Wild animals suppress the spread of socially transmitted misinformation.

Understanding the mechanisms by which information and misinformation spread through groups of individual actors is essential to the prediction of phenomena ranging from coordinated group behaviors to misinformation epidemics. Transmission of information through groups depends on the rules that individuals use to transform the perceived actions of others into their own behaviors. Because it is often not possible to directly infer decision-making strategies in situ, most studies of behavioral spread assume that individuals make decisions by pooling or averaging the actions or behavioral states of neighbors. However, whether individuals may instead adopt more sophisticated strategies that exploit socially transmitted information, while remaining robust to misinformation, is unknown. Here, we study the relationship between individual decision-making and misinformation spread in groups of wild coral reef fish, where misinformation occurs in the form of false alarms that can spread contagiously through groups. Using automated visual field reconstruction of wild animals, we infer the precise sequences of socially transmitted visual stimuli perceived by individuals during decision-making. Our analysis reveals a feature of decision-making essential for controlling misinformation spread: dynamic adjustments in sensitivity to socially transmitted cues. This form of dynamic gain control can be achieved by a simple and biologically widespread decision-making circuit, and it renders individual behavior robust to natural fluctuations in misinformation exposure.

Believing That We Can Change Our World for the Better: A Triple-A (Agent-Action-Aim) Framework of Self-Efficacy Beliefs in the Context of Collective Social and Ecological Aims.

PUBLIC ABSTRACT: Many people do not act together against climate change or social inequalities because they feel they or their group cannot make a difference. Understanding how people come to feel that they can achieve something (a perception of self-efficacy) is therefore crucial for motivating people to act together for a better world. However, it is difficult to summarize already existing self-efficacy research because previous studies have used many different ways of naming and measuring it. In this article, we uncover the problems that this raises and propose the triple-A framework as a solution. This new framework shows which agents, actions, and aims are important for understanding self-efficacy. By offering specific recommendations for measuring self-efficacy, the triple-A framework creates a basis for mobilizing human agency in the context of climate change and social injustice.

Knowledge level and constructs of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to the practice of unsafe abortion among postnatal mothers attending Mkonze health center, Dodoma Region, Tanzania.

BACKGROUND: Unsafe abortion is now a global agenda because 45% of all global abortions are unsafe, and 97% are occurring in developing countries. In Tanzania, one million reproductive-aged women face unplanned pregnancies per year, and 39% end up with abortion. About 16% of maternal deaths are reported per year in Tanzania, and unsafe abortion takes the second position. There are several efforts to prevent and intervene unsafe abortions, such as equipping healthcare facilities across all levels of healthcare, approval of Misoprostol use, establishment of comprehensive post-abortion care (PAC), revising policy guidelines and standards, provision of emergency contraceptives, and capacity building of healthcare providers. There is little documentation about how the constructs of the theory of planned behaviour, knowledge, and sociodemographics influence the practice of abortion. OBJECTIVES: To assess the association of knowledge level, sociodemographic characteristics, and constructs of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to the practice of unsafe abortion among postnatal mothers at Mkonze Health Center in the Dodoma region. METHODOLOGY: It is an analytical cross-sectional study design conducted in Dodoma-Tanzania and involved 206 postnatal women. A validated questionnaire was used and analysis was performed in the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), through descriptive and inferential statistics. RESULTS: The practice of unsafe abortion in the current study is 28/206 (13.6%), influenced bytheir lower educational level and being single women. It was found that the majority had adequate knowledge of unsafe abortion 129 (62.6%), positive attitude 130 (63.1%), good subjective norms 113 (54.9%), and positive perceived behavioral control111 (53.9%). Knowledge, attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control were not significantly associated with the practice of unsafe abortion. CONCLUSION: The majority of the respondents had high knowledge, attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavior control on unsafe abortion. This is an indicator that the implemented initiatives are effective. Maintaining the ongoing effort and improving strategies are promising to mitigate the burden of unsafe abortion. Future research needs to find out hidden factors associated with attitude and how health beliefs might influence someone's attitude towards unsafe abortion.

Hardware Schemes for Smarter Indoor Robotics to Prevent the Backing Crash Framework Using Field Programmable Gate Array-Based Multi-Robots.

The use of smart indoor robotics services is gradually increasing in real-time scenarios. This paper presents a versatile approach to multi-robot backing crash prevention in indoor environments, using hardware schemes to achieve greater competence. Here, sensor fusion was initially used to analyze the state of multi-robots and their orientation within a static or dynamic scenario. The proposed novel hardware scheme-based framework integrates both static and dynamic scenarios for the execution of backing crash prevention. A round-robin (RR) scheduling algorithm was composed for the static scenario. Dynamic backing crash prevention was deployed by embedding a first come, first served (FCFS) scheduling algorithm. The behavioral control mechanism of the distributed multi-robots was integrated with FCFS and adaptive cruise control (ACC) scheduling algorithms. The integration of multiple algorithms is a challenging task for smarter indoor robotics, and the Xilinx-based partial reconfiguration method was deployed to avoid computational issues with multiple algorithms during the run-time. These methods were coded with Verilog HDL and validated using an FPGA (Zynq)-based multi-robot system.

Parent-Child Discrepancies in Perceived Parental Control and Their Associations with Children's Prosocial Behaviors in Early Adolescence within Chinese Families.

How parent-child discrepancies in perceived parental control associate with children's prosocial behaviors remains unknown. This study examined this issue in 578 Chinese children (297 girls, Mage = 10.85, SDage = 0.72) and their mothers and fathers. Parents and children reported parental psychological and behavioral control, and children reported their prosocial behaviors. The latent difference scores modeling showed that compared to parents' perceptions, children's higher perceptions of guilt induction were related to more public prosocial behaviors; higher perceptions of love withdrawal were linked to fewer altruistic, compliant, emotional, and dire prosocial behaviors; and higher reporting of solicitation was associated with more general prosocial behaviors. The findings revealed the association between parent-child discrepancies and early adolescents' prosocial behaviors, supporting both the discrepancy-maladaptive hypotheses and the discrepancy-adaptive hypotheses within Chinese families.

Discrepancies in Parent-Child Perception of Parental Control and Associations with Children's Anxiety: The Buffering Effect of Parent-Child Closeness.

Previous research has predominantly relied on single-informant reports to establish the association between parental control and children's anxiety. However, there remains ambiguity regarding the extent to which discrepancies in parent-child reports of parental control are related to children anxiety. This study examined parent-child perceived discrepancies in parental control and their association with children's anxiety, along with the moderated effect of parent-child closeness through cross-sectional and prospective analysis. The sample consisted of 790 children (Mage = 11.34, SD = 6.73, 45.60% for girls), with 741 father-child dyads and 760 mother-child dyads included. Data were analyzed using polynomial regressions with response surface analysis. The results indicated that children tended to perceive higher levels of parental psychological control and lower levels of behavioral control compared to their parents' perceptions. In the cross-sectional analysis, a significant association between greater incongruence in psychological/behavioral control and higher levels of children's anxiety at T1 was observed exclusively in father-child dyads. In prospective analysis, for both father-child and mother-child dyads, congruence in higher levels of psychological control was associated with higher levels of children's anxiety at T2, while congruence in higher levels of behavioral control was associated with lower levels of children's anxiety at T2. Additionally, greater incongruence in psychological/behavioral control was linked to higher levels of children's anxiety at T2. Furthermore, mother-child closeness emerged as a significant moderator such that perceived incongruence in psychological/behavioral control could not affect children's anxiety at T2 in the high mother-child closeness condition. These findings highlight the significance of considering parent-child congruence and incongruence when examining the impact of parental control on children's anxiety.

Factors Associated with the Intention to Work with Older Adults Among First Year Social Work Students in Israel.

This study examined a model based on the Terror Management Theory and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to identify factors associated with social work students` intention to work with older adults. A cross-sectional study with a sample of 375 first-year Israeli social work students was undertaken. Attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control were directly associated with this intention. Contact with older adults was related to anxiety about older adults, which along with anxiety about self-aging, was related to the TPB constructs. The model explained 63% of the variance of the students` intention to work with older adults.

Development and Validation of a Two-component Perceived Control Measure.

BACKGROUND: Research indicates that perceived behavioral control (PBC) is an important determinant of behavior and that it is composed of perceived capability and opportunity. However, typical measurement of these constructs may be confounded with motivation and outcome expectations. Vignettes presented before questionnaire items may clarify construct meaning leading to precise measurement. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to develop and validate measures of perceived capability and opportunity that parse these constructs from the influence of motivation and outcome expectations using vignettes. METHODS: Study 1 collected feedback from experts (N = 9) about the initial measure. Study 2a explored internal consistency reliability and construct and discriminant validity of the revised measure using two independent samples (N = 683 and N = 727). Finally, using a prospective design, Study 2b (N = 1,410) investigated test-retest reliability, construct and discriminant validity at Time 2, and nomological validity. RESULTS: After Study 1, the revised measure was tested in Studies 2a and 2b. Overall, the evidence suggests that the measure is optimal with four items for perceived capability and three for the perceived opportunity. The measure demonstrated strong internal consistency ( > 0.90) and test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficients [ICCs] > .78). The measure also showed construct and discriminant validity by differentiating itself from behavioral intentions (i.e., motivation) and affective attitude (based on expected outcomes) (SRMR = 0.03; RMSEA = 0.06). It also demonstrated evidence of nomological validity as behavior 2 weeks later was predicted. CONCLUSIONS: We recommend researchers use this tool in future correlational and intervention studies to parse motivation and outcome expectations from perceived capability and opportunity measurement.

Sex-specific association between prenatal androgenization (second-to-fourth digit length ratio) and frontal brain volumes in adolescents.

Prenatal androgenization associates sex-dependently with behavior and mental health in adolescence and adulthood, including risk-taking, emotionality, substance use, and depression. However, still little is known on how it affects underlying neural correlates, like frontal brain control regions. Thus, we tested whether prenatal androgen load is sex-dependently related to frontal cortex volumes in a sex-balanced adolescent sample. In a cross-sectional magnetic resonance imaging study, we examined 61 adolescents (28 males, 33 females; aged 14 or 16 years) and analyzed associations of frontal brain region volumes with the second-to-fourth digit length ratio (2D:4D), an established marker for prenatal androgenization, using voxel-based morphometry in a region-of-interest approach. Lower 2D:4D (indicative of higher prenatal androgen load) correlated significantly with smaller volumes of the right anterior cingulate cortex (r-ACC; ß = 0.45) in male adolescents and with larger volumes of the left inferior frontal gyrus orbital part (l-IFGorb; ß = - 0.38) in female adolescents. The regression slopes of 2D:4D on the r-ACC also differed significantly between males and females. The study provides novel evidence that prenatal androgenization may influence the development of the frontal brain in a sex- and frontal brain region-specific manner. These effects might contribute to the well-known sex differences in risk-taking, emotionality, substance use, and depression. Future research is needed to elucidate the role of prenatal androgenization within the biopsychosocial model.

Applying the theory of planned behavior for prediction of oocyte donation intention among Iranian women.

BACKGROUND: Oocyte donation is a complex and multifaceted behavior in women. Due to the acute deficiency of donated oocytes, it is necessary to identify the factors affecting the desire to donate. Planned behavior theory is a suitable model for explaining and predicting behavior in many behavioral domains. The aim of this study was to predict oocyte donation intention using the theory of planned behavior. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was performed on 556 women who were covered by the comprehensive health service centers in Gonabad and Neyshabour cities in 2020. Sampling was performed by the two-step method in Gonabad city and by the convenience sampling method in Neyshabour city. Data were collected online using researcher-made questionnaires included oocyte donation awareness questionnaire and oocyte donation intention questionnaire (based on the TPB constructs). The validity of the questionnaires was confirmed by face and content validity and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Data were analyzed in SPSS software (version 16) using hierarchical linear regression. The statistical significance was considered as P < 0.05. RESULTS: The results showed that there was a significant positive correlation between the oocyte donation intention with all constructs of planned behavioral theory (P < 0.050). Planned behavior theory constructs explained 47% of the variance of oocyte donation intention. In addition, constructs of perceived power (ß = 0.461), control beliefs (ß = 0.154) and normative beliefs (ß = 0.125) were the strongest predictors of oocyte donation intention, respectively. CONCLUSION: Planning and implementing educational courses according to the constructs of the theory of planned behavior can be a great step toward the elimination of oocyte deficiency and infertility problems. Also performing of intervention or training strategies in the field of oocyte donation requires the enhancement of social norms and perceived behavioral control in the population under study.

A Versatile Approach to Polygonal Object Avoidance in Indoor Environments with Hardware Schemes Using an FPGA-Based Multi-Robot.

Service robots perform versatile functions in indoor environments. This study focuses on obstacle avoidance using flock-type indoor-based multi-robots. Each robot was developed with rendezvous behavior and distributed intelligence to perform obstacle avoidance. The hardware scheme-based obstacle-avoidance algorithm was developed using a bio-inspired flock approach, which was developed with three stages. Initially, the algorithm estimates polygonal obstacles and their orientations. The second stage involves performing avoidance at different orientations of obstacles using a heuristic based Bug2 algorithm. The final stage involves performing a flock rendezvous with distributed approaches and linear movements using a behavioral control mechanism. VLSI architectures were developed for multi-robot obstacle avoidance algorithms and were coded using Verilog HDL. The novel design of this article integrates the multi-robot's obstacle approaches with behavioral control and hardware scheme-based partial reconfiguration (PR) flow. The experiments were validated using FPGA-based multi-robots.

Hardware-Efficient Scheme for Trailer Robot Parking by Truck Robot in an Indoor Environment with Rendezvous.

Autonomous grounded vehicle-based social assistance/service robot parking in an indoor environment is an exciting challenge in urban cities. There are few efficient methods for parking multi-robot/agent teams in an unknown indoor environment. The primary objective of autonomous multi-robot/agent teams is to establish synchronization between them and to stay in behavioral control when static and when in motion. In this regard, the proposed hardware-efficient algorithm addresses the parking of a trailer (follower) robot in indoor environments by a truck (leader) robot with a rendezvous approach. In the process of parking, initial rendezvous behavioral control between the truck and trailer robots is established. Next, the parking space in the environment is estimated by the truck robot, and the trailer robot parks under the supervision of the truck robot. The proposed behavioral control mechanisms were executed between heterogenous-type computational-based robots. Optimized sensors were used for traversing and the execution of the parking methods. The truck robot leads, and the trailer robot mimics the actions in the execution of path planning and parking. The truck robot was integrated with FPGA (Xilinx Zynq XC7Z020-CLG484-1), and the trailer was integrated with Arduino UNO computing devices; this heterogenous modeling is adequate in the execution of trailer parking by a truck. The hardware schemes were developed using Verilog HDL for the FPGA (truck)-based robot and Python for the Arduino (trailer)-based robot.

Applying the SOR framework to mitigate single-use plastic tableware consumption and why does it work? Solving the dissonance with an extended SOR framework.

Although plastic pollution is a critical environmental issue worldwide and household consumption of single-use plastic tableware (SUPT) is a growing concern, research on the determinants of SUPT use is deficient. In light of the prevalent and frequent use of SUPT, the far-reaching nature of its consumption, and its distinctive health concerns, compounded by the lack of dedicated regulations, this article sheds light on the SUPT problem and strives to minimize SUPT consumption. The Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) framework has been extensively applied in various contexts but not yet in the context of household SUPT consumption. In this study, we aim to fill the lacuna by examining the motives behind SUPT consumption using two online questionnaires in two Western countries that are known for relatively high domestic SUPT consumption: Israel (Study 1, n = 408) and the USA (Study 2, n = 295). Our findings indicate that personal attitudes toward the plastic problem ("organism" in the SOR taxonomy) mediate the relation between plastic health problem awareness ("stimulus") and SUPT consumption ("response"). Moreover, we identified perceived behavioral control (PBC) as a significant predictor of behavior when behavior is not under volitional control (i.e., an action against the individual's self-interest), as in the SUPT context. Therefore, we propose expanding the SOR framework with the organism comprising attitude and PBC, thus supporting the dissonance theory (double mediation). We suggest that modifying personal attitudes toward the plastic problem by enhancing plastic health problem awareness may strengthen PBC and reduce SUPT consumption. Overall, this study deepens our understanding of SUPT consumption by highlighting the importance of attitude and PBC as mechanisms that link awareness to sustainable behavior.

Understanding Cancer Screening Intention Among Physically Active Adults Ages 18-49.

Ideal efforts for cancer prevention would include lifestyle modifications along with routine, age-eligible cancer screening. Employing an asset-based approach within vulnerable populations already engaging in at least one healthy behavior (i.e., physical activity) may be an ideal way to further reduce cancer risk across peer groups with low cancer screening rates. Guided by the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the aim of this study was to identify constructs associated with cancer screening intentions among young to middle aged adults for influencing educational and behavioral interventions designed to promote cancer prevention. A cross-sectional, web-based survey was utilized to assess attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and intention to screen for cancer among physically active adults aged 18-49 years. Descriptive and bivariate analyses were conducted to characterize the sample, and hierarchical linear regression analyses were conducted to assess the influence of sociodemographic variables and TPB constructs on cancer screening intentions. Age, female sex, reporting a routine doctor's visit, reported knowledge of physical activity as a lifestyle behavior to reduce cancer risk, and an increased number of motivating factors for engaging in physical activity were significantly associated with higher cancer screening intention (P < 0.001). With the addition of TPB constructs (i.e., subjective norms and perceived behavioral control), the final analytic model accounted for 31% of the variance in intention to screen for cancer. Findings suggest that the TPB could be used to tailor or design asset-based, cancer education interventions to effectively promote age-eligible cancer screenings among physically active adults. Educational content to increase social support for cancer screening and enhance perceived behavioral control to complete screening is essential in this population.

Predictors of e-waste: Considerations for community psychology prevention and intervention.

E-waste, the overabundance of unused technology products, is a growing issue as new technology is rapidly innovated and our society promotes the need to always have the "latest and greatest" products. Community psychology, as a field, is concerned with the global climate crisis, and subsequently must be concerned with e-waste. This study tested predictors of individual's likelihood to recycle e-waste with 883 US adults (459 males, 420 females, 3 other/nonbinary; 62.7% 54-year-old or younger) through a crowdsourcing procedure. Similar to previous recycling literature, the present study found that personal norms, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control positively predicted the likelihood for an individual to recycle; however, the present study provides further empirical evidence for these relationships and expands recycling literature by focusing on e-waste recycling. Implications for the field of community psychology with preventive and interventive actions are detailed.

Effects of housing layout and perceived behavioral control over social distancing in relation between social isolation and psychological distress during pandemic of COVID-19.

Due to the results of the COVID-19 epidemic on health, the positive effect of social distancing has been highlighted. Nevertheless, the effect of housing layouts on resident's perceived behavioral control over social distancing in shared open spaces have been rarely investigated in the context of pandemic. Filling this gap, the current study examines the moderating effect of perceived behavioral control on the relationship between social isolation and psychological distress. Data from 1349 women residing in 9 gated communities during the Iranian national lockdown were collected. The results of ANOVA indicate that there is a significant difference between various housing layouts in terms of residents' perceived behavioral control. Respondent in courtyard blocks layout reported higher perceived behavioral control over social distancing than in linear and freestanding blocks. The findings of structural equation modeling identified perceived behavioral control as a buffer against the effect of social isolation on psychological distress.

Understanding the Sociocognitive Determinants Underlying Intentions to Exercise for Postconcussion Symptom Relief: An Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior.

CONTEXT: This study investigated individual sociocognitive factors from the theory of planned behavior and their relationship to exercise for postconcussion recovery. DESIGN AND METHODS: Four hundred and fifty-nine Australian adults, two-thirds of whom had no concussion history (66%), completed an online survey of their beliefs and attitudes toward exercise for postconcussion recovery. Secondary questions evaluated program design features that could affect engagement (eg, session frequency). RESULTS: Structured equation modeling found that subjective norms were the strongest significant predictor of intention to participate in exercise for postconcussion recovery. Perceived behavioral control was also a significant predictor of intention to participate but to a lesser extent. Attitude did not predict participation intention. The design features identified as key were personalization and being supervised during the program. CONCLUSIONS: This study found that people's intention to participate in a program of exercise postconcussion recovery is shaped by individual psychological factors and identified program design features that could be adjusted for increased engagement. Program success could be maximized through strategies such as supporting individuals to have a stronger sense of control over their participation through the choice of session timing or frequency and harnessing the influence of significant others via supportive messaging from key professionals.

Investigating individual intention to make money: can motivation of wealth be a socio-economic leverage?

Wealth is an indicator of individual well-being. Increasing wealth is a pathway to achieving socio-economic development. Thus, it is imperative to shed light on factors that induce individual intention to increase wealth. This study investigates the effects of perception of wealth, perception of the rich, and behavioral control on personal intention to make money. A stratified sampling method was employed to obtain a sample of 991 respondents from Northern, Central, and Southern Vietnam who were invited to participate in a structured questionnaire survey in 2021. We utilized the Confirmatory Factor Analysis to validate the proposed model and tested the hypotheses using the Partial Least Squared-SEM. Empirical results highlight that individual behavioral control, explicit perception of the rich, and perception of wealth are essential determinants of individual intention to make money. Interestingly, motivation of wealth positively moderates the relationship between the perception of wealth and personal intention to make money. In addition, post-Covid-19 opportunities positively moderate two-pair relationships: perception of wealth-individual intention to make money and explicit perception of the rich-individual intention to make money. Insights from this study imply appropriate policies for the government to enhance the inspiration of people to work harder, leading to sustainable development.

The Psychosocial Antecedents of the Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet.

OBJECTIVE: Most previous research on the antecedents of healthy food choice has not investigated the links between these antecedents and has focused on specific food choice rather than on an overall diet. In the present study, we tested the plausibility of an integrated theoretical model aiming to explain the role of different psychosocial factors in increasing the intention to adhere to the Mediterranean Diet (MeDiet). DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS: A sample of 1940 Italian adults participated in an online survey that measured their attitude and perceived behavioral control (i.e., rational antecedents), subjective norm (i.e., social antecedent), positive and negative anticipated emotions (i.e., emotional antecedents), food choice health and mood motives (i.e., motivational antecedents), past adherence to the MeDiet (i.e., behavioral antecedent), and the intention to adhere to the MeDiet. RESULTS: Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) analyses confirmed the plausibility of the proposed model. Perceived behavioral control was the strongest rational antecedent of intention, followed by the emotional (i.e., anticipated emotions) and the social (i.e., subjective norm) antecedents. Mediation analysis showed that motivational antecedents had only an indirect impact on intention via emotional antecedents. Finally, multigroup SEM analysis highlighted that past adherence to the MeDiet moderated the hypothesized paths among all the study variables. CONCLUSIONS: The above findings advance our comprehension of which antecedents public communication might leverage to promote an increase in the adherence to the MeDiet.

Effects of social support on oral health behavior: Serial multiple-mediator model.

OBJECTIVE: This study investigates the serial multiple mediation of job stress and perceived behavioral control (PBC) in the relationship between social support and oral health behavior (OHB). MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Minhang District, Shanghai, China, between July and November 2021. 559 Employees from 10 community health centers were recruited. A five-part survey was used to collect data on demographic characteristics, social support, job stress, PBC and OHB. Descriptive statistics, independent-sample t-test, Pearson's correlation analysis, ordinary least-squares regression and the bootstrap method were used to analyze data. RESULTS: Social support was found to impact OHB through three significant mediation pathways: the pathway through job stress (point estimate = 0.033; 95%BC CI [0.004, 0.089]), the pathway through PBC (point estimate = 0.283; 95%BC CI [0.174, 0.416]), and the serial multiple mediating pathway through first job stress and then PBC (point estimate = 0.006; 95%BC CI [0.001, 0.019]). CONCLUSION: This study indicates that job stress and PBC play a serial multiple-mediator role in the relationship between social support and OHB. To ensure the effectiveness of social support intervention on OHB, workplace managers and employees should strengthen the motivators that could promote the reduction of job stress and the improvement of PBC.