Do attitudes toward societal structure predict beliefs about free will and achievement? Evidence from the Indian caste system.

Intuitive theories about the malleability of intellectual ability affect our motivation and achievement in life. But how are such theories shaped by the culture in which an individual is raised? We addressed this question by exploring how Indian children's and adults' attitudes toward the Hindu caste system--and its deterministic worldview--are related to differences in their intuitive theories. Strikingly, we found that, beginning at least in middle school and continuing into adulthood, individuals who placed more importance on caste were more likely to adopt deterministic intuitive theories. We also found a developmental change in the scope of this relationship, such that in children, caste attitudes were linked only to abstract beliefs about personal freedom, but that by adulthood, caste attitudes were also linked to beliefs about the potential achievement of members of different castes, personal intellectual ability, and personality attributes. These results are the first to directly relate the societal structure in which a person is raised to the specific intuitive theories they adopt.

Novel pyrrolidine heterocycles as CCR1 antagonists.

A novel series of pyrrolidine heterocycles was prepared and found to show potent inhibitory activity of CCR1 binding and CCL3 mediated chemotaxis of a CCR1-expressing cell line. A potent, optimized triazole lead from this series was found to have acceptable pharmacokinetics and microsomal stability in rat and is suitable for further optimization and development.

Peer attitudes towards adolescent participants in male- and female-oriented sports.

This study examined gender stereotypes in peer ratings of femininity and masculinity for adolescent participants in three sports. Following a preliminary study of gender stereotyping of several sports, high school students rated unfamiliar cohorts each of whom was described in a single paragraph as either a male or female dedicated participant in one of three sports. A total of 12 different descriptive paragraphs were used in a 2 (race) x 2 (sex) x 3 (sport) design. Each of these paragraphs, although short, ascribed a variety of traits that could be seen by raters as the independent variables: name (initials only), age, race, gender, hours of practice per week, number of competitions/performances per year, sport, and self-confidence. For this reason, raters were highly unlikely to surmise that sex and sport were the primary independent variables in the study. As predicted, there was a consistent decrease in rated femininity and increase in masculinity for both male and female adolescent targets as they switched from participating in a "feminine" (ballet) to a neutral (tennis) to a "masculine" (karate) sport. These results suggest that sex stereotypes for certain sports may influence who elects to participate and how participants are viewed by others.

Young children's beliefs about self-disclosure of performance failure and success.

Self-disclosure of performance information involves the balancing of instrumental, learning benefits (e.g., obtaining help) against social costs (e.g., diminished reputation). Little is known about young children's beliefs about performance self-disclosure. The present research investigates preschool- and early school-age children's expectations of self-disclosure in different contexts. In two experiments, 3- to 7-year-old children (total N = 252) heard vignettes about characters who succeeded or failed at solving a puzzle. Both experiments showed that children across all ages reasoned that people are more likely to self-disclose positive than negative performances, and Experiment 2 showed that children across all ages reasoned that people are more likely to self-disclose both positive and negative performances in a supportive than an unsupportive peer environment. Additionally, both experiments revealed changes with age - Younger children were less likely to expect people to withhold their performance information (of both failures and successes) than older children. These findings point to the preschool ages as a crucial beginning to children's developing recognition of people's reluctance to share performance information.

Novel pyrrolidine ureas as C-C chemokine receptor 1 (CCR1) antagonists.

Monocyte infiltration is implicated in a variety of diseases including multiple myeloma, rheumatoid arthritis, and multiple sclerosis. C-C chemokine receptor 1 (CCR1) is a chemokine receptor that upon stimulation, particularly by macrophage inflammatory protein 1alpha (MIP-1alpha) and regulated on normal T-cell expressed and secreted (RANTES), mediates monocyte trafficking to sites of inflammation. High throughput screening of our combinatorial collection identified a novel, moderately potent CCR1 antagonist 3. The library hit 3 was optimized to the advanced lead compound 4. Compound 4 inhibited CCR1 mediated chemotaxis of monocytes with an IC(50) of 20 nM. In addition, the compound was highly selective over other chemokine receptors. It had good microsomal stability when incubated with rat and human liver microsomes and showed no significant cytochrome P450 (CYP) inhibition. Pharmacokinetic evaluation of the compound in the rat showed good oral bioavailability.