[Effect of non-pharmacological preventive measures on the incidence of respiratory and gastrointestinal pathologies]. / Efecto de las medidas preventivas no farmacológicas en la incidencia de patología respiratoria y gastrointestinal.

OBJECTIVE: The use of non-pharmacological preventive measures during the COVID-19 pandemic has helped to reduce the incidence of multiple airborne or contact diseases. The objective of this paper was to evaluate the impact that all preventive measures have had on the transmission of different microorganisms, both by respiratory and contact transmission. METHODS: We compared the incidence of different infectious episodes coded with the CIAP-2 code (International Classification of Primary Care second edition of the WONCA International Classification Committee) collected from the computerized history of primary care, both with respiratory tract and digestive tract involvement, in the period from March 2018 to February 2020 (pre-pandemic period) and from March 2020 to February 2022 (pandemic period). The data corresponded to the entire region, with an estimated average population for the four years of 650,000 people. The statistical treatment of the data consisted of a descriptive analysis with the calculation of absolute values and percentages. Rates were calculated and compared using data provided by the National Institute of Statistics as a denominator. The P was obtained by statistical comparison by the exact method. A comparison of rates was made. RESULTS: The incidence in the number of CIAP-2 episodes studied, both corresponding to respiratory and gastrointestinal pathologies, comparing the period March 2018-February 2020 with the period March 2020-February 2022 decreased by 65.81%, from 534,439 cases to 182,707. CONCLUSIONS: The preventive measures applied during the pandemic produce a significant decrease in pathology involving the respiratory or the digestive tract.

OBJETIVO: El uso de medidas preventivas no farmacológicas durante la pandemia de la COVID-19 ayudó a reducir la incidencia de múltiples enfermedades de transmisión aérea o por contacto. El objetivo de este trabajo fue evaluar el impacto que habían tenido todas las medidas preventivas en la transmisión de diferentes microorganismos, tanto por transmisión respiratoria como por contacto. METODOS: Comparamos la incidencia de diferentes episodios infecciosos codificados con el código CIAP-2 (Clasificación Internacional de Atención Primaria, segunda edición, del Comité de Clasificación Internacional WONCA-World Organization of Family Doctors) recogidos de la historia informatizada de Atención Primaria, tanto con afectación del tracto respiratorio como del tracto digestivo, en el período de marzo de 2018 a febrero de 2020 (período prepandemia) y de marzo de 2020 a febrero de 2022 (período de pandemia). Los datos correspondieron a toda la región, con una población media estimada para los cuatro años de 650.000 personas. El tratamiento estadístico de los datos consistió en un análisis descriptivo con el cálculo de valores absolutos y porcentajes. Se calcularon y compararon tasas tomando como denominador los datos proporcionados por el Instituto Nacional de Estadística. La P fue obtenida mediante comparación estadística por el método exacto. Se realizó una comparación de tasas. RESULTADOS: La incidencia en el número de episodios CIAP-2 estudiados, tanto correspondientes a patología respiratoria como gastrointestinal, comparando el periodo de marzo de 2018-febrero de 2020 con el periodo marzo de 2020-febrero de 2022, disminuyó en un 65,81%, pasando de 534.439 casos a 182.707. CONCLUSIONES: Las medidas preventivas aplicadas durante la pandemia producen una disminución significativa de la patología del tracto respiratorio o digestivo.

Chinese College Students' Stigmatization towards People with Mental Illness: Familiarity, Perceived Dangerousness, Fear, and Social Distance.

BACKGROUND: Attribution models have been examined in Western countries. However, little is known about the applicability of the attitude-emotion-behavior model within Chinese culture. This study aimed to examine the association between familiarity, perceived dangerousness, fear, and social distance towards persons with mental illness (PMI) in the Chinese context. METHODS: An online cross-sectional survey was conducted from October to November 2022 in mainland China. A total of 1493 college students completed a questionnaire evaluating familiarity, perception of dangerousness, fear, and social distance regarding PMI. Path analysis was employed to validate the model proposed in this study. RESULTS: Participants expressed moderate to high levels of stigma towards PMI. Familiarity was negatively associated with social distance (p < 0.01). Participants who perceived PMI as dangerous were more prone to exhibit a reaction of fear (p < 0.001), consequently leading to social distance (p < 0.01). However, the mediating effect of perceived dangerousness and fear on the relationship between familiarity and social distance was not significant (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study provide support for Corrigan's attributional model of stigma in the Chinese context. Contact-based interventions for stigma reduction should emphasize multiple elements of contact, including the quality of contact, rather than familiarity.

"Support the strong" or "Help the weak?": The effects of social comparison and social distance on cooperative behavior in the dictator game.

Within an object-interdependent context, we conducted three experiments to investigate the influence of social comparisons on cooperative behavior, as well as to assess the mediating and moderating effects of related variables. In Experiment 1 (n = 207), we examined whether social comparisons impact cooperative behavior toward a comparator in a dictator game task. Here, we specifically focused on the mediating effects of evaluation of others' competence, along with three other potential mediators: self-competence evaluation, positive emotions, and negative emotions. Following the insights gained from Experiment 1, we proceeded to Experiments 2 (n = 279) and 3 (n = 298) to further explore whether social distance moderates the mediating effect of evaluation of others' competence. The results of all three experiments consistently indicated that upward (vs. non-) comparison facilitated cooperative behavior, whereas downward (vs. non-) comparison hindered it. Furthermore, our findings revealed that evaluation of others' competence served as a mediator between social comparison and cooperative behavior when the comparator (i.e., the cooperative partner) was perceived as being at a far-distance, whereas the mediating effect of evaluation of others' competence disappeared when social distance was close. These results reveal the pivotal role of evaluating others' competence and social distance in social interactions from the perspective of social comparison, which provides insights into how to promote cooperative behavior.

The mutual influences between working memory and empathy for pain: the role of social distance.

Understanding the mechanisms behind the interaction of empathy for pain (EfP) and working memory (WM), particularly how they are influenced by social factors like perceived social distance (SD), is vital for comprehending how humans dynamically adapt to the complexities of social life. However, there is very little known about these mechanisms. Accordingly, we recruited 116 healthy participants to investigate the bidirectional influence and electrophysiological responses between WM and EfP, including the role of SD. Our research results revealed that the interaction between WM load and SD significantly influenced the processing of EfP. Specifically, high WM load and distant SD facilitated early processing of EfP. Conversely, low WM load and close SD promoted late processing of EfP. Furthermore, the interaction between EfP and SD significantly influenced the performance of ongoing WM tasks. Specifically, the kin's pain, compared to kin's nonpain, improved the participant's performance on low-load WM tasks; however, it diminished the participant's performance on tasks with high WM load. Overall, these results provide evidence at both behavioral and neural levels for the mutual influence of WM and EfP during the same temporal process, and SD emerged as a crucial moderating factor during these mutual influences.

Does a stronger moral identity lead to a more reserved sense of humor? The influence of moral identity on sense of humor and its underlying psychological mechanisms.

Three studies were conducted to examine the influence of moral identity on sense of humor, employing the benign violation theory (BVT) as a theoretical framework. Study 1 (n = 350), a questionnaire-based survey, aimed to establish a preliminary exploration of the relationship between moral identity and sense of humor. Studies 2 (n = 172) and 3 (n = 172) jointly examined the impact of activated moral identity on sense of humor (humor appreciation, humor sharing) through the recollection and writing task. The results of these studies indicated that the effects of (activated) moral identity on the sense of humor (humor appreciation, humor sharing) were moderated by the type of humor and social distance of the target. On the one hand, high levels of (or activated) moral identity can significantly and positively predict sense of humor (humor appreciation, sharing); on the other hand, when there is a moral violation in the humor, and the target involved is at a close social distance, activated moral identity decreases the humor appreciation and humor sharing, where benign judgment plays a mediating role. These findings enrich the understanding of the complex relationship between moral identity and sense of humor, and have significant theoretical and practical implications.

Validation of the Japanese version of the scales of the attitudes toward people with epilepsy (SAPE-J).

OBJECTIVE: The aims of this study were to translate the SAPE questionnaire (Scales of the Attitudes toward People with Epilepsy) questionnaire developed in Germany that assesses attitudes toward people with epilepsy (PWE) into Japanese and to examine its reliability and validity. METHODS: We crafted the Japanese version of SAPE (SAPE-J) by drawing upon the original German version. On May 22nd and 23rd, 2023, we surveyed the general public registered with an online research survey service (Cross Marketing Group Inc., Tokyo, Japan) using an online questionnaire. Inclusion criteria were an age of ≥18 years, sufficient reading and speaking skills in Japanese, and the ability to comprehend the Japanese questionnaires. In addition to the translated SAPE-J, we asked about knowledge of epilepsy, personal experience with epilepsy, and gathered information about age, gender, employment status, education level, marital status, and household income in accordance with the validation of the German version of the SAPE. RESULTS: 400 adults from the general public who had heard or read about epilepsy were asked to participate, granted informed consent, and completed the study questionnaire. The SAPE-J questionnaire has 6 scales: 1. Social Distance; 2. Stereotypes; 3. Concerns when encountering a person with epilepsy (PWE) and emotional reactions differentiated by 4.1 Fear, 4.2. Anger, and 4.3 Pity; with a total of 26 items. The reliability of these scales ranged between acceptable to high (Cronbach's alpha 0.74-0.92) and confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) confirmed the presumed six-factor structure of the SAPE (factorial validity). Multivariate generalized linear models (GLM) were used to investigate the construct validity and showed that, depending on subscale, different variables such as age, gender, education level, personal contact to PWE, and epilepsy specific knowledge were significant predictors of attitudes. SIGNIFICANCE: The Japanese version of the SAPE proved reliable and valid for assessing attitudes toward PWE in the Japanese public. Increasing understanding about how to deal with and accept persons with epilepsy may help reduce negative attitudes and fears about the condition. PLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARY: The study translated the German SAPE questionnaire, which measures attitudes toward people with epilepsy (PWE), into Japanese and tested its reliability and validity. The Japanese version (SAPE-J) was created and surveyed online among 400 adults in Japan. The SAPE-J has 6 scales covering social distance, stereotypes, and emotional reactions like fear, anger, and pity. Reliability was high (Cronbach's alpha 0.74-0.92), and factor analyses confirmed its structure. The study found age, gender, education, and personal contact with PWE influenced attitudes. The SAPE-J is reliable and valid for assessing attitudes toward PWE in Japan, potentially reducing negative views and fears about epilepsy.

Social contact patterns following the COVID-19 pandemic: a snapshot of post-pandemic behaviour from the CoMix study.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to unprecedented changes in behaviour. To estimate if these persisted, a final round of the CoMix social contact survey was conducted in four countries at a time when all societal restrictions had been lifted for several months. We conducted a survey on a nationally representative sample in the UK, Netherlands (NL), Belgium (BE), and Switzerland (CH). Participants were asked about their contacts and behaviours on the previous day. We calculated contact matrices and compared the contact levels to a pre-pandemic baseline to estimate R0. Data collection occurred from 17 November to 7 December 2022. 7477 participants were recruited. Some were asked to undertake the survey on behalf of their children. Only 14.4 % of all participants reported wearing a facemask on the previous day. Self-reported vaccination rates in adults were similar for each country at around 86 %. Trimmed mean recorded contacts were highest in NL with 9.9 (95 % confidence interval [CI] 9.0-10.8) contacts per person per day and lowest in CH at 6.0 (95 % CI 5.4-6.6). Contacts at work were lowest in the UK (1.4 contacts per person per day) and highest in NL at 2.8 contacts per person per day. Other contacts were also lower in the UK at 1.6 per person per day (95 % CI 1.4-1.9) and highest in NL at 3.4 recorded per person per day (95 % CI 43.0-4.0). The next-generation approach suggests that R0 for a close-contact disease would be roughly half pre-pandemic levels in the UK, 80 % in NL and intermediate in the other two countries. The pandemic appears to have resulted in lasting changes in contact patterns expected to have an impact on the epidemiology of many different pathogens. Further post-pandemic surveys are necessary to confirm this finding.

Little evidence that androstadienone affects social distance-dependent prosocial behaviour: a pre-registered study.

In navigating the complexities of social life, humans have evolved to interpret invisible odorous chemical cues, with profound behavioural impacts often unbeknown to the conscious mind. The manifestation of this in humans is evident in the scent of androstadienone (androsta-4,16-dien-3-one), an odorous compound which is considered a putative human pheromone. The current study investigated the effect of androstadienone on social distance-dependent prosocial behaviour measured by a social discounting task, in which participants chose between selfish and generous options. Based on our pre-registration, we predicted a sex-specific effect, with males exposed to androstadienone exhibiting increased generosity, while females would choose more selfishly. Employing a double-blind, placebo-controlled, between-subject design, we recruited 170 participants who were randomly assigned to either the androstadienone or control condition. Olfactory stimuli were administered while participants completed the social discounting task. Inconsistent with our hypothesis, inhaling androstadienone did not impact social distance-dependent prosocial behaviour. This finding was supported by multiple estimates of prosociality, including model-free, model-based and maximum likelihood estimation. Further analyses indicated that androstadienone administration did not influence perceived social distance or bias participants towards being generous or selfish. Thus, our empirical findings provide no support for the hypothesis that androstadienone modulates generosity.

Patient racism toward nurses in a divided society: The case of Jews and Arabs in Israel.

AIM: This study examines whether racism exists among Jewish and Arab patients in Israel, as reflected in patient preference for receiving treatment from a nurse with the same ethnic background. BACKGROUND: We examine the relationship between racism and the level of trust in a nurse from a different ethnic group than the patient, as well as the preferred level of social distance, in the context of ongoing conflicts between the Jewish majority and the Arab minority in Israel. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted using a unique study questionnaire that asked 534 Jewish and 478 Arab respondents to express their preference for an Arab and a Jewish nurse. RESULTS: Among both the Jews and the Arabs, there is a similar tendency of racism toward nurses of the dissimilar ethnic group. This racism was also prevalent among participants who live in a mixed environment or those who studied or are studying and worked or work in a mixed environment. As the trust in nursing staff members from the other group increases, the level of racism decreases. The greater the social distance the participants felt from the members of the other group, the more racist the attitudes they expressed. CONCLUSIONS: Both Jews and Arabs preferred to be treated by nurses of their own ethnic group. In contrast to the contact hypothesis theory, participants who live in a mixed environment did not express fewer racist preferences. We conclude with some useful practical suggestions aimed at decreasing racism in health care. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Findings imply that prospective patients prefer to receive nursing care from nurses of their own ethnic group and trust these nurses more than they trust nurses of different ethnic group.

The relationship of stereotypes, social distance and sexuality knowledge with attitudes towards sexuality of people with mild intellectual disabilities.

BACKGROUND: The present study examines the relationship between stereotypical beliefs about people with intellectual disabilities, desire for social distance, and general knowledge about human sexuality with attitudes towards the sexuality of adults with mild intellectual disabilities. METHOD: Two hundred fifty participants from staff, family and community samples completed an online set of questionnaires. RESULTS: Higher agreement with stereotypical beliefs and lower sexual knowledge were associated with less normalising and more paternalistic attitudes towards the sexuality of adults with mild intellectual disabilities. Higher agreement with stereotypical beliefs was also associated with more negative attitudes. On the other hand, willingness to interact with these adults was associated with more normalising and less paternalistic attitudes. CONCLUSIONS: Interventions that aim to support adults with intellectual disabilities in relation to their sexuality should also address the perceptions of their support network towards them as individuals with disabilities, as well as their knowledge about sexuality.

Somatized or stigma? Causal attributions and emotional responses in shaping social distance towards people with mental illness, China.

Background: Mental illness in China has traditionally been attributed to physical factors and somatization tendencies, which seldom result in stigma. How has this perception changed after decades of social change? Methods: Based on the Chinese General Social Survey database in 2011, this study constructed a structural equation model to analyze the effects of causal attribution and emotional responses on social distance. The causal attributions include dangerousness, controllability, and responsibility. And the emotional responses encompass negative affect, traditional prejudice, treatment carryover, and exclusionary sentiments. In addition, higher scores indicating greater social distance, whereas a low score reflected stronger emotional responses or a greater degree of internal attribution. Results: The results reported a high level of social distance towards people with mental illness. These findings indicated that emotional responses have a direct impact on social distance. Specifically, when negative affect, traditional prejudice, and exclusionary sentiments increase by one standard deviation, the social distance decreases by 0.497, 0.178, and 0.073 standard deviation, respectively. Conversely, as the level of treatment carryover rises, social distance increases by 0.087. Meanwhile, the causal attribution only exerts a significant indirect effect on social distance by the function of emotional causal responses. Conclusion: The results indicated that the public attributes mental illnesses like depression primarily to psychological issues rather than somatic ones. It suggested widespread stereotypes and public stigma towards people with mental illness in China, as well as an arduous task in anti-stigma. In addition, a targeted way to address public stigma lies in changing the stereotype of people with mental illness.

Neural Similarity and Synchrony among Friends.

Researchers have long recognized that friends tend to exhibit behaviors that are more similar to each other than to those of non-friends. In recent years, the concept of neural similarity or neural synchrony among friends has garnered significant attention. This body of research bifurcates into two primary areas of focus: the specificity of neural similarity among friends (vs. non-friends) and the situational factors that influence neural synchrony among friends. This review synthesizes the complex findings to date, highlighting consistencies and identifying gaps in the current understanding. It aims to provide a coherent overview of the nuanced interplay between social relationships and neural processes, offering valuable insights for future investigations in this field.

Social contact patterns during the early COVID-19 pandemic in Norway: insights from a panel study, April to September 2020.

BACKGROUND: During the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries adopted social distance measures and lockdowns of varying strictness. Social contact patterns are essential in driving the spread of respiratory infections, and country-specific measurements are needed. This study aimed to gain insights into changes in social contacts and behaviour during the early pandemic phase in Norway. METHODS: We conducted an online panel study among a nationally representative sample of Norwegian adults by age and gender. The panel study included six data collections waves between April and September 2020, and 2017 survey data from a random sample of the Norwegian population (including children < 18 years old) were used as baseline. The market research company Ipsos was responsible for carrying out the 2020 surveys. We calculated mean daily contacts, and estimated age-stratified contact matrices during the study period employing imputation of child-to-child contacts. We used the next-generation method to assess the relative reduction of R0 and compared the results to reproduction numbers estimated for Norway during the 2020 study period. RESULTS: Over the six waves in 2020, 5 938 observations/responses were registered from 1 718 individuals who reported data on 22 074 contacts. The mean daily number of contacts among adults varied between 3.2 (95%CI 3.0-3.4) to 3.9 (95%CI 3.6-4.2) across the data collection waves, representing a 67-73% decline compared to pre-pandemic levels (baseline). Fewer contacts in the community setting largely drove the reduction; the drop was most prominent among younger adults. Despite gradual easing of social distance measures during the survey period, the estimated population contact matrices remained relatively stable and displayed more inter-age group mixing than at baseline. Contacts within households and the community outside schools and workplaces contributed most to social encounters. Using the next-generation method R0 was found to be roughly 25% of pre-pandemic levels during the study period, suggesting controlled transmission. CONCLUSION: Social contacts declined significantly in the months following the March 2020 lockdown, aligning with implementation of stringent social distancing measures. These findings contribute valuable empirical information into the social behaviour in Norway during the early pandemic, which can be used to enhance policy-relevant models for addressing future crises when mitigation measures might be implemented.

The impact of information presentation on self-other risk decision-making.

To explore the impact of social distance and information presentation types on self-other risk preferences in monetary tasks. Risk preferences were examined in decision-making tasks and experiential information tasks within different frameworks when participants made decisions for themselves and others. Experiment 1 employed experiential decision tasks and revealed individual differences in decision-making for oneself and others. In gain situations, participants exhibited more risk aversion when deciding for others compared to themselves. Experiment 2 presented both types of information simultaneously to investigate whether risk decisions for oneself and others are influenced by information types. Results indicated that experiential information led participants to make more conservative choices for others, while descriptive information eliminated this effect. This study discovered the influence of social distance on self-other risk decisions and the role of information presentation types in self and other risk decision-making. Future research could further explore self-other decision-making from the perspectives of decision-makers' traits and culture.

Personality correlates of social attitudes and social distance.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have shown that personality traits (i.e., openness to experience, conscientiousness, and agreeableness) relate to prejudicial attitudes. However, one of the aspects of prejudice is social distance; its association with personality traits was overlooked by previous studies. Therefore, this study examines the connection between the Big Five personality traits and social distance toward certain social groups. PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE: Participants from the general population were recruited through leaflets, the institutional webpage, Facebook, and through the project recruitment website and assessed via paper-and-pencil or online form. A total of 214 participants were included (of whom 68.2% were women and the mean age was 32.65, SD = 11.27, range 18-72) who completed the Bogardus Social Distance Scale and the 44-item Big Five Inventory questionnaire. RESULTS: The results showed a relationship between social distance, agreeableness, and openness to experience. Agreeableness seems to lower the social distance toward all studied groups. In comparison, openness to experience seems to lower the social distance towards groups that evoke more polarized attitudes in the majority (e.g., migrants). Furthermore, the influence of demographic characteristics (i.e., age, education level, and gender) is also significant. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that personality is significantly related to social distancing and expression of prejudicial attitudes. In particular, agreeableness and openness to experience have different effects on social distance and attitudes towards different groups. Further implications are discussed.

Impact of age on the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in healthcare workers : Influence of nonoccupational risk factors.

BACKGROUND: The incidence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV­2) infection was highest among older adults early in the COVID-19 pandemic; however, this pattern was later reversed with young adults showing the highest incidence. The aim of this study was to identify risk factors in healthcare workers (HCWs) associated with this evolution. METHODS: We conducted a survey nested within a prospective cohort study of 680 HCWs from a tertiary referral public hospital who received 2 doses of SARS-CoV­2 vaccine in January and February 2021 (VACCICO-VAO cohort). In October 2022 all participants were invited to participate in a survey. Risk factors were tested for association with COVID-19 ever, the number of COVID-19 episodes, and the time to the first episode. RESULTS: Among 350 respondents (51% response rate, 90% female, mean age 48.1 years), 323 COVID-19 episodes were diagnosed during the study period. Multivariable analysis revealed that age < 35 years vs. > 50 years (odds ratio, OR 2.12, 95% confidence interval, CI 1.27-3.51; P = 0.004) and not maintaining social distance at social events (OR: 1.82, 95% CI: 1.16-3.19; P = 0.011) were associated with a higher risk of COVID-19. Age < 35 years (hazard ratio, HR 1.70, 95% CI 1.14-2.54; P = 0.010), and not maintaining social distance (HR 1.34, 95% CI 1.05-1.72; P = 0.020) were also associated with the time to the first episode. CONCLUSIONS: The youngest HCWs had the highest incidence rate of COVID-19, which was not explained by occupational risk factors or health conditions. The increase in nonoccupational exposure since the end of the lockdowns in summer 2020 could by a key factor.

Unravelling consumer acceptance of local food: Physical versus social distance and the important role of social identification.

Including more locally grown products in our diet is a way to reduce our diets' environmental impact. Therefore, it is important to investigate how this can be effectively communicated on food products to increase consumer acceptance. We propose that product communication that focuses on decreasing the physical and social distance between the food producer and the consumer can result in consumers identifying more with the food producer, which, in turn, can increase the buying intention of food products. The current research comprises an online survey that includes an experimental design and a real-life assessment among 825 Dutch participants. Results of the experiment show that decreasing physical distance, but not social distance, increases consumers' intention to buy a food product. This effect can be explained by increased feelings of identification with a food producer. Moreover, the real-life assessment provides a first indication that both having a food producer living close by (physical distance) and personally knowing a food producer (social distance) might increase acceptance of the producer and the product, and highlights the relevance of perceived connection. These findings give insights into how food producers can market local food products to increase acceptance; communication on a decreased distance between consumers and the food producer is only effective when it results in more identification with the food producer. Perceived connection seems to be an essential part of the acceptance of local products.

The effect of positive inter-group contact on cooperation: the moderating role of individualism.

Introduction: The effect of intergroup contact on cooperation is well documented, but little is known about the cultural moderators of this relationship. Contributing to the literature, we examined whether cultural orientation moderates the effect of positive intergroup contact on cooperation and places emphasis on individualism. Methods: By creating a gamecooperation situation by the trust game paradigm, 322 Taiwanese youth were involved in the study and completed the positive intergroup contact scale, individual-collectivism scale, and social distance scale. Results: (1) positive intergroup contact effectively promotes cooperative behavior; (2) Taiwanese youth who have closer social distance with mainland youth demonstrate higher levels of cooperative behavior after group interactions than larger social distance; and (3) individualism has a significant moderating role in the relationship between positive inter-group contact and cooperation. The effect of positive inter-group contact on cooperation became stronger in the less individualistic group. The effect of social distance on cooperation became stronger in the less individualistic group.Cultural orientation represented by individualism is proved to be one moderato of the intergroup contact-cooperation relationship.

Influence of Social Distance on Foreign Language Effect in Moral Judgment.

Previous research has shown that moral choice depends on language, a phenomenon known as the moral foreign language effect (mFLE). The current study examines the influence of social distance on the mFLE. In Experiment 1, 200 participants were randomly assigned to either close or distant social distance in English or Chinese. In Experiment 2, 188 participants were randomly assigned to either English or Chinese and were presented with eight moral dilemmas, each with five different levels of social distance. After reading the dilemma, participants made a choice on a binary scale (Yes/No) in both Experiments 1 and 2 or on a more sensitive 100-point scale in Experiment 2. The results showed that the mFLE was present in distant social distance but absent in close social distance. Finally, a meta-analysis of the results from both studies confirmed the effect of social distance on the mFLE. These findings demonstrate that social distance might play an important role in moderating the mFLE in moral judgment.

The effect of autism phenotype and diagnosis disclosure on students' desire for social distance from autistic peers.

LAY ABSTRACT: Autistic students experience loneliness, rejection from peers, which might negatively affect both their well-being, as well as academic results. Others have studied this topic, however, the existing research does not analyze the desire for social distance from autistic female students in higher education. The goal of this study was to evaluate whether the way autism is expressed and disclosing the autism diagnosis had an effect on students' willingness to interact with autistic male and female students. We also analyzed participants' knowledge about autism, contact with autistic people in the past and its pleasantness in relation to their willingness to interact with autistic students described in the scenarios of the present study. We found that students were less willing to interact with autistic male students compared to autistic female students, as well as with autistic students whose diagnosis was not disclosed compared to autistic students whose diagnosis was disclosed to the raters. In addition, students who reported more pleasant contact with autistic individuals in the past were more willing to socially interact with autistic students if their diagnosis was disclosed. Students with higher knowledge of autism expressed greater willingness to interact with autistic males and autistic students regardless of diagnosis disclosure. Findings suggest that autistic males and individuals who prefer not to disclose their diagnosis are more vulnerable to social exclusion. More subtle expressions of autism need to be researched further.