. The analytic process, which involved members from the cultural community, resulted in the identification of dilemmas associated with the development of solution-oriented materials that draw on the culture-centered approach. These dilemmas pose additional theoretical challenges to the culture-centered approach.

This article was written as part of a comprehensive research study whose main goal was to explore and assess the effectiveness of Israeli drama as an instrument to change young Israelis' perceptions and positions toward the Palestinian–Israeli conflict. The article will present the findings of the qualitative study of two distinct audiences: Palestinian students in the Israeli education system and senior Jewish education officials who view the theater play An Arab Dream. The findings show that for the Palestinian teenagers theater offers an opportunity to address sensitive and complex issues of minority group identity and serves as a trigger for social, emotional, and intellectual discourse. However the Jewish education officials were unable to allow the voices of a national minority to be heard within themselves, as they perceived the play as a provocative play of no educational value and they even believed it could harm the Jewish Israeli teenage audience.

The present article presents a rhetorical and aesthetic framework to create an entertainment-education (EE) narrative with high potential for persuasive influence. The researchers introduce the notion of an ‘EE event’ and its ‘change potential’, proposing three different models – the reinforcement model, the change model and the entrenchment model – to understand how certain narrative mechanisms influence the change potential of an EE event. The four narrative mechanisms under consideration include 1) dialogue between EE text and audience members; 2) audiences’ emotional involvement with text; 3) audience members’ trust in the veracity of the text; and 4) audience members’ catharsis and transformation. The narrative mechanisms operating in each model are illustrated by an analysis of audience responses to an EE text. The researchers conclude by presenting a rhetorical matrix to empirically analyse the narrative mechanisms and change potential of EE events.

On 2 December 2010, a forest fire broke out in the Carmel Mountains of northern Israel and burned for four days, becoming the biggest fire in Israel’s history. Forty-four people were killed, 17,000 were evacuated from their homes, and 25 million square meters of land with millions of trees burned down, in what became known as the ‘Carmel disaster.’ This article examines Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s communication of the Carmel disaster, using content, rhetorical risk communication, performance analysis, and a national public opinion survey. We claim it exposes the dilemma of what we label ‘cover-up risk communication.’ The analysis will examine the geo and social political context in which the Carmel disaster occurred, the rhetorical and performance strategies the prime minister chose to use to communicate the risk in his television appearances during the crisis, and the mass media’s response to them. The public’s response to the prime minister’s risk communication is presented through the n...

Both theatre artists and educators believe the theatre has many advantages as a vehicle for the promotion of social and political issues. This study examines how the Israeli theatre represents the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and promotes peace and tolerance among young people. The study, conducted between the years 2005 and 2007, included 26 in-depth interviews with various creators (playwrights, directors and actors), who intended their plays to be seen by adult and high school audiences, mapping out and analysing the themes of 36 plays that dealt with the Israeli–Palestinian conflict from different angles. This article will present the main findings of 22 focus groups held with 110 teenagers about six sample plays that were chosen. Analysis of the findings shows that the plays provided the teenagers with new information about difficulties the Palestinian population has to deal with, and deepened their thinking about issues and dilemmas related to the occupation. However, watching the plays in the schoo...

Israeli–Palestinian peace is promoted through political and diplomatic channels, as well as indirect channels such as conferences, lectures, meetings, workshops and political journalism. However, there is less awareness of the extensive artistic activity in Israel surrounding peace and its implications for society, or of the uniqueness of the theatrical medium as a public medium that allows its viewers and participants to clarify their conflicts and positions related to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. As part of a large and comprehensive study of plays about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict (which included mapping out and analyzing the themes of 37 plays about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict between 2005–2007, and checking the impact of some of the plays on teenage audiences), this study focused on Israeli theater creators who deal with the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The goal was to specify the models, issues and strategies the creators used in plays about the conflict in order to influence viewers’...

Mordechai Vanunu was accused and convicted by the state of Israel for betraying Israel's atomic secrets. In the play Mister V, written after his story, spectators undergo a change process, from alienation to a state of identification with the actor who represents Vanunu. This shift in the attitude of the audience is due to the interplay of a gradual exposure of the narrative and various features of fidelity inserted by the actor on the stage. A pre-post measurement of the perceptions of the spectators indicated a significant shift in their attitudes, toward acceptance of the ideological representation of Vanunu, as seen on the stage, as “reality” itself. This is a case study that exemplifies the power of personalization on attitudes change, even in the context of contrasting loyalties such as security and democracy.

This study, initiated and funded by The Israel Anti-Drug Authority, investigated adolescents’ reactions to professionally produced anti-drug plays, performed in 27 schools across Israel. The study included observations and the analyses of 20 professionally produced anti-drug plays performed during the school year and interviews with theatre personnel. The analysis of the plays’ narratives revealed that most plays had a melodramatic narrative based on a ‘true story’ and most depicted the downfall of a protagonist who became addicted to drugs. By the very choice of a closed, melodramatic structure, that precludes alternatives and a deep discussion of issues, these plays created an undivided hero, devoid of conflicts and ambivalence, who has no personal responsibility for his actions and the people around him and moves in a narrow private world that does not relate to the values and norms surrounding the issue of drugs.

Educational drama has been embraced as a promising way to address sensitive and highly-charged issues among youth. An Israeli drama, Backyard Games, about gang rape, based on an actual case in a kibbutz [a communal settlement] called Shomrat, is considered the definitive work on the subject in Israeli theatre. Written by Edna Mazya and directed by Oded Kotler, at the Haifa Municipal Theatre, the play was inspired by the real-life story of a famous rape at Kibbutz Shomrat. The play has been performed more than 1,000 times throughout Israel,1 embraced by critics and audiences and has had successful runs in several other countries. Since the play debuted, Edna Mazya has become a sought-after and successful playwright and director in the Israeli repertory theatre. The play has also been performed in numerous high schools for student audiences as part of an educational effort to raise awareness regarding the issue of rape. Backyard Games is a rhetorically and aesthetically powerful performance that engages and...

Ronit Endevelt, Anat Gesser-Edelsburg School of Public Health, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, Haifa, Israel Background: Effective interaction between care providers and patients is crucial for the success of most medical treatments; in nutritional medical treatment, it is of paramount importance. The aim of the present study was to ascertain the role of the dietitian–patient relationship and the counseling approach in influencing individual patient decisions to adhere to counseling by persisting with nutritional treatment. Methods: We conducted focus groups with two types of patients, namely, those who had consulted dietitians only once and those who had attended at least three appointments. We divided these two groups into 12 focus groups. In addition, in-depth interviews were held with 17 clinical dietitians. Our qualitative research was based on the perceptions of patients and dietitians. Results: When the encounter between the dietitian and the patient followed the standard educational and informative approach, both the short-term nature of the interaction and the absence of an individualized therapeutic program discouraged patients from persisting with treatment. In contrast, the counseling and therapeutic nutritional approach promoted nutritional guidance through broader behavioral and lifestyle therapies. This approach appears more appropriate for chronically ill patients. The dietitians and some of the patients understand that the profession is changing from the informative and educational approach to a therapeutic counseling approach, but it is difficult for them to adapt to the new model. Conclusion: Most patients appear to want individualized, not standardized, treatment. In order to change patients' eating patterns, dietitians must adopt a more therapeutic approach and relate to patients’ cultural needs and desires to achieve sustainable results. Keywords: therapeutic counseling approach, nutrition educational approach, treatment, nutritional