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For decades, researchers have emphasized the important role that close relationships play in satisfying people’s fundamental need for belonging. More recently, a growing body of research suggests that talking to strangers may also promote feelings of social connection; yet, people readily forego these opportunities. A popular assumption in the current literature is that people avoid talking to strangers because they underestimate others’ willingness to talk. In this dissertation, I test this causal claim by enabling people to exchange explicit social signals about their willingness to talk. To facilitate recent research examining the impact of contextual factors (e.g., talking to strangers) on momentary feelings of social connection, I start by developing and validating the 10-item UBC State Social Connection Scale (UBC-SSCS). In Study 1, I develop an initial pool of items and confirm my factor structure. In Study 2, I show that the UBC-SSCS is sensitive to a recall manipulation that asks participants to write about an experience in which they spent time alone versus with others, and that the UBC-SSCS is associated with other theoretical constructs in expected ways. In Study 3, I show that the UBC-SSCS is able to distinguish between participants who are alone versus socializing with friends, and that the scale is more sensitive to variations in people’s momentary experiences compared to trait measures of social connection. Next, I test whether allowing people to exchange explicit social signals increases social interactions between strangers. Overall, I find limited evidence for my hypothesis. The ability to send explicit social signals did not significantly promote social interactions between commuters on buses (Study 4), students at a food court (Study 5b), and groups of students at an outdoor field (Study 6). Under ideal conditions, however, explicit social signals can have a marginal impact on sociability—such as getting people to engage in deeper conversations (Study 7). Reflecting on my findings, I propose a broader model that outlines a conjunctive set of conditions that need to be met before a person decides to engage with a stranger.

As marine plastic debris is primarily sourced from terrestrial input, coastal environments are particularly affected by deposition. Because of their pneumatophores, mangroves have been recognized for their importance in confining plastic waste. Crabs are a dominant component of the mangrove ecosystem and play a critical role in maintaining healthy and resilient mangrove forests. Therefore, the presence of debris fragmented from waste, in their habitat is a potential threat. However, the potential ingestion of microplastic pieces by mangrove crabs has not yet been investigated. Here, we quantified microparticles found in the cardiac stomachs and gill chambers of four species of crabs. All specimens collected had anthropogenic microparticles present either via their digestive or respiratory systems. We observed significant variability in the abundance and types of anthropogenic microparticles across sites and species. Interspecific differences appear to be explained by their particular feeding habits, with less selective species ingesting more particles.

Can we encourage people to prepare for a natural disaster by changing the way that scientific information about risk is presented? In assessing the risk posed by a particular hazard, people tend to be guided more strongly by their emotional reactions than by logical or statistical analysis; human beings are driven to protect themselves from risks that that they have actually experienced, that are easy to envision, or that are linked to vivid, concrete images. Thus, even if people recognize that earthquakes pose an important threat, they may be unmotivated to take action to prepare for this abstract risk in the absence of direct personal experience. Harnessing past research and theorizing, we developed a novel intervention to transform scientific information into vivid, emotionally evocative imagery. In a pre-registered study, 411 participants were shown publicly available statistics or a vivid, scientifically-grounded image of what a local school would look like after a major earthquake. Compared to those who viewed statistics, participants who viewed the image were more likely to sign a petition to upgrade schools to make them safer during earthquakes. These findings suggest that using vivid images to communicate scientific information can be an effective strategy for motivating people to support risk mitigation initiatives.

PURPOSE: Our working hypothesis is that single bioactive phytochemicals with antioxidant properties that are important constituents of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and their defined mixtures have potential as chemoprotective agents for chronic conditions characterized by oxidative and nitrosative stress, including Alzheimer’s. Here we evaluate the ability of baicalein, crocetin, trans -resveratrol or schisanhenol and two defined mixtures of these TCM phytochemicals to attenuate the toxicity resulting from exposure to cell permeant t -butyl hydroperoxide (tBPH) in wild-type and bioengineered (to express choline acetyltransferase) HEK 293 cells. METHODS: Endpoints of tBHP-initiated oxidative and nitrosative stress in both types of HEK 293 cells and its attenuation by TCM constituents and mixtures included cytotoxicity (LDH release); depletion of intracellular glutathione (GSH); formation of S-glutathionylated proteins; oxidative changes to the disulfide proteome; and real-time changes in intracellular redox status. RESULTS: At low µM concentrations, each of the TCM constituents and mixtures effectively attenuated intracellular toxicity due to exposure of HEK 293 cells to 50 or 250 µM tBHP for 30 min to 3 h. Confocal microscopy of HEK 293 cells transfected with mutated green fluorescent protein (roGFP2) showed effective attenuation of tBHP oxidation by baicalein in real time. Three redox-regulated proteins prominent in the disulfide proteome of HEK 293 cells were identified by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that single TCM chemicals and their simple mixtures have potential for use in adjunct chemoprotective therapy. Advantages of mixtures compared to single TCM constituents include the ability to combine compounds with varying molecular mechanisms of cytoprotection for enhanced biological activity; and to combine chemicals with complementary pharmacokinetic properties to increase half-life and prolong activity in vivo . This article is open to POST-PUBLICATION REVIEW . Registered readers (see “For Readers”) may comment by clicking on ABSTRACT on the issue’s contents page.