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It is important to examine how video games affect gender-based dynamics in society as their popularity continues to rise. Video games can be a powerful force in shaping perceptions of social reality, including teenage gamers' perceptions of gender roles. The impact of video games may be more influential for teenagers who are maturing their expectations, thoughts, and attitudes by providing images and messages that can shape the perceptions of gender roles and societal expectations of appearances. Thus, the paper aims to introduce the gender insights of teenage gamers in Türkiye by conducting separate focus group discussions for male and female teenage gamers via the Zoom platform in June 2021. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis under seven themes; representation of game style; depiction of characters in video games; reflection about stereotypes towards gamers; equality of characters in video games; bullying in video games; representation of others in video games; and perspective on gender equality. The findings suggest that both male and female teenagers are more open-minded about gender equality and aware of the struggles of change. However, when their insights are researched in detail it is clear that male gamers still perceive stereotypic gender roles whereas female gamers naturalized gender equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The level of colorism that developed among blacks in the United States (U.S.) and Brazil, during the 20th century, gave rise to intense altitudes of intraracial discrimination. This distinct form of discrimination was based on proximity to whiteness and white privilege. This essay will illustrate how attitudes toward complexion, within the black community, are a direct consequence and perpetual remnant of the white supremacy and racial hierarchy that developed in colonized societies. Colorism manifested itself in different forms in Brazil and in the U.S. However, the level of black-on-black discrimination that it spawned was grounded in the belief that one's immediacy to whiteness created a vehicle for upward mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the dog-walk as a sociologically significant site of inquiry, offering a reflective account of using walking-interviews to understand an intersubjectively-oriented construction of personal and social dog-walking identities. Taking a Human-Animal Studies perspective and drawing on data from fourteen interviews with dog-owners in Cork, this paper suggests that the dog-walk, although a mundane, daily activity, is a multifaceted and mutually meaningful practice. Reflecting on my use of walking-interviews, I explore the meanings that dog-owners ascribe to dog-walking, how it shapes their perception of self, and consider their construction of social identities as dog-people, hybridised beings comprising dog and owner, whose focus lies in issues of shared interest to such beings. I propose that mobile methods, such as walking-interviews, support enhanced epistemological and methodological insights into how being a dog-person is done. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article brings the literary treasures of ancient Judea into conversation with the interdisciplinary fields of Narrative Ethics and Socio-Narratology while considering Jubilees and Josephus's Judean Antiquities as participating in the etic genre of national history. This article interrogates the work that each of these narratives do to shape the collective identity of Hellenistic and Roman era Judeans and to shape Judean perceptions of their cultural Others. By analyzing Jubilees 30 and Antiquities 1.337–341 dialogically, this paper claims that Josephus's re-narrativization of Judean history serves as a corrective to the Israelite representation in Jubilees. It is argued that representations in Jubilees promoted an impermeable boundary between Judeans and Others, with violence as a legitimized and valorized ethic of cross-cultural engagement, whereas Antiquities re-imagined a new future of more permeable boundaries and diplomatic negotiation for first-century C.E. Judeans by re-imagining their past through narrative. Dangerous representations of cultural Others, however, remained a part of the story. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how calculative cultures shape perceptions of models and practices of model use in the financial industry. A calculative culture comprises a specific set of practices and norms concerning data and model use in an organizational setting. Drawing on interviews with model users (data scientists, software developers, traders, and portfolio managers) working in algorithmic securities trading, I argue that the introduction of complex machine-learning models changes the dynamics in calculative cultures, which leads to a displacement of human judgment in quantitative finance. In this paper, I distinguish between three calculative cultures: (1) an idealistic culture of undivided trust in models, (2) a pragmatic culture of skepticism toward model accuracy, and (3) a pragmatic idealist culture of early stage skepticism and implementation and production-phase idealism. Based on the empirical material, the analysis engages with examples of each of the three calculative cultures. The study contributes to the social studies of finance and science and technology studies more broadly by showing how perceptions of models shape and are shaped through model work in data-intensive, computerized finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the last decades, more and more attention in academics and practice has been given to 'social' topics such as community involvement, active citizenship, commoning processes. Considering this trend, it is possible to notice an abuse of these terms, contributing to the 'social washing' and feeding the risk of instrumentalisation. Starting from the analysis of the state of the art and comparing two cases, the paper aims to evaluate the outcomes of neglected sites recycling with socially innovative initiatives. At the centre of the debate are social enterprises, non-profit entities whose ambition is to create social benefits and new economic solutions for a better use of local resources over time. Considering this purpose, the research investigated the European scenario of Southern Italy, characterised by demographic transition and youth migration. The research adopted qualitative, quantitative and comparative methods. The two cases analysed and compared are Periferica of Mazara del Vallo and ExFadda of San Vito dei Normanni. Both are the result of local resources reactivation and youth entrepreneurship policies. These creative centres are managed by social enterprises. Their actions and activities affect the places producing social, economic, cultural and spatial impacts. However, behind these initiatives lies the soft power, a power able to shape people perceptions through culture. The research illustrates the process outcomes and evaluates its positive and negative impacts to the site and its surroundings. In conclusion, the research is conceived as a contribution to the body of knowledge and the basis for future researches and practical models for the socially innovative recycling of disused resources in urban–rural context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The televisual image has played a key role in the first fifty years of human spaceflight and lunar exploration by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). As multiple national space agencies and private entities prepare to return humans once again to the surface of the moon as a precursor to eventual planned missions to Mars, television will continue to deeply shape the perception and politics of human spaceflight. This paper presents a history of the televisual image in human spaceflight through analysis of contemporaneous documentary evidence such as spaceflight transcripts and space agency press kits, with a focus also on the technical developments underpinning the broadcasts. The analysis commences with NASA's Apollo missions of the 1960s through to the International Space Station (ISS) era. These televisual images have deep cultural currency but are also fragile and present moments of risk for the agencies involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and objectives: This paper captures social dimensions of language in highly diverse small-scale multilingual contexts that appear to pose challenges for (socio)linguistic description and documentation. I focus on the seeming contradiction of monolingual imaginations of places with heterogeneous and multilingual inhabitants, on great fluidity and variability of language use and the concomitant limits of reification-based identification of codes, and on personalised repertoires shaped by individual trajectories and relational, rather than categorical, stances. Approach: I propose patterns and perspectives as two interrelated dimensions to guide research in configurations of this kind, illustrating epistemological and methodological points through data from multilingual settings in Casamance, Senegal. Data and analysis: I focus on data collected in the village of Agnack Grand and its surroundings, but also include data from across the Lower Casamance and adjacent regions of Guinea-Bissau, discussing patterns of multilingual organisation and extracts from conversation and how their speech forms are categorised. Findings: The paper brings sociohistorical dimensions of small-scale multilingualism to the fore and identifies their lasting influences on spatial representations of language regimes. Linguistic spaces influence perspectives on speech events taking place in them and circumscribe speech participants' and observers' choices in describing repertoires, producing and analysing speech forms. Beyond the selection of language modes, perspective also determines how speech forms are categorised. I demonstrate that the patterns speakers and observers have experienced and the perspectives they assume are decisive in shaping their perception. Originality: My central observation is that there is no objective, neutral viewpoint on (multilingual) speech, but that positionality frames it at all levels. I develop new epistemologies for studying these dimensions. Significance: Putting the categorisation processes employed by speakers and observers and their underlying motivations centre stage and integrating sociolinguistic and anthropological linguistic methods and historical knowledge into linguistic description and documentation constitutes an innovative research programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional news media can both reflect and shape public perceptions, including expectations relating to alcohol and parenting. This paper examines representations of parents in Australian news media reporting on youth drinking to understand how parental standards related to alcohol are constructed and articulated. 150 news articles were sampled from a larger study of youth drinking, in which we identified four representations of parents—parents as to blame, good parents, parents as lost and parents as victims. These four representations of parents reflect dominant neoliberal ways of governing, which promote parental education, best practice standards and responsibility as solutions to concerns around youth drinking. We examine the way politicians, research findings and legal directives (most commonly secondary supply laws) were deployed to attribute parental responsibility and standards of care. While parents as "to blame" or as irresponsible was concretely established in the articles, good parents were far more elusive and strategically individualized in ways that abdicated responsibility from the state, industry and structural burdens. As such, while media representations were able to define and moralize bad parents and parenting practices when it came to youth drinking, what it meant to be a "good parent" was often an ambiguous ideal. We suggest these media representations contribute to intensive parenting standards by providing another platform in which parental behaviors can be publicly scrutinized and moralized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The city of Hawassa is growing fast, driven by construction of a flagship industrial park that is expected to attract up to 60,000 workers by 2021, mostly young women, arriving without families or dependents, and living off very low wages. Along with these young women, female-headed households; divorced, separated and widowed women; elderly women; and women with disabilities all face severe/acute shelter vulnerabilities. These groups are most likely to struggle to access both formal and informal shelter, related to their below-average income levels but also to other forms of bias and discrimination. This paper draws out key findings on gender and housing from a collaborative study investigating shelter provision in Hawassa, part of a wider research study on inclusive cities in East Africa led by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). It aims to highlight specific constraints faced by women in accessing shelter, and around such issues as informality, safety and security, and infrastructure provision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Muscular Christianity's influential role in establishing Western sport values and ideals during the 19th century has long been acknowledged by sport scholars. Yet these relatively dated sets of physical moral constructs are rarely understood as having lasting relevance, or as forming part of the contemporary attraction to sport, and thus have been missing in critical sociological analyses of sport. While shown to be valid and reliable, initial results from developing the Contemporary Muscular Christian Instrument (CMCI) also suggested that modifications to item wording could enhance readability and capture all six theorized factors of muscular Christianity, supported by literature. The current scale development study is aimed to strengthen the instrument and verify its structural validity and internal consistency among a more diverse sample population: spectators at the 2014 Tour de France. Following data collection and cleaning of data, a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted, and internal consistencies were examined. Results indicate strong support for the structural validity of the revised 20-item, 6-factor CMCI, showing strong factor loadings across all items and acceptable internal consistencies for all six-theorized factors. Findings among this international sample of sport spectators suggest that historic muscular Christian themes used to develop this instrument continue to shape and influence perceptions of what is deemed good, right, and valuable in sport. Our findings point to the importance of understanding these six moral constructs as contemporary discussions on the social value and importance of such activities evolve. The revised CMCI provides sociologists of sport a tool by which to examine theorized muscular Christian constructs, promoting certain values about sport and its social "good," and allows for further investigation into sports' social significance, meanings, and values within related topics. This paper details the improvements to the survey instrument, the CFA results, and recommendations for future application and research using the survey instrument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a context that privileges neighborhood zoning and school choice over within-district busing, we examine urban residents' perceptions of the benefits of racial diversity. We analyze public opinion trends by race and residents' experience as a student in a district under court-ordered desegregation—Nashville, TN. We find racial differences regarding the values of proximity and school diversity that are moderated by experience as a school-age resident in a city under mandatory desegregation. We build upon literature showing long-term impacts of attending integrated schools, underscoring the influence of time, place, and experience in shaping perceptions of school diversity policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The materialist conception of art understands art in relation to the material conditions within and by which art is produced and consumed. For cultural psychology, the materialist conception of art has been useful for developing insights into how individual perceptions are shaped, and are shaped by, culture as a collectively produced and historically embedded site of meaning-making. However, in much of cultural psychology, the relationship between progressive politics and the materialist conception of art remains under-appreciated. In this article, I consider how cultural psychologists might strengthen this relation through artistic shock, that is, a subjective, perceptual, and/or historiographical rupture brought about through the experience of art. In particular, I outline how Bertolt Brecht and Walter Benjamin theorised and practiced artistic shock, and examine what the work of these thinkers could mean for cultural psychologists working with political collectives to grapple with psychopolitical questions related to subjectivity, contradiction, and memory. I conclude by reflecting on how future work that seeks to politicise cultural psychology might engage with the materialist conception of art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does recognizing the transformations that gave rise to an object's retinal image contribute to early object recognition? It might, because finding a partially occluded object among similar objects that are not occluded is more difficult than finding an object that has the same retinal image shape without evident occlusion. If this is because the occlusion is recognized as such, we might see something similar for other transformations. We confirmed that it is difficult to find a cookie with a section missing when this was the result of occlusion. It is not more difficult to find a cookie from which a piece has been bitten off than to find one that was baked in a similar shape. On the contrary, the bite marks help detect the bitten cookie. Thus, biting off a part of a cookie has very different effects on visual search than occluding part of it. These findings do not support the idea that observers rapidly and automatically compensate for the ways in which objects' shapes are transformed to give rise to the objects' retinal images. They are easy to explain in terms of detecting characteristic features in the retinal image that such transformations may hide or create. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores factors shaping perceptions of Greenhouse Gas Removal (GGR) amongst a range of informed stakeholders, with a particular focus on their role in future social and political systems. We find considerable ambivalence regarding the role of climate targets and incumbent interests in relation to GGR. Our results suggest that GGR is symbolic of a fundamental debate - occurring not only between separate people, but sometimes within the minds of individuals themselves - over whether technological solutions represent a pragmatic or an unethical strategy. We present the idea of a 'Monsanto effect', whereby an entirely separate debate taps into deeper narratives and becomes so pervasive that it spills over into a new topic area. Our findings have significant implications for extant and emergent climate policy as they suggest that, in addition to the considerable practical challenges facing large-scale GGR deployment, there is a deeper psychological challenge in that actors are themselves conflicted about the fundamental desirability of GGR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preservice English language teachers (PSTs) realize and shape their perceptions regarding preparedness to teach during their education. However, being prepared to teach is complex and multifaceted and requires individual factors and interaction with context and other people. Therefore, understanding it from stakeholders' lens is needed. Within a descriptive and exploratory design, one-on-one, semistructured interviews were conducted with 8 faculty advisors (FAs) and 11 cooperating teachers (CTs) supervising PSTs in primary, secondary, and high schools in a northwestern city in Türkiye. The data collected in teaching practicum stage of field experience was coded and categorized via constant comparison method of analysis. The FAs, except for few issues, regarded the PSTs as unprepared to teach, while the CTs did as prepared to teach. The emergence of a perception gap could show lack of common understanding and mismatch between the stakeholders' perceptions regarding their standards of and approaches toward high-quality teacher preparation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present paper, we investigated whether observation of bodily cues—that is, hand action and eye gaze—can modulate the onlooker's visual perspective taking. Participants were presented with scenes of an actor gazing at an object (or straight ahead) and grasping an object (or not) in a 2 × 2 factorial design and a control condition with no actor in the scene. In Experiment 1, two groups of subjects were explicitly required to judge the left/right location of the target from their own (egocentric group) or the actor's (allocentric group) point of view, whereas in Experiment 2 participants did not receive any instruction on the point of view to assume. In both experiments, allocentric coding (i.e., the actor's point of view) was triggered when the actor grasped the target, but not when he gazed towards it, or when he adopted a neutral posture. In Experiment 3, we demonstrate that the actor's gaze but not action affected participants' attention orienting. The different effects of others' grasping and eye gaze on observers' behaviour demonstrated that specific bodily cues convey distinctive information about other people's intentions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Team member differences can be found in various characteristics and be seen as both perks and perils. But what makes one group focus on certain dimensions and differences' positive implications, while another collective notices other aspects and sees trouble ahead? We address this question in the context of interorganizational teams' first stages, when impressions are limited and valuations must be made promptly. Our findings from in-depth interviews offer a sensemaking perspective on perceived otherness and explicate when and why differences are interpreted as helping or hindering collaborative practices. Moreover, we illuminate how coorientation and representation dynamics shape otherness perceptions and valuations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large literature documents Covid-19's health and economic effects. We focus instead on its political impact and its potential to exacerbate identity divisions, in particular. Psychologists argue that contagious disease increases threat perceptions and provokes policing of group boundaries. We explore how insider-outsider status and symptoms of illness shape perceptions of infection, reported willingness to help, and desire to restrict free movement of an ailing neighbor using a phone-based survey experiment administered three times in two neighboring African countries during different stages of the pandemic: Malawi, from May 5 to June 2, 2020 (n = 4,641); Zambia, from July 2 to August 13, 2020 (n = 2,198); and Malawi again, from March 9 to May 1, 2021 (n = 4,356). We study identities that are salient in Malawi and Zambia but have not induced significant prior violence, making our study a relatively hard test of disease threat theories. We find that symptoms more strongly shape perceptions and projected behavior than insider-outsider status in both countries and across time, suggesting that there are limits to the ability of pandemics to independently provoke identity politics de novo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of tolerance has been idealized and abstracted from its historical pedigree and the actual experience of tolerating, and a growing number of scholars are dissatisfied with tolerance as a value for the contemporary age; they call for a movement beyond tolerance. A hermeneutical approach and a phenomenological approach were used to explicate 63 written descriptions and 7 interviews, respectively, of experiences that involved tolerating another followed by a change in perception and positive experience of that same person. The findings convey two main forms of changes in perception beyond tolerance related to giving to the other or receiving from the other. The general structure of the experience is described in terms of before and after a discontinuous revelation of the other, and some implications are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Google search lets you quickly compare various dictionary meanings. Indeed, the terms Umwelt and Innenwelt derive from the work of Jakob von Uexküll ([14], [15]), a biologist who did his major work in the first half of the 20th century. The "New Loop" (yes, there was an "old loop", it would currently be called a "perception-action cycle") drives the semiotic meaning making in Jakob von Uexküll's thinking. Von Uexküll felt he had constructed a biological model of Kant's ([6]) philosophy (the Ding an sich, von Uexküll speaks of " Merkmalsträger "). [Extracted from the article]

This article considers colonial New Zealand's poll tax on Chinese immigrants. Poll taxes were recognised as a badge of slavery and therefore could be used to discriminate and stigmatise. This could only happen if the Chinese had first been labelled, stereotyped and separated from 'normal' society, and deprived of their status as full human beings. Anti-Chinese attitudes amongst politicians, lobby groups, the media and society in general paved the way for discriminatory legislation which imposed the poll tax. Since the Chinese were regarded as less than fully human, their liability to discrimination in the form of a poll tax was considered to be justified. Applying Goffman's theory of stigma, as developed by Link and Phelan, this article analyses why the poll tax was discriminatory by referring to social discourse and to attitudes amongst the politicians and media. The poll tax illustrates how the practice of taxation contributed to discrimination and dehumanisation by referring to a specific form of taxation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Problem: Managers and other individuals in the workplace may have a bias, either conscious or unconscious, against Black women based on their appearance. Since slavery, Black people with lighter skin complexion and straighter hair have been given preferences and privileges not afforded Black people with darker skin or those with naturally kinky hair. This study brings this subtle form of discrimination to the attention of Human Resource Development professionals and sheds light on how such interactions may affect their learning, development, and performance. The Solution: Using a critical Human Resource Development lens, we suggest that managers, organizational leaders, and decision-makers are educated to recognize and address hair bias. Leaders must ensure compliance with the CROWN Act and legislation that prohibits discrimination against natural and protective hairstyles. The Stakeholders: Stakeholders include U. S. Human Resource Development professionals, hiring managers, recruiters, and leaders who are concerned with hiring and promoting diverse talent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grounded views of cognition consider that space perception is shaped by the body and its potential for action. These views are substantiated by observations such as the distance-on-hill effect, described as the overestimation of visually perceived uphill distances. An interpretation of this phenomenon is that slanted distances are overestimated because of the integration of energy expenditure cues. The visual perceptual processes involved are, however, usually tackled through explicit estimation tasks in passive situations. The goal of this study was to consider instead more ecological active spatial processing. Using immersive virtual reality and an omnidirectional treadmill, we investigated the effect of anticipated implicit physical locomotion cost by comparing spatial learning for uphill and downhill routes, while maintaining actual physical cost and walking speed constant. In the first experiment, participants learnt city layouts by exploring uphill or downhill routes. They were then tested using a landmark positioning task on a map. In the second experiment, the same protocol was used with participants who wore loaded ankle weights. The results from the first experiment showed that walking uphill routes led to a global underestimation of distances compared with downhill routes. This inverted distance-of-hill effect was not observed in the second experiment, where an additional effort was applied. These results suggest that the underestimation of distances observed in Experiment 1 emerged from recalibration processes whose function was to solve the transgression of proprioceptive predictions linked with uphill energy expenditure. The results are discussed in relation to constructivist approaches on spatial representations and predictive coding theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rotating squares appeared to be distorted into pincushions with concave sides. These illusory shape changes were caused by a perceived compression along the curved path of motion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increase of environmental problems due to the tourist activity has given rise to conservation of environment in destinations. In this sense, regional, national, and international regulatory provisions have proliferated during the last years. This article analyses the perception in the society about this kind of distinguishing signs, for the specific case of protected natural areas. Since local population participates in the appropriate development of protected areas, the knowledge and the communication of protection's forms are necessary to achieve the purpose for which they were created. This article uses a structural equation model to know the relationship between implication of local population, knowledge and perception of forms to protect natural areas, and the influence on the support of actions related with these forms of protection. This article represents a sustainable innovation with the aim of getting recommendations about the use of distinguishing signs by tourist authorities, to achieve a good knowledge and communication of these signs, and an optimal management of destinations. The main result is that the perception of the effects produced by figures of protection influences on the support of actions related with these figures; in this way, the more positive perception is, the higher the support is. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The appointment of Eddie Jones as the England men's rugby union head coach in 2015 was significant because he was the first foreign-born individual to occupy this role. After sourcing 136 British newspaper articles published one week either side of Jones' official announcement for his appointment on 20th November 2015, this study identified three overarching themes for how narratives of this event were framed: (a) negativity and the loss of national identity; (b) positivity and need for cultural change underscored with conditional acceptance; and (c) declinism with the need for succession planning. Bourdieu's concepts of field, habitus, embodied cultural and symbolic capital were drawn upon to theorise how much of the media initially rejected Jones' appointment. The results indicated an overt and xenophobic 'Little Englander' narrative was first presented by some journalists based on Jones' perceived Australian habitus and capital not reflecting the cultural values attached to English rugby union. Even when reports were positive, binary 'one of our own/us' and 'outsider/them' narratives represented symbolic violence through a malign 'Little Englander' attitude, albeit one that is a more covert form of discrimination than has previously been reported. Recommendations for continued analyses that acknowledge temporality within this discipline are finally presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asian Americans' incorporation into American society is structured by interactions with a racial hierarchy that presents greater barriers for some ethnic groups more than others. The racialized assimilation framework predicts that experiences of discrimination shape incorporation into US society. This study investigates the impact of discrimination on the importance placed on three identities—racial, ethnic, American identity—relative to indicators of structural assimilation. Using the post-election wave of the 2016 National Asian American Survey (N = 3923), we estimate multivariable models to explore the centrality of racial, ethnic, and American identity among an ethnically diverse sample of Asian Americans. Regardless of ethnic group, a large majority deem American as a central identity, with greater variation in race and ethnicity centrality. Discriminatory encounters increased centrality of racial and American identity; meanwhile, educational attainment drives down the centrality of racial identity, though exerting no impact on American identity centrality. Ethnicity moderates these relationships as discrimination enhances racial identity centrality for Koreans, Indians, and Japanese but drives down racial centrality for Chinese adults. Findings reveal that racialized encounters are a distinctive component of the assimilation process resulting in variable expressions of identity among Asian Americans, revealing identity variation across Asian American ethnic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People's interactions with the environment shape their experiences. Thus, understanding these interactions is critical to enhancing human well-being. Aural attributes play a significant role in shaping the perception of space in addition to visual attributes. It is well known that sounds evoke an emotional response, but less is known about how the acoustic characteristics of environments reinforce such an emotional impact. By adopting virtual reality as a platform for recreating 3D sounds and 360° visuals of built environments of worship spaces as case studies, this study aims to investigate the influence of the acoustic environment considering audiovisual congruency on enhancing the human experience through self-report and physiological response analysis. It also examines the role of cultural background in terms of familiarity with the acoustic environment. The convergent mixed-methods approach, merging both quantitative and qualitative analysis, provides a deep understanding of the role of the acoustic environment in enhancing the auditory experience. The results show that the acoustic environment and audiovisual congruency amplify the intensity of the emotional impact, and the amplification of the impact can vary depending on the acoustic environment of the building. They also reveal that familiarity with sound and acoustic characteristics can increase this impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce a theoretical argument linking group structure to an individual's cohesion in collectively oriented task groups. We posit that status, the distribution of opinions, and social categories indirectly shape perceptions of cohesion by making individuals working on an uncertain task more or less susceptible to the opinions of others. Specifically, these factors influence how likely one is to succumb to the opinions of others, which in turn influences one's likelihood of viewing one's actions as valid or consonant with the expectations of the other members of the group. As this process repeats over time, it accumulates to affect individuals' expressions of cohesion with group members. Results from a laboratory experiment corroborate this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Significant in the management of a safe and secure custodial environment is the compliance of incarcerated persons with the prison rules and the directives of prison officers. In recent years, there has been increased research focus on the role of normative compliance in the prison environment, which is postulated to derive from the perceptions of legitimacy and procedural justice of those who are incarcerated. This article presents the findings of a scoping review of the empirical literature as it relates to procedural justice and legitimacy in prison settings. This literature is charted and then analyzed across two primary themes, namely "Shaping Perceptions of Procedural Justice and Legitimacy" and "Procedural Justice, Legitimacy, and Compliance." The presence of normative compliance in prisons and the contribution of procedurally just treatment to perceptions of legitimacy held by persons who are incarcerated are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Utilizing a statewide survey and administrative data, we explore how state-imposed burdens are translated by street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) into frontline practices that may alleviate or exacerbate onerous experiences of the administrative state. First, we find that SLBs' role perceptions shaped not only uses of discretionary power—as either a force of client empowerment or disentitlement—but also program access. Second, we find that the local agencies with the largest proportions of income-eligible clients often had the least capacity for alleviating administrative burden, suggesting decentralization may be a mechanism by which administrative burden perpetuates structural inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An influential explanation for the persistent political underrepresentation of minorities in elected office is that minority candidates are discriminated against by voters of the dominant ethnic group. We argue, however, for the need to distinguish between two forms of discrimination: ingroup favoritism and outgroup hostility. We measure the impact of each by using an extensive data set drawn from Swiss elections, where voters can cast both positive and negative preference votes for candidates. Our results show that immigrant-origin candidates with non-Swiss names incur an electoral disadvantage because they receive more negative preference votes than candidates with typically Swiss names. But we also find that minority candidates face a second disadvantage: voters discriminate in favor of majority candidates by allocating them more positive preference votes. These two forms of electoral discrimination are critically related to a candidate's party, whereas the impact of the specific outgroup to which a minority candidate belongs is less pronounced than expected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method for creating a variety of pseudo-random 'noisy' stimuli that possess several useful statistical and phenomenal features for psychophysical experimentation is outlined. These stimuli are derived from a pseudo-periodic function known as multidimensional noise. This class of function has the desirable property that it is periodic, defined on a fixed domain, is roughly symmetric, and is stochastic, yet consistent and repeatable. The stimuli that can be created from these functions have a controllable amount of complexity and self-similarity properties that are further useful when generating naturalistic looking objects and surfaces for investigation. The paper addresses the creation and manipulation of stimuli with the use of noise, including an overview of this particular implementation. Stimuli derived from these procedures have been used successfully in several shape and surface perception experiments and are presented here for use by others and further discussion as to their utility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review focuses on students' perceptions of their rights in elementary and secondary schools. The conceptual framework of rights consciousness was applied to understand how students' knowledge, experiences, and emotions shape their rights perceptions. The analysis is based on 38 empirical studies conducted in different countries. The findings characterize students' rights perceptions as intuitive—that is, perceptions that are not grounded in legal rules but in students' personal insights. The findings also identify key factors affecting students' perceptions: school context, national context, and students' individual characteristics. The conclusions underscore that school rights-based practices, student body and school staff diversity, and school relationships influence students' rights consciousness. However, questions remain concerning how students' perceptions are affected by cultural repertoires, religion, socioeconomic status, gender, and age. The implications are that future studies should apply a context-based agenda to inform the design and implementation of human rights education programs and rights-based organizational practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public evaluations of the economy are key for understanding how citizens develop policy opinions and monitor government performance. But what drives economic evaluations? In this article, we argue the context in which information about the economy is distributed shapes economic perceptions. In high-quality information environments—where policies are transparent, the media is free, and political opposition is robust—mass perceptions closely track economic conditions. In contrast, compromised information environments provide openings for political manipulation, leading perceptions to deviate from business cycle fluctuations. We test our argument with unique data from eight Latin American countries. Results show restrictions on access to information distort the public's view of economic performance. The ability of voters to sanction governments is stronger when democratic institutions and the media protect citizens' access to independent, unbiased information. Our findings highlight the importance of accurate evaluations of the economy for government accountability and democratic responsiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When observers view a perceptually bistable stimulus, their perception changes stochastically. Various studies have shown across-observer correlations in the percept durations for different bistable stimuli including binocular rivalry stimuli and bistable moving plaids. Previous work on binocular rivalry posits that neural inhibition in the visual hierarchy is a factor involved in the perceptual fluctuations in that paradigm. Here, in order to investigate whether between-observer variability in cortical inhibition underlies correlated percept durations between binocular rivalry and bistable moving plaid perception, we used center-surround suppression as a behavioral measure of cortical inhibition. We recruited 217 participants in a test battery that included bistable perception paradigms as well as a center-surround suppression paradigm. While we were able to successfully replicate the correlations between binocular rivalry and bistable moving plaid perception, we did not find a correlation between center-surround suppression strength and percept durations for any form of bistable perception. Moreover, the results from a mediation analysis indicate that center-surround suppression is not the mediating factor in the correlation between binocular rivalry and bistable moving plaids. These results do not support the idea that cortical inhibition can explain the between-observer correlation in mean percept duration between binocular rivalry and bistable moving plaid perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers evidence, primarily drawn from art, that one kind of impossible colour, yellowish blue, can be experienced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research indicates that women are still underrepresented in policing and that police culture is not fully accepting of its sisters in blue. As police organizations strive toward building an inclusive workforce, we must understand how women, already in the field, view their place and experiences within their jobs, organizations, and workgroups. Thus, in the current research, we use a comparative sample (n = 832) of male and female officers to examine perceptions of fit in the job, organization, and workgroup, and how these perceptions relate to reports of workplace incivilities. Findings indicate that women "fit in " with the job and the broader agency, but they are less likely than men to feel they belong within their workgroup. This relationship was partially mediated by workplace incivilities, indicating that women's experience of subtle forms of discrimination partially explains their lower levels of fit in their workgroup. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sparked by recent scholarly interest in identifying the drivers or antecedents of employee engagement, this article examines the relationship between an employee's perception of voice and his or her propensity to socially engage in the form of sharing advice. In this article, we conceptualize an employee's perception of voice as multi-directional in nature. This is because, whether directed upward, downward, or laterally, employees will develop multiple perceptions of voice as they distinguish between their social exchanges across and within the various levels of the organization. Surveying the city workforce of Marietta, Georgia, we found a positive perception of voice is a key driver or antecedent to advice sharing across vertical boundaries with superiors and subordinates and across lateral boundaries with peers. Yet contrary to what the literature would suggest about the influence of superiors on subordinates, we found that low perceptions of upward voice (i.e., perceptions shaped by those at higher levels of the organization) did not influence an employee's decision to share advice with his or her own subordinates or peers. This research shifts some much-needed attention toward advice sharing as a social manifestation of employee engagement and establishes the importance of assessing and managing an employee's multiple perceptions of voice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1966, James Gibson first presented his theory of the ambient optic array, and he proposed a new field of ecological optics that he hoped would advance our knowledge on this topic. This study will consider how his ideas have largely come to fruition over the past 50 years. It reviews the research on the visual perception of three-dimensional shape from shading, the effects of ambient light from surface interreflections on observers' perceptions, the perception of the light field, and the perception of surface materials. Finally, it also considers Gibson's impact on these developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uniquely examines the relationship between specific forms of discrimination and how Muslim young adults in the United States choose to identify. A survey was distributed to Muslim young adults in Genesee County, Michigan, where 2.6% of the population is Muslim. Some experiences of discrimination were significantly related to identifying as a Muslim and not also as an American. In particular, experiences of being accused or suspected of doing something wrong because of one's identity significantly predicted responses on the identity variable above and beyond other experiences of discrimination. The probability of a Muslim young adult identifying only as a Muslim when sometimes experiencing being accused of something wrong is 43.1%. This probability drops to 32.8% for those never experiencing this form of discrimination. The article discusses the implications of increasing discrimination on future generations of Muslims and their identity development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a unique dataset and a nonparametric decomposition, we determine whether immigrants with native names, immigrants with foreign names, and natives have different outcomes in Spain's housing market. Results suggest that immigrants with native names achieve greater discounts relative to immigrants with non-Spanish names. As a robustness check, we prove that this is not due to the country of birth. We observe that most of the difference in price across immigrant groups remains unexplained, which may imply some form of discrimination (pure or statistical) against immigrants with non-native names. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An extensive body of literature has documented punitive responses to mental illness in the United States that have coalesced around arrest and incarceration. Similarly, studies have highlighted the lack of treatment options available to persons with mental illness, as well as the fact the persons with mental illness are particularly susceptible to offering false confessions. Research on perceptions of these realities is, however, comparatively limited. This study contributes to the literature through the use of survey methodology to examine the perceptions of college students at a mid-sized university in the Southeastern United States as they relate to criminal justice outcomes among persons with mental illness. Results of multinomial regression models suggest that these perceptions are shaped by factors such as political orientation, semester standing, and punitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different forms of discrimination, marginalisation and exclusion have been central concerns for social geography for over 50 years now. Some forms of prejudice are historically resistant, long-lasting and have featured in social geography for many decades (such as racism and sexism); others have emerged more recently within social geography debates as well as in the wider society and are less well understood. In this second progress report on social geography, I explore recent research about Islamophobia, transphobia and sizism that demonstrates that each of these forms of prejudice is worthy of further study and analysis in their own right by social geographers and scholars in related fields. I argue that it would be productive to investigate areas of connection and solidarity across and within these different prejudices and others in order to be able to resist multiple forms of discrimination, intolerance and hate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feedback is a critical component of teamwork regulation. Research underscores the importance of feedback processes for its effectiveness in teams and further notes how individual differences can affect these processes. Nonetheless, few have theorized on the cultural dimensions associated with feedback to specify how these can attenuate such processes. We contend that research can be advanced by specifying how cultural dimensions may shape individual perception and processing of feedback and team processing of feedback in homogeneous and heterogeneous teams with respect to cultural dimensions. To address this foundational question, we review and integrate the literature on feedback in teams and culture in teams by (a) incorporating the role of culture in team feedback models, (b) discussing how cultural dimensions could influence the perception and processing of feedback, and (c) highlighting important directions for future inquiries at the intersection of feedback and cultural theories. We discuss the links between cultural dimensions derived from the field of intercultural communication and feedback behaviors and processes and provide propositions concerning culturally informed differences in specific feedback responses at individual and team levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How harshly should perpetrators of past abuses be punished, to reinforce the legitimacy of a new democracy? Drawing on sociopsychological theories, we hypothesize that prodemocratic mass attitudes are favored by the perception that defendants in transitional justice trials have been punished in a way that is morally proportional to their offenses. This perception is shaped by the social categorization of defendants and the opinions about the certainty of their guilt that predominate in the mass public. When defendants are largely seen as co-ethnics and their guilt is contested, like in the West German case, prodemocratic attitudes are likely to be strengthened by lighter punishments and undermined by harsher sanctions. The analysis of subnational variation in patterns of punishment in postwar West Germany confirms this hypothesis and shows that these attitudinal effects persist in the medium term. Our findings have implications for research on transitional justice and democratization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India and China have launched enormous projects aimed at collecting vital personal information regarding their billion-plus populations and building the world's biggest data sets in the process. However, both Aadhaar in India and the Social Credit System in China are controversial and raise a plethora of political and ethical concerns. The governments claim that participation in these projects is voluntary, even as they link vital services to citizens registering with these projects. In this study, we analyze how the news media in India and China—crucial data intermediaries that shape public perceptions on data and technological practices—framed these projects since their inception. Topic modeling suggests news coverage in both nations disregards the public interest and focuses largely on how businesses can benefit from them. The media, institutionally and ideologically linked with governments and corporations, show little concern with violations of privacy and mass surveillance that these projects could lead to. We argue that this renders citizens structurally incapable of making a meaningful "choice" about whether or not to participate in such projects. Implications for various stakeholders are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports are becoming a widespread corporate discourse practice and are often considered corporate image-building documents. The present study examines forward-looking statements in CSR reports from a genre-based perspective, aiming to better understand the textual practices of reporting genres in a globalized context and to raise awareness about ways they are used to shape perception of corporate activity. Using a corpus of 90 CSR reports in Chinese, English, and Italian and a subcorpus annotated with the "previewing future performance" move, the study combines a focus on genre-related contextual features and rhetorical patterns of CSR reports with a corpus-based study of future markers. The analysis reveals some cross-cultural variation in the distribution of the move, while its commissive function marks a common trend. Words indicating change (miglior*/提升/improv*) are found to be frequently used for future reference in all three languages, suggesting that future discourse, though regarded as an optional element of the genre, is widely exploited by companies in actual practice to promote a committed corporate image in CSR. Based on this analysis, the study puts forward the notion of "writing conformity," a general feature of many reporting genres, which may turn out to pose new and important challenges for professional writers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research described in the present article was designed to compare three types of image shading: one generated with a Lambertian BRDF and homogeneous illumination such that image intensity was determined entirely by local surface orientation irrespective of position; one that was textured with a linear intensity gradient, such that image intensity was determined entirely by local surface position irrespective of orientation; and another that was generated with a Lambertian BRDF and inhomogeneous illumination such that image intensity was influenced by both position and orientation. A gauge figure adjustment task was used to measure observers' perceptions of local surface orientation on the depicted surfaces, and the probe points included 60 pairs of regions that both had the same orientation. The results show clearly that observers' perceptions of these three types of stimuli were remarkably similar, and that probe regions with similar apparent orientations could have large differences in image intensity. This latter finding is incompatible with any process for computing shape from shading that assumes any plausible reflectance function combined with any possible homogeneous illumination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]