Lactation support in neonatal intensive care units in Germany from the mothers' perspective - a mixed-method study of the current status and needs.

BACKGROUND: Establishing successful lactation in mothers of very low birth weight (VLBW, <1500g) infants requires structured lactation support. Little is known about mothers' perspectives on lactation support in German neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). METHODS: This paper features a convergent mixed-method approach that includes a retrospective, cross-sectional questionnaire and interview data to showcase mothers' perceptions of lactation support in NICUs. Content analysis of the interviews (n = 12) and a descriptive analysis of quantitative data (n = 533) were performed to illustrate the current status and need for lactation support in German NICUs. RESULTS: The results show that lactation support in German NICUs is often inadequate and does not comply with recommendations based on the existing literature to encourage pumping and breastfeeding in mothers. The data imply that even if lactation is successfully initiated in most cases, it is often not maintained over time, which may be due to a lack of personal support and consistent information. CONCLUSION: The overall structures and institutional guidelines for lactation support should be encouraged to promote nutrition with mother´s own milk in German NICUs.

Diversity Training With Robots: Perspective-Taking Backfires, While Sterotype-Suppression Decreases Negative Attitudes Towards Robots.

The present research investigated the effects of a diversity training intervention on robot-related attitudes to test whether this could help to manage the diversity inherent in hybrid human-robot teams in the work context. Previous research in the human-human context has shown that stereotypes and prejudice, i.e., negative attitudes, may impair productivity and job satisfaction in teams high in diversity (e.g., regarding age, gender, or ethnicity). Relatedly, in hybrid human-robot teams, robots likely represent an "outgroup" to their human co-workers. The latter may have stereotypes towards robots and may hold negative attitudes towards them. Both aspects might have detrimental effects on subjective and objective performance in human-robot interactions (HRI). In an experiment, we tested the effect of an economic and easy to apply diversity training intervention for use in the work context: The so-called enlightenment approach. This approach utilizes perspective-taking to reduce prejudice and discrimination in human-human contexts. We adapted this intervention to the HRI context and explored its impact on participants' implicit and explicit robot-related attitudes. However, contrary to our predictions, taking the perspective of a robot resulted in more negative robot-related attitudes, whereas actively suppressing stereotypes about social robots and their characteristics produced positive effects on robot attitudes. Therefore, we recommend considering potential pre-existing aversions against taking the perspective of a robot when designing interventions to improve human-robot collaboration at the workplace. Instead, it might be useful to provide information about existing stereotypes and their consequences, thereby making people aware of their potential biases against social robots.

Robocalypse? Yes, Please! The Role of Robot Autonomy in the Development of Ambivalent Attitudes Towards Robots.

Attitudes towards robots are not always unequivocally positive or negative: when attitudes encompass both strong positive and strong negative evaluations about an attitude object, people experience an unpleasant state of evaluative conflict, called ambivalence. To shed light on ambivalence towards robots, we conducted a mixed-methods experiment with N = 163 German university students that investigated the influence of robot autonomy on robot-related attitudes. With technological progress, robots become increasingly autonomous. We hypothesized that high levels of robot autonomy would increase both positive and negative robot-related evaluations, resulting in more attitudinal ambivalence. We experimentally manipulated robot autonomy through text vignettes and assessed objective ambivalence (i.e., the amount of reported conflicting thoughts and feelings) and subjective ambivalence (i.e., self-reported experienced conflict) towards the robot 'VIVA' using qualitative and quantitative measures. Autonomy did not impact objective ambivalence. However, subjective ambivalence was higher towards the robot high versus low in autonomy. Interestingly, this effect turned non-significant when controlling for individual differences in technology commitment. Qualitative results were categorized by two independent raters into assets (e.g., assistance, companionship) and risks (e.g., privacy/data security, social isolation). Taken together, the present research demonstrated that attitudes towards robots are indeed ambivalent and that this ambivalence might influence behavioral intentions towards robots. Moreover, the findings highlight the important role of technology commitment. Finally, qualitative results shed light on potential users' concerns and aspirations. This way, these data provide useful insights into factors that facilitate human-robot research.

Let's not be indifferent about robots: Neutral ratings on bipolar measures mask ambivalence in attitudes towards robots.

Ambivalence, the simultaneous experience of both positive and negative feelings about one and the same attitude object, has been investigated within psychological attitude research for decades. Ambivalence is interpreted as an attitudinal conflict with distinct affective, behavioral, and cognitive consequences. In social psychological research, it has been shown that ambivalence is sometimes confused with neutrality due to the use of measures that cannot distinguish between neutrality and ambivalence. Likewise, in social robotics research the attitudes of users are often characterized as neutral. We assume that this is due to the fact that existing research regarding attitudes towards robots lacks the opportunity to measure ambivalence. In the current experiment (N = 45), we show that a neutral and a robot stimulus were evaluated equivalently when using a bipolar item, but evaluations differed greatly regarding self-reported ambivalence and arousal. This points to attitudes towards robots being in fact highly ambivalent, although they might appear neutral depending on the measurement method. To gain valid insights into people's attitudes towards robots, positive and negative evaluations of robots should be measured separately, providing participants with measures to express evaluative conflict instead of administering bipolar items. Acknowledging the role of ambivalence in attitude research focusing on robots has the potential to deepen our understanding of users' attitudes and their potential evaluative conflicts, and thus improve predictions of behavior from attitudes towards robots.

Auditory Gaydar: Perception of Sexual Orientation Based on Female Voice.

We investigated auditory gaydar (i.e., the ability to recognize sexual orientation) in female speakers, addressing three related issues: whether auditory gaydar is (1) accurate, (2) language-dependent (i.e., occurs only in some languages, but not in others), and (3) ingroup-specific (i.e., occurs only when listeners judge speakers of their own language, but not when they judge foreign language speakers). In three experiments, we asked Italian, Portuguese, and German participants (total N = 466) to listen to voices of Italian, Portuguese, and German women, and to rate their sexual orientation. Our results showed that auditory gaydar was not accurate; listeners were not able to identify speakers' sexual orientation correctly. The same pattern emerged consistently across all three languages and when listeners rated foreign-language speakers.

Sex and gender analysis improves science and engineering.

The goal of sex and gender analysis is to promote rigorous, reproducible and responsible science. Incorporating sex and gender analysis into experimental design has enabled advancements across many disciplines, such as improved treatment of heart disease and insights into the societal impact of algorithmic bias. Here we discuss the potential for sex and gender analysis to foster scientific discovery, improve experimental efficiency and enable social equality. We provide a roadmap for sex and gender analysis across scientific disciplines and call on researchers, funding agencies, peer-reviewed journals and universities to coordinate efforts to implement robust methods of sex and gender analysis.

Imagine how to behave: the influence of imagined contact on human-robot interaction.

Imagined contact (IC), that is, mentally simulating an interaction with an outgroup member, reduces negative attitudes towards outgroup members, increases contact intentions, and reduces intergroup anxiety in human-human intergroup context. Our experiment tested the effectiveness of IC with a robot to improve human-robot interaction (HRI). Social psychological literature suggested that IC provides a behavioural script for an interaction. Hence, an imagined scenario similar to a real contact scenario should be more effective in eliciting the aforementioned positive effects. We therefore examined the effect of similarity between IC with a robot and the following actual HRI on interaction perception, and behaviours towards the robot. High similarity was expected to lead to a more positive perception of HRI and more positive interaction behaviour towards the robot (e.g. more social behaviour). Results showed that perceived HRI quality was evaluated more positively and participants displayed more social behaviour towards the robot when the imagined task resembled the HRI that followed, compared to when it did not resemble the subsequent HRI. When controlling for covariates, the effects on number of social behaviours and perceived interaction quality remained significant, however, there was no effect on the total amount of time spent producing social behaviours. This article is part of the theme issue 'From social brains to social robots: applying neurocognitive insights to human-robot interaction'.

Looking for Blame: Rape Myth Acceptance and Attention to Victim and Perpetrator.

In two studies, the authors examined the influence of rape myth acceptance (RMA) on participants' attention toward the potential victim versus perpetrator in a rape case. In Study 1 ( N = 90), participants selected information that focused on either the male defendant or the female victim. With increasing RMA, participants preferred information that focused on the victim rather than the defendant. In Study 2 ( N = 41), participants viewed photographs depicting both victim and defendant while their eye movements were recorded. With increasing RMA, participants spent less time inspecting the defendant relative to the victim. In both studies, higher RMA predicted stronger anti-victim and pro-defendant judgments, replicating previous research. Taken together, these results support the assumption that RMA guides participants' attention, leading to a focus on the alleged rape victim and away from the alleged perpetrator. Implications of the current research and future directions are discussed.

The Sound of Voice: Voice-Based Categorization of Speakers' Sexual Orientation within and across Languages.

Empirical research had initially shown that English listeners are able to identify the speakers' sexual orientation based on voice cues alone. However, the accuracy of this voice-based categorization, as well as its generalizability to other languages (language-dependency) and to non-native speakers (language-specificity), has been questioned recently. Consequently, we address these open issues in 5 experiments: First, we tested whether Italian and German listeners are able to correctly identify sexual orientation of same-language male speakers. Then, participants of both nationalities listened to voice samples and rated the sexual orientation of both Italian and German male speakers. We found that listeners were unable to identify the speakers' sexual orientation correctly. However, speakers were consistently categorized as either heterosexual or gay on the basis of how they sounded. Moreover, a similar pattern of results emerged when listeners judged the sexual orientation of speakers of their own and of the foreign language. Overall, this research suggests that voice-based categorization of sexual orientation reflects the listeners' expectations of how gay voices sound rather than being an accurate detector of the speakers' actual sexual identity. Results are discussed with regard to accuracy, acoustic features of voices, language dependency and language specificity.

"She deserved it": Effects of sexism norms, type of violence, and victim's pre-assault behavior on blame attributions toward female victims and approval of the aggressor's behavior.

Effects of ambivalent sexism, sexism norms, victim behavior, and type of violence on male students' reactions to male violence against women in intimate relationships were examined. Participants judged a scenario depicting an act of sexual or non-sexual violence against a female partner who had either shown overtly sexual or non-sexual behavior toward another man. Generally, high (vs. low) hostile sexism, high (vs. low) hostile sexism norm feedback, and victim's overtly sexual (vs. non-sexual) behavior led to stronger victim blame and perceived approval of the aggressor's behavior. The victim of non-sexual violence was blamed more than the rape victim, particularly if she had behaved in an overtly sexual manner.

Metacognitive aspects of rape myths: subjective strength of rape myth acceptance moderates its effects on information processing and behavioral intentions.

The authors present a metacognitive approach to influences of rape myth acceptance (RMA) on the processing of rape-related information and rape proclivity. In Study 1, participants (N = 264) completed an RMA scale and subsequently reported the subjective strength (e.g., importance, certainty) of their RMA. Then they read about a rape case, viewed a photograph of the alleged crime scene, and rated the defendant's guilt on several items. Depending on condition, the photograph contained either RMA-applicable stimuli (e.g., alcoholic beverages) or neutral stimuli. Higher RMA predicted lower ratings of defendant guilt especially when applicable stimuli were present and RMA was strong. Study 2 (N = 85) showed that RMA-related attitude strength also moderated the effect of RMA on self-reported rape proclivity. Results of both studies indicate that the subjective strength of rape-related beliefs may be reliably assessed and serves as an important moderator of effects of RMA. The implications of these findings for prevention programs as well as future directions for research are discussed.

Social categorization of social robots: anthropomorphism as a function of robot group membership.

Previous work on social categorization has shown that people often use cues such as a person's gender, age, or ethnicity to categorize and form impressions of others. The present research investigated effects of social category membership on the evaluation of humanoid robots. More specifically, participants rated a humanoid robot that either belonged to their in-group or to a national out-group with regard to anthropomorphism (e.g., mind attribution, warmth), psychological closeness, contact intentions, and design. We predicted that participants would show an in-group bias towards the robot that ostensibly belonged to their in-group--as indicated by its name and location of production. In line with our hypotheses, participants not only rated the in-group robot more favourably--importantly, they also anthropomorphized it more strongly than the out-group robot. Our findings thus document that people even apply social categorization processes and subsequent differential social evaluations to robots.

Schema effects of rape myth acceptance on judgments of guilt and blame in rape cases: the role of perceived entitlement to judge.

Two experiments (N = 330) examined conditions that facilitate biasing effects of rape myth acceptance (RMA) on judgments of blame in rape cases. In both experiments, participants read a short vignette depicting a rape case. In Experiment 1, the amount of case-irrelevant information about defendant and plaintiff was varied. As predicted, high-RMA (vs. low-RMA) participants were less likely to blame the defendant the more irrelevant information they had read. In Experiment 2, participants in a social judgeability condition were made to believe that they had been subliminally exposed to additional case information although in fact no additional information had been presented. As predicted, compared to a control condition, participants' blame judgments were more biased by their RMA under social judgeability. Our findings reveal that the mechanism underlying the biasing effects of RMA may be the subjective feeling of entitlement to judge.