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Research shows that spreading conspiracy theories impacts leaders' reputations; yet, it remains unclear how leaders are viewed when their theories are debunked. Across four studies (N = 1437), we explored whether conveying a conspiracy theory, regardless of its accuracy, influences followers' impressions of leader dominance, competence and warmth. Participants evaluated leaders who either incorrectly perceived (false-positive) or incorrectly misperceived (false-negative) a conspiracy about the cause of a simulated crisis. During intergroup conflict, false-positive leaders were seen as less warm, similarly competent, yet more dominant than false-negative leaders. The dominance gap grew when the consequences of overlooking a conspiracy were more severe. Conversely, in the absence of conflict, false-positive leaders were perceived as less warm and competent than false-negative leaders. These findings support an error management approach to conspiracy theories: Leaders who spread conspiracy theories, even if later debunked, are still perceived as strong leaders, particularly in conflict settings.
Various pathological conditions can result in retinal degeneration and, in extreme cases, blindness. Unfortunately, current treatments for many of these conditions are not effective, and ongoing research encounters numerous obstacles due to the complex nature of these diseases, which involve multiple simultaneous mechanisms that cannot be controlled by a single factor. Therefore, there is an urgent need to propose and test new molecules that could exert protective effects at multiple levels. Traditionally, growth hormone (GH) has been viewed as a detrimental factor contributing to develop retinopathies. However, recent investigation has debunked this notion, revealing that GH treatment exerts strong neuroprotective effects during retinal injury. It is crucial to recognize that these actions are not exclusive to GH, since other related molecules may also be involved. Therefore, it is important to collect relevant existing evidence regarding GH axis translational research in order to understand its potential as a therapeutic option for retinal degeneration.
Scalp incision bleeds profusely due to its high vascularity. In other regions of the body, studies have debunked the initial concern of poor wound outcomes thought to be associated with thermal skin injury if diathermy is used to make skin incision and found that skin incision with diathermy led to reduced incisional blood loss. Studies on cranial operations involving scalp incisions in which incisional blood loss is more likely are scarce. The objective of this study was to compare the outcomes of scalp incisions using either cutting micro-needle diathermy (MND) or the traditional stainless-steel scalpel (TSSS) during craniotomy. The study was a hospital-based, prospective, randomized comparative study. Consented adult patients who had craniotomy were randomized into either cutting MND or TSSS group. Outcome measures were volume of blood loss per wound length and incision duration per wound length during scalp incision, 30-day surgical site infection (SSI), and scar appearance at 3 months postoperatively. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 23, and statistical significance was set at p -value <0.05. A total of 56 patients were recruited for the study, with 28 patients in each group. The mean age of the patients was 36.21 ± 13.90 years. The mean volume of incisional blood loss per wound length was 3.21 ± 2.06 and 4.65 ± 3.25 mL/cm in MND and TSSS groups, respectively ( p  = 0.053). In the MND group, the mean incision duration per wound length was 0.39 ± 0.18 minutes/cm, while it was 0.35 ± 0.10 minutes/cm in the TSSS group ( p  = 0.364). Five patients (22.7%) and four patients (16.7%) developed SSI in the MND and TSSS groups, respectively ( p  = 0.885). At 3 months postoperatively, the mean scar score was 9.06 ± 0.94 in the MND group and 8.63 ± 1.26 in the TSSS group ( p  = 0.255). The study revealed no significant difference in the outcomes of craniotomy scalp incision between the two methods of making scalp incision. The study concludes that the use of diathermy in making scalp incision is not inferior to the use of the traditional scalpel, and the method of scalp incision may be left to the discretion of the surgeon.
The ethics of slow codes has been debated for 5 decades, with most commentators opposing to it. The empirical evidence justifying or opposing the practice is non-existent. This paper critically reviews the most common and strongest arguments against slow codes, debunking them, including harm and deception. It then argues that slow codes, when they are done to benefit relatives, may be justified. It articulates conditions and sketches a protocol to be used by healthcare professionals to decide whether a slow code is indeed justified. Family-centered care obliges healthcare providers to care for patients as well as for the relatives. Slow codes may be the best way to optimize care for the relatives while respecting a surrogate decision-making process that stems from the principle of respect for persons.
The spread of health wish rumors (misinformation promising unverified solutions to health threats) poses significant risks to public health decision-making. By integrating rumor typology and the Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM), this study investigates how fear appeals amplify the Continued Influence Effect (CIE) of health wish rumors and their behavioral consequences. Through two experiments (N = 180), we demonstrate that health wish rumors under fear appeals sustain reliance on corrected falsehoods and increase purchase intentions by leveraging perceived efficacy. Experiment 1 (N = 54 undergraduates) employed a within-subjects design to compare inference scores and purchase intentions among three conditions: fear appeal misinformation correction, general appeal misinformation correction, and no-misinformation control. Linear mixed models revealed fear appeal misinformation corrections yielded significantly higher inference scores (b = 0.96, p < 0.001) and purchase intentions (b = 0.73, p < 0.001) than no-misinformation controls. Experiment 2 (N = 126 diverse adults) replicated these effects and identified perceived efficacy as the critical mediator (CIE: partial mediation, ab = 0.24, 95% CI [0.05, 0.46]; purchase intentions: full mediation, ab = 0.26, 95% CI [0.06, 0.51]), whereas perceived threat showed no mediating role. These findings challenge static rumor typology assumptions by showing that fear contexts override the reputed correctability of health wish rumors. This work reveals how health wish rumors can exploit the persuasiveness of fear appeal by inflating perceived efficacy. It also provides actionable insights for combating real-world health rumors, demonstrating that debunking efforts should prioritize reducing efficacy beliefs about health wish rumors.
Myths about gifted education persist widely among educators, families, and society, often leading to misconceptions that hinder the accurate identification and appropriate support of gifted individuals. Such myths may negatively affect educational policies and psychological well-being of gifted students. Despite the critical role these beliefs play, there is a scarcity of culturally valid instruments currently exists in Türkiye to systematically assess prevalent myths about giftedness. Addressing this gap, the present study aimed to develop and psychometrically validate a scale for measuring myths related to giftedness within the Turkish cultural context. This contributes not only to educational psychology but also to cross-cultural research on cognitive biases and social perceptions. The study was conducted in two phases. In Study 1, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed on data collected from 350 participants to explore the underlying factor structure of the scale. Study 2 involved confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with 249 participants to verify the factor model identified in Study 1. The scale’s internal consistency and reliability were examined using Cronbach’s α, ordinal α, McDonald’s ω coefficients, and corrected item-total correlations. Ethical approval was obtained and informed consent was secured from all participants. EFA results supported a unidimensional factor structure comprising 25 items, accounting for a significant proportion of variance. CFA confirmed this structure with acceptable model fit indices (χ²/df = 2.622, CFI = 0.946, TLI = 0.941, GFI = 0.982, AGFI = 0.973, RMSEA = 0.081, 95% CI [0.074, 0.088], SRMR = 0.095). The scale demonstrated strong reliability (Cronbach’s α = 0.884; ordinal α = 0.920; McDonald’s ω coefficients ranging from 0.885 to 0.894). Item-total correlations ranged between 0.31 and 0.64, indicating good item discrimination. The Myths About Giftedness Scale is a psychometrically promising tool that can effectively identify prevalent misconceptions about giftedness among families, educators, and stakeholders. After examining the psychometric properties of the scale on a more homogeneous and random sample, its application can inform educational practices and policies, promote accurate identification of gifted individuals, and support psychological well-being. Moreover, the scale’s cultural adaptation enables meaningful cross-cultural comparisons and advances research on social cognition related to giftedness. The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40359-026-04060-0.
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Advancing plant behavior research requires robust experimental design, falsifiable hypotheses, sufficient replication, and stringent controls. A recent study claims that Picea abies trees collectively anticipate solar eclipses via electrical signaling. Despite widespread media attention, these claims rely on speculative interpretations and unsubstantiated evolutionary assumptions. Systematic evaluation shows no causal link between electrical activity and solar eclipse, and an absence of reliable environmental cues or adaptive benefits. Instead, the elevated electrical activity is more parsimoniously explained by temperature shifts and lightning strikes. Moreover, the proposed mechanisms of intertree communication and gravitational memory lack empirical support and theoretical grounding. This case exemplifies how compelling narratives can overshadow scientific rigor, underscoring the need for critical appraisal and methodological robustness in plant behavior research.
Despite research highlighting the influence of rape attitudes and other juror traits on trial outcomes, few studies have examined such relationships within intimate partner rape trials, prioritising instead decision-making in so-called "date rape" cases. The current study, therefore, sought to investigate the relationship between juror demographic traits, their pre-trial legal attitudes, and rape myth beliefs, upon subsequent verdict decisions made in an intimate partner rape trial. The study adopted a mock trial paradigm, with methodological enhancements aimed at increasing ecological validity. Mock jurors (N = 435) completed a series of attitudinal and demographic questions online before observing a recreation of a genuine intimate partner rape trial and subsequently rendering their verdict. Results revealed that ethnicity, educational attainment, and rape myth acceptance, though not varied legal attitudes, were all significant predictors of the verdict selections that jurors made. Caucasian, university-educated mock jurors and jurors who rejected rape myths to a greater extent were those most likely to find the defendant guilty. Female jurors were also significantly more likely to return a guilty verdict before, though not after, controlling for variation in rape myth beliefs. These findings offer further support to the wealth of existing literature that suggests jurors' pre-trial rape myth beliefs, alongside other demographic characteristics, appear to predispose juror judgements and decision-making, and extend upon past literature in identifying a similar trend within intimate partner rape trials. Findings highlight the need for targeted juror reforms, such as myth-debunking juror education, before such recommendations are made. Before such recommendations are made, further enhancements to mock-trial procedures to maximise ecological validity, alongside greater research among genuine trial jurors, are warranted.
Analyse the perceived threat of COVID-19, vaccination coverage and associated factors among nurses in Barcelona (Spain) in 2021 after the start of the vaccination campaign. Multicentre cross-sectional study using an anonymous online questionnaire accessible from 26 February to 31 May 2021. Cherries guidelines were followed. Three hundered and eighty nine hospital and primary care nurses participated using an anonymous online questionnaire accessible from 26 February to 31 May 2021. The questionnaire included ad-hoc questions and the validated Questionnaire on the Perceived Threat of COVID-19. Univariate and bivariate analyses were performed based on the type of variable. Perceived threat was higher among female nurses, the 35-49 age group and the hospital setting. Being a woman, living with a dependent and believing oneself vulnerable to falling ill were all associated with this perceived threat. Vaccination coverage was high in general and even higher among women despite having higher scores for anxiety from thinking about vaccination. Most nurses trusted the efficacy and safety of the vaccine. No patient or public contribution. Despite having already been vaccinated, the nurses presented a significant perceived threat, with women with dependents feeling the most threatened. The attitude of the nurses towards vaccination was good since they trusted the efficacy and safety of the vaccine. Nurses are frontline healthcare workers (HCWs) in any pandemic, so strategies are needed to (1) help them manage perceived threat and (2) debunk false beliefs that prevent vaccination. Training might have been offered on how to manage the physical and mental overload of the pandemic and how to improve the consultation of scientific resources to obtain accurate, evidence-based information. Public confidence should be increased through communication and education, such as vaccination reminders and debunking fake news-social networks are a major channel among young people and useful for sharing scientific information. This study adheres to the EQUATOR Checklist for Reporting Results of Internet E- Surveys (CHERRIES).
Reducing rape myth acceptance (RMA) is essential to improve the treatment of victims and challenge the societal narratives that excuse sexual aggression. This study examined whether an educational intervention providing myth-debunking information could effectively reduce RMA. Participants first completed a pre-test assessing their agreement with a series of rape myth statements. They were then randomly assigned to either an educational intervention group, which received information designed to challenge common rape myths, or a control group, which received unrelated scientific content. RMA was reassessed immediately after the intervention (post-test) and again after a 2-week delay (follow-up). Results showed that participants in the intervention group exhibited a meaningful reduction in RMA scores both immediately and at follow-up, compared with the control group. These findings suggest that providing concise, evidence-based information may be an effective tool to reduce RMA over time.
Health-related myths spread rapidly and can have a negative impact not only on individuals, but also on public health. In the present research, we aim to investigate the extent to which the effectiveness of debunking health misinformation with the truth sandwich text format depends on the source delivering the correction. Further, we examined whether source trustworthiness and psychological reactance mediate this effect. We conducted two pre-registered experimental studies with samples representative of the German population in terms of gender and age (total N = 2,684). In the context of a hypothetical online information search on the topics of vaccines (Study 1) or nutrition (Study 2), participants' exposure to the corrective information to one of several selected myths and its source (general practitioner vs. health institution vs. company) was varied. The main dependent variable was health myth agreement after debunking. We found that the prevalence of vaccine myths was rather low, which methodologically limited our debunking efforts. For nutrition myths, the debunking was successful, and all sources were able to debunk misinformation, as there was no evidence for differences in their effectiveness. However, we found a significant indirect effect of source on myth agreement after debunking, mediated in serial by source trustworthiness and psychological reactance. This research indicates that the effect of the source in a truth sandwich seems to be less important if the debunking message is carefully formulated. However, the characteristics of the source can still exert an indirect influence on the recipients' response to the message.
In 1954, Dorothy Martin predicted an apocalyptic flood and promised her followers rescue by flying saucers. When neither arrived, she recanted, her group dissolved, and efforts to proselytize ceased. But When Prophecy Fails (1956), the now-canonical account of the event, claimed the opposite: that the group doubled down on its beliefs and began recruiting-evidence, the authors argued, of a new psychological mechanism, cognitive dissonance. Drawing on newly unsealed archival material, this article demonstrates that the book's central claims are false, and that the authors knew they were false. The documents reveal that the group actively proselytized well before the prophecy failed and quickly abandoned their beliefs afterward. They also expose serious ethical violations by the researchers, including fabricated psychic messages, covert manipulation, and interference in a child welfare investigation. One coauthor, Henry Riecken, posed as a spiritual authority and later admitted he had "precipitated" the climactic events of the study.
The science of parental monitoring has fractured into two opposing schools of thought. One school sees the importance of monitoring as thoroughly demonstrated; the other school sees it as thoroughly debunked. This paper argues that both schools are wrong and in truth the science of parental monitoring remains a largely unmapped frontier with many open questions worthy of investigation. We begin by explaining how the field reached this peculiar status quo and why it can no longer be abided. Next, we discuss the most important open questions - (1) does monitoring matter? (importance), (2) how does monitoring work? (mechanisms), (3) when does monitoring happen? (timescale), and (4) what does monitoring look like in an online world? (era). Finally, we recommend several lines of attack that could break the field's stalemate, heal the fracture, and deliver clinically meaningful advances. The time is now for fresh looks at parental monitoring.
Debunking is an effective means to mitigate the impact of health misinformation. However, even after receiving a corrective message, misinformation often persists in influencing individuals' judgements and decision-making. I review evidence on effective components of debunking in health contexts and propose three mechanisms for how expressions of empathy might help reduce the continued influence of health misinformation. Empathetic debunkings might decrease feelings of discomfort and increase believability of debunkings by (1) decreasing perceived threat to underlying attitude roots, (2) decreasing perceived threat to face or (3) increasing perceptions of trustworthiness. Moreover, I review pitfalls of using empathetic communication that should be considered by practitioners and further investigated in research addressing empathy to tackle misinformation.
Prior studies have identified key factors contributing to COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, including concerns over vaccine safety, potential side effects, and mistrust in the health care system. According to the World Health Organization, vaccine hesitancy is among the top 10 threats to global public health. Previous research has suggested that vaccine hesitancy is a significant barrier within the Hispanic population, particularly in Texas. This longitudinal study examined the relationships of daily stance, misinformation, and topics in vaccine-related English and Spanish Facebook posts with daily vaccination rates in Tarrant County, Texas, during 2021 and 2022. The goal was to identify the predictors associated with vaccination uptake and inform targeted social media interventions, with particular attention to the Hispanic population. COVID-19 vaccine-related English and Spanish Facebook posts from Tarrant County were collected for 2021 and 2022. The study analyzed 12,395 English posts and 1123 Spanish posts. Posts were annotated using GPT-4 for stance, misinformation, and relevant topics, including vaccine availability, safety, and side effects. Category prevalence was compared across English and Spanish posts and across years. Linear regression models were used to examine associations between post characteristics and daily vaccination rates in the total and Hispanic populations. Regression analysis identified distinct predictors of Hispanic vaccination uptake, including encouraging posts (P=.02) and religion-related posts (P=.007), which were not significant predictors for vaccination uptake in the general population. A substantial proportion of Spanish discouraging posts focused on vaccine side effects (13/70, 19%) and health system distrust (24/70, 34%), suggesting concerns that may be especially relevant within the Hispanic community. Predictors associated with higher uptake in both the Hispanic and total populations included posts related to vaccine availability (P=.01), vaccine safety (P=.006), and misinformation debunking (P<.001). Posts related to vaccine availability, vaccine safety, and debunking misinformation were associated with higher vaccination uptake. Encouraging posts and religion-related posts were associated with higher vaccination uptake in the Hispanic population, suggesting meaningful cultural nuances. These findings support the value of culturally tailored social media messaging in public health campaigns.
Numerous studies have shown that medical learners experience poorer wellbeing than their counterparts in the general population. Over the last decade, medical learner wellbeing has become front-of-mind for educators and administrators, which has helped drive systematic improvements in learning and working environments. However, as awareness has grown on the importance of learner wellbeing, a parallel narrative has emerged that questions whether these initiatives are impacting the development of medical competency. In this article, the authors argue that the false dichotomy of wellbeing vs competency stems from a historical medical culture that prized self-sacrifice and "toughness" as markers of competence. There is no doubt that professional growth in medicine requires elements of discomfort and uncertainty. However, the line between productive stress and harm has historically been blurred and pushed by medical training. This culture of "toughness" consequently reinforces a harmful hidden curriculum that dissuades learners from raising appropriate concerns about excessive workloads and mistreatment. However, the evidence is clear that enhanced learner wellbeing promotes competency and patient safety, rather than detracts from it. The authors, therefore, propose a set of actionable steps to support both the personal health and professional development of learners. This includes distinguishing between necessary and unnecessary discomfort, integrating wellbeing into continuous quality improvement, fostering open and safe dialogue between learners and faculty, as well as committing to a cultural shift in medical education that embeds wellbeing into structural systems and policies. Through recognizing wellbeing as an integral part of competency, learners can be supported to become highly skilled, resilient, and compassionate members of the health workforce.
The rapid growth of reports claiming the top-down synthesis of free-standing borophene from boron has generated substantial ambiguity regarding the true nature of the resulting materials. Here, representative sonication- and milling-based processing routes were investigated through multimodal structural, chemical, and optical characterization. Boron powders were treated by bath sonication in water, hydrogen peroxide, dimethylformamide, and isopropanol, as well as by ball milling under air and argon atmospheres. In all cases, no evidence of known borophene polymorphs was observed. Instead, the treatments produced fragmented β‑boron grains coated by defect-rich BxOy/B2O3 and boric-acid-derived surface species. Sonication promotes oxidation and hydrolysis, while ball milling induces partial amorphization and ultrathin oxide-layer formation. The observed photoluminescence originates from defect states in oxidized boron networks rather than from quantum confinement in putative borophene nanosheets. Processing in dimethylformamide can also induce solvent carbonization, potentially leading to misassignment of carbonaceous fluorescent species as boron nanostructures. These findings challenge current interpretations of top-down borophene synthesis and establish experimentally grounded criteria for distinguishing borophene from defect-mediated β‑boron-derived nanostructures.
Rapid advances in large language models (LLMs) have been accompanied by a striking increase in public and user attribution of mentality to AI systems. This paper offers a structured analysis of these attributions by distinguishing three frameworks for thinking about AI mentality and their implications for interpretation. First, I examine "mindless machines" views, focusing on architectural debunking arguments that claim mechanistic or algorithmic descriptions render folk-psychological explanation redundant. Drawing on Marr's levels of analysis, I argue that such arguments are often too quick, though they highlight an important distinction between "deep" folk-psychological concepts that are sensitive to implementation and "shallow" concepts such as belief and desire that are more architecture-indifferent. Second, I assess "mere roleplay" views that treat mental-state ascriptions to LLMs as useful heuristics akin to engagement with fiction. I argue that this stance is psychologically unstable in anthropomimetic systems designed to elicit unironic anthropomorphism, and theoretically incomplete insofar as roleplay analogies typically presuppose an underlying agent. Third, I develop a "minimal cognitive agents" framework under which LLMs may warrant limited, graded attributions of belief- and desire-like states. I suggest that moving from binary to multidimensional, continuous conceptions of belief can preserve distinctions between humans, LLMs, and simpler systems while better capturing emerging interpretive practice and its normative stakes.