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Risk-estimation models for urban areas generally fail to consider the psychological factors that affect human response to risk. The present contribution aims to integrate key psychological factors in models assessing the potential economic consequences of flood-related events. Specifically, the work focused on the resilient near-miss effect, the human tendency to underestimate the risks when a previous negative outcome is avoided by chance. Study 1 (N = 241) investigated the resilient near-miss effect among residents of both flood-prone and safe areas, showing that participants exposed to near-miss scenarios perceived a lower level of risk and damages regardless of their past experience with the hazard and were thus less prone to adopt protective measures. Based on the data collected in Study 1, Study 2 developed a series of agent-based models to simulate the effect of experiencing near-miss events on a neighborhood in a flood-prone area, where inhabitants have to decide whether to purchase insurance against flood-related damage. The agent-based models integrating the psychological parameters revealed that the underestimation of the likelihood of flooding due to the near-miss effect is likely to increase the negative economic consequences of natural disasters suffered by the population. Integration of psychological variables might be a promising way to increase the accuracy of risk estimation models, especially when relying on data collected from the population of interest.

Behavioral reactions to natural hazards, including floods, and mitigation intentions are strongly predicted by risk perception. Among the different psychological processes forging individuals’ risk-estimation, the present work focuses on the near-miss effect, the human tendency to underestimate the risks when a previous negative outcome is avoided by chance. Study 1 (N = 241) investigates the near-miss effect among residents of both flood-prone and safe areas, showing that participants exposed to near-miss scenarios perceive a lower level of risk and damages regardless of their past experience with the hazard, and thus are less prone to adopt protective measures. Based on the data collected in Study 1, Study 2 develops a series of agent-based models to simulate the effect of experiencing near-miss events on a neighborhood in a flood-prone area, where inhabitants have to decide whether to purchase insurance against flood-related damage. The agent-based models integrating the psychological parameters reveals that the underestimation of the likelihood of flooding due to the near-miss effect is likely to increase the negative economic consequences of disasters suffered by the population. The work shows, at a population level, how psychological factors and human responses to risk might tailor the economic consequences of flood-related events. Implications for risk management and communication are discussed.

To date, despite the great debate regarding the best seating arrangement for learning in classrooms, no empirical studies have examined the direct effects of different seating arrangements on children’s cognitive processes. This is particularly important nowadays that the COVID-19 measures include maintaining distance in the classroom. Aim of this study was experimentally investigating the effect of changing the seating arrangement (clusters vs. single desks), on logical reasoning, creativity and theory of mind, in children attending primary school. Furthermore, some individual characteristics (e.g., gender, loneliness, popularity) were analysed as potential moderators. Results on 77 participants showed that, when children were seated in single desks, their score in logical reasoning was globally higher. Furthermore, when seated in single desks, girls showed a better performance in the theory of mind, and lonelier children performed better in theory of mind and creativity. This on field experimental study suggests the importance of considering both the nature of the task and children’s individual characteristics when deciding on a seating arrangement in the classroom.

Sociologists and geographers argue about the existence of two ideal separate spheres, private and public, and their association with gender identity, i.e., public spaces are socially perceived as belonging to masculinity and private spaces to femininity. However, the stereotypical association between public space and gender – as well as its social consequences – has never been examined empirically. To fill this gap, an experimental study was carried out to investigate how “masculinity-public space” association is likely to moderate the perception of pro- and anti-environmental behaviors (PEBs and AEBs). It was hypothesized that, for high level of “masculinity-public space” association, men showing PEBs (AEBs) in public spaces will be less admired (more condemned) than women, whereas men showing PEBs (AEBs) in private spaces will be more admired (less condemned) than women. To test this hypothesis, participants were presented with a series of actions (PEBS and AEBS) performed by women or men in urban public, outdoor places (streets) or in private, indoor places (home). The strength of “masculinity-public space” association was assessed both implicitly (single category IAT) and explicitly. Implications of the role of gender stereotypes on environmental behavior are discussed.

In this paper, we deal with the possibility of simulating dynamic polarization and proximity depolarization processes in a software multi-agent community, modeling homophily and trust relationships usually present in human processes. Group polarization involves various disciplines, such as economics, social psychology, political science, sociology and many others, and it can be considered a critical process underlying relevant behaviors as, for instance, voting and conflictual intergroup relations in the society. Moreover, being a human social phenomenon, the polarization processes are subject to change over time or also effect overturning (i.e., depolarization). Our contribution consists of proposing a compactness-based model for equipping agents in order to simulate the complexity of such processes. We have simulated two case studies where polarization is ruled by compactness measures, combining similarity and trust with different percentages. We evaluated the results provided by compactness measures in order to verify the role of similarity and trust in the agent polarization processes.

The psychological perception of structural measures developed to respond to hydrogeological hazards is pivotal in determining their efficacy. In this regard, alongside the vast psychological literature on mitigation behaviors, there is a lack of research on psychological constraints related to adaptation infrastructures. To fill this gap, we investigated the role of attitudes toward such measures and their antecedents on risk perception. Based on the Solution Aversion Model, Study 1 (n = 194) showed that the more participants oppose the adaptation measures, the less they perceive the risk of flooding. Extending Study 1, Study 2 (n = 95) provided evidence that distrust in science predicts people's dislike and aversion toward adaptive measures, which in turn predicts the perception of hydrogeological risk. Finally, Study 3 (n = 250) revealed that for participants with a lower level of prior knowledge about adaptation measures, the lack of trust in science predicts more negative attitudes toward adaptation, which is associated with lower risk perception.

Future self-perceptions seem to promote far-sighted decisions in intertemporal choices. Previous work suggested that future self-relatedness, the extent to which we feel similar and connected to our future self, is associated with moral concerns. We aimed to extend these findings to everyday moral judgments and behavior using experience sampling methods. In addition, we assessed how moral foundation concerns mediate the relationship between future self-relatedness and moral behavior. Participants (N = 151) reported their state-levels of future self-relatedness, individualizing, and binding moral foundations and answered whether they performed a moral action five times a day for seven days. Within- and between-participants future self-relatedness predicted daily fluctuations in individualizing and binding moral foundations concerns. On the behavioral level, only within-participants future self-relatedness predicted individualizing moral actions with individualizing moral foundations mediating this effect. Our findings suggest that within- and between-person changes in future self-relatedness might be used to predict everyday moral concerns and behavior.

The study investigates the mechanisms underlying the flag-priming effect on ideological positioning and voting behavior. The experiment, conducted in the context of the Italian elections, found that subliminal flag priming led to self-stereotyping, with participants assuming traits associated with the stereotype of the typical Italian citizen. Such self-stereotyping processes, in turn, mediated the effect of the priming on voting and ideological positioning. Specifically, the priming was responsible for a move toward ideological positions closer to the national prototype (which is centrist), both in terms of voting behavior and ideological positioning. Moreover, the effect proved to be moderated by the centrality of political identity for the individual. This finding helps elucidate previous results and holds practical implications for political communication.

Research on Human-Technology Interactions revealed that, under certain conditions, people instinctively interact with social robots in ways comparable to Human-Human Interactions. Indeed, people apply social perception schemas and attribute a mind to social robots, especially when they present anthropomorphic characteristics. Furthermore, under certain conditions, anthropomorphic social robots are awarded with moral consideration and participate to moral dyads. Thus, anthropomorphism facilitates social robots integration in people's lives. However, what is still unknown is whether adopting social schemas with social robots, in turn, affects how individuals perceive and interact with other people. To fill this gap, we experimentally investigated whether the type of mind attributed to anthropomorphic social robot, then, complementary influences the empathy towards a person in trouble. Participants (n = 269) interacted (vs. did not interact) through a chatbot with a highly (vs. lowly) anthropomorphic social robot, evaluated it on mind dimensions and, finally, expressed their empathy towards a person. Results demonstrated that anthropomorphism fosters the attribution of agency (anthropomorphic appearance and interaction through chatbot) and experience (anthropomorphic appearance only), which, in turn, significantly, but in opposite directions, affected empathy towards the social target. Im-plications and future research directions are outlined.

Astrocytes are essential players in development and functions, being particularly relevant as regulators of brain energy metabolism, ionic homeostasis and synaptic transmission. They are also the major source of l-serine in the brain, which is synthesized from the glycolytic intermediate 3-phosphoglycerate through the phosphorylated pathway. l-Serine is the precursor of the two main co-agonists of the N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor, glycine and d-serine. Strikingly, dysfunctions in both l- and d-serine metabolism are associated with neurological and psychiatric disorders. Here, we exploited a differentiation protocol, based on the generation of human mature astrocytes from neural stem cells, and investigated the modification of the proteomic and metabolomic profile during the differentiation process. We show that differentiated astrocytes are more similar to mature rather than to reactive ones, and that axogenesis and pyrimidine metabolism increase up to 30 days along with the folate cycle and sphingolipid metabolism. Consistent with the proliferation and cellular maturation processes that are taking place, also the intracellular levels of l-serine, glycine, threonine, l- and d-aspartate (which level is unexpectedly higher than that of d-serine) show the same biosynthetic time course. A significant utilization of l-serine from the medium is apparent while glycine is first consumed and then released with a peak at 30 days, parallel to its intracellular level. These results underline how metabolism changes during astrocyte differentiation, highlight that d-serine synthesis is restricted in differentiated astrocytes and provide a valuable model for developing potential novel therapeutic approaches to address brain diseases, especially the ones related to serine metabolism alterations.

Although the role of morality in social life has been at the center of the psychological investigation from the discipline origins, the importance of moral character in shaping group perception has received less attention. This chapter reviews recent research showing the dominant role of moral contents in group evaluation. Thus, moral traits are more relevant than non- moral traits (i.e., sociability and competence) when people gather information and form global impressions of ingroup and outgroup targets. Such a primacy relates to the link between morality and the perception of threat. Indeed, moral information is key to establishing whether the group members have beneficial or harmful intentions and whether they pose a threat to the individual and the group's life. The chapter also reviews work showing that morality is key in shaping the group self- concept and self- enchantment. We conclude by outlining a trajectory for future research. • Morality drives the impressions that we form and the evaluations that we make of group members. • Morality is the most important quality for feeling good about one's ingroup. • Given that morality is a central part of the self- concept and ingroup image, people are very sensitive to moral threats and reproach. • Morality is key in group perception because it establishes whether ingroup and outgroup members are beneficial or harmful.

Compound climate-related events are a complex combination of climate drivers and hazards leading to a significant impact on natural and anthropic systems. Owing to their complexity and critical consequences, interdisciplinary undertaking is required to improve risk analysis, management, and communication. Although prior research in cognitive sciences extensively investigated risk perception in case of a single hazard, the analysis of compound hazards perception is still an open issue. Here, based on cognitive psychology insights, we empirically investigate how individuals' risk perception is shaped by the subjective relevance attributed to different causal cues entailed in a compound event scenario. The results revealed that the subjective validity assigned to specific evidence presented in the composite scenario leads perceived risk related to one of the outcomes (i.e., flooding and wildfire) to prevail over the other. Moreover, the relevance of different cues is likely to affect participants’ automatic behavioral intentions (stay at home vs. evacuation).

Whistleblowing is the action by which members of an organization report misconduct that occurs within their group to other persons inside or outside the organization. In the present research, we examined perception of whistleblowers in terms of global impressions, emotions, and behavioural intentions. Study 1 reveals negative reactions to whistleblowers, while Study 2 shows positive reactions to whistleblowers. To reconcile these findings, Study 3 varies the self-relevance of the context and reveals that whistleblowers are derogated when the context is highly self-relevant (as in Study 1) and positively evaluated when it is not (as in Study 2). Across the studies, we also show that emotions and the subjective importance of loyalty and fairness influence the evaluation of whistleblowers. Our findings help unveiling the conditions in which whistleblowers are alternatively regarded as heroes or traitors, depending on the perceivers’ point of view.

Research literature about the environmental spillover effect produced mixed results, revealing that an initial pro-environmental behavior (PEB) is likely to promote either other PEBs (i.e., positive spillover) or pro-environmental inactions and harming behaviors (i.e., negative spillover). Such inconsistency suggests a possible crucial role of moderating variables. In two experimental studies (N Study 1 = 141, N Study 2 = 124), we investigated whether the recall of past environmental behavior (water-saving vs. water-wasting) affects future intention to perform PEBs (Study 1) and actual PEBs (Study 2), depending on participants’ cognitive mindset (manipulated in Study 1 and measured in Study 2). Results showed that the cognitive mindset is a significant moderator of spillover effects. Compared to a holistic one, an analytical mindset is more likely to result in a greater willingness to engage in future PEBs (Study 1) and actual PEB (Study 2) when past PEB is salient. The main contributions of the studies, limitations and possible future research directions are discussed.

There is a broad consensus over the notion that the risk perception of natural hazards influences people’s behaviors. However, individual differences can also affect risk perception. The present work focused on the link between an individual cognitive mindset (i.e., level of holism) and flood-risk perception. It also assessed the consequences of such a link on public and personal mitigation intentions, taking into account the sense of connection with the environment, the psychological distance from the adverse event, and the role played by previous personal experience with flooding. Our study (N = 119) showed that the individual cognitive style predicted risk perceptions and personal (for both experienced and no-experience groups) and public (only for experienced group) mitigation intentions, through the mediation of the sense of connection with the environment and the psychological distance from the adverse event. Results are discussed in terms of their practical implications for public communication and policies about environmental hazards.

This systematic review focused on the effect of the educational environment design on students’ and teachers’ performance, satisfaction, and wellbeing. Starting from a bulk of 1307 articles, a set of N = 68 empirical papers was selected and organized on the basis of four different content clusters, i.e., architectural building design and aesthetic features, indoor environmental features, classroom design, and school green spaces/outdoor spaces. From the analysis of research findings, the key role of pleasant, warm, and flexible learning environments emerged, for promoting both wellbeing and performance of users. More specifically, the presence of charming colors and pictures, ergonomic furniture, and adequate acoustic, thermal comfort, ventilation, and natural lighting have emerged as important features that school designers should care for. Furthermore, an integration of both indoor and outdoor learning situations showed to be effective for improving students’ learning and wellbeing.

Climate change has been linked with an increase in flood hazard in many regions; thus, models estimating risk for urban areas will become increasingly important. However, these models generally disregard psychological variables likely to affect human responses to risk, exposure and vulnerability. The present contribution aimed to (i) explore how some cognitive processes affect lay people flood risk perception and mitigation behavior; (ii) integrate such psychological parameters in models assessing the potential consequences of the flood events. More specifically, the work focused on the near-miss effect that is the human tendency to underestimate present and future risks when a previous negative outcome is avoided by chance. In Study 1 (N = 225), the near-miss event was experimentally manipulated through a fictitious scenario; then, risk perception and behavioral intentions were assessed among inhabitants of both flood-prone and low flood risk areas. In Study 2, a series of agent-based models simulating a neighborhood in a flood-prone area was implemented, in which artificial households had to decide whether to purchase insurance against flood-related damage. The agents’ decision-making process was driven by parameters estimated in the prior experiment. The results showed that, if compared to the control condition, participants in near-miss condition perceived a lower level of risk and, consequently, were less prone to adopt protective measures. Moreover, the agent-based models integrating the psychological variables showed that such an underestimation of the flooding likelihood is likely to increase the expected damages caused by the natural disaster. Overall, our work suggests that psychologically-refined models might serve as a solid basis for investigating the influence of subjective risk on objective risk. Such models could become increasingly useful in the future to support flood risk analysis and to inform households, insurers, policy-makers.

Healthy aging is an ambitious aspiration for humans, but neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), strongly affect quality of life. Using an integrated omics approach, we investigate alterations in the molecular composition of postmortem hippocampus samples of healthy persons and individuals with AD. Profound differences are apparent between control and AD male and female cohorts in terms of up- and downregulated metabolic pathways. A decrease in the insulin response is evident in AD when comparing the female with the male group. The serine metabolism (linked to the glycolytic pathway and generating the N-methyl-D-aspartate [NMDA] receptor coagonist D-serine) is also significantly modulated: the D-Ser/total serine ratio represents a way to counteract age-related cognitive decline in healthy men and during AD onset in women. These results show how AD changes and, in certain respects, almost reverses sex-specific proteomic and metabolomic profiles, highlighting how different pathophysiological mechanisms are active in men and women.

A growing body of work has highlighted the importance of political beliefs and attitudes in predicting endorsement and engagement in prosocial behavior. Individuals with right-wing political orientation are less likely to behave prosocially than their left-wing counterparts due to high levels of Right-wing authoritarianism (RWA). Here, we aimed to extend prior work by studying how these political values relate to COVID-19 discretionary behaviors (i.e., prosocial and non-mandatory behaviors related to the control of the pandemic spread). Furthermore, we tested whether identification with the national group would influence the relationship between Right-wing authoritarianism and prosocial behavior. A cross-sectional study conducted on 350 Italian participants showed that right-wing political orientation had a negative effect on COVID-19 discretionary behaviors via Right-wing authoritarianism. Furthermore, a moderated mediation model revealed that this effect was only significant for participants who are lowly identified with the national group. The results suggest that highlighting group belongingness might effectively motivate more conservative individuals to engage in prosocial behavior.

Social attention is the ability to share with social partners the attentional focus on an object and to orient attentional resources after observing others’ behaviors. In the present work, we analyzed whether social threat may influence social attention during the observation of social agents’ reach-to-grasp movements. In two experimental studies, we adopted a Posner-like paradigm: participants were required to classify neutral stimuli appearing in a congruent or incongruent position with the actor’s movement. Membership (ingroup vs. outgroup) and contextual cues (neutral vs. threatening objects) were manipulated. The results showed a robust action-cueing effect: responses to stimuli in a congruent position with the actor’s action were faster than responses to incongruent stimuli. Interestingly, we found a stronger effect for the threatening outgroup (i.e., Iraqi) than for the ingroup (i.e., Italian), especially in presence of menacing objects. No effects were found when observing the non-threatening outgroup (i.e., Japanese).

The Moral Primacy Model proposes that throughout the multiple stages of developing impressions of others, information about the target's morality is more influential than information about their competence or sociability. Would morality continue to exert outsized influence on impressions in the context of a decision for which people view competence as the most important attribute? In three experiments, we used an impression updating paradigm to test how much information about a target's morality versus competence changed perceivers' impressions of a job candidate. Despite several pilot studies in which people said they would prioritize competence over morality when deciding to hire a potential employee, results of the main studies reveal that impressions changed more when people received new information about a target's immorality than about his incompetence. This moral primacy effect held both for global impressions and willingness to hire the target, but direct effects on evaluations of the target as an employee did not consistently emerge. When the new information about the target was positive, we did not reliably observe a moral primacy effect. These findings provide important insight on the generalizability of moral primacy in impression updating.

The worldwide spread of a new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) since December 2019 has posed a severe threat to individuals well-being. While the world at large is waiting that the released vaccines immunize most citizens, public health experts suggest that, in the meantime, it is only through behavior change that the spread of COVID-19 can be controlled. Importantly, the required behaviors are aimed not only at safeguarding one s own health. Instead, individuals are asked to adapt their behaviors to protect the community at large. This raises the question of which social concerns and moral principles make people willing to do so. We considered in 23 countries (N = 6948) individuals willingness to engage in prescribed and discretionary behaviors, as well as country-level and individual-level factors that might drive such behavioral intentions. Results from multilevel multiple regressions, with country as the nesting variable, showed that publicized number of infections were not significantly related to individual intentions to comply with the prescribed measures and intentions to engage in discretionary prosocial behaviors. Instead, psychological differences in terms of trust in government, citizens, and in particular toward science predicted individuals behavioral intentions across countries. The more people endorsed moral principles of fairness and care (vs. loyalty and authority), the more they were inclined to report trust in science, which, in turn, statistically predicted prescribed and discretionary behavioral intentions. Results have implications for the type of intervention and public communication strategies that should be most effective to induce the behavioral changes that are needed to control the COVID-19 outbreak.

Objective: Microaggressions, a concept originally introduced for ethnic minorities, represent subtle day-to-day discrimination, damaging the psychological health and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals as well. This study aimed to assess whether microaggressions occur in psychotherapists’ assessments of clients who identify as either lesbian or transgender woman when compared with those identifying as heterosexual woman. Methods: The study included a sample of 135 licensed psychotherapists (110 cisgender women and 25 cisgender men). Participants were presented with an audio file of a woman introducing herself during her first therapy session. Three versions were presented: a transgender, a lesbian, and a heterosexual client. Participants were asked to assess the clinical relevance of 10 questions defined as neutral (N = 5) and microaggressive (N = 5), used to determine a clinical impression of the client. A repeated measure analysis of variance was conducted to understand the likelihood of clients of different gender identity and sexual orientation receiving microaggressions. Results: Participants were more prone to consider microaggressive questions relevant where the client identified as either lesbian or transgender. Conclusions: The findings highlighted a bias against lesbian and trans women in evaluating the relevance and usefulness of clinical information while making a psychological assessment of a case.

To achieve ambitious 21st-century goals and deal with high-level complexity, a bio-based economy is required to cross the boundaries of a single sector and integrate tools, language and knowledge drawn from different disciplines and sub-disciplines. The present contribution highlights how life scientists, social scientists, policymakers and industrial stakeholders should work together to make this technological reversal real and feasible. Importantly, going beyond theoretical and methodological integration, the paper underlines the necessity of developing a new and more flexible educational framework that might facilitate interdisciplinary combination. Specifically, the experience of the summer school "Towards a bio-based economy: science, innovation, economics, education" organized by the University of Milano Bicocca in collaboration with Chalmers University is described. The results reveal the need for high-level education programs likely to promote and guide society towards bio-based innovation.