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The idea of sex with robots seems to fascinate the general public, raising both enthusiasm and revulsion. We ran two experimental studies (Ns = 172 and 260) where we compared people’s reactions to variants of stories about a person visiting a bordello. Our results show that paying for the services of a sex robot is condemned less harshly than paying for the services of a human sex worker, especially if the payer is married. We have for the first time experimentally confirmed that people are somewhat unsure about whether using a sex robot while in a committed monogamous relationship should be considered as infidelity. We also shed light on the psychological factors influencing attitudes toward sex robots, including disgust sensitivity and interest in science fiction. Our results indicate that sex with a robot is indeed genuinely considered as sex, and a sex robot is genuinely seen as a robot; thus, we show that standard research methods on sexuality and robotics are also applicable in research on sex robotics.

Prison populations face heightened rates of addictive behaviors and significant stressors, including health challenges and social disparities. Although problem gambling is prevalent in criminal justice settings, its distinctiveness compared to other addictions among incarcerated individuals remains uncertain. This study examines risk factors associated with problem gambling in Finnish prisoners and explores differences compared to other forms of addiction. Covariates from a questionnaire (N = 527) included gender, age, education, offender status, involvement in theft or property crime, Trauma Screening Questionnaire (TSQ), Depression Scale (DEPS), and lifetime abuse experiences. Of the 527 participants, 330 were interviewed using the Structured Clinical Interview (SCID-II) to assess personality disorders. Multiple logistic regression models were utilized, with separate models for problem gambling (PG), lifetime substance use disorder, and lifetime alcohol disorder. Crime type was not significantly associated with alcohol or substance use problems, but PG was associated with property crime or theft convictions. Borderline personality traits were linked to probable PG, while antisocial traits were linked to drug use, and both traits predicted alcohol misuse. Age and gender were significant only in relation to alcohol use problems, with older age and male gender indicating higher risk. The association between problem gambling and criminal behavior underscores the vulnerability of incarcerated individuals across various domains. Detailed assessments, considering the nature of criminal activity and personality disorders, especially borderline traits and comorbid conditions, are crucial for tailoring rehabilitation and treatment strategies to prevent recidivism. These findings provide valuable insights for clinicians managing addiction and mental health issues within correctional settings., Competing Interests: The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: The daily work of SC and JP was funded by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Finland, within the objectives of Section 52 Appropriation of the Lotteries Act. However, it had no role in the study design, analysis, or interpretation of the results of the manuscript or any phase of the publication process. The Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare received funding from the Prison and Probation Service of Finland for a research project titled 'Problem Gambling Among Criminal Sanction Clients: Preventing Recidivism and Developing Support'. This funding included a salary for KL. Author SC works a part time private practitioner clinical psychologist at Addiktum Clinic Helsinki, Finland, treating mainly individuals with addiction problems, and at Mehiläinen Medical Center, Forum Helsinki, where she offers treatments to various psychological issues. She is a clinical advisor to the Canadian company Alavida, Vancouver (remote/internet treatment for alcohol disorder). She also trains professionals to treat gambling disorder with evidence-based methods as a part of her duty at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, and addictions in general privately. She has received fees from Helsinki University, Tampere City, Vocational school Stadi, Lundbeck, the Finnish Association of Addiction Medicine, the Finnish Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (FAIDD), and Mehiläinen for her lectures on behavioural addictions and for training professionals, and writer's fees from the Finnish Medical Society Duodecim, Finnish Medical Journal and Myllyhoitoyhdistys ry. She received fees from Svenska Spel (Sweden) for evaluating grant proposals, and Tampere University for preliminary examination of PhD work. She declares no conflict of interest in relation to this manuscript. Financial Interests: Authors have no financial interests or affiliations with any organization or entity that could potentially influence or bias the content of this manuscript. Non-Financial Interests: Authors declare no non-financial interests, including personal relationships, political or religious beliefs, or any other factors that may influence my objectivity or impartiality in the publication of this manuscript., (© 2024 The Authors.)

Mind upload, or the digital copying of an individual brain and mind, could theoretically allow one to "live forever." If such a technology became available, who would be most likely to approve of it or condemn it? Research has shown that fear of death positively predicts the moral approval of hypothetical mind upload technology, while religiosity may have the opposite effect. We build on these findings, drawing also from work on religiosity and existential mattering as predictors of perceived meaning in one's life. In a cross-sectional study ( N  = 1,007), we show that existential mattering and afterlife beliefs are negatively associated with moral approval of mind upload technology: people who believe there is a soul or some form of afterlife and who also report a high level of existential mattering, are least likely to morally approve of mind upload technology. Indeed, mind uploading-if it ever becomes feasible-is a form of technology that would fundamentally redraw the existential boundaries of what it means to be human., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Laakasuo, Sundvall, Francis, Drosinou, Hannikainen, Kunnari and Palomäki.)

Aims: To determine whether dissociative experiences moderate online problem gambling treatment effectiveness, and to characterize the temporal persistence of the relationship between dissociation and problem gambling., Design: Repeatedly measured self-report data on a guided online cognitive behavioral therapy for problem gambling collected on four occasions: before treatment, after treatment, and at 6- and 12-month follow-ups., Setting and Participants: The data (N = 1243, 59.2% males) were collected in Finland between 2019 and 2021., Measurements: The primary outcome variable was the self-reported level of problem gambling. The predictors were the treatment phase and dissociative experiences, their interaction, and the demographic covariates of age, education, income, and gender., Findings: Problem gambling scores and dissociative experiences declined significantly following treatment and remained low through the follow-ups (retention rates: 52.6% [post-treatment], 26.3% [at the 6-month follow-up], and 16.1% [at the 12-month follow-up]). However, the treatment was significantly less effective in reducing problem gambling for individuals who kept experiencing dissociation after the treatment., Conclusions: Dissociation is an integral sign of problem gambling severity and sustained dissociative experiences may significantly reduce the long-term effectiveness of online problem gambling treatments. Treatment efforts should be customized to account for individual differences in dissociative tendencies, and future research should broaden the study of dissociative experiences to other behavioral addictions., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest Sari Castrén works at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, and as a part-time private practitioner clinical psychologist at Addiktum Clinic Helsinki, Finland, treating mainly individuals with addiction problems, and at Mehiläinen Medical Center, Forum Helsinki, where she offers treatments for various psychological issues. She also trains professionals to treat gambling disorder (MI, CBT) as a part of her duty at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare and addictions in general privately. She has received fees from Helsinki University, Oulu University, Tampere City, Vocational School Stadi, and Mehiläinen for her lectures on behavioral addictions and for training professionals, and writer's fees from the Finnish Medical Society Duodecim, The Finnish Medical Association, the Finnish Association of Addiction Medicine, the Finnish Psychological Association, and Myllyhoitoyhdistys ry. She received fees from Svenska Spel (2021, 2022, 2023; Sweden) for evaluating grant proposals and received fees from Tampere University, Finland, for preliminary examination of PhD work, and received fees from Lund University, Sweden, for being the opponent for a PhD thesis. She declares no conflict of interest in relation to this manuscript. No other authors have any declarations of interest., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Herpes simplex virus (HSV) has proven successful in treating human cancer. Since the approval of talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC) in 2015, HSV has been thoroughly researched to discover novel mechanisms to combat cancer and treat other diseases. Another HSV-based drug, beremagene geperpavec (B-VEC), received approval in 2023 to treat the rare genetic disease dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa, and was also the first clinically approved HSV vector carrying an extracellular matrix (ECM)-modifying transgene. The ECM is a network of macromolecules surrounding cells, which provides support and regulates cell growth and differentiation, the disruption of which is common in cancer. The naked mole rat (NMR) has a thick ECM and a unique mutation in the hyaluronan synthase 2 ( HAS2 ) gene, which has been linked to the high cancer resistance of the species. To study the effect of this mutation in human cancer, we have developed an attenuated, replication-competent HSV vector expressing the NMR-HAS2 gene. The viral replication, transgene expression and cytotoxic effect of the novel vector was studied in glioma cells. Our results show that an attenuated, replication-competent HSV vector expressing a foreign ECM-modifying transgene, namely HAS2 , provides an effective tool to study and combat cancer in humans.

Objective and Method: Electronic gambling machines are a prominent cause of significant gambling harms globally. We use simulations of a simplified video poker game to show how changes in game volatility, defined primarily by the size of the main prize, affect patterns of wins and losses as well as winning streaks., Results: We found that in low- and medium volatility games the proportion of winning players quickly drops to zero after about 30 h of play, while in the high volatility game 5% of players are still winning after playing for 100 h. However, the proportion of winning streaks was significantly higher in the low- and medium volatility games compared with high volatility: the simulated players were on a winning streak about 26.3, 25.6 and 18% of the time in the low-, medium- and high volatility games, respectively., Conclusions: Fast-paced video poker with varying volatility levels but identical return-to-player rates and win frequencies can yield highly different result patterns across individuals. These patterns may be counter-intuitive for players and difficult to realize without simulations and visualizations. We argue that the findings have relevance for responsible gambling communication and for building a better understanding of how cognitive biases influence gambling behaviour.

Background: Several psychological symptoms in adolescence associate with later development of psychosis. However, it is unclear which symptoms specifically predict psychotic disorders rather than psychiatric disorders in general. We conducted a prospective study comparing how specific adolescent psychotic-like symptoms, predicted psychotic and non-psychotic hospital-treated psychiatric disorders in the population-based Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1986 (NFBC1986)., Methods: At age 15-16 years, 6632 members of the NFBC1986 completed the PROD-screen questionnaire. New hospital-treated mental disorders of the NFBC1986 participants were detected between age 17 and 30 years from the Finnish Care Register for Health Care. Multiple covariates were used in the analysis., Results: During the follow-up, 1.1% of the participants developed a psychotic and 3.2% a non-psychotic psychiatric disorder. Three symptoms were specifically associated with onset of psychosis compared to non-psychotic psychiatric disorders: 'Difficulty in controlling one's speech, behaviour or facial expression while communicating' (adjusted OR 4.00; 95% CI 1.66-9.92), 'Difficulties in understanding written text or heard speech' (OR 2.25; 1.12-4.51), and 'Difficulty or uncertainty in making contact with other people' (OR 2.20; 1.03-4.67). Of these, the first one remained statistically significant after Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons., Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first general-population-based prospective study exploring psychiatric symptoms predicting the onset of hospital-treated first-episode psychosis in comparison to non-psychotic disorders. We found three symptoms related with difficulties in social interaction which predicted onset of psychosis. This is a novel finding and should be replicated., (© 2022 The Authors. Early Intervention in Psychiatry published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.)

Objective: There are tens of millions of problem gamblers in the world, many of whom either do not seek treatment or fail to commit to it. Dropout rates are high, and not enough is known about factors predicting treatment adherence. We focus on an online cognitive behavioral therapy program for severe problem gambling to determine the likelihood of treatment discontinuation at three different treatment phases: pretreatment, before halfway, and before the end of the program., Method: Participants were Finnish adults ( N = 1,139, 670 males, M age = 34.5) registered in the program between 2019 and 2021. Using logistic regression and five-fold cross-validated naïve Bayes classification, we predicted discontinuation with demographic-, psychometric-, and other gambling-related variables, including the quality of one's social relations, time spent on the waiting list, and experienced readiness to behavioral change., Results: The models had acceptable predictive ability (area under the curve [AUC] values from .69 to .745; cross-validated balanced classification accuracy = 63.2%). In logistic regressions, treatment discontinuation was prominently associated with younger age ( p = .008), lower education ( p < .001), not being ready to change gambling behavior ( p < .001), problem gambling severity ( p < .0001), longer time spent on the treatment waiting list ( p < .0001), and fewer close social relationships ( p < .001)., Conclusions: We found significant new real-world evidence on factors statistically predicting treatment discontinuation, which is crucial when existing programs are modified to better serve those in need. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Flow is a well-known construct describing the experience of deep absorption in a task, typically demanding but intrinsically motivating, and conducted with high skill. Flow is operationalized by self-report, and various instruments have been developed for this, but none have been made available in the Finnish language in thoroughly validated form. We present a psychometric scale-validation study for the Finnish translation of the Flow Short Scale (FSS). We collected data from 201 Finnish speaking participants using the Prolific Academic platform. We assessed the scale's factorial structure using Mokken scale analysis, Parallel Analysis, Very Simple Structures analysis and a standard Confirmatory Factor Analysis. We then evaluated how correlated was the FSS with the Flow State Scale and Flow Core Scale. Finally, we evaluated how well the FSS distinguished Flow-inducing experiences from boring (non-Flow-inducing) experiences. Taken together, our results show that an 8-item, two-factor version of the scale was a justified instrument with good psychometric properties., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

At the beginning of 2020, COVID-19 became a global problem. Despite all the efforts to emphasize the relevance of preventive measures, not everyone adhered to them. Thus, learning more about the characteristics determining attitudinal and behavioral responses to the pandemic is crucial to improving future interventions. In this study, we applied machine learning on the multinational data collected by the International Collaboration on the Social and Moral Psychology of COVID-19 ( N  = 51,404) to test the predictive efficacy of constructs from social, moral, cognitive, and personality psychology, as well as socio-demographic factors, in the attitudinal and behavioral responses to the pandemic. The results point to several valuable insights. Internalized moral identity provided the most consistent predictive contribution-individuals perceiving moral traits as central to their self-concept reported higher adherence to preventive measures. Similar results were found for morality as cooperation, symbolized moral identity, self-control, open-mindedness, and collective narcissism, while the inverse relationship was evident for the endorsement of conspiracy theories. However, we also found a non-neglible variability in the explained variance and predictive contributions with respect to macro-level factors such as the pandemic stage or cultural region. Overall, the results underscore the importance of morality-related and contextual factors in understanding adherence to public health recommendations during the pandemic., (© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of National Academy of Sciences.)

Background and Aims: Online interventions for problem gambling are increasingly popular, but not everyone benefits from them. We describe 12 years of real-world data from an online intervention for gambling problems and aim to find out the extent to which depression, alcohol use, and sense of financial control influence the effectiveness of the program., Methods: We analyzed treatment effectiveness and moderators in the Finnish "Peli Poikki" program (2007-2018)-an 8-week cognitive behavioral therapy and follow-up program for problem gambling. Participants were Finnish-speaking adults over 18 years of age (N = 2011, 66.9% males). We measured the self-reported level of problem gambling, depression, alcohol use, and sense of financial control across four treatment phases (baseline, post-treatment, 6-month follow-up, and 12-month follow-up), as well as the presence of gambling debt, psychological and physiological health, years suffered from gambling problems, and demographic variables., Results: Participation grew across years with retention rates of 55%, 30%, and 19% for post-treatment and the two follow-ups, respectively. The average problem gambling scores declined significantly following treatment and remained low throughout the follow-ups. However, this decline (the beneficial treatment effect) was reversed after the follow-ups for those with high depression scores and those who felt they had no control over their finances., Discussion and Conclusions: The Peli Poikki program is a well-functioning online intervention but less effective in the long term for participants with persisting symptoms of depression or without a sense of financial control. More attention is needed to screen and direct people with comorbidities to the appropriate services.

Changing collective behaviour and supporting non-pharmaceutical interventions is an important component in mitigating virus transmission during a pandemic. In a large international collaboration (Study 1, N = 49,968 across 67 countries), we investigated self-reported factors associated with public health behaviours (e.g., spatial distancing and stricter hygiene) and endorsed public policy interventions (e.g., closing bars and restaurants) during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic (April-May 2020). Respondents who reported identifying more strongly with their nation consistently reported greater engagement in public health behaviours and support for public health policies. Results were similar for representative and non-representative national samples. Study 2 (N = 42 countries) conceptually replicated the central finding using aggregate indices of national identity (obtained using the World Values Survey) and a measure of actual behaviour change during the pandemic (obtained from Google mobility reports). Higher levels of national identification prior to the pandemic predicted lower mobility during the early stage of the pandemic (r = -0.40). We discuss the potential implications of links between national identity, leadership, and public health for managing COVID-19 and future pandemics., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adults is understudied, especially regarding neural mechanisms such as oscillatory control of attention sampling. We report an electroencephalography (EEG) study of such cortical mechanisms, in ADHD-diagnosed adults during administration of Test of Variables of Attention (TOVA), a gold-standard continuous performance test for ADHD that measures the ability to sustain attention and inhibit impulsivity. We recorded 53 adults (28 female, 25 male, aged 18-60), and 18 matched healthy controls, using 128-channel EEG. We analyzed sensor-space features established as neural correlates of attention: timing-sensitivity and phase-synchrony of response activations, and event-related (de)synchronization (ERS/D) of α and θ frequency band activity; in frontal and parietal scalp regions. TOVA test performance significantly distinguished ADHD adults from neurotypical controls, in commission errors, response time variability (RTV) and d' (response sensitivity). The ADHD group showed significantly weaker target-locked and response-locked amplitudes, that were strongly right-lateralized at the N2 wave, and weaker phase synchrony (longer reset poststimulus). They also manifested significantly less parietal prestimulus 8-Hz θ ERS, less frontal and parietal poststimulus 4-Hz θ ERS, and more frontal and parietal prestimulus α ERS during correct trials. These differences may reflect excessive modulation of endogenous activity by strong entrainment to stimulus (α), combined with deficient modulation by neural entrainment to task (θ), which in TOVA involves monitoring stimulus spatial location (not predicted occurrence onset which is regular and task-irrelevant). Building on the hypotheses of θ coding for relational structure and rhythmic attention sampling, our results suggest that ADHD adults have impaired attention sampling in relational categorization tasks., (Copyright © 2022 Cowley et al.)

Introduction: Extraversion and Conscientiousness are well-studied personality traits associated with reward processing and goal prioritization, respectively, and bear on individual differences in financial risk-taking. Using unique large datasets, we investigated the link between these traits and male online gamblers' actual betting participation and intensity., Method: We combined datasets containing online horse betting data (during 2015-2016) from the Finnish monopoly betting company, administrative registry data from Statistics Finland, and personality trait measures from the Finnish Defence Forces corresponding to Extraversion and Conscientiousness as defined in the five-factor model. We modelled associations between these traits and betting participation (n = 471,968) and intensity (n = 11,217) among male horse bettors (age = 36-53)., Results: Controlling for demographics and IQ, individuals scoring high on Conscientiousness (or Extraversion) were less (or more) likely to bet and less (or more) intensive bettors-even when personality was measured 16-34 years before betting occurred. One SD personality score increase represented an annual decrease (Conscientiousness) or increase (Extraversion) of €570-754 in spending., Conclusions: Extraversion and Conscientiousness are implicated in real-life financial behavior with tangible consequences for individuals. These effects are stronger than for many known demographic variables used in gambling studies and persist up to 34 years after personality has been measured., (© 2021 The Authors. Journal of Personality published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Personality describes the average behaviour and responses of individuals across situations; but personality traits are often poor predictors of behaviour in specific situations. This is known as the "personality paradox". We evaluated the interrelations between various trait and state variables in participants' everyday lives. As state measures, we used 1) experience sampling methodology (ESM/EMA) to measure perceived affect, stress, and presence of social company; and 2) heart rate variability and 3) real-time movement (accelerometer data) to indicate physiological stress and physical movement. These data were linked with self-report measures of personality and personality-like traits . Trait variables predicted affect states and multiple associations were found: traits neuroticism and rumination decreased positive affect state and increased negative affect state. Positive affect state, in turn, was the strongest predictor of observed movement. Positive affect was also associated with heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV). Negative affect, in turn, was not associated with neither movement, HR or HRV. The study provides evidence on the influence of personality-like traits and social context to affect states, and, in turn, their influence to movement and stress variables., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (© 2021 The Author(s).)

Previous studies on gambling passion have identified that obsessive passion is related to negative consequences, including gambling pathology, whereas harmonious passion is mostly related to positive outcomes both during and after engagement in gambling activity. In the present study, we focused on poker players (N = 311) and investigated the associations between the two types of gambling passion and subjective well-being, while taking into account acquired poker experience. We found that harmonious passion toward poker was associated with higher levels of well-being, whereas the reverse was true for obsessive passion. Poker experience was positively related to harmonious but not obsessive passion, and moderated the relationship between harmonious passion and quality of life. Our findings contribute to extant literature on passion and further solidify its application in a gambling context. Most importantly, our results underline the relevance of accounting for poker experience when studying gambling among poker players.

Flow is a state of "optimal experience" that arises when skill and task demands match. Flow has been well studied in psychology using a range of self-report and experimental methods; with most research typically focusing on how Flow is elicited by a particular task. Here, we focus on how the experience of Flow changes during task skill development. We present a longitudinal experimental study of learning, wherein participants ( N = 9) play a novel steering-game task designed to elicit Flow by matching skill and demand, and providing clear goals and feedback. Experimental design involves extensive in-depth measurement of behavior, physiology, and Flow self-reports over 2 weeks of 40 game trials in eight sessions. Here we report behavioral results, which are both strikingly similar and strong within each participant. We find that the game induces a near-constant state of elevated Flow. We further find that the variation in Flow across all trials is less affected by overall performance improvement than by deviation of performance from the expected value predicted by a power law model of learning.

A majority of adults in Finland are seropositive carriers of herpes simplex viruses (HSV). Infection occurs at epithelial or mucosal surfaces, after which virions enter innervating nerve endings, eventually establishing lifelong infection in neurons of the sensory or autonomic nervous system. Recent data have highlighted the genetic diversity of HSV-1 strains and demonstrated apparent geographic patterns in strain similarity. Though multiple HSV-1 genomes have been sequenced from Europe to date, there is a lack of sequenced genomes from the Nordic countries. Finland's history includes at least two major waves of human migration, suggesting the potential for diverse viruses to persist in the population. Here, we used HSV-1 clinical isolates from Finland to test the relationship between viral phylogeny, genetic variation, and phenotypic characteristics. We found that Finnish HSV-1 isolates separated into two distinct phylogenetic groups, potentially reflecting historical waves of human (and viral) migration into Finland. Each HSV-1 isolate harbored a distinct set of phenotypes in cell culture, including differences in the amount of virus production, extracellular virus release, and cell-type-specific fitness. Importantly, the phylogenetic clusters were not predictive of any detectable pattern in phenotypic differences, demonstrating that whole-genome relatedness is not a proxy for overall viral phenotype. Instead, we highlight specific gene-level differences that may contribute to observed phenotypic differences, and we note that strains from different phylogenetic groups can contain the same genetic variations. IMPORTANCE Herpes simplex viruses (HSV) infect a majority of adults. Recent data have highlighted the genetic diversity of HSV-1 strains and demonstrated apparent genomic relatedness between strains from the same geographic regions. We used HSV-1 clinical isolates from Finland to test the relationship between viral genomic and geographic relationships, differences in specific genes, and characteristics of viral infection. We found that viral isolates from Finland separated into two distinct groups of genomic and geographic relatedness, potentially reflecting historical patterns of human and viral migration into Finland. These Finnish HSV-1 isolates had distinct infection characteristics in multiple cell types tested, which were specific to each isolate and did not group according to genomic and geographic relatedness. This demonstrates that HSV-1 strain differences in specific characteristics of infection are set by a combination of host cell type and specific viral gene-level differences., (Copyright © 2019 Bowen et al.)

The uncanny valley (UV) effect refers to an eerie feeling of unfamiliarity people get while observing or interacting with robots that resemble humans almost but not quite perfectly. The effect is not well understood, and it is also unclear how well results from previous research on the UV can be replicated. In six studies, both in the laboratory and online (N = 1343), we attempted to replicate the UV effect with various stimuli used in previous research. In Studies 1 and 2 we failed to replicate the UV effect with CGI stimuli created using the so-called morphing technique (a robot image morphed into a human image, resulting in a supposedly creepy robot-human image). In Studies 3a and 3b we found a prominent UV effect using pre-evaluated, non-morphed and photorealistic robot pictures. Finally, in exploratory Studies 4a and 4b we found the UV effect using morphed and photorealistic human and robot pictures. Our results suggest that the UV effect is more robust when elicited by pre-validated or prima facie uncanny robot pictures than by non-photorealistic images generated using the morphing technique. We argue that photorealistic pictures are more suitable than less realistic CGI pictures as stimuli for research attempting to elicit the UV effect - however, our results do not invalidate any previous research on the UV effect using morphing techniques, but point to their domain of applicability and context sensitivity.

Humans have evolved various adaptations against pathogens, including the physiological immune system. However, not all of these adaptations are physiological: the cognitive mechanisms whereby we avoid potential sources of pathogens-for example, disgust elicited by uncleanliness-can be considered as parts of a behavioural immune system (BIS). The mechanisms of BIS extend also to inter-group relations: Pathogen cues have been shown to increase xenophobia/ethnocentrism, as people prefer to keep their societal in-group norms unaltered and "clean." Nonetheless, little is known how pathogen cues influence people's willingness to provide humanitarian aid to out-group members. We examined how pathogen cues affected decisions of providing humanitarian aid in either instrumental (sending money) or non-instrumental form (sending personnel to help, or accepting refugees), and whether these effects were moderated by individual differences in BIS sensitivity. Data were collected in two online studies (Ns: 188 and 210). When the hypothetical humanitarian crisis involved a clear risk of infection, participants with high BIS sensitivity preferred to send money rather than personnel or to accept refugees. The results suggest that pathogen cues influence BIS-sensitive individuals' willingness to provide humanitarian aid when there is a risk of contamination to in-group members., (© 2017 International Union of Psychological Science.)

This is a call for action to scientific journals to introduce reporting requirements for toxicity and ecotoxicity studies. Such reporting requirements will support the use of peer-reviewed research studies in regulatory decision-making. Moreover, this could improve the reliability and reproducibility of published studies in general and make better use of the resources spent in research., (© 2018 The Authors. Journal of Applied Toxicology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Psychological and other persuasive mechanisms across diverse contexts are well researched, with many studies of the effectiveness of specific persuasive techniques on distinct types of human behaviour. In the present paper, our specific interest lies in the development of a generalized modular psychometric tool to measure individuals' susceptibility to persuasion. The scale is constructed using items from previously developed and validated particulate scales established in the domains of social psychology and behavioural economics. In the first study we establish the Susceptibility to Persuasion-II (StP-II) scale, containing 54 items, 10 subscales and further 6 sub-sub scales. In Study 2 we establish the scale's construct validity and reconfirm its reliability. We present a valid and reliable modular psychometric tool that measures general susceptibility to persuasive techniques. Since its inception, we have successfully implemented the StP-II scale to measure susceptibility to persuasion of IT security officers, the role of psychology of persuasion in cybercrime victims and general persuadability levels of Facebook users; these manuscripts are in preparation. We argue that the StP-II scale shows promise in measuring individual differences in susceptibility to persuasion, and is applicable across diverse contexts such as Internet security and cybercrime.

Maternal responsive and directive speech to children at ages 0;10 and 2;0 was investigated by applying a procedure first introduced by Flynn and Masur (2007) to a new language community (Finnish). The issues examined were consistency and stability over time, and also the role of responsiveness and directiveness in child linguistic development at 1;0 and 2;6. The measures of maternal speech from each age were used to predict the results of the subsequent linguistic assessment. Negative correlations between responsive and directive utterances were found at both ages. The frequencies of responsive utterances and supportive directives increased over time. Responsiveness was positively, and intrusive directiveness negatively, related to child early comprehensive skills and the use of symbolic actions and communicative gestures. By contrast, no relations were found between responsiveness and directiveness and children's later linguistic capacities.

Evolutionary psychology suggests that men are more likely than women to deceive to bolster their status and influence. Also gender perception influences deceptive behavior, which is linked to pervasive gender stereotypes: women are typically viewed as weaker and more gullible than men. We assessed bluffing in an online experiment (N = 502), where participants made decisions to bluff or not in simulated poker tasks against opponents represented by avatars. Participants bluffed on average 6% more frequently at poker tables with female-only avatars than at tables with male-only or gender mixed avatars-a highly significant effect in games involving repeated decisions. Nonetheless, participants did not believe the avatar genders affected their decisions. Males bluffed 13% more frequently than females. Unlike most economic games employed exclusively in research contexts, online poker is played for money by tens of millions of people worldwide. Thus, gender effects in bluffing have significant monetary consequences for poker players.

Poker is a social game, where success depends on both game strategic knowledge and emotion regulation abilities. Thus, poker provides a productive environment for studying the effects of emotional and social factors on micro-economic decision making. Previous research indicates that experiencing negative emotions, such as moral anger, reduces mathematical accuracy in poker decision making. Furthermore, various social aspects of the game—such as losing against "bad players" due to "bad luck"—seem to fuel these emotional states. We designed an Internet-based experiment, where participants' (N = 459) mathematical accuracy in five different poker decision making tasks were assessed. In addition, we manipulated the emotional and social conditions under which the tasks were presented, in a 2 × 2 experimental setup: (1) Anger versus neutral emotional state—participants were primed either with an anger-inducing, or emotionally neutral story, and (2) Social cue versus non-social cue—during the tasks, either an image of a pair of human eyes was "following" the mouse cursor, or an image of a black moving box was presented. The results showed that anger reduced mathematical accuracy of decision making only when participants were "being watched" by a pair of moving eyes. Experienced poker players made mathematically more accurate decisions than inexperienced ones. The results contribute to current understanding on how emotional and social factors influence decision making accuracy in economic games.

Certain types of carbon nanotubes (CNT) can evoke inflammation, fibrosis and mesothelioma in vivo, raising concerns about their potential health effects. It has been recently postulated that NLRP3 inflammasome activation is important in the CNT-induced toxicity. However, more comprehensive studies of the protein secretion induced by CNT can provide new information about their possible pathogenic mechanisms. Here, we studied protein secretion from human macrophages with a proteomic approach in an unbiased way. Human monocyte-derived macrophages (MDM) were exposed to tangled or rigid, long multi-walled CNT (MWCNT) or crocidolite asbestos for 6 h. The growth media was concentrated and secreted proteins were analyzed using 2D-DIGE and DeCyder software. Subsequently, significantly up- or down-regulated protein spots were in-gel digested and identified with an LC-MS/MS approach. Bioinformatics analysis was performed to reveal the different patterns of protein secretion induced by these materials. The results show that both long rigid MWCNT and asbestos elicited ample and highly similar protein secretion. In contrast, exposure to long tangled MWCNT induced weaker protein secretion with a more distinct profile. Secretion of lysosomal proteins followed the exposure to all materials, suggesting lysosomal damage. However, only long rigid MWCNT was associated with apoptosis. This analysis suggests that the CNT toxicity in human MDM is mediated via vigorous secretion of inflammation-related proteins and apoptosis. This study provides new insights into the mechanisms of toxicity of high aspect ratio nanomaterials and indicates that not all types of CNT are as hazardous as asbestos fibers.

Online poker and poker subcultures have become exceedingly popular. Previous studies assessing experience and skill in poker have revealed that proficiency in emotion regulation is a consequential factor in explaining financial success in the game. We assessed (N=478) the associations between poker players' (recruited from online poker forums) level of poker experience and HEXACO-PI-R personality traits. The results indicate that a predisposition for emotional stability-that is, lower scores on emotionality-is linked to high levels of poker experience. Thus, in order to become a successful and experienced poker player, it helps to be able to "keep cool" under pressure. Further exploratory analyses suggest that players who prefer live play to online play are more likely to be extroverted and open to experiences. The results contribute to the extant literature on individual differences in personality in poker players, and in particular help to fill the interdisciplinary gap between personality and gambling research.

Nano-sized titanium dioxide (nTiO2) is one of the most produced engineered nanomaterials and therefore carries a high risk for workplace exposure. In several nanosafety studies, exposure to nTiO2 has been shown to trigger inflammation in mice lung and to cause oxidative stress. Here, cytoplasmic proteome changes in human monocyte derived macrophages were investigated with two-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE) and mass spectrometry to evaluate the adverse cellular effects after exposure to different types of TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs). Both studied TiO2 NPs (rutile TiO2 with or without silica coating) evoked similar proteome alterations. The identified proteins were linked to metabolic homeostasis, cytoskeleton remodeling and oxidative stress. The abundances of chloride intracellular channel protein 1 and cathepsin D changed only after exposure to nTiO2 as compared to a coarse particle analog. Enrichment analysis revealed that 70% of the proteins with changed intensities contained known acetylation sites, and it was possible to confirm a significant induction of cytoplasmic protein acetylation after nTiO2 exposure. The course of the events during phagocytosis could account for the observed membrane maintenance, metabolic and cytoskeletal protein expression changes. Lysine acetylation of cytoplasmic proteins in macrophages is emerging as a major cell regulation mechanism after nTiO2 exposure., Biological Significance: While the amount of nanosafety research conducted in recent years has been constantly increasing, proteomics has not yet been utilized widely in this field. In addition, reversible protein post-translational modifications (PTMs) such as acetylation and phosphorylation have not been investigated in-depth in nanomaterial exposed cells. Proteome changes observed in nanomaterial exposed macrophages revealed active phagocytosis of the particles and provided new insights into underlying mechanisms of biological responses to nTiO2 exposures. Moreover, reversible protein acetylation might be a major cellular regulation event occurring in nanomaterial exposed cells., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Metal oxide nanoparticles such as ZnO are used in sunscreens as they improve their optical properties against the UV-light that causes dermal damage and skin cancer. However, the hazardous properties of the particles used as UV-filters in the sunscreens and applied to the skin have remained uncharacterized., Methods: Here we investigated whether different sized ZnO particles would be able to penetrate injured skin and injured allergic skin in the mouse atopic dermatitis model after repeated topical application of ZnO particles. Nano-sized ZnO (nZnO) and bulk-sized ZnO (bZnO) were applied to mechanically damaged mouse skin with or without allergen/superantigen sensitization. Allergen/superantigen sensitization evokes local inflammation and allergy in the skin and is used as a disease model of atopic dermatitis (AD)., Results: Our results demonstrate that only nZnO is able to reach into the deep layers of the allergic skin whereas bZnO stays in the upper layers of both damaged and allergic skin. In addition, both types of particles diminish the local skin inflammation induced in the mouse model of AD; however, nZnO has a higher potential to suppress the local effects. In addition, especially nZnO induces systemic production of IgE antibodies, evidence of allergy promoting adjuvant properties for topically applied nZnO., Conclusions: These results provide new hazard characterization data about the metal oxide nanoparticles commonly used in cosmetic products and provide new insights into the dermal exposure and hazard assessment of these materials in injured skin.

In poker, detrimental decision-making as a result of losing control due to negative emotions is known as tilting. Previous evidence suggests that poker experience is related to better emotion regulation in dealing with poker losses, and possibly to reduced severity of tilting in the game. A correlational on-line study (N = 417) was conducted to operationalize the tilting phenomenon by defining certain experiential characteristics that conceivably protect players from tilting or predispose them to it. These characteristics, as well as a measurement of poker experience, were then used in predicting the severity of tilting. It was hypothesized that (1) players with more poker experience are more likely to perceive having tilted less severely, as a result of accumulating poker experience; (2) players with more poker experience have lower severity of tilting; (3) players with more poker experience report lower emotional sensitivity to losses; and (4) players with a higher emotional sensitivity to losses have higher severity of tilting. Hypotheses 1 and 4 were supported, hypothesis 3 was weakly supported, but contrary to hypothesis 2, poker experience was associated with higher tilting severity. It is argued that these results are sensible if experienced players are less likely to tilt in relative terms, per single hand, but more likely to tilt in the long run.

Inflammasome is an intracellular molecular platform of the innate immunity that is a key mediator of inflammation. The inflammasome complex detects pathogens and different danger signals, and triggers cysteine protease caspase-1-dependent processing of pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1β, and IL-18 in dendritic cells and macrophages. Previously, we have shown that water-damaged building associated trichothecene mycotoxins, including roridin A, trigger IL-1β and IL-18 secretion in human macrophages. However, the molecular basis as well as mechanism behind this trichothecene-induced cytokine secretion has remained uncharacterized. Here, we show that the trichothecene-induced IL-1β secretion is dependent on NLRP3 inflammasome in human primary macrophages. Pharmacological inhibition and small interfering RNA approach showed that the trichothecene-induced NLRP3 inflammasome activation is mediated through ATP-gated P2X7 receptor. Moreover, we show that trichothecene-triggered NLRP3 inflammasome activation is dependent on Src tyrosine kinase activity. In addition, gene silencing of c-Cbl, a negative autophagy-related regulator of c-Src, resulted in enhanced secretion of IL-1β and IL-18 in response to trichothecene mycotoxin stimulation in human macrophages. In conclusion, our results suggest that roridin A, a fungal trichothecene mycotoxin, acts as microbial danger signals that trigger activation of NLRP3 inflammasome through P2X7R and Src tyrosine kinase signaling dependent pathway in human primary macrophages., (Copyright © 2013 American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

On-line poker is a game of chance and skill. The construct of poker playing skill has both a technical (game strategy-related) and an emotional (emotion regulation-related) aspect. A correlational on-line study (N = 354) was conducted to assess differences in technical skills and emotional characteristics related to poker playing style between experienced and inexperienced poker players. Results suggest that, with respect to emotional characteristics, experienced poker players engage in less self-rumination and more self-reflection, as compared to inexperienced players. Experienced poker players are also able to make better decisions, by mathematical standards, in a poker decision-making environment, as assessed by two fictitious on-line poker decision-making scenarios. Furthermore, this study provides supportive evidence that experienced poker players conceptualize the construct of "luck" differently from inexperienced players. A new poker playing experience scale (PES) for accurately measuring poker playing experience is presented in this paper.