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To describe the mental models people hold about the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on how they understand the factors that drive the spread of COVID-19 and what kind of beliefs are associated with these models.In a series of three studies (total N = 461), we asked participants to identify factors that are relevant for COVID-19 proliferation (Study 1a), rate the importance of factors (Study 1 b), and create a mental model of how these factors relate to virus spread by employing a validated tool for mental model elicitation (Study 2). Main outcome measures: inclusion and centrality of factors in mental models of COVID-19 infection spread.Mitigation measures issued by government, adherence to measures, and virus characteristics were most strongly represented in participants' mental models. Participants who perceived measures as appropriate or who experienced more control and more worry over the spread of the virus created more complex models compared to participants who were less satisfied with measures or who felt lower control and less worry.These findings suggest that people are able to create sensible mental models of virus transmission but may appreciate transparent communication to comprehend the bigger picture behind the governmental mitigation strategy.

Nudges have become increasingly popular among policymakers as a tool to stimulate desirable behavior for individuals or society. One of the most prevailing assumptions of nudges is that they make u...

While nudges have been shown to be effective and are already being implemented, there is still a debate on the ethics of nudging. This debate specifically refers to the potential of nudges negative...

In this paper, we critically review three assumptions that govern the debate on the legitimacy of nudging interventions as a policy instrument: (1) nudges may violate autonomous decision-making; (2) nudges lend themselves to easy implementation in public policy; and (3) nudges are a simple and effective mean for steering individual choice in the right direction. Our analysis reveals that none of these assumptions are supported by recent studies entailing unique insights into nudging from three disciplinary outlooks: ethics, public administration and psychology. We find that nudges are less of a threat to autonomous choice than critics sometimes claim, making them ethically more legitimate than often assumed. Nonetheless, because their effectiveness is critically dependent on boundary conditions, their implementation is far from easy. The findings of this analysis thus suggest new opportunities for identifying when and for whom nudge interventions are preferable to more conventional public policy arrangements.

In de jaren tachtig en negentig van de vorige eeuw zijn de fysieke en sociale determinanten van gezondheid door de Canadese Minister Marc Lalonde en de WHO op de kaart gezet [1, 2]. Sindsdien is de aandacht voor de fysieke en sociale omgeving als belangrijke determinant van gezondheid sterk toegenomen door het groeiende inzicht dat alleen aandacht voor individuele leefstijl en gedrag niet tot de gewenste verandering in gezondheid leidt. Een omgeving die de keuze voor gezond gedrag makkelijker maakt – making the healthy choice, the easy choice – is een belangrijke voorwaarde voor gezond gedrag. Andere voordelen die samengaan met het veranderen van de omgeving zijn onder meer dat het een positief effect kan hebben op gedragsverandering zonder dat er sprake is van blaming the victim, dat er mogelijk groepen bereikt worden die anders niet of moeilijk te bereiken zijn en dat de veranderingen in de omgeving van lange duur zijn, en daardoor mogelijk (kosten)effectiever [3].

Summary Deviating from existing literature on self-control failure the current research examines self-control success and the role of motivation. Functional research suggests people visually perceive objects to be bigger when they are motivated to approach them. Using the size perception task, participants estimated the size of a healthy and an unhealthy food object that were identical in size. In the current research we simulated a reflective state vs. impulsive state using an ego-depletion manipulation in Study 1 and a cognitive load manipulation in Study 2. Results from both studies revealed that participants in a reflective state (vs. impulsive state) assigned increased size estimations to the healthy food item compared to the unhealthy food item. Current findings demonstrate greater approach motivation towards a ‘virtue’ (i.e., healthy food) as a mechanism that underlies self-control success, suggesting that successful self-control involves initiating approach towards a virtue rather than inhibiting a vice. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Both satisfaction and mindfulness relate to sustained physical activity. This study explored their relationship. We conducted a cross-sectional study with 398 Dutch participants who completed measures on trait mindfulness, mindfulness and satisfaction with physical activity, physical activity habits, and physical activity. We performed mediation and moderated mediation. Satisfaction mediated the effect of mindfulness on physical activity. Mindfulness was related to physical activity only when one’s habit was weak. The relation of mindfulness with satisfaction was stronger for weak compared to strong habit. Understanding the relationship between mindfulness and satisfaction can contribute to the development of interventions to sustain physical activity.

This chapter discusses the relationship between affect and eating behavior from two points of view—how affect shapes eating behavior and how eating behavior generates affect—arguing that appreciating how affect influences eating behavior depends on understanding in what way eating generates affect. It first discusses biological and social-cultural perspectives on the pleasure of eating and posits that the inherently rewarding experience of eating is compromised by concerns about the health consequences of eating too much or by eating the wrong foods. The second part of this chapter explains in what way both negative and positive affect influences consumption and highlights the contrast between theoretical notions on the phenomenon of emotional eating and empirical findings. It elaborates on new avenues for investigating the association between affect and eating, including the role of positive emotions, emotions as justifications for overeating, and eating as a coping strategy for dealing with negative emotions.

In this chapter we will discuss different perspectives on how self-control can be positioned in dual-system theories of information processing and behavior. Self-control has been defined as one’s capacity or ability to overrule one’s inner, impulsive responses, as well as to interrupt undesired behavioral tendencies (Baumeister, Bratslavsky, Muraven, & Tice, 1998; Tangney, Baumeister, & Boone, 2004). However, this definition lacks an essential aspect, and a necessary component of self-control: the notion that a long-term goal is involved that makes it ‘worth’ inhibiting those impulses that can be rewarding in the shorter term (Carver & Scheier, 1981; De Ridder, Lensvelt-Mulders, Finkenauer, Stok, & Baumeister, 2012). Recently, definitions of self-control therefore also include the ability to resolve self-control dilemmas (De Ridder, Kroese, Gillebaart, & Adriaanse, 2016; Fujita, 2011; Myrseth & Fishbach, 2009), and different strategies for handling self-control dilemmas have been a novel self-control research focus (Ent, Baumeister, & Tice, 2015; Gillebaart, Schneider, & De Ridder, 2015; Myrseth & Fishbach, 2009). Self-control dilemmas are situations in which competing behavioral tendencies exist, fostering a (response) conflict that has to be resolved by acting on one of these tendencies.

Lager brewing strains of Saccharomyces pastorianus are natural interspecific hybrids originating from the spontaneous hybridization of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomyces eubayanus . Over the past 500 years, S. pastorianus has been domesticated to become one of the most important industrial microorganisms. Production of lager-type beers requires a set of essential phenotypes, including the ability to ferment maltose and maltotriose at low temperature, the production of flavors and aromas, and the ability to flocculate. Understanding of the molecular basis of complex brewing-related phenotypic traits is a prerequisite for rational strain improvement. While genome sequences have been reported, the variability and dynamics of S. pastorianus genomes have not been investigated in detail. Here, using deep sequencing and chromosome copy number analysis, we showed that S. pastorianus strain CBS1483 exhibited extensive aneuploidy. This was confirmed by quantitative PCR and by flow cytometry. As a direct consequence of this aneuploidy, a massive number of sequence variants was identified, leading to at least 1,800 additional protein variants in S. pastorianus CBS1483. Analysis of eight additional S. pastorianus strains revealed that the previously defined group I strains showed comparable karyotypes, while group II strains showed large interstrain karyotypic variability. Comparison of three strains with nearly identical genome sequences revealed substantial chromosome copy number variation, which may contribute to strain-specific phenotypic traits. The observed variability of lager yeast genomes demonstrates that systematic linking of genotype to phenotype requires a three-dimensional genome analysis encompassing physical chromosomal structures, the copy number of individual chromosomes or chromosomal regions, and the allelic variation of copies of individual genes.

Self-control leads to positive life outcomes, but it is poorly understood. While previous research has focused on self-control failure, self-control success remains unexplored. The current studies aim to shed more light on the mechanisms of self-control by focusing on the resolution of response conflict as a key component in self-control success. Trait self-control was measured, and participants reported on the magnitude of response conflict they experienced about healthy and unhealthy foods in Study 1 (N = 146; Mage = 33.03; 59 females, 83 males, 4 unknown). The response conflict process was assessed in Study 2 (N = 118; Mage = 21.45; 68 females, 41 males, 9 unknown). Outcomes showed that self-reported evaluative response conflict about food items was smaller for people high in trait self-control. Study 2 revealed that higher trait self-control predicted faster resolution of self-control conflict, and an earlier peak of the response conflict. Taken together, these results provide insight into what makes people with high trait self-control successful, namely, how they handle response conflict. Implications for self-control theories and future directions are discussed.

Self-control is of invaluable importance for well-being. While previous research has focused on self-control failure, we introduce a new perspective on self-control, including the notion of effortless self-control, and a focus on self-control success rather than failure. We propose that effortless strategies of dealing with response conflict (i.e., competing behavioral tendencies) are what distinguishes successful self-controllers from less successful ones. While people with high trait self-control may recognize the potential for response conflict in self-control dilemmas, they do not seem to subjectively experience this conflict as much as people with low self-control. Two strategies may underlie this difference: avoidance of response conflict through adaptive, habitual behaviors, and the efficient downregulating of response conflict. These strategies as well as the role of response conflict are elaborated upon and discussed in the light of existing literature on self-control.

ObjectiveTo investigate associations of self-perceived eating-related peer norms (called ‘subjective peer norms’) with adolescents’ healthy eating intentions and intake of healthy and unhealthy food.DesignCross-sectional data were collected in a large international survey.SettingTwo types of subjective peer norms were assessed: perceived peer encouragement of healthy eating and perceived peer discouragement of unhealthy eating. Outcome variables were healthy eating intentions, intake of healthy food (fruits and vegetables) and intake of unhealthy food (snacks and soft drinks).SubjectsOver 2500 European (pre-)adolescents aged between 10 and 17 years participated.ResultsSubjective peer norms were associated with all three outcome variables. While both perceived encouragement of healthy eating and perceived discouragement of unhealthy eating were related to intentions, only peer encouragement of healthy eating was related to intakes of both healthy and unhealthy food.ConclusionsSubjective peer norms play a role in adolescent eating behaviour and as such are an important target for health promotion. Addressing norms that encourage healthy eating may be more promising in changing behaviour than norms that discourage unhealthy eating.

Background: Access to temptation is blamed for the rising prevalence of obesity in children. A popular way to counter this is to restrict physical access to temptation. As restrictions cannot be widely applied and may have adverse long-term effects, we examine whether accessible temptations in situations that endorse self-regulation train self-regulation. Specifically, we design a method that enhances children's self-regulatory skills in the long term. Method: In two studies, participants were exposed to temptation in phase one and their self-regulatory skills were measured in phase two. In Study 1, we endorsed self-regulation in the presence of accessible temptation for four consecutive days and measured consumption on the fifth day. In Study 2, we exposed children to temptation similarly and, in addition, manipulated temptation strength to show that being tempted is crucial for the skill to develop. Next, we measured saliva and preferences. Results: The findings suggest that exposure to temptation in a situation that supports self-regulation leads to better resistance to temptations in later contexts of accessible temptation in girls, but not boys. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that interventions aiming at strengthening children's self-regulatory skills through controlled exposure to temptation might be a productive long-term strategy to reduce consumption of unhealthy food.

Background: The current studies aim to show that descriptive social norms influence vegetable intake and to investigate three potentially underlying processes (self-identification, attitude, and self-efficacy). Methods: In two studies, descriptive social norms regarding vegetable intake were manipulated (majority vs. minority norm). Study 1 investigated both the relation between baseline vegetable intake and self-identification, attitude, and self-efficacy, as well as the effect of the norm manipulation on vegetable intake over a one-week period. Study 2 investigated potential mediation of the effect of the manipulation on vegetable intake intentions through self-identification, attitude, and self-efficacy. Results: Study 1 showed that the proposed mediators were related to a baseline measure of vegetable intake. Moreover, in participants identifying strongly with the norm referent group, majority norms led to higher vegetable consumption than minority norms. Study 2 showed that the direct effect of the social norm manipulation on vegetable intake intentions was partly mediated by self-identification, attitude, and self-efficacy. Conclusions: These studies shed first light on processes underlying the effect of descriptive social norms on health behavior. A norm describing the behavior of a salient social group leads people to identify more with, have more positive attitudes toward, and feel more self-efficacious regarding that behavior.

Numerous studies have been conducted to demonstrate that behaviours are frequently activated unconsciously. The present studies investigate the downstream psychological consequences of such unconscious behaviour activation, building on work on the explanatory vacuum and post-priming misattribution. It was hypothesized that unconsciously activated behaviours trigger a negative affective response if the behaviour violates a personal standard and that this negative affect subsequently motivates people to confabulate a reason for the behaviour. Results provided evidence for this mediated moderation model. Study 1 showed that participants who were primed to act less prosocially indeed reported increased levels of negative affect and, as a result, were inclined to confabulate a reason for their behaviour. Study 2 replicated these findings in the domain of eating and provided evidence for the moderating role of personal standards as well as the entire mediated moderation model. These findings have relevant theoretical implications as they add to the modest number of studies that demonstrate that the effect of unconscious priming may extend well beyond performing the primed behaviour itself to influence subsequent affect and attribution processes. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Objective: Food choices are often made mindlessly, when individuals are not able or willing to exert self-control. Under low self-control, individuals have difficulties to resist palatable but unhealthy food products. In contrast to previous research aiming to foster healthy choices by promoting high self-control, this study exploits situations of low self-control, by strategically using the tendency under these conditions to rely on heuristics (simple decision rules) as quick guides to action. More specifically, the authors associated healthy food products with the social proof heuristic (i.e., normative cues that convey majority endorsement for those products). Method: One hundred seventy-seven students (119 men), with an average age of 20.47 years (SD = 2.25) participated in the experiment. This study used a 2 (low vs. high self-control) x 2 (social proof vs. no heuristic) x 2 (trade-off vs. control choice) design, with the latter as within-subjects factor. The dependent variable was the number of healthy food choices in a food-choice task. Results: In line with previous studies, people made fewer healthy food choices under low self-control. However, this negative effect of low self-control on food choice was reversed when the healthy option was associated with the social proof heuristic. In that case, people made more healthy choices under conditions of low self-control. Conclusion: Low self-control may be even more beneficial for healthy food choices than high self-control in the presence of a heuristic. Exploiting situations of low self-control is a new and promising method to promote health on impulse.

Persistent polyclonal B-cell lymphocytosis: extensively proliferated CD27+IgM+IgD+ memory B cells with a distinctive immunophenotype

Performing under high pressure is an emotional experience. Hence, the use of emotion regulation strategies may prove to be highly effective in preventing choking under pressure. Using a golf putting task, we investigated the role of arousal on declined sport performance under pressure (pilot study) and the effectiveness of emotion regulation strategies in alleviating choking under pressure (main study). The pilot study showed that pressure resulted in decreased performance and this effect was partially mediated by increased arousal. The main study, a field study, showed that whereas the choking effect was observed in the control condition, reappraisal and, particularly, distraction were effective emotion regulation strategies in helping people to cope instead of choke under pressure. These findings suggest that interventions that aim to prevent choking under pressure could benefit from including emotion regulation strategies.

Implementation intentions have been shown to effectively change counter-intentional habits. Research has, however, almost solely been concerned with the effectiveness of a single plan. In the present research, we investigated the behavioral and cognitive implications of making multiple implementation intentions targeting unhealthy snacking habits and its underlying processes, linking multiple habitual snacking cues to healthy alternatives. Study 1 revealed that formulating multiple implementation intentions was not effective in decreasing unhealthy snacking, whereas formulating a single plan successfully induced behavior change. By using a lexical decision task in Study 2, it was found that when making a single plan, but not multiple plans, the healthy alternative became cognitively more accessible in response to a critical cue prime than the habitual response. However, when making additional plans in an unrelated domain, the negative effects of making multiple plans were absent. In sum, the current findings suggest that formulating multiple implementation intentions is ineffective when changing unwanted behavior. These reduced effects of multiple implementation intentions do not occur when making the plan but are rather due to interference in the enacting phase of the planning process.

In our paper ‘Obesity, overconsumption and self-regulation failure: The unsung role of eating appropriateness standards', we argued that it is not the omnipresent availability of palatable foods alone – what is generally called the ‘obesogenic environment’ – that should be held responsible for the epidemic of overweight, but also the absence of norms of appropriateness about what, where and when to eat, that goes hand in hand with this abundant presence of foods. Siegfried Dewitte and Peter Herman and Janet Polivy shared their thoughts about this proposition and we appreciate the opportunity to discuss this issue more elaborately.

Research suggests that individuals with binge eating pathology (e.g., bulimia nervosa (BN) and binge eating disorders (BED)) have decision making impairments and particularly act impulsively in response to negative affect. The aim of this study was to examine the influence of negative affect on choice behavior in women with BN and BED. Ninety women (59 with BN or BED and 31 healthy controls) watched a sad or control film fragment and were subsequently asked to complete a choice behavior task (as measured by a variation of the Bechara Gambling Task (BGT)). Results showed that negative affect influenced choice behavior differently in healthy controls and in women with BN and BED after punishment (but not after reward). In the context of increased negative affect, punishment was associated with more disadvantageous choice behavior in both BN and BED women but not in healthy controls, while the effect was the exact opposite in both groups after a decrease in negative affect. Levels of sadness were not found to influence choice behavior after reward in either groups. These findings suggest that emotional states may have a direct impact on choice behavior of individuals with binge eating pathology and are not only related to pathological behavior itself.

As people are relatively incompetent in assessing the impact of visceral states on their behavior, two studies tested the hypothesis that hunger affects the extent to which people assess themselves as external eaters. In Study 1 participants’ current self-reported hunger states were linked to their scores on an external eating scale. Hungrier participants perceived themselves more strongly as external eaters. In Study 2 hunger was experimentally manipulated, after which self-reported external eating was assessed. Hunger was found to affect people’s self-reported external eating status, such that hungry participants scored higher and above the average norm score on external eating compared to satiated participants, who scored below this average norm score. The key implications of these findings are discussed.

Objective The goal of this article is to review and highlight the relevance of social psychological research on self-regulation for health-related theory and practice. Methods We first review research on goal setting, or determining which goals to pursue and the criteria to determine whether one has succeeded. We discuss when and why people adopt goals, what properties of goals increase the likelihood of their attainment, and why people abandon goals. We then review research on goal striving, which includes the planning and execution of actions that lead to goal attainment, and the processes that people use to shield their goals from being disrupted by other competing goals, temptations, or distractions. We describe four types of strategies that people use when pursuing goals. Results We find that self-regulation entails the operation of a number of psychological mechanisms, and that there is no single solution that will help all people in all situations. We recommend a number of strategies that can help people to more effectively set and attain health-related goals. Conclusions We conclude that enhancing health behavior requires a nuanced understanding and sensitivity to the varied, dynamic psychological processes involved in self-regulation, and that health is a prototypical and central domain in which to examine the relevance of these theoretical models for real behavior. We discuss the implications of this research for theory and practice in health-related domains.

Diabetes patients often fail to adhere to self-management activities, such as losing weight by exercising and dieting. The present study tested the efficacy of a minimalist intervention consisting of only the self-regulation strategy 'mental contrasting' (Oettingen, G. (2000). Expectancy effects on behavior depend on self-regulatory thought. Social Cognition, 18, 101-129) in promoting these self-management activities among a clinical sample of type 2 diabetes patients (N = 64). Half of the participants were assigned to a positive indulging condition (fantasising about positive outcomes of losing weight) and the other half of the participants were assigned to a mental contrasting condition (fantasising about positive outcomes of losing weight and then contrasting these fantasies with obstacles in the present reality). Results showed that, one month later, participants in the mental contrasting condition had improved their diabetes self-management, and in particular their dieting behaviour, by a larger extent than participants who merely indulged in the positive future. It was concluded that although more elaborate interventions may yield stronger results, adding a mental contrasting exercise to their usual care may be a highly feasible, low-cost alternative to promote diabetes self-management.

Objectives Low body esteem poses a risk for the development of eating disorder symptomatology. Appearance-motivated exercise, as opposed to health-motivated exercise, has been associated with both low body esteem and eating disorder symptomatology. The aim of this study was to investigate the mediating role of appearance-motivated exercise in the link between body esteem and eating disorder symptomatology. Method Female fitness club members (N = 81) reported their body esteem, eating disorder symptomatology and exercise motives. Results Appearance-motivated exercise partially mediated the link between low body esteem and eating disorder symptomatology. In contrast, health-motivated exercise was unrelated to both body esteem and eating disorder symptomatology. Conclusion Results indicate that the motives underlying exercise in response to low body esteem have differential consequences for the potential development of eating disorders, signifying the clinical relevance of considering motives behind exercise.

Previous research established that norms describing the behaviour of a majority (e.g. 'many people consume too much alcohol') can have ironic and unwanted effects on health behaviour. To date, no research has addressed the effects of minority descriptive norms (e.g. 'only few people use sunscreen'), while such minority norms are frequently communicated to the public. The current studies investigate the effects of minority and majority norms on intended and actual fruit intake. University students received either minority or majority normative information describing fruit intake behaviour of a referent group. Identification strength with this referent group was measured (Study 1) or manipulated (Study 2). Results showed that, compared to majority norms, minority norms negatively affected fruit intake when participants strongly identify with the referent group. Moreover, absolute negative (minority norm) and positive (majority norm) effects of one-third portion of fruit were found compared to a no-norm condition. Since minority norms are often communicated with the intention of alarming people regarding their low engagement in health protective behaviour, the potential ironic effects of these minority norms should be taken into account when presenting such information to the public.

There is a tendency to blame the so-called ‘obesogenic’ environment, characterised by the abundant presence of high caloric, palatable foods, for the failure of self-regulation of eating behaviour and, consequently, the obesity epidemic. In the present article, it is argued that in addition to the omnipresence of food, self-regulation of eating is also compromised by a lack of clear, shared standards that guide eating behaviour. We posit that this social aspect of the toxic food environment is often overlooked and that, without considering the importance of such social eating appropriateness standards as self-regulatory guides, any understanding of successful regulation of eating behaviour will remain incomplete. We hypothesise that the availability of clear, shared eating appropriateness standards will decrease the uncertainty resulting from the current lack of such standards, and will provide effective guidance of eating behaviour, thus calling for a new generation of empirical research examining this novel approach to core components of the obesogenic environment.

Objective To examine the influence of emotional eating and lack of cognitive reappraisal on eating pathology in women with binge-purge and restricting type eating disorders. Method Women with a diagnosis of anorexia or bulimia nervosa according to the DSM-IV-tr (n = 50) and non-clinical women without eating disorders (n = 52) were asked about emotional eating tendencies, adaptive emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal) and eating pathology symptoms. Results In binge-purging women, emotional eating with limited use of cognitive reappraisal predicted level of eating pathology but not in the restricting and non-clinical women. Discussion Emotional eating tendencies in combination with a low tendency to use cognitive reappraisal may influence the severity of eating pathology in individuals with binge-purge behaviours. Evidently, patients with these characteristics require a therapy that addresses adaptive emotion regulation skills. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.

Objective. Although increasing evidence shows the importance of habits in explaining health behaviour, many studies still rely solely on predictors that emphasize the role of conscious intentions. The present study was designed to test the importance of habit strength in explaining unhealthy snacking behaviour in a large representative community sample (N = 1,103). To test our hypothesis that habits are crucial when explaining unhealthy snacking behaviour, their role was compared to the ‘Power of Food’, a related construct that addresses sensitivity to food cues in the environment. Moreover, the relation between Power of Food and unhealthy snacking habits was assessed. Design and Methods. A prospective design was used to determine the impact of habits in relation to intention, Power of Food and a number of demographic variables. One month after filling out the questionnaire, including measures of habit strength and Power of Food, participants reported their unhealthy snacking behaviour by means of a 7-day snack diary. Results. Results showed that habit strength was the most important predictor, outperforming all other variables in explaining unhealthy snack intake. Conclusions. The findings demonstrate that snacking habits provide a unique contribution in explaining unhealthy snacking behaviour, stressing the importance of addressing habit strength in further research and interventions concerning unhealthy snacking behaviour.

Antimicrobial resistance is a major public health issue and despite the growing awareness of this problem, antibiotic consumption remains common. Interventions geared towards the patient may be an effective means to reduce antibiotic overuse. The present study examines the effectiveness of patient-oriented interventions to promote more prudent use of antibiotics. Meta-analysis was used to evaluate the results of 28 studies describing patient-oriented intervention in terms of cognitive outcomes (attitudes and knowledge about antibiotics), use of antibiotics (self-reported by patients, prescription or dispension rates), and patient satisfaction with treatment. Our findings demonstrate relatively small but consistent positive effects on cognitive outcomes, which were not moderated by any intervention characteristic (e.g., intervention setting or type of education materials). Findings also show moderate to large positive effects on the use of antibiotics: especially interventions promoting delayed or refused prescription proved very effective in decreasing the use of antibiotics. In contrast, interventions using other methods (any type of education) to decrease the inappropriate use of antibiotics were not effective at all. Interestingly, delayed or refused prescription did not affect patient satisfaction with treatment in a negative manner. Based on these results, it is concluded that the promotion of more prudent use of antibiotics in patients is better achieved by encouraging health professionals to delay or refuse the prescription of antibiotics rather than by educating patients about the negative aspects of antibiotics.

Hedonic overconsumption is often considered to be caused by impulsive factors. The current paper investigates whether self-licensing, relying on reasons to justify subsequent gratification, can also be included as a significant contributor to hedonic consumption. Two studies were conducted to investigate whether self-licensing can account for an increase in hedonic consumption while ruling out impulsive factors such as resource depletion, negative affect, and visceral state as alternative explanations. A pilot study indicated that perceiving oneself as having invested greater effort and thus having a self-licensing cue did not lead to a decline in self-control capacity compared with not having a self-licensing cue. The main study employed the same procedure and established that having a licensing cue did lead to increased snack intake while controlling for impulsive factors. Together, these studies support the notion that self-licensing is a separate mechanism leading to hedonic gratification independent of impulsive factors. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Eating Disorder Diagnostic Scale (EDDS) is a brief self-report measure for diagnosing anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder. Research has provided evidence of the reliability and validity of this scale in non-clinical populations. Our study is the first to examine the psychometric features of the EDDS in a clinical population of eating disordered patients. We identified a cut-off point that differentiates clinical patients from healthy controls. A clinical group of 59 Dutch female eating disordered patients and a control group of 45 Dutch students completed the EDDS, the Eating Disorder Examination Interview, the Body Attitude Test and the Beck Depression Inventory--II. The EDDS showed good test-retest reliability, internal consistency, criterion validity and convergent validity with other scales assessing eating and general pathology. An overall symptom composite cut-off score of 16.5 accurately distinguished clinical patients from healthy controls. The EDDS may be a useful instrument in clinical settings and in aetiologic, prevention and treatment research.

The present study investigated whether a conceptual distinction between two components of self-control (inhibitory and initiatory self-control) is empirically valid. To that purpose, a series of confirmative factor analyses were employed in two samples (total N = 577), providing support for a distinction between inhibitory and initiatory self-control. In addition, the predictive validity of the two components of self-control was examined by regression analyses with (un)desired health/academic behavior as dependent variables, showing that inhibitory self-control was a superior predictor of undesired behavior and initiatory self-control a better predictor of desired behavior.

Summary Background The mode of action of narrowband ultraviolet B (NB-UVB) therapy in clearing psoriasis is incompletely understood, and in vivo studies at the molecular level in patients undergoing NB-UVB therapy are limited. We previously demonstrated increased expression and activity of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) receptors in psoriasis lesions, and suggested that this enhanced innate signalling contributed to the maintenance of psoriatic inflammation. Objectives We investigated whether NB-UVB affects dsRNA receptor expression and function in vivo as well as in vitro. Methods Skin samples of patients with psoriasis undergoing NB-UVB treatment were analysed for epidermal messenger RNA (mRNA) expression of the various dsRNA receptors by microarray and quantitative reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction. Primary human keratinocytes were irradiated with NB-UVB and stimulated with interferon (IFN)-α or IFN-γ, critical cytokines in psoriasis. The dsRNA analogue polyriboinosinic-polyribocytidylic acid was used to assess the functional responsiveness of the cells to dsRNA. Results NB-UVB therapy of patients with psoriasis resulted in a significantly reduced mRNA expression of the activating dsRNA receptors MDA5 (IFIH1) and RIG-I (DDX58). On the other hand, expression of LGP2 (DHX58), toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3) and PKR (EIF2AK2) was not affected. In vitro, NB-UVB irradiation completely blocked the upregulation of four of the dsRNA receptors in primary human keratinocytes stimulated with IFN-α or IFN-γ, resulting in an attenuated inflammatory response to dsRNA. Conclusions Our results show that NB-UVB irradiation inhibits the local innate inflammatory response to dsRNA, and suggest a novel mechanism of action of NB-UVB phototherapy in psoriasis.