Human Behavior

Opinion | Social Media and a Surveillance Society – The New York Times

To the Editor:

Re The Knowledge Coup, by Shoshana Zuboff (Sunday Review, Jan. 31):

While theres a whole lot of truth in Dr. Zuboffs epic take on big datas epistemic coup, her thinking reflects an underlying conviction that people can be cynically managed by repetitive exposure to machine-curated misinformation.

As someone whos often involved in the targeting and message-making side of both brand and political campaigns, I think the evidence paints a more nuanced picture that data-driven persuasion is generally limited to leveraging existing biases versus converting the ideologically unwashed. For proof, you dont have to look much further than the most recent election cycle, where Democrats, despite a major digitally delivered persuasion advantage, failed to convert success at the top of the ticket into a blue wave.

Its not that Democrats didnt have the ability to harness teraflops of surveillance-based insights as reasons to reject Trumpian allies and enablers. Its just that purple voters knew what they already knew and all the pejorative pixels, grievance-based GIFs and haranguing hashtags in the world werent going to tell them otherwise.

Take that into account and, tempting as it is, you really cant blame surveillance capitalism for the roughly 70 percent of Republicans who counterfactually insist on #stopthesteal. Theyd long since bought into Donald Trumps claim that the only way he could lose an election was if it was rigged.

Jef LoebNew York

To the Editor:

Social media are free; users pay for them with their personal data. Just as many apps allow users to pay for ad-free subscriptions, social media should be required to allow paid, data-collection-free subscriptions. Whether users will find this appealing, and whether they individually feel the harm of existing data collection, are open questions. But this could be a part of the solution.

Ron MeyersNew York

To the Editor:

The Knowledge Coup has classic complaints about business success from technology. Consumers and other businesses use whatever data they can acquire to succeed. And most do that legally. If not, then government and the courts must step in. But to limit growth because of size and effectiveness is not Americanism but socialism at best and must be avoided.

C.J. HoppinPeaks Island, Maine

To the Editor:

Shoshana Zuboffs analysis of the digital conundrum were in surveillance versus democracy identifies the 9/11 attacks as a pivotal moment when all manner of technological security was set free to keep us safe. Sept. 11 turned up the volume on the politics of fear to surveil and monitor not only terrorism, but also crime, drug use and even immigration.

Social control and routine monitoring by employers of workers, by parents of children, and by the police of everyone became institutionalized and even ensconced in popular culture, ranging from news to movies to music. The Trump presidency channeled the cascading fear with conspiratorial propaganda about rigged elections.

David L. AltheideSolana Beach, Calif.The writer is professor emeritus at the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University and the author of Terrorism and the Politics of Fear.

To the Editor:

One could also argue that information in the hands of many corporations affords greater safety to the public and civil liberties than its being just in the hands of the government.

Vaidyanathan RamaswamiBranchburg, N.J.

To the Editor:

Shoshana Zuboff has clearly identified the mechanisms by Facebook, Google and others that have privatized and monetized human behavior vis--vis their social network platforms and supporting algorithms that have damaged our democracy and others around the world.

What is incredibly ironic is the footnote on the web at the end of her piece: Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram.

Gene FischNew York

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Opinion | Social Media and a Surveillance Society - The New York Times

Human Behavior

Donald McNeil and Andy Mills Leave The New York Times – The New York Times

Two journalists responsible for some of The New York Timess most high-profile work of the last three years have left the paper after their past behavior was criticized inside and outside the organization.

In two memos on Friday afternoon, Dean Baquet, the papers executive editor, and Joe Kahn, the managing editor, informed the staff of the departures of Donald G. McNeil Jr., a science correspondent who reported on the coronavirus pandemic, and Andy Mills, an audio journalist who helped create The Daily and was a producer and co-host of Caliphate, a 2018 podcast that was found to have serious flaws after an internal investigation.

Mr. McNeil, a veteran of The Times who has reported from 60 countries, was an expert guide on a Times-sponsored student trip to Peru in 2019. At least six students or their parents complained about comments he had made, The Daily Beast reported last week. The Times confirmed he used a racist slur on the trip.

In their memo, Mr. Baquet and Mr. Kahn wrote that Mr. McNeil has done much good reporting over four decades but added that this is the right next step.

The statement was a turnabout from last week, when Mr. Baquet sent a note to the staff defending his decision to give Mr. McNeil another chance.

I authorized an investigation and concluded his remarks were offensive and that he showed extremely poor judgment, Mr. Baquet wrote, but that it did not appear to me that his intentions were hateful or malicious.

Days after that note, a group of Times staff members sent a letter to the publisher, A.G. Sulzberger, that was critical of the papers stance on Mr. McNeil. Despite The Timess seeming commitment to diversity and inclusion, said the letter, which was viewed by a Times reporter, we have given a prominent platform a critical beat covering a pandemic disproportionately affecting people of color to someone who chose to use language that is offensive and unacceptable by any newsrooms standards.

Mr. Sulzberger, Mr. Baquet and Meredith Kopit Levien, the chief executive of The New York Times Company, replied to the group in a letter on Wednesday, saying: We welcome this input. We appreciate the spirit in which it was offered and we largely agree with the message.

In a statement to Times staff on Friday, Mr. McNeil wrote that he had used the slur in a discussion with a student about the suspension of a classmate who had used the term.

I should not have done that, he wrote. Originally, I thought the context in which I used this ugly word could be defended. I now realize that it cannot. It is deeply offensive and hurtful.

Mr. McNeil concluded, For offending my colleagues and for anything Ive done to hurt The Times, which is an institution I love and whose mission I believe in and try to serve I am sorry. I let you all down.

The departure of Mr. Mills, the audio journalist, was announced nearly two months after The Times published an editors note on the mistakes in Caliphate. The note said the series, about the Islamic State, had put too much credence in the false or exaggerated account of one of its main subjects.

In an interview with Michael Barbaro, the host of the Times podcast The Daily, Mr. Baquet attributed the shows flaws to an institutional failing. The editors note and interview followed a monthslong internal investigation into the Caliphate reporting.

After the correction, people who worked with Mr. Mills in his previous job, at the WNYC show Radiolab, posted complaints on Twitter about his behavior toward women in the Radiolab workplace and in social settings.

In February 2018, two months before Caliphate made its debut, an article in New York Magazines The Cut on sexual harassment in New York public radio reported that Mr. Mills had been the subject of complaints during his time at Radiolab.

Women interviewed for the article said that he had asked them for dates, given unsolicited back rubs and poured beer on the head of a woman he worked with, and that he had said a woman in the office had been hired over a man because of her gender. WNYCs human resources department investigated Mr. Millss behavior, The Cut reported, and gave him a warning while allowing him to keep his job. In an interview for The Cut, Mr. Mills admitted to much of the behavior described in WNYCs human resources report.

In an online post on Friday, Mr. Mills said that his departure from The Times did not stem from the problems with Caliphate, and that leaders at the paper did not blame us for its flaws.

After the publication of the editors note, another story emerged online: that my lack of punishment came down to entitlement and male privilege, he wrote. That accusation gave some the opportunity to resurface my past personal conduct.

He wrote that he had told The Times about his past mistakes when he was hired and had received good reviews for his work at the paper. He also said he received a promotion in December. But in the weeks after the mistakes of Caliphate were made public, he wrote, the allegations on Twitter quickly escalated to the point where my actual shortcomings and past mistakes were replaced with gross exaggerations and baseless claims.

In the end, I feel it is in the best interest of both myself and my team that I leave the company at this time, he wrote. I do this with no joy and a heavy heart.

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Donald McNeil and Andy Mills Leave The New York Times - The New York Times

Human Behavior

Gut-Brain Connection: Specific Bacteria in the Gut Prompt Mother Mice To Neglect Their Pups – SciTechDaily

Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria, pictured here, is a common gut bacteria in both humans and animals. There are many different strains, some of which cause disease. Credit: fusebulb

Salk researchers make unexpected discoveries about how a particular microbe influences animal behavior.

As scientists learn more about the microorganisms that colonize the bodycollectively called the microbiotaone area of intense interest is the effect that these microbes can have on the brain. A new study led by Salk Institute scientists has identified a strain ofE. colibacteria that, when living in the guts of female mice, causes them to neglect their offspring.

The findings, published January 29, 2021, in the journalScience Advances, show a direct link between a particular microbe and maternal behavior. Although the research was done in mice, it adds to the growing body of science demonstrating that microbes in the gut are important for brain health and can affect development and behavior.

To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration that the intestinal microbiota is important for promoting healthy maternal behavior and bonding between mom and offspring in an animal model, says ProfessorJanelle Ayres, Laboratory Head of Salks Molecular and Systems Physiology Laboratory and senior author of the paper. It adds to the ever-growing evidence that theres a gut-brain connection, and that microbes are important for regulating the behavior of the host that theyre inhabiting.

The ways in which the microbiota can impact mental health and neurological disorders is a growing area of research. The makeup of the gut microbiota in people has been linked to depression, anxiety, autism and other conditions. But it has been difficult to study how individual strains of bacteria exert their influence on human behavior, a connection often called the microbiota-gut-brain axis.

In her lab, Ayres uses mice to study how body systems and the brain interact with each other to promote health. This includes focusing on how body processes are regulated by microbes and the ways in which microbes affect growth and behavior. In the current experiments, she and her team were investigating groups of mice that each had a single strain ofE. coliin their gut.Mice with one particular strain ofE. coli, called O16:H48 MG1655, mothered offspring that had stunted growth. Further examination revealed that the mice were smaller because they were malnourished.

We found that the pups behavior was normal, and the milk made by the mothers was of normal, healthy composition and was being produced in normal amounts, Ayres says. We eventually figured out that being colonized with this particular bacteria led to poor maternal behavior. The mice were neglecting their pups.

Additional experiments revealed that the mice could be rescued from stunted growth, either by giving them a growth factor called IGF-1 or handing them off to foster mouse mothers that could take care of them properly. This confirmed that the cause of stunted growth was coming from the mothers behavior rather than something in the pups themselves.

Our study provides an unprecedented understanding of how the intestinal microbiota can disrupt maternal behavior and how this can negatively impact development of an offspring, says first author Yujung Michelle Lee, a former graduate student in Ayres lab and now a postdoctoral fellow at Genentech. It is very interesting to me that establishment of a healthy mother-infant relationship is driven by factors beyond hormones, and that the microorganisms residing in our bodies play a significant role in it.

Ayres and her team plan to study how these microbes provoke changes in mouse behavior. Early findings suggest the bacteria might be affecting levels of serotonin, the hormone associated with feelings of happiness and well-being, but more work is needed.

Its very hard to study these relationships in humans, because the human microbiota contains hundreds of different species of microorganisms, says Ayres, who holds the Helen McLoraine Developmental Chair. But once we understand more about the mechanisms in animal models, we may be able translate our findings to humans to determine whether the microbes and their effects might be the same.

The O16:H48 MG1655 strain has been found in human guts and was previously believed to have no positive or negative effects.

Reference: Microbiota control of maternal behavior regulates early postnatal growth of offspring by Yujung Michelle Lee, Andre Mu, Martina Wallace, Jivani M. Gengatharan, Annalee J. Furst, Lars Bode, Christian M. Metallo and Janelle S. Ayres, 29 January 2021, Science Advances.DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abe6563

Other authors on the study were Andre Mu of Salk and Martina Wallace, Jivani M. Gengatharan, Annalee J. Furst, Lars Bode and Christian M. Metallo of the University of California San Diego.

This work was funded by a Crohns and Colitis Foundation Senior Research Award, National Institutes of Health grant R01 AI114929, and the Lynne and Mason Rosenthal/Leo S. Guthman Foundation.

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Human Behavior

Human behavioral ecology: The tight ‘evolutionary embrace’ of culture and genes – Genetic Literacy Project

[Research by Toman Barsbai and colleaguesshows] that adaptation to local ecological conditions is an important determinant of variation in human behavior in traditional societies.

The sample analyzed by Barsbai et al. consists of 339 hunter-gatherer societies that are most appropriate for comparison because their members lives and livelihoods are intimately constrained by the natural world. The authors show that variation in hunter-gatherer patterns for 15 behavioral variables statistically converges on the same characteristics that are most common in birds and mammals in the same local regions of the world. These traits include diet composition, mobility patterns, paternal investment, divorce rates, social group size, and social stratification.

In other words, in places where hunter-gatherers are more polygynous, there also tend to be more polygynous bird and mammal species. These patterns appear to be driven by ecological and habitat similarity, not by locational proximity per se. Not only are hunter-gatherers behaviorally similar in similar ecologies, but even mammals and birds in those ecologies tend to exhibit the same behavioral regularities as do the human populations. Hence, the study appears to validate the basic premise of the evolutionary perspective called human behavioral ecology.

Culture and genes are linked in a tight coevolutionary embrace, and this leads to complex patterns of genetic and cultural co adaptation.

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Human behavioral ecology: The tight 'evolutionary embrace' of culture and genes - Genetic Literacy Project

Human Behavior

Mindfulness For Helping Professionals: SIUE Course Cultivates Peace And Joy – RiverBender.com

Why is it so challenging to find lasting happiness? How can we develop practices that help create greater peace and joy? The answers to those questions and more are being shared in a new Southern Illinois University Edwardsville online course entitled Mindfulness for Helping Professionals.

The course launched this spring and will be offered again in fall 2021. Any undergraduate or graduate students who experience stress or challenges can benefit from the course content and mindfulness practices, especially those helping professionals such as nurses, social workers, educators and pre-med students.

Being human is stressful, and even more so during a pandemic, and amid social and political unrest, said Wendy Weber, PhD, professor and special education program director in the School of Education, Health and Human Behaviors Department of Teaching and Learning. On top of that, students are trying to juggle feeling isolated and disconnected from classmates and the campus community with online/remote instruction. Inherently, many of the concepts and practices center around how to feel more connected to your own life and feel compassionate and connected to other people.

Weber has practiced mindfulness and meditation for more than 30 years. She has taught mindfulness to students and educators nationwide and internationally, as well as implemented and conducted research on mindfulness in schools. Additionally, Weber is a graduate of the two-year intensive Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program led by world-renowned meditation teachers Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield.

This is a course for any students who want to cultivate more clarity, balance, kindness and joy in their lives, Weber explained. Many find some relief, reduction in stress, a sense of ease or more space to handle the ups and downs of daily life. Participants can expect to turn toward their own experiences in a patient and kind manner. This may be new to individuals who, like many of us, have been conditioned to be hard on ourselves, beat ourselves up for shortcomings, feel inadequate or otherwise.

According to Weber, the Mindfulness for Helping Professionals course helps individuals experience clarity around issues that have challenged them for years.

It is possible that with increased awareness and compassion, people choose to focus more on relationships that support their well-being, and move away from those relationships that do not serve them, she noted. This course invites students to create room for noticing and shifting habitual responses to people and events in our lives, to a more understanding, open-hearted approach.

The course is structured around three books that cover foundational mindfulness concepts, basic meditation practices, self-reflection assignments and group discussion.

Registration for fall 2021 courses begins March 29. For more information, visit siue.edu/online/online-courses.

The SIUE School of Education, Health and Human Behavior prepares students in a wide range of fields, including public health, exercise science, nutrition, instructional technology, psychology, speech-language pathology and audiology, educational administration, and teaching. Faculty members engage in leading-edge research, which enhances teaching and enriches the educational experience. The School supports the community through on-campus clinics, outreach to children and families, and a focused commitment to enhancing individual lives across the region.

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Human Behavior

A personal benefit of social distancing: lower odds of getting COVID-19 – The Ohio State Universi – The Ohio State University News

Considering the greater good by social distancing during a pandemic turns out to have an attractive personal benefit: A new study has found that staying away from others also reduces an individual persons chances of contracting COVID-19.

Researchers presented study participants with virtual behavior scenarios of various public settings a grocery store, a crowded beach, a crosswalk and asked them to place themselves or fictional people in those contexts based on their social distancing preferences.

Four months later, the participants were asked if they had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection or otherwise believed they had been sick with a case of COVID-19.

Statistical analyses showed that the more participants demonstrated a preference for social distancing in the scenarios, the less likely they were to have gotten sick with COVID-19. The studys implication was clear what was good for society according to public health advice was also good for individuals who wanted to avoid the virus.

The evidence from our work indicates there is value in socially distancing not only to reduce the spread of a virus within a community, but because it is actually beneficial for the individual engaging in the social distancing, said Russell Fazio, senior author of the study and a professor of psychology at The Ohio State University.

Theres a selfish notion to it all: Hey, its good for me personally. Im not just benefiting other people.

The research is published today (Feb. 4, 2021) in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers did ask participants to report how much they practiced social distancing in real life. But the team added an innovative element: virtual social distancing scenarios in which participants made in the moment decisions about how they would react in different situations.

The virtual behavior measure worked much better as a predictor of illness than the self-report measure, and there are a variety of explanations for that, Fazio said.

For example, some people may over-report their actual self-distancing behavior to provide a good impression to others.

If I like to view myself as somebody very conscious of the science and supportive of reducing the pandemic, that is also affecting my memory process when I try to engage in this reconstruction and provide a rating that represents what my past is like, Fazio said.

The virtual behavior measure, which required asking at a moment in time, in a concrete situation, What would you do? did a better job than an abstract summary report of someones past.

Fazios lab studies how personal beliefs and attitudes influence behavior. When COVID-19s emergence in the United States led to lockdowns and stay-at-home orders, his team agreed to devote their efforts to trying to understand social distancing behavior.

The entire lab group came to view the pandemic as a call to action for behavioral scientists because this was ultimately a test of human behavior, Fazio said. Rarely does a whole society get called upon to change behavior.

The researchers recruited participants from Amazons Mechanical Turk crowdsourcing marketplace. The sample in this study consisted of 1,885 U.S. citizens representing a range of ages, geographical locations and political ideologies.

In separate surveys conducted in May and June, participants were asked whether they had pre-existing health conditions or jobs that required them to leave home, and the extent to which they were socially distancing either at the time of the survey or looking back in time if they were responding after economies had begun to open.

The virtual behavior scenarios, initially created for a study of interactions with strangers, were expanded for this new research. Fazios team told participants the scenarios would be used to assess peoples behavior in common everyday situations, and how this behavior may have changed in light of the current COVID-19/coronavirus pandemic. Researchers instructed participants to view scenes of social situations and indicate how they personally, as individuals, would navigate them.

Ten scenarios were presented. Four situations assessed walking routes participants would take along a street or park path or in a library with people around, and which seat they would choose in a coffee shop. In six interactive scenarios, participants moved a slider to indicate how much distance they would want between themselves and friends, grocery shoppers, a passing stranger or several people standing in line; drew the path they would take crossing a crowded plaza; and placed their towel on a busy beach. Responses were compiled into a composite score for each participant, with a higher score indicating more adherence to social distancing recommendations.

Four months later, the researchers asked the participants if they had been tested for COVID-19 since they had completed the surveys and, if so, whether they tested positive or negative. Those who had not been tested were asked if they believed they had ever had COVID-19.

At the time of the follow-up, 199 participants reported either a positive test result since the initial surveys (85 people) or that they believed they had contracted COVID-19. The researchers measured relationships between the survey variables pre-existing health condition, working outside the home, self-reported social distancing practices and virtual scenario scores and the likelihood of contracting the virus, either based on actual positive tests or peoples beliefs that they had caught the virus.

Statistical analyses consistently yielded the same results: The more participants exhibited social distancing behavior, the less likely they were to have contracted COVID-19. The strongest evidence that social distancing was protective to individuals was found in the relationship between a low virtual behavior score and higher odds of testing positive for COVID-19.

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation. Co-authors include Benjamin Ruisch, formerly an Ohio State postdoctoral researcher now at Leiden University, and graduate students currently in Fazios lab: Courtney Moore, Javier Granados Samayoa, Shelby Boggs and Jesse Ladanyi.

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A personal benefit of social distancing: lower odds of getting COVID-19 - The Ohio State Universi - The Ohio State University News

Human Behavior

‘Bliss’ & ‘A Glitch in the Matrix’ question the nature of our reality – Denton Record Chronicle

After films like The Matrix and Vanilla Sky, Id be lying if I didnt entertain the idea that we may all be living in some gigantic computer simulation, experiencing a virtual world that we mistakenly think is real.

'Bliss" questions the possibility that we're living in a computer simulation. Amazon Studois

Are there higher beings controlling our fates, using us as lab rats to examine human behavior? Is there something more to dj vu? Are scientists, physicists, and philosophers noticing irregular patterns that present enough evidence to prove this much is all true?

What do I know? Im just a film journalist. However, whether I believe it or not (and I dont), theres no denying that its an endlessly fascinating thought trail to trek.

This weekend sees two films exploring the possibilities with varying results. One has the parts needed but suffers from one too many system malfunctions, while the other takes significant risks that, for the most part, pay off.

Owen Wilson and Selma Hayek appear as Greg and Isabel in Mike Cahill's strange and surreal 'Bliss.' An Amazon Studios release.

Owen Wilson and Selma Hayek appear as Greg and Isabel in Mike Cahill's strange and surreal 'Bliss.' An Amazon Studios release.

Owen Wilson and Selma Hayek appear as Greg and Isabel in Mike Cahill's strange and surreal 'Bliss.' An Amazon Studios release.

Owen Wilson and Selma Hayek appear as Greg and Isabel in Mike Cahill's strange and surreal 'Bliss.' An Amazon Studios release.

Bliss () - Writer-director Mike Cahill is one of the most curious filmmakers working today. Hes operating on a different level, sharing high-concept thrillers that use human drama to keep its narrative roots in the ground. Cahills underappreciated gems, Another Earth and I Origins, have the power to cause us to see our world in a new light.

His latest mind-bending love story, Bliss, starring Owen Wilson and Selma Hayek, could be viewed as a compelling commentary on addiction and mental illness, or it could be questioning our realityor both. As intriguing as the themes are, the film is too emotionally disconnected to make its big ideas land with the same impact of Cahills previous work.

Bliss asks: What if our suspicions about living in a simulation are real, and what if we could move between the world of reality and the simulation with great ease? This is precisely the state of affairs NeoI mean Dom CobbOops! Better make that GregThis is precisely the state of affairs that Greg (Wilson) finds himself in. After Greg encounters some rather bizarre occurrences, his world is almost literally flipped upside down when he meets the mysterious Isabel (Hayek), who reveals their world's true nature. In Christopher Nolan-like fashion, Isabel can move objects (or people) with a flick of her hand, leaving Greg to scratch his head over the consequences of these actions and this newfound place.

Many story beats are unarguably similar to other films. (Most of which have been called out already.) The films trailer alone makes it difficult to shake that it looks like a low-key version of a Nolan movie objects moving with character control, hopping between realms, a blue color palette, and a father just trying to get back to his kid. But where Cahill elevates the material to another platform is the notion of taking pills or smoking substances that cause your surroundings to take a new, more pleasant shape. Dreams become truth, and life is massages and yachts. Perhaps Cahill really is delving into something more honest, and this is the nugget that gives Bliss some flavor.

The connective tissue of these points of interest admittedly dont hold firm. You pick up rather quickly that something is off. Maybe its the grim tone, the lack of chemistry between the leads, or the brainstorming is too much on the front burner when it should be the characters and their relationships. Whatever it is, its clear Cahills reach exceeds his grasp. Hopefully, his next go will touch back down on Earth more often.

Rated R, 103 minutes. Available today exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.

A scene from 'A Glitch in the Matrix.' A Magnolia Pictures release.

A scene from 'A Glitch in the Matrix.' A Magnolia Pictures release.

Rodney Ascher, director of 'A Glitch in the Matrix.' A Magnolia Pictures release.

The poster for 'A Glitch in the Matrix.' A Magnolia Pictures release.

A scene from 'A Glitch in the Matrix.' A Magnolia Pictures release.

A scene from 'A Glitch in the Matrix.' A Magnolia Pictures release.

Rodney Ascher, director of 'A Glitch in the Matrix.' A Magnolia Pictures release.

The poster for 'A Glitch in the Matrix.' A Magnolia Pictures release.

A Glitch in the Matrix () - Rodney Ascher (Room 237, The Nightmare) is another filmmaker who causes me to lean in. His documentaries and visual essays are some of the most captivating works in recent years. And his next outing, A Glitch in the Matrix, is his best yet.

Like Bliss, Aschers film ponders and investigates life being a simulation. Information comes flooding in from the moment of entrance, and it reels you in entirely. We explore the commentary around detailed computer simulation theories, all through Zoom chats with avatars that feel plucked from World of Warcraft. (Yep. Some talking heads are computer-generated characters to make your trip even more of a knock-out.) Lawnmower Man-esque visuals and various movie clips populate the screen to illustrate narrative details in a fashion that feels nostalgic and futuristic. Look out for expositional fill-ins from a woman with a robotic voice, as if its an 80s version of the future.

Serving as the storys backbone, Ascher uses a 1977 conference with sci-fi author Philip K. Dick. During this lecture in France, Dick describes the visionary and mystical experiences he had in his life. The real hook comes when the celebrated luminary makes it abundantly clear that were living in a computer-programmed reality. Humor can be detected throughout Dicks work, and some devotees attending this talk chuckled at Dicks theory, but he was dead serious.

From there, clips from interviews with Elon Musk and Neil deGrasse Tyson highlight how they dont distance themselves from the same belief as Dick. Although most of the film's conversations seem like excited fanboys gushing about their feelings on the matter, Ascher keeps the conversation gripping and balanced, especially when he reaches a testimony from a Matrix admirer who turned a gun on his family.

A Glitch in the Matrix doesnt shy away from the flaws in this line of thinking. Some theorizers noticed peculiar coincidences and occurrences in life as evidence. Ascher might also be showcasing a pattern within the theorizers: How were willing to blanket our traumas and loneliness in any way possible. Deem all these ideas as nonsense or brilliant; its ultimately up to the viewer if you want to swallow the red or blue pill in the end.

Not rated, 108 minutes long. Now playing in select theaters and On Demand. (Not screening in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.)

PRESTON BARTA is a member of the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association. Read his work here, on FreshFiction.tv and on RottenTomatoes.com. Follow him on Twitter at @PrestonBarta.

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'Bliss' & 'A Glitch in the Matrix' question the nature of our reality - Denton Record Chronicle

Human Behavior

OSU study looks at the connection between kids and dogs – WHAS11.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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Human Behavior

When Kids Misbehave, ‘Verbal Reasoning’ Can Sometimes Backfire – HealthDay News

THURSDAY, Feb. 4, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Most parents know that child behavior experts recommend against spanking, but new research suggests that so-called "positive" discipline methods don't always work either.

For example, the common tactic of "verbal reasoning" with an unruly child "was associated with a mixed bag of outcomes, some positive and some negative," said study author Andrew Grogan-Kaylor. He's a professor of social work at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

"It seems to have a lot to do, as you might suspect, with affect [emotion] and context. You can deliver verbal reasoning in a blaming and shaming and angry way, and that's not going to be successful. But delivering in a loving and supportive way, that still seems to be successful," he explained.

So, what's a parent to do when kids misbehave?

Child psychologists have different theories.

Grogan-Kaylor suggests that the key is structure, open communication and developmentally appropriate removal of privileges. Another experienced child psychologist suggests it's practicing the behaviors that you want to see in your kids.

Grogan-Kaylor's team studied the issue by analyzing different forms of punishment for child behavior in a global sample that spanned 62 countries. The study included nearly 216,000 families, using data from the United Nations Children's Fund Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys.

In their study, the investigators expanded upon earlier research on negative discipline, and also took a more global look at the issue.

The findings confirmed that spanking was not associated with children getting along with others and also led to increased aggression and distraction.

As for verbal reasoning, the negative effects included increased aggression, likely in cases where parents used harsh tones and language, according to the study authors. A positive effect of verbal reasoning was that it promoted getting along with others.

The study also found that another discipline option, taking away privileges, led to higher levels of aggression and distraction.

It's not discipline at all that makes the biggest difference, Grogan-Kaylor said, but providing structure, communicating with your child and removing privileges in a developmentally appropriate way.

"I think it's these long-term supports of kids, creating this strong, loving attachment. There's actually a lot of robust research evidence around that," Grogan-Kaylor said.

"Telling children you love them, making it clear that you want to spend time with them, providing them structure, making it clear that you value their point of view and that you want to listen to them and you want to work with them, rather than simply telling them how to behave," he added.

Grogan-Kaylor said parents may ultimately need to make a decision about taking away some privileges for a developmentally appropriate amount of time for sibling fights. But, he added, "I'm a firm believer that engaging your kids in conversation before you get into family trouble, that makes a lot of difference."

Spotting your children being good and then praising them for it is very powerful, he noted.

The study was published recently in the International Journal of Behavioral Development.

Alan Kazdin's experience in child psychology has led him to an approach that doesn't focus on discipline.

"If you use corporal punishment, that's going to have horrible side effects. If you use time out, fewer side effects. If you take away privileges, even less. It doesn't matter. It doesn't teach the behaviors you want," said Kazdin, an emeritus professor of child psychology at Yale University in New Haven, Conn.

Instead, he said, focus on practicing the behaviors you want before the behavior happens; for example, a tantrum. Kazdin suggests families have kids practice a "good tantrum," which might be one in which the child throws the fit but without hitting a family member. Then, praise the child effusively in this practice. And encourage practicing again, but without nagging. Also, notice when the kid has that "good tantrum" in real life.

Kazdin said it's like playing an instrument: The more you practice, the better you get at it.

"Practicing literally changes the brain. The key to this approach is not praise. It's not rewards. It's getting repeated practice and all of these parts that you might see as gimmicks, which are actually parts of research, are ways to getting them to practice again," Kazdin said.

This isn't to say you shouldn't reason with your child, but don't view it necessarily as a way to change behaviors, he added.

"One of the weakest ways of changing human behavior is reasoning. To make sure the message is clear, it's really important for parents to explain things and reason with their child," Kazdin said.

Reasoning with a child "teaches thinking. It teaches vocabulary. It teaches self-control. It teaches restraint. It teaches abstract reasoning," he said, but "it doesn't change behavior."

More information

The American Academy of Pediatrics has tips for parents on discipline.

SOURCES: Andrew Grogan-Kaylor, PhD, professor, social work, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Alan Kazdin, PhD, research professor and Sterling Professor Emeritus of Psychology & Professor of Child Psychiatry (Emeritus), Yale University, New Haven, Conn.; International Journal of Behavioral Development, Jan. 13, 2021

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When Kids Misbehave, 'Verbal Reasoning' Can Sometimes Backfire - HealthDay News

Human Behavior

What To Consider When Starting A Career In Psychology – GirlTalkHQ

Psychology is the scientific study of human behavior, thought, and emotions. There has been a huge surge in interest in this fascinating discipline over the past few years, as it becomes ever more obvious how beneficial an understanding of human psychology can be in helping to navigate relationships, both in the workplace and within your own family and friendships. If you would like to take your interest further, read on to discover what to consider when embarking on a career in psychology.

Education

Psychology is not a subject that is habitually offered by high schools; however, you can study it as a major at college. One thing to be aware of is that, though it might feel very different to physics, chemistry, and biology, psychology is classified as a science, and as such, you will be awarded a Bachelors of Science in Psychology. You might be put off from studying for a Bachelors degree due to the difficulty of juggling study around family and work commitments. However, there are other options available, as well as traditional campus-based classes. Excelsior College online BS in Psychology will provide you with the flexibility to fit your education around work and family commitments.

Which branch of psychology do you want to specialize in?

There are several different branches of psychology that you could specialize in. Abnormal psychology, for instance, looks at abnormal behavior and psychopathology. Mental health professionals work in the field of abnormal psychology, helping to assess, diagnose and treat people suffering from a range of mental health conditions. On the other hand, behavioral psychology looks at how behaviors are acquired through conditioning.

You will learn how to use behavioral strategies such as operant conditioning to teach or modify behaviors, which can have a great application in learning and rehabilitative environments such as the classroom and prisons. Counseling psychology involves providing help to clients experiencing mental distress and who have a wide range of psychological symptoms without necessarily having been diagnosed with a specific mental health condition; this is the field that you will work in as a counselor.

Where do you want to work?

Thanks to the many different branches of psychology, there are many different settings in which you can work. You might prefer working in a laboratory setting, devising rigorous tests to support psychological theories that are then disseminated by practitioners. Or, you might want to help people to improve their lives and learn effective coping mechanisms, in which case you might decide to become a counselor.

Here, you can even decide to specialize further into offering counseling for a specific issue, such as relationships or addiction, or even using different approaches, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. However, if you would like to work in a clinical environment helping people who are severely mentally ill, as a psychiatrist, for instance, you will have to first complete a medical degree program and become a registered doctor, before completing a psychiatry residency.

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What To Consider When Starting A Career In Psychology - GirlTalkHQ