Political party affiliation, social identity cues, and attitudes about protective mask-wearing during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany.

This cross-sectional study aimed to determine 1) whether German citizens' adherence to health professionals' recommendations and mandates regarding protective masks during the COVID-19 pandemic varied according to their political party affiliations, and 2) how behavioral cues provided by members of shared social groups, such as family and friends, influenced individual mask-wearing behavior. A quota-based sample of German voters (n = 330) consisting of 55 citizens whose voting intentions aligned with each of the country's six main political parties responded to an online questionnaire consisting of multiple-choice and open-ended questions. Univariate descriptive statistical analyses of quantitative data were conducted, and multiple regressions were performed to determine log odds and significant variations among group-based responses. A pragmatic inductive coding process was used to conduct a thematic analysis of qualitative data. Results indicated that those participants who expressed an intention to vote for the populist radical right party were the least likely to follow health experts' recommendations and the most likely to express anger and dissatisfaction over mask mandates. Prospective Left Party voters were the most likely to adhere to the advice of their doctors, while those associated with the Green Party were the most likely to adhere to the advice of public health experts. Most survey participants reported aligning their mask-wearing behavior with that of family and friends, with prospective CDU/CSU voters particularly likely to consider the mask-wearing behavior of family members. The results indicate that public health officials should consider how group-related factors influence public health compliance in order to encourage protective mask-wearing in the future.

Doctor, Indian nationalist and humanitarian: Mukhtar Ahmad Ansari (1880-1936).

Mukhtar Ahmad Ansari was a doctor and remarkable political figure in the late 19th century and the first half of 20th century. After studying medicine in Edinburgh, he returned to his country and became interested in political issues. Not unlike other educated Indian Muslims, Ansari first expressed his concerns about the situation in the Ottoman empire and went to Istanbul as the head of the medical mission. Ansari, who became more interested in politics after his days in Istanbul, came to the forefront as one of the leading figures of the Indian independence movement. Along with Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), Ansari did not engage in violence but supported the unity of Muslims and Hindus and opposed communalism. Despite his active political life, Ansari continued his medical studies with great seriousness and played an active role in establishing the Delhi Medical Association in 1914. During this period, his most important aim was to graft animal testicles onto human beings.

In testy hearing, Anthony Fauci confronts critics.

Republicans attack retired research institute head, while Democrats rally to his defense.

E-learning platforms in ideological and political education at universities: students' motivation and learning performance.

BACKGROUND: The study aimed to examine the impact of using the MOODLE e-learning platform in ideological and political education on Chinese students' motivation and academic performance. METHODS: The study involved 447 students from China-based universities (the experimental group - 232 students who studied using electronic educational platforms, and the control group - 215 students who used no digital technologies in their learning). The following methods were used: Measuring the need to achieve success among students; T. I. Ilyina's method for studying motivation to study at university; Method for studying student success motivation; Method for studying the motives of students' educational activities; Method for determining the main motives for choosing a profession (E. M. Pavlyutenkov); Motivation of learning activities: Levels and types (I. S. Dombrovskaya). Students' academic performance was assessed by testing in the studied disciplines at the beginning and end of the study. RESULTS: As a result, the significance of the motivational component in achieving the success of ideological and political education and the impact on students' motivation to use e-learning platforms is theoretically substantiated. CONCLUSIONS: It has been confirmed that using e-learning platforms in ideological and political education helps increase student motivation and academic performance.

Reimagining Public Health: Mapping A Path Forward.

The COVID-19 pandemic and other ongoing public health challenges have highlighted deficiencies in the US public health system. The United States is in a unique moment that calls for a transformation that builds on Public Health 3.0 and its focus on social determinants of health and partnerships with diverse sectors while also acknowledging how the pandemic altered the landscape for public health. Based on relevant literature, our experience, and interviews with public health leaders, we describe seven areas of focus within three broad categories to support transformational change. Contextual areas of focus include increasing accountability and addressing politicization and polarization. Topical areas of focus highlight prioritizing climate change and sharpening the focus on equity. Technical areas of focus include advancing data sciences, building the workforce, and enhancing communication capacity. A transformed public health system will depend highly on leadership, funding incentives, and both bottom-up and top-down approaches. A broad effort is needed by public health agencies, governments, and academia to accelerate the transition to a next phase for public health.

The differential impact of climate interventions along the political divide in 60 countries.

A major barrier to climate change mitigation is the political polarization of climate change beliefs. In a global experiment conducted in 60 countries (N = 51,224), we assess the differential impact of eleven climate interventions across the ideological divide. At baseline, we find political polarization of climate change beliefs and policy support globally, with people who reported being liberal believing and supporting climate policy more than those who reported being conservative (Cohen's d = 0.35 and 0.27, respectively). However, we find no evidence for a statistically significant difference between these groups in their engagement in a behavioral tree planting task. This conceptual-behavioral polarization incongruence results from self-identified conservatives acting despite not believing, rather than self-identified liberals not acting on their beliefs. We also find three interventions (emphasizing effective collective actions, writing a letter to a future generation member, and writing a letter from the future self) boost climate beliefs and policy support across the ideological spectrum, and one intervention (emphasizing scientific consensus) stimulates the climate action of people identifying as liberal. None of the interventions tested show evidence for a statistically significant boost in climate action for self-identified conservatives. We discuss implications for practitioners deploying targeted climate interventions.

Impact of R&D innovation and political background on corporate growth: A study based on private listed companies in China.

Based on a review of related concepts and theories this study investigates the different impacts of research and development (R&D) innovation and political background on corporate growth in a particular context. Unlike other studies, we integrate these two factors. We empirically analyze 6079 sets of data from 1292 A-share private manufacturing enterprises in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2012 to 2019. The results show that these factors directly impact corporate growth and have heterogeneous effects at different enterprise growth levels. We find the effect of R&D innovation on corporate growth is more pronounced for young firms. These findings highlight the need for firms to adjust their investments in R&D innovation and political backgrounds at different stages of development to adapt to different markets and political environments.

Objective numeracy exacerbates framing effects from decision-making under political risk.

While Prospect Theory helps to explain decision-making under risk, studies often base frames on hypothetical events and fail to acknowledge that many individuals lack the ability and motivation to engage in complex thinking. We use an original survey of US adults (N = 2813) to test Prospect Theory in the context of the May 2023 debt ceiling negotiations in the US Congress and assess whether objective numeracy moderates framing effects. We hypothesize and find evidence to suggest that most respondents are risk-averse to potential gains and risk-accepting to potential losses; however, high numerates are more risk-averse and risk-accepting to gains and losses, respectively, than low numerates. We also find that need for cognition interacts with numeracy to moderate framing effects for prospective losses, such that higher need for cognition attenuates risk-acceptance among low numerates and exacerbates risk-acceptance among high numerates. Our results are robust to a range of other covariates and in models accounting for the interaction between political knowledge and need for cognition, indicating joint moderating effects from two knowledge domains similarly conditioned by the desire to engage in effortful thinking. Our findings demonstrate that those who can understand and use objective information may remain subjectively persuaded by certain policy frames.

Measuring political radicalism and extremism in surveys: Three new scales.

This paper introduces three new scales to measure left- and right-wing radical as well as general extremist attitudes that can be applied across Western European countries. We therefore propose a thorough conceptualization of extremist attitudes that consists of two dimensions: general extremism, by which we understand attitudes that oppose the constitutional democratic state, and another dimension that differentiates between right- and left-wing radicalism by which we understand people who take far-reaching but often one-sided positions on political issues (e.g., on nationalism or anti-imperialism) by advocating fundamental socio-political change. Based on data from Germany, Great Britain, and the Netherlands (n = 6,201) we created short indices for general extremism and left- and right-wing radicalism. We check for convergence validity by assessing the psychometric properties of the extracted indices, i.e. their internal coherence and the degree to which a scale is able to distinguish strongly extremist and non-extremist individuals. Finally, we correlate the scales with various constructs that are likely related to extremist attitudes in order to assure external or construct validity. The results indicate that the three scales are highly valid and applicable across three Western European countries. Overall, we find that about two to four percent of citizens in each country hold left-wing or right-wing extremist attitudes.