Category Archives: Human Behavior

Human Behavior

Datelines Keith Morrison Is Getting Used to Podcast Stardom – Vulture

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Photo: NBC Universal

After more than 50 years in the broadcasting business, there are still some surprises to be had for Keith Morrison, the dulcet-toned correspondent of NBCs long-running newsmagazine, Dateline. For instance, the success of his first podcast, 2019s The Thing About Pam, which hit No. 1 on Apple Podcasts and will soon be adapted by Blumhouse Television into a limited series starring Renee Zellweger.

I hadnt given much thought to the podcast world because we were busy enough as it was, says Morrison, who began his career in radio. I was somewhat skeptical at the beginning that this would be such a good fit for us, but once you realize that youre not constrained by all the structure of a television show, you can get more into the details and down the rabbit holes. It was fun.

So fun, in fact, that Morrison has decided to do it again. His new podcast Mommy Doomsday which follows the bizarre story of Lori Vallow, an Idaho woman whose two children went missing in 2019 and were later discovered dead on her husbands property in 2020 debuts February 16 with two episodes. (Check out the trailer here.)

Vulture recently spoke with Morrison about Mommy Doomsday, his initial reluctance about covering true crime, and the one case that he just cant seem to shake.

When you sit down to review the vast number of cases Dateline has covered over the years to select one for the podcast treatment, what criteria are you looking for?Keith Morrison: I think the principles of a good story are all the same It needs a strong character who people are amazed by and want to hear more about. And also things that happen that you wouldnt think could possibly happen. If you can allow people to imagine what might be coming next, and that what is coming next is really quite remarkable, then youve got a good story to tell. Im just talking about it in terms of storytelling, the morality of these things is quite another matter altogether.

Is it just coincidental that the two podcasts youve done so far have centered around crimes perpetrated by women?[Laughs] It is, totally. Although, I dont know whether it is safe to say such a thing, but some of the most interesting criminal minds you run across are the women. Im from Canada, and people used to say and maybe still do that We dont get as many murders in Canada, but theyre so interesting.

Keith Morrison. Photo: Patrick Randak/NBC

For those who are unfamiliar with the particulars of the Lori Vallow story, what can they expect out of this podcast?This is a story about a woman who had been having trouble getting stability in her life, who had kind of bounced from one thing to another, one husband to another, one difficulty to another. Shed always been a religious woman. She seized upon a religious crusade that would give her some real purpose in her life, but it went off the rails, and it left bodies in its wake. Were still investigating just how many bodies that may be.

To your point, investigations are still pending, so her story really isnt finished. How then do you craft a compelling conclusion for listeners?I fully anticipate that therell be another trial before too long and would already have been by now, had it not been for COVID. [Vallows trial for misdemeanor charges is slated for August 30.] So you can leave things in advance as long as listeners or viewers kind of understand whats what and whos who and what happened. You dont have to see them carted off to prison. It sounds so cold. Its a weird thing. Can I back up for just a second?

Of course.Getting into this line of work, this storytelling about true crime, was not an easy thing for me. I had covered all kinds of stuff for a long time in Canada and the U.S. daily news for NBC Nightly News and the Today show and long-form documentaries on NBC, but also on the CBC for years covering politics mostly, but other stuff, lots of stuff, and I enjoyed it immensely.

And when true crime sort of took over the genre of long form in America, I was one of the early resistors. I didnt want to do it. I just thought, What? Its almost like youre intruding into a process, which its our right to intrude and look into it and see what happened. But I wasnt sure it was a good thing for us to do, necessarily. But as I have done it, it not only opens a window on human character, that is probably a uniquely suited way to get there. I dont know of any other way to get to the heart of what makes a human being, a human being. To dive deeply into a criminal matter that a person has been involved in. And the victims of these murders or whatever they happened to be, the families of those people, we dont talk to them unless they want to talk to us. If they want their privacy, we give them their privacy. But we find more often than not, theyre happy to do so. That its cathartic for them. That its a way to honor and celebrate the life that was lost. And so I feel better about it, but I will say, I never expected to be quite so fascinated about the many and varied facets of human behavior. How were all strange little ducks inside somewhere.

I feel like shows such as Dateline give viewers a level of transparency about the justice system that we maybe wouldnt get otherwise.Yes, I agree. Ive learned lots of things about the justice system I wasnt aware of.

You just celebrated your 25th year with Dateline. Im curious if, in all this time, youve developed a BS meter for when people are lying to you?Maybe to some degree. I was fascinated by the study that came out years ago on this very question. I interviewed this guy, and hed done a lot of research, and the evidence shows that an average college student can detect lying with a somewhat better average than the average detective whos been working in homicide cases. The research speculated that the reason for that is simply that the homicide detective thinks he can identify a lie, therefore hes apt to make mistakes when listening to the answers. Really, human beings are incredibly good at lying and not very good at determining when theyre being lied to. I think thats a large part of the reason people are so fascinated by true crime, because they are in a world where you dont know whos telling you the truth and you want to find out.

So would you say youre in between a college student and a detective?[Laughs] Im probably the worst of those.

Speaking of your long tenure at Dateline, is there one case youve covered that stands out as the most memorable one you just cant shake?Thereve been so many, there really have. The one I think about, its a story that really, nobody knows and hasnt been particularly celebrated outside of classrooms where they teach about it in some universities. It was a case the Innocence Project took up and never got the result they were hoping for.

The case involved a man named Billy Wayne Cope, who lived in a small town in South Carolina. His daughter was murdered and sexually assaulted one night, and Billy Wayne had been in the house. He called 911, and they decided he mustve done it. And though he denied it endlessly 666 times, his attorney would later say he eventually caved. He was not a terribly bright man, but he was a very sweet fellow. He was charged with the murder. He finally confessed. But a month later, they identified the DNA that was found in his daughter [from] another crime that occurred a block or two away from where he lived. And the person who was caught for that crime, it was clear as day that he also committed this crime. I mean, he left DNA in both of those people. But instead of absolving Billy Wayne Cope and charging the other guy, they charged him with conspiracy and tried them both, and accused Billy Wayne of helping him and watching, and being an even worse villain for that, even though theyd never met each other before. And so it was a total bogus case and he was convicted, sent away for life. All the efforts of all the Innocence Projects that got involved, because they wanted to free this innocent man, came to nothing and he eventually died in prison. So its a very, very sad story, but one that I cant shake. I think about it a lot.

Ive always been a fan of Dr. Seuss. One of my favorite books of his is Horton Hears a Who!, and the reason is because it exemplifies whats good about the justice system. A persons a person, no matter how small and is entitled to equal justice under the law. And that, I think, drives a lot of people who are in that line of work, that they would like to see justice achieved for everybody. And its a terribly imperfect system, but I think thats the goal people have, and the thing that gives emotional heft to a lot of stories, like the one about Billy Wayne Cope.

Listening notes for the top shows, from Vulture's critic Nick Quah.

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Datelines Keith Morrison Is Getting Used to Podcast Stardom - Vulture

Human Behavior

Falling In Love: Logan Ury Breaks It Down To A Science : Life Kit – NPR

Lucinda Schreiber for NPR

Lucinda Schreiber for NPR

Dating in a pandemic is no walk in the park. Well, actually, often it is literally a walk in the park but that doesn't mean it's easy. For over 15 years as a dating coach, people have come to me in a state of panic that their moment to find a match may have already passed.

I always try to convey to my clients that dating is a learned skill, with a step-by-step process and if you follow the plan, you will meet your future partner. Logan Ury has a plan and walks readers through every step of that process in her new book, How to Not Die Alone.

Not only is Ury a behavioral scientist for the dating app Hinge, she also has over a decade of experience studying human behavior at various technology companies, including Google.

In her book, Ury categorizes frustrated daters into three primary categories, and they each have unique challenges.

In her book, Ury spells out eight questions daters should ask after they meet someone. She says these questions can help people get in touch with how a date made them feel and stay away from a "checklist" dating mentality.

Each of these types has unique challenges and recommendations but some of Logan's advice is universal, regardless of your dating style. Here are three things you can do today to shift your love life for good:

Understanding your dating pitfalls and developing a strategy can help you move into the relationship you want. It might not come in the exact package that you envision, but a deep connection and relationship that can blossom over time is worth more than a million dead-end dates.

Damona Hoffman is a Certified Dating Coach and host of The Dates & Mates Podcast.

The podcast version of this story was produced by Meghan Keane.

We'd love to hear from you. Leave us a voicemail at 202-216-9823, or email us at LifeKit@npr.org.

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Falling In Love: Logan Ury Breaks It Down To A Science : Life Kit - NPR

Human Behavior

Think forecasting COVID in Colorado was tough in 2020? It will be tougher in 2021, experts say – coloradopolitics.com

A mix of policy and behavior helped Colorado dodge a bullet late last year, contributing to a cumulative 2020 COVID-19 death count far below some of the worst-case scenarios predicted by the state's modeling team in the fall, one of its members says.

But were other factors at play? Was the modeling off? Did Colorado buckle down on preventative measures in the nick of time? Was it sheer luck or perhaps a mix of factors?

It's impossible to say precisely, experts contend. But one thing is certain: The job of those who attempt to forecast the pandemic hasn't gotten any easier in the new year, given nascent variables such as the vaccine rollout and the development and spread of mutations.

Infectious disease epidemiologists are "trying to change their shoes while riding a bicycle in the middle of a hurricane," saidDr. Elizabeth Carlton, assistant professor at the Colorado School of Public Health and member of the state's COVID-19 modeling team,a multidisciplinary team comprised of experts at colleges and universities throughout the state.

Says Dr. Phoebe Lostroh, a Colorado College microbiology professor with a history of highly accurate El Paso County virus projections: "It's just as complicated as forecasting the weather, if not more so."

Wildcard: Human behavior

COVID directly caused 4,215 deaths in Colorado last year less than a quarter of one of the worst-case scenarios proffered by the state's coronavirus modeling team last fall, according to preliminary data released Friday by the state that is expected to be finalized later this spring.

A Dec. 4 report from the state's COVID-19 modeling group warned that deaths could reach as high as 7,650 by the end of the year if the state saw an 11% reduction in transmission control a measure that monitors how well Coloradans are adhering to pandemic-related behavior and policy changes and a 30% drop in social distancing due to the holidays. At the time, it was on track for 5,600 deaths.

An Oct. 28 report, just 15 days ahead of the state's all-time high in new daily diagnoses, warned that Colorado's death toll could reach as high as 17,500 by the end of 2020 with a decrease in transmission control due to the holidays. At the time it was on track for 7,600 deaths.

Explanations for the lower-than-expected death toll are complex, involving a mix of factors like policy, behavior, politics and perhaps even factors like climate and the health of Coloradans prior to the pandemic.

"We don't generate forecasts, we generate projections," Carlton said "what if" scenarios for a multitude of factors including how quickly the virus is spreading and how well Coloradans are complying with transmission-control measures.

As to why the state's COVID death toll came in lower than anticipated, "the week before Thanksgiving we saw this dramatic reduction in the amount of population mixing and the contacts people where having," she said.

Consequently, hospitalizations began to fall by early December, and deaths followed suit, with the usual lag of a couple of weeks.

"It was some combination of policy and behavior that started sometime in late November, and we're in a much better place because of it," she said.

Lostroh's take: "The worst-case scenarios took into account the worst possible choices, and I don't think we made all of those," she said, speaking of Coloradans on a whole.

The models being produced on a state level are "so much more sophisticated than what I'm doing," Lostroh said, adding that longer-term forecasting, versus the week-by-week forecasting she does, is "inevitably more inaccurate."

The Harvard grad's modeling is based off of two "very simple assumptions": One, that the "virus is spreading exponentially," and two, that "every infected person infects, on average, more than one other person."

Assuming human behavior isn't changing, "when these two things are true, my forecast has been accurate, for weeks and weeks," Lostroh said. "When either is not true, it's no longer as accurate."

The biggest wild card in modeling, Carlton contends, is humans behavior.

"I think the hardest thing to predict in any model is how people are going to behave," Carlton said. "It's much easier to predict how the virus is going to behave."

A race between vaccine, variants

To make matters more complicated, there are new variables that weren't present a couple of months ago. For one, there's the vaccine rollout, contributing to a rising herd immunity. And then there are variants like the highly transmissible and potentially more lethal B.1.1.7, which triggered alarm when announced by U.K. officials in December and caused strict lockdown measures in southern England. There is also L452R, first seen in Denmark last spring and recently linked to several large-scale outbreaks in California.

Both have been found in Colorado, though only 33 variant cases had been identified in the state, with 13 cases under investigation. Only 30% of the state's positive cases are being screened for the B.1.1.7 variant, and genome sequencing to confirm it is only performed on approximately 3% of positive tests statewide, state health officials cautioned in a Friday news release.

"One of the challenges for any modeling team is responding in real time" to changing factors, Carlton said. Are COVID patients spending less time in the hospital? Are deaths dropping due to advancements in treatment? What mutations are present in Colorado, and how rapidly are they spreading?

The state's COVID modeling team is now building vaccination scenarios into its models, she said, as well as variant scenarios. But both are a "moving target."

For instance, it's unknown how rapidly the B.1.1.7 variant is spreading in the state.

"Right now it looks like in Colorado it's not spreading very rapidly," she said, adding that in the U.K., the variant "held at low levels for several months and then increased very rapidly."

Why would it spread so rapidly there and not here?

"I've been banging my head against the wall, trying to figure it out," she said.

The further ahead one tries to forecast, "the more uncertainty you have and the more you have to make educated guesses," Lostroh said.

But one thing is fairly certain.

"I think it's a race between the spread of that variant and vaccinating people," she said.

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Think forecasting COVID in Colorado was tough in 2020? It will be tougher in 2021, experts say - coloradopolitics.com

Human Behavior

Researchers use VR to assess cognitive abilities in real world settings – News-Medical.Net

Virtual reality isn't just for gaming. Researchers can use virtual reality, or VR, to assess participants' attention, memory and problem-solving abilities in real world settings. By using VR technology to examine how folks complete daily tasks, like making a grocery list, researchers can better help clinical populations that struggle with executive functioning to manage their everyday lives.

Lead author Zhengsi Chang is a PhD student that works in the lab of Daniel Krawczyk, PhD, deputy director of the Center for BrainHealth. Along with Brandon Pires, a researcher at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, the team investigated whether VR can be used to effectively test a participant's executive functional load, or how much information a person can process to achieve a goal. Their findings were recently published in Computers in Human Behavior Reports.

The researchers adapted the Virtual Reality Functional Capacity Assessment Tool's (VRFCAT) "kitchen test", where participants plan a trip to the grocery store by comparing ingredients in kitchen cabinets to a list of recipes. Making a grocery list is an everyday task and should therefore accurately capture participants' daily working memory and performance. "Function-led tasks using VR technology allow us to maintain a balance between ecological validity and experimental control," said Chang.

In the virtual kitchen, 42 healthy adult college students memorized a slew of ingredients from a recipe list. The participants then navigated the kitchen to check for ingredients and tried to remember which ingredients they found. They returned to their recipe list, crossing off all the ingredients they didn't need at the store. Once they finished checking their grocery list, participants picked up their wallet and left the virtual kitchen.

To test their executive functional load, the researchers increased the number of ingredients and recipes to be memorized. Participants took longer to complete their grocery lists when they had to memorize more ingredients. This aligns with the researchers' prediction that participants' task performance would decrease as functional load increases, which suggests that this VR assessment can effectively test executive functional load.

Computers in Human Behavior Reports Volume 2, August-December 2020, 100035 Researchers were surprised to find that participants' working memories were not related to how well they performed the task. "People might spend the same amount of time on the task, and make the same number of errors, but they could have totally different working memory capacities," said Chang.

Upon further analysis, the researchers realized that participants were actually switching up their strategies as executive functional load increased. Some participants tried to memorize as many ingredients as possible before looking at the recipe while others frequently switched between rummaging through the kitchen cabinets and examining the recipe list.

This strategy-switching explains why the researchers did not see a relationship between performance and participants' working memory.

This study indicates that our strategies have a dramatic effect on our capacity. If you enter into a task prepared with a plan, you will get the most out of your brain and see much better performance. Participants' performance reflects their executive function and supports the idea that the researchers' VR assessment can effectively test participants' executive function load."

Daniel Krawczyk, PhD, Deputy Director, Center for BrainHealth

The researchers hope to use their VR assessment to help people that suffer from executive function impairments. "We used VR technology to create an executive function assessment that can be used in neuropsychology to understand how veterans and other clinical populations manage their everyday lives," said Chang.

Source:

Journal reference:

Chang, Z., et al. (2020) Functional performance in a virtual reality task with differential executive functional loads. Computers in Human Behavior Reports. doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2020.100035.

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Researchers use VR to assess cognitive abilities in real world settings - News-Medical.Net

Human Behavior

Entrepreneurial intelligence, a new form of resilience to face the crisis – Entrepreneur

February8, 20218 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

There has never been so much talk about entrepreneurship as in recent months. Even the Silicon Valley effect, a precursor to the global startup movement and open innovation, was small for the size of the Brazilian numbers in this pandemic period.

Brazil, from where I am writing this text, is already the second country in the world with the highest number of COVID-19 cases, only surpassed by the United States. In less than six months, more than 716,000 companies closed their doors. However, in the last four months, more than 580,000 new MEIs (individual microentrepreneurs, a figure created through a government program that allows the registration of companies in a more simplified way) were created; and if we count the number of unemployed, potential workers and underemployed they exceed 30 million.

These numbers are not even close to reality, as they are the ones that were officially recorded, but they represent people who need to reinvent themselves to survive the breakdown caused by the crisis.

Faced with the disruption brought to us by Clayton Christensen (father of disruptive innovation) as a phenomenon that transforms everyday life through the introduction of simplicity, convenience and accessibility - elements that define the coronavirus - a globalized chaos was created, manifesting deglobalization, localism, self-protection of countries, organizations, families and individuals.

If the chaos that Edward Lorenz speaks of is manifested by a small initial change in any event producing great unknown consequences for the future (Butterfly Effect), in addition to creating a great disorientation (since everything alters it, which is theoretically normal); It could be said that in the countries of the Southern Hemisphere, some of the poorest in the world, the chaos after the disruption would give rise to a world model like Mad Max (Australian film franchise based on a post-apocalyptic future).

However, what we saw was that the lack of reference to what to do, how to act and not being able to predict or even try to design possible futures, placed developed and developing countries at very similar levels.

In Brazil, inequalities, social differences, credit difficulties of small entrepreneurs have been accentuated. At the same time, solidarity, humanism, concern for oneself and for the other. Learnings that we must maintain in the post-crisis.

Chaos, instability, uncertainty, complexity, overt volatility, also create great opportunities. This especially for those who become determined leaders of "new" models of behavior, models of coexistence, business to lead a new normal, presented by Paul Glover as a different state that is established in society after a crisis.

In the face of chaos-generating disruption that disrupted the context beyond comparison for purposeful and synergistic actions that disrupt human behavior, how should entrepreneurs and / or intrapreneurs act?

If we were already concerned about soft skills, given that human behavior, especially in business, was becoming less and less human, what can we do to mitigate the chaos to create the minimum of the minimum?

Let's analyze the meaning of the word resilience , proposed in the title. I have some discomfort for the use of the concept, since I never believed that someone resilient can be someone transforming (resilience refers to something or someone who undergoes some pressure and returns to its original state).

Maybe that's why the transformations don't happen, because if you take a pressure and go back to the original state, you just held the pressure, but there was no change, that is, you did not learn. Or if you learned it, you didn't apply it.

For this reason, I feel more comfortable when I use the concept of neuroplasticity or even the concept of the moment about antifragility, because the restless human being will always learn something from change and will always try to solve the problem or fight against those who create it.

In this historical moment we need people who seek to solve the problem. That is why I made some additions to the concept of entrepreneurial intelligence.

Depositphotos.com

Entrepreneurial intelligence is the mixture of definitions of intelligence, emotional intelligence and entrepreneurship, being the courage and wisdom to act on opportunities in various unknown conditions, based on three pillars: mindset, opportunities and connection.

The mentality and lifestyle consists of the practice of curiosity, starting with what you have, resisting routine, being unique, added to being passionate about the solution and achieving by applying knowledge.

The practice of curiosity turns the entrepreneur into someone curious, restless, wanting to transform, to satisfy their emerging needs, to survive, to increase what they already have or to create new possibilities.

Starting with what you have is the portrait of the entrepreneur based on need, since he uses frugality to redesign his relationships with the context.

Resisting routine turns frugality into anti-fragility, since fragility is broken and robustness makes change impossible.

Being unique, given that the crisis turned everyone into live stars, created a hazy and fuzzy atmosphere, in which what I don't like became a routine of the day, creating an environment where consistency requires exhaustive mining on the part of those who need to act to transform themselves.

And, be passionate about the solution and carry it out, since we can, at this time of a pandemic, define people as complainants and entrepreneurs.

When we go to the pillar of opportunities, we talk about finding, searching, creating, designing, as well as acting and transforming.

The subject endowed with an entrepreneurial intelligence must find opportunities, seek institutions and their relationship networks together, so that, based on their skills, they can build possibilities for themselves and for others.

It creates opportunities when it manages to perceive solutions to the problems that surround it by connecting the variables presented by the context and simplifying the complexity, either to satisfy emerging needs and / or to create something new.

Draw the scenarios so that you can identify the best possible normals and that you can even be a promoter of the present and the future. Its design must be based not only on creating solutions that can generate value, but mainly that can generate a positive impact for the transformation, since this will contribute to individual, collective, social and environmental development.

Acting to transform is in the field of implementation, experimentation, leadership, the effective generation of the transformation process, guided by the wisdom and balance that arise from the daily exercise of emotional intelligence, to build the best decision-making, with the best resources and the search for greater impacts.

Last but not least is the connection with myself and with the other, in which our addition occurs in the connection with machines, with animals, nature and the universe.

The connection with myself is based on the search for self-knowledge and the balance of rational and subjective aspects, but in this moment of crisis and disruption it is based on emotional balance. In the search to appease the individual inner universe, creating moments and sensations of relaxation, well-being, balance, in the search to provide a better awareness and perception of their reality and the context in which they live.

The connection with the other can manifest itself through the connection with myself, through empathy, solidarity and contact with reality, listening to hear and seeing to observe.

The connection with machines, from digitization and automation, which were previously seen as a 4.0 concept, have now become one of the main alternatives to reduce human contact and at the same time the main alternative for human contact, given the need to use technological devices for communication, since confinement led everyone to experiment with information and communication technology, promoting hyperconnectivity.

The connection with animals, since for the loneliest the need for company, communication (although oral communication is hampered by the difficulty of coding a dog's bark, for example) and the affection of the pet makes us have moments balances and distractions.

The crisis sheds light on the need of human beings to take care of nature and the environment, since the coronavirus, in addition to depending on people in their homes, limited access to the outdoors, contact with nature, breathing air. pure, not even hear the waves of the sea. By being confined at home without mobility, consumer behavior was redesigned for what is really necessary, that is, the useful while eliminating the useless.

Depositphotos.com

Finally, a relationship with the universe, since we are not alone. And in these moments of crisis like this, many who are emotionally unbalanced began to reflect on the search for other planets or understand the meaning of space expeditions. But you don't have to go that far, just watch the children's movie Wall-E, or the documentaries about Steve Hawking, in which you will see how the universe impacts us.

Thus, combining entrepreneurship with emotional intelligence can be one of the ways in which we can create better normal futures, alleviating tensions and concerns of the present, acting from a lifestyle, which in connection can generate processes of transformation, generation of value and positive impact.

Possible challenges for the human being, which only require the exercise of balance, the search for the middle way to create solutions and opportunities.

Geraldo Campos is CEO of Sapienza Brasil, a Brazilian knowledge management company for companies and universities.

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Entrepreneurial intelligence, a new form of resilience to face the crisis - Entrepreneur

Human Behavior

Government: Types and Features – The Great Courses Daily News

By Jennifer Nicoll Victor, Ph.D., George Mason UniversityGovernment is a series of rules that constrain human behavior in all sorts of ways. (Image: Charles Toler/Shutterstock)What Is Government?

In the most straightforward sense, government is power. It is a person or body that has authority over land and people. To be a little more specific, a well-known American government textbook defines it this way: Government is composed of institutions and processes through which a land and its people are ruled.

What is understood from these basic definitions is that government, at its core, is a series of rules that constrain human behavior in all sorts of ways. Usually, these constraints are meant to help humans achieve some mutually positive collective outcome. But as is seen, people often disagree on what the rules should be, what the preferred outcomes should be, and how to develop the processes to achieve their goals.

Learn more about the system of federalism.

To understand what a government is, one can look at different types of governments and understand their features.

There are many types of governments. In order to distinguish one type of government from another, two basic questions need to be asked: First, who governs? That is, who is in control of the rules. Second, how much government control is allowed in a particular system? With these two bits of information, people can classify different types of government.

When one talks about who is in control, there are three examples.

In an autocracy, the government is led by a single leader, such as a king or a dictator. In todays world, one might think of Saudi Arabia or Cuba in this category.

In an oligarchy, a small group of people maintains power over the rules. This could be a group of military officers, landowners, a single family, or wealthy merchants. Today, one might classify Russia, China, or Turkey as oligarchies.

In a democracy, the populace has some influence over the rules and decision-making. Modern democracies include the United Kingdom, India, Norway, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, and the United States.

This is a transcript from the video series Understanding the US Government. Watch it now, on The Great Courses Plus.

When thinking about the level of control that a ruler has, one might think of constitutional, authoritarian, or totalitarian governments.

In a constitutional government, there are strict limits on what government can do and the means by which it can do things. Constitutions can be written or unwritten. The United States has a short, formal written constitution that outlines the basic parameters of power for its rulers.

By contrast, in the United Kingdom, there is no single document that forms its constitution; however, it is still considered a constitutional democracy because of a series of historical documents that make up its constitution, such as the Magna Carta adopted in 1215 and its Bill of Rights, adopted in 1689.

In an authoritarian government, there are very few real limits on government power, but there are frequently some other institutions that keep power in check. Examples of these might include a strong church or other religious organization, some territories associated with the nation that are considered to be autonomous, or sometimes labor unions or other strong organized groups of people that serve as a restraint on the government leaders.

In authoritarian systems, typically these other groups are not controlled by the government which allows them to serve as an appropriate check on power. Today, countries like Belarus, China, and Vietnam are thought of as authoritarian.

In totalitarian regimes, there are few, if any, limits on government. In fact, the government will often try to eliminate any groups or organizations that seek to challenge its power. Today, one might consider North Korea a totalitarian regime; historically, one would think of Germany under Adolph Hitler as totalitarian.

Learn more about the concept of civil liberties.

All types of governments have two features: means of coercion and a means of collecting revenue.

Means of coercion means that all governments have to have some mechanism by which they get individuals to go along with the rules. The United States uses a series of means of coercion, including threats of criminal or civil legal punishment to compel desirable behaviors.

In authoritarian regimes, governments might use threats of violence or dismantling of individual liberties to achieve compliance. All governments use some form of tools like these to enforce the rules.

Second, all governments need revenue because they require money for their systems to function. Therefore, all governments need some method of collecting revenue. The usual way of doing this is to use some combination of taxation and fines.

Learn more about civil rights.

After understanding what government is and the different forms it can take, there arises a fundamental question: Why do people need governments at all?

Throughout history, scholars and philosophers have developed different answers to this question. Back in the mid-1600s, the philosopher Thomas Hobbes argued that the purpose of government is to maintain order. According to him, without some form of collective action and order, humans would resort to violence as they fight for resources.

In the late 1600s, the philosopher John Locke built upon the Hobbesian idea and stated that all humans have a natural right to life, liberty, and property, with the ability to own property an essential part of being human and having liberties. He argued that the purpose of government is to protect the property rights of individuals.

David Hume, who wrote in the 1700s, relied on the concept of a public good. He used the term good here in the economic sense where good is a physical thing having two particular features.

First, a public good is non-excludablemeaning once it exists, no one can be excluded from participating or enjoying the thing. The second characteristic of a public good is it is non-rival in how it is consumed. This means that the amount of the good doesnt diminish the more it is consumed.

For Hume, the primary purpose of a government was to provide public goods.

A well-known American government textbook defines it as: Government is composed of institutions and processes through which a land and its people are ruled.

In an autocracy, the government is led by a single leader, such as a king or a dictator.

All governments need revenue because they require money for their systems to function.

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Government: Types and Features - The Great Courses Daily News

Human Behavior

Branjae teams up with Nathan Wright to tackle willful ignorance in new socially conscious single, Free Facts – The Black Wall Street Times

Free-spirited singer, Branjae, is unapologetic with her art. And through her collaboration with producer Nathan Wright, they created the song Free Facts, which is currently streaming on all music platforms.

Free Facts challenges human behavior, calling out our worlds comfortability existing in ignorance. Ignorance is bliss, meaning that a lack of knowledge makes for a guilt-free, delightful living.

To know or not to know, that is the question. And in so many ways, that sentiment revealed itself this past year as so many grappled with: believing science; accepting that racism is still pervasive in American culture; acknowledging that patriarchal norms work to diminish womens lived experiences; and, realizing that capitalism only benefits the rich as they became richer during this global pandemic.

In his book Metaphysics, Aristotle opens with a seemingly obvious truthAll men by nature desire to know. This desire for knowledge, according to Aristotle, is our defining instinct; it is the quality that sets our mind apart.

For songstress Branjae and her producer Nathan, crafting the concept of Free Facts was an ode to the cognitive dissonance that so many Americans live with and suffer from day-to-day.

Branjae is a triple threat: She sings, she acts, and she dances. Branjae is an artist that empowers women while inspiring hope for all. In addition to being a hell of a live performer, she is also an international hit with her song, Streetlight.

Branjae sings, Im a need the facts to set us free, in her collaborative effort with Nathan Wright. This idyllic concept of freedom, in which Branjae so beautifully sings, holds so many alternative realities. Freedom from the panic surrounding an unknown pandemic that has stolen thousands of lives. Freedom from police shootings of unarmed Black men and women. Freedom from the male gaze and a male-dominant world. Freedom from capitalistic systems that deem restaurant servers essential workers so the masses may indulge in bottomless mimosas during a weekend brunch.

Ignorance is not bliss, though most people still prefer an ignorance is bliss mindset.

Producer and Tulsa Native, Nathan Wright, is a multi-instrumentalist songwriter, composer, producer, and performer known for his genre-bending mix of musical styles.

He spearheads the dense and eccentric Count Tutu with Branjae, creates hip-hop dreamscapes with We Make Shapes, and contributes to Autumn Shades forestry sweetness. Since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, he has shifted his focus to the studio and has a slew of releases slated for 2021.

Ones mindset is a double-edged sword, your results are based on your actions, and your mindset determines your actions. The facts, or an awakening, no matter how uncomfortable, leads one out of ignorance.

Branjae sings, Tryna understand all this human behavior. Holding to the notion our beliefs might save us. Swearing by the ignorance just wont change us

Existing in a state of ignorance deprives ones chance of taking any actions that could ultimately lead to ideal results. In other words, ignorance holds you back from what you want to achieve by limiting your belief.

Free Facts calls for us all to raise our level of critical consciousness. Branjae and Nathan Wright musically raise awareness around the dangers that latch onto a decision to remain comfortable.

The lyrical spark that is Free Facts is a nudge to the world that life is a journey of learningin the long term, real fulfillment and satisfaction in life comes from accepting the facts that are free for consumption.

The Black Wall Street Times has the honor of releasing the official lyric video for Branjae and Wrights collaborative project, Free Facts. The artists believe the listener must understand the lyrics and connect to a message in the song. Knowing what is being spoken is the doorway to understanding it, Branjae says.

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Branjae teams up with Nathan Wright to tackle willful ignorance in new socially conscious single, Free Facts - The Black Wall Street Times

Human Behavior

COVID-19 outbreak in Patapsco Residence Hall | The Retriever – The Retriever

Patapsco Hall identified seven positive COVID-19 cases on Feb. 3. Photo from The Retriever Archives

The University of Maryland, Baltimore County saw an outbreak of seven positive COVID-19 cases in the Patapsco residence hall on Wednesday, Feb. 3. In response, the university placed the entire dorm on a stay in room designation and distributed self-swab COVID-19 tests to all residents by 9 a.m. on Feb 4. to complete by 11:30 a.m. Residents who have not received their results will stay in their rooms while those who tested negative are being released from the stay in room guidance. Students who already tested positive will continue their 10 day isolation period.

We dont have all the results yet but what we are seeing has us optimistic that there has not been additional community spread, said Director of Community Engagement Marie Lilly regarding the results they were receiving on Feb. 5.

UMBC and the Maryland Department of Health define an outbreak as five or more lab-confirmed positive COVID-19 cases who are epidemiologically linked and who have symptoms within a 14-day period. Epidemiologically linked cases are cases where the spread of COVID-19 can be traced back to contact between positive individuals or inadvertent contact by living or working in the same building. Vice President of Student Affairs Dr. Nancy Young stated that three of the seven positive cases were connected through contact tracing, indicating that they were in contact with each other for over 15 minutes, while the remaining five were not direct contacts.

Close contacts of all seven positive individuals are currently undergoing the seven day minimum quarantine period. They will continue to do so for 10 days unless their test results from day five come back negative.

While most of the positive cases were not from close contact with other positive individuals, Young explained that the university wanted to be overly cautious when handling the outbreak. In hopes of getting ahead of any further transmission, Young and the rest of UMBCs COVID-19 Response Team decided that requiring everyone to stay in their rooms and testing the entire dorm was the best course of action. Additionally, the Baltimore County Health Department assigned someone to work with the university throughout the outbreak.

Based on the contact tracing done by the university, these positive cases are not a result of negligent behavior like attending a party. Instead, Young explained they are from small groups of students gathering in enclosed spaces like lounges, elevators and cars.

The best of people get bored and want to do things that are human, said Young. Were seeing really human behaviors [and] we just need to educate people a little more about what closed spaces are.

Young emphasized that there is no shame in students need to see their friends and no shame in testing positive for COVID-19.

No one can keep from getting the virus when youre living your daily life, said Young.

However, she advised that students should do everything to ensure they act with caution and safety, even with friends and family they trust.

Since you cant tell [that someone has COVID-19] by looking at [them], we have to follow the rules with everyone, said Young. Most cars never hit us, but we still look both ways when we cross the street, every time.

Young stated that double-masking, rolling the windows down in cars and social distancing even if you are with friends are good practices for students to adopt.

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COVID-19 outbreak in Patapsco Residence Hall | The Retriever - The Retriever

Human Behavior

Effects of a dietary modification intervention on menstrual pain and urinary BPA levels: a single group clinical trial – BMC Blogs Network

Design

This study utilized a single-group pretest and repeated posttest experimental design. The dependent variables were measured three times at intervals of 46weeks, depending upon each participants menstrual cycle (Fig.1).

Research process and timeline of data collection

Volunteers were recruited by a research assistant after flyers were posted throughout a college dormitory located in W city, Korea. Women were included if they (1) reported a score of 5 or higher on a menstrual pain scale of 10 points, (2) had not been diagnosed with any gynecologic diseases, (3) lived in a dormitory, and (4) voluntarily agreed to participate in the intervention involving collection of urine samples. Each woman with an intention to participate was informed by the research assistant to select one of three slots that would be within a week after their period, keeping in mind individual differences in the menstrual cycle. The participants were composed of nursing students in their sophomore and junior years, for whom participation in this trial was feasible and accessible, particularly for dropping off the fresh urine samples.

The study sample size was determined considering a one-tailed, Wilcoxon signed rank test, a type I error of 0.05, a statistical power of 0.80, and an effect size of 0.50. Using G*Power 3.1.9.2, this study required a total of 28 participants. Initially, 32 students were enrolled, anticipating a 10% attrition rate, and two students discontinued participation during the intervention period due to temporary withdrawal from school. Thus, there were 30 participants.

The intervention involved dietary modifications targeting reduction of fast/processed food consumption. It was composed of three parts: (1) small-group education (2) follow-up monitoring, and (3) peer support via social network communication (Table 1).

To ensure feasibility of the intervention, three groups were established and the participants selected one of the intervention slots depending upon their menstrual cycle; thus, each group was composed of 8, 9, and 13 participants, respectively. All participants received all three parts of the intervention.

The small-group education consisted of a 90-min session, which included information about EDCs and their impacts on womens reproductive health problems, self-appraisal of exposure to EDCs, recommendations for restricting EDC intake, and a self-contract. The education was provided to each group in a seminar room available for audiovisual media services by a nurse interventionist who had a masters degree and was blind to the study purpose. She was trained by the research team to deliver the educational content to each of the small groups. As human behavior is habitual and guided by automatic cognitive processes, knowledge and information were assumed to lead the women to act to protect themselves from exposure to EDCs.

Follow-up monitoring was conducted by a research assistant during the next 4weeks covering the average interval of a menstrual cycle. Four-week follow-ups were assumed to be necessary to change the individuals longstanding dietary habits [27, 28]. The participants in each group were monitored how well they adhered to the dietary modification intervention. Participants sent a weekly checklist to the assigned group assistant every Sunday. Then the research assistant replied with encouragement and praise after confirmation that participants had filled out the checklist. The checklist developed for this study was provided as Additional file 1.

Peer support via social network communication was composed of sharing their experiences and providing each other with emotional support within each small group. Peer support was planned based on a previous finding that peer recommendations positively influenced pro-environmental health behaviors in young women [28].

The outcomes measured included menstrual pain and urinary BPA levels.

Menstrual pain was measured by a 10-point pain scale to indicate the maximum pain level experienced during their menstrual cycles. At baseline and after three consecutive menstrual cycles, women marked their perceived degree of pain on a visual analogue scale (1=no pain to 10=the worst possible pain) and returned it to the research team with the urine specimens. The menstrual pain recording sheet developed for this study was provided as Additional file 2.

Urinary BPA levels were measured because it has been used as a reliable method to monitor human intake of BPA [25, 29, 30]. The measurements were made four times, at baseline before the intervention and for three menstrual cycles after the intervention. To collect the urine samples, BPA-free specimen tubes labeled with the participants identification number and the order of the cycle were distributed to the participants at baseline data collection. Women were advised to obtain at least 2mL of the first morning midstream urine, collected at their earliest convenience within one week after their period ended, and then to submit it to the research assistant that morning. Since all the participants resided in a campus dormitory, they dropped the samples at the office, which was about a 5-min walk from their dormitory, and it was then immediately frozen. As urinary BPA levels were not expected to show any significant difference according to the time lapsed from collection to analysis [31], the urine specimens were frozen until 30 samples were collected, after which the samples were sent to the Institute for Life & Environmental Technology for analysis. Urinary BPA levels were analyzed using high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (a 6410b/Agilent; Agilent, Santa Clara, CA, USA) with corrected creatinine (Cr) values. The research team was blinded to the results until the specimens from the third cycle were analyzed to avoid possible interference with the participants.

When the participants were invited to the educational component of the intervention, they were asked to provide a urine sample and to assess their menstrual pain as baseline data before starting the education session. After the session ended, they were provided three urine collection tubes and a sheet for recording menstrual pain for three consecutive menstrual cycles to take home. The sheet for recording menstrual pain and the urine collection tubes were delivered to the research office within a week after each of the three menstrual cycles during the study. Participants were also asked to fill out a checklist assessing their adherence to the dietary modification intervention every Sunday during the 4weeks after the intervention. The participants e-mailed the checklist or sent it through a social networking service to the research assistant for each of the three groups. Study data were collected between December 2017 and May 2018.

SAS version 9.4 and R version 3.6.3 were utilized with a significance level of less than 0.05. As descriptive statistics, median (minimum to maximum score) values were calculated. First, to examine the effects of the intervention on menstrual pain and urinary BPA levels at the first, second, and third menstrual cycles, the Friedman test was conducted. Second, to identify whether there were any significant differences in menstrual pain and urinary BPA levels from pre-intervention to the first, second, and third menstrual cycles according to adherence levels, the Wilcoxon signed-rank test was conducted. The Bonferroni correction was also applied to control for the increased risk of type I error due to multiple comparisons.

The degree of adherence was measured by the dietary modification checklist. It contained five items (cup noodles, instant food, delivery food with a disposable container, microwaving food in a plastic container, and using a paper cup for hot beverages and tea). Responses for each item were coded as 1 if a participant indicated that she had not engaged in the corresponding behavior at all, 2 for a frequency of 12 times/week, 3 for a frequency of 34 times/week, 4 for a frequency of 56 times/week, and 5 for a frequency of every day. When comparing scores between the baseline and the fourth week after the intervention, if intake or usage was reduced, it was coded as 1, whereas a score of 0 was assigned for items with the same or higher scores. The scores for changes in the five items were then summed to yield a score ranging from 0 to 5 points. Based on the median score, participants with a score of 3, 4, and 5 were classified as the high-adherence group and those with a score of 0, 1, and 2 were classified as the low-adherence group.

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Effects of a dietary modification intervention on menstrual pain and urinary BPA levels: a single group clinical trial - BMC Blogs Network

Human Behavior

OSU study looks at the connection between kids and dogs – KGW.com

Researchers looked at bond quality between dogs and kids compared to dogs and adults, along with the social and emotional benefits for both.

CORVALLIS, Ore. If you have kids at home, your parental patience might be running a little thin. Maybe it was gone a while ago. Dr. Monique Udell, an associate professor at Oregon State University and animal behaviorist, recently studied and was the lead author of an article looking at the connection between the family dog and the kids in the house.

So the study is part of a broader program where we're looking at the effectiveness of animal-assisted interventions with children with and without disabilities and their family dog, she said. Our goal in the current study was to try to understand how dogs view their children, and specifically we are interested in to what extent dogs in a household were matching the behavior of the child.

For the study, researchers recruited 30 kids aged 8 to 17, of which 83% had a developmental disability. Video recorded experiments were conducted to look at how the dog would follow as the child walked in along a path.

We know that dogs do this with their adult owners, that as their adult owners are walking around the house or engaging in their daily tasks, or even going on a walk outside, they're dogs tend to match pace," Udell said. "They're close by their owners in many cases and they tend to walk in the same direction. But we'd never really evaluated this with kids before, and so we were curious whether dogs were sort of matching the children's behavior in the same way that they interact with adults.

They found that dogs exhibited behavioral synchronization with the children at a higher rate than would be expected by chance for all three variables. During their assessments, they found:

While child-dog synchrony occurred more often that what would be expected by chance, those percentages are all lower than what other researchers have found when studying interactions between dogs and adults in their household.

Those studies found active synchrony 81.8% of the time, but at 49.1% with shelter dogs. They found "proximity 72.9% of the time, and 39.7% with shelter dogs. No studies on dog-human behavioral synchronization have previously assessed body orientation.

Dogs are attending to what children are doing even sometimes at a very young age, and that the children are engaging with the dogs in ways that that really show that they should be more engaged in training and caretaking, said Udell.

The OSU researchers are conducting more research to better understand factors that contribute to differences in bond quality between dogs and children compared to dogs and adults, including participation in animal-assisted interventions and increasing the childs responsibility for the dogs care.

We bring these animals into our household, because we want that affiliation and we want those benefits and I think for a lot of people that is the outcome," Udell said, "So they get an animal they have this additional bond with and it can lead to stress-reducing benefits or higher activity level. Maybe you're going to walk the dog more, play with the dog more, so can be a really great thing.

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Dogs synchronize their behavior with the children in their family, but not as much as they do with adults, a new study from Oregon State University researchers found.

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OSU study looks at the connection between kids and dogs - KGW.com