PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

The first step to change: Focusing on the negative

2011-11-15
(Press-News.org) If you want people to change the current system, or status quo, first you have to get them to notice what's wrong with it. That's the idea behind a new study to be published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, which finds that people pay attention to negative information about the system when they believe the status quo can change.

"Take America's educational system. You could find some flaws in that system," says India Johnson, a graduate student at Ohio State University who did the new study with Professor Kentaro Fujita. "But we have to live with it every day, so people tend to focus on the positive and reinforce the system. Sometimes, though, people are motivated to change things—that's what brought about the U.S. civil rights movement and the changes in Tunisia and Egypt this year, for example.

"In order to actually change the system, you've got to know what's wrong with it," Johnson says. So she wondered, "How can we get people to stop looking at the positive information and kind of shift gears and focus on the negative information?" Psychological scientists have found that people who want to change—to do better at work, for example—are willing to take the short-term pain of hearing negative information about themselves, if they actually believe that bearing this pain will actually help them improve in the long run. Johnson wondered if the same was true for thinking about the whole social system.

In one experiment, students started by reading one of two scenarios about a student who was unhappy with the freshman orientation at OSU. Some participants read that he had successfully improved the system; others read that he'd failed, although he still believed in change. Then each participant was told that the Department of Education had published an external review of the university, and they were given a choice between reading a section of the report that focused on the university's strengths or a section on its weaknesses.

Participants who had read a paragraph about change were more likely to want the negative information about the university, while others preferred the report on positive information. Other experiments found that people were more willing to read negative information if it came from a diagnostic and therefore, trustworthy source, and if it was about their own university, rather than another one nearby.

"In order for people to feel like they can actually affect the world and actually do something, they have to view the world as changeable," Johnson says. "If you want people to be able to make that leap, you have to first get them to that point. Then they'll be willing to seek out the negative information." Of course, there are more steps to changing the system than just finding out what's wrong with it. "Even after you get the negative information, you might say, this is too much. I can't do anything about it," Johnson says. She plans to do more research on the next steps to bringing about social change.

### For more information about this study, please contact: India R. Johnson at johnson.3338@osu.edu.

The APS journal Psychological Science is the highest ranked empirical journal in psychology. For a copy of the article "Change we can believe in: Using perceptions of changeability to promote system change over system justification motives in information search" and access to other Psychological Science research findings, please contact Divya Menon at 202-293-9300 or dmenon@psychologicalscience.org.


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Erectile dysfunction increases with use of multiple medications

2011-11-15
PASADENA, Calif. -- The use of multiple medications is associated with increased severity of erectile dysfunction, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published online in the British Journal of Urology International. This study surveyed 37,712 ethnically diverse men from Southern California and found that men taking various medications are likely to have more severe ED. This was part of the California Men's Health Study, a multiethnic cohort of men ages 46 to 69 who are members of Kaiser Permanente in California. Information about medication use between 2002 and ...

Vascular risk linked to long-term antiepileptic drug therapy

2011-11-15
New research reveals that patients with epilepsy who were treated for extended periods with older generation antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) may be at increased risk for developing atherosclerosis, a common disorder known as hardening of the arteries. According to the findings now available in Epilepsia, the journal of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE), the vascular risk is significantly associated with the duration of AED monotherapy. While the majority of epilepsy patients have good results with treatment, more than 30% of patients continue to have seizures ...

Risk of Injury from Workplace Violence is Serious Issue in New Jersey and Nationwide

2011-11-15
Workplace violence is a serious issue in New Jersey and across the country. Recently adopted federal guidelines attempt to address the problem more comprehensively than in the past. In September 2011, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the agency responsible for setting and enforcing standards for workplace safety, issued a directive entitled Policies and Procedures for Investigating and Inspecting Incidents of Workplace Violence. The new directive sheds light on how widespread the problem of workplace violence has become, identifies particularly ...

New hi-tech survey accelerates collection of vaccination data

2011-11-15
New technology now makes it possible to collect 'near real-time' data about whether people are having any side effects from vaccination. By studying people who received the 2009-10 swine flu vaccination in Scotland, researchers showed that this rapid reporting can add another layer of safety to future vaccination campaigns. In addition, the data collected revealed no significant safety issues in patients exposed to the vaccine. The project's report has just been published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. In 2009, the UK Government recommended that some ...

New study finds that PROMETAT, a controversial methamphetamine treatment program, is ineffective

2011-11-15
A recent study has found that PROMETAT, a popular but controversial treatment for methamphetamine addiction, is no more effective than placebo in reducing methamphetamine use, keeping users in treatment, or reducing cravings for methamphetamine. The study was funded by Hythiam, the company that owns the PROMETAT protocol, and is published online today in the scientific journal Addiction. Methamphetamine, also known as meth, crystal meth, or ice, is the second most abused illicit drug in the world (cannabis is first), with 15-16 million regular users. The United States ...

Convex Mirrors Now Required on Registered Trucks in NYC

2011-11-15
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently signed a law requiring large trucks registered in New York City to have convex mirrors on the front of the vehicle. Cuomo believes the convex mirrors will help truck operators see pedestrians or other objects directly in front of them in order to provide improved safety for pedestrians. The new law is meant to eliminate blind spots for larger vehicles. Trucks with a maximum weight of 26,000 pounds will be required to add the crossover mirrors. The law has been discussed several times in the past, but finally got the boost it needed ...

Moderate drinking and cardiovascular health: here comes the beer

2011-11-15
Beer could stand up alongside wine regarding positive effects on cardiovascular health. This is the conclusion of a study conducted by Research Laboratories at the Fondazione di Ricerca e Cura "Giovanni Paolo II", in Campobasso, Italy. Both for wine and beer the key is moderate and regular drinking. The research, published today on line by the European Journal of Epidemiology, using the statistic approach of meta-analysis, pooled different scientific studies conducted worldwide in previous years to achieve a general result. This way it has been possible to examine data ...

Foresters UK Create Christmas Magic for Underprivileged Children

2011-11-15
Every year, there are children across the UK who wake up on Christmas morning with nothing. Foresters UK, part of the international financial services organization, is proud to once again sponsor Bauer Radio's Cash for Kids Christmas Toy Appeal in 2011 to help keep the Christmas dream alive for these less fortunate children. The Appeal which runs across the Magic Radio network and also Kerrang and Wave 105 FM, is supported by Foresters and asks people to buy an extra toy or present and drop it off to a collection point or make a 'virtual' toy donation on line. The toys ...

Daily Planet: Sky Vegas Launches New Superman Slot Game

2011-11-15
Sky Vegas, the renowned casino experts and hosts to an emporium of online casino games, are delighted to announce the launch of a brand-new slot game: Superman. America's most famous superhero has landed at Sky Vegas this week; bringing with him a brand-new slot game that promises to take the casino world by storm. Superman can be played absolutely free via the games demo mode, however for real thrills and excitement, players can log in and enjoy the games 'real play' mode, which offers fabulous cash prizes (up to GBP100,000 on just one line) and rewarding bonus rounds! This ...

Phil Aja Joins Administrative Payments Inc as Senior Account Executive

2011-11-15
Administrative Systems Inc (ASI), a provider of financial software and services for benefit disbursements, today announced that Phillip Aja has joined the company as a Senior Account Executive. Reporting to Vice President of Sales and Marketing Jim Peterson, he is based in Philadelphia and is responsible for sales of ASI software and services in the Eastern United States. With over 30 years of financial software experience, Mr. Aja has a proven track record of selling financial software and services to banks, trusts, and financial services companies. He was most recently ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Program takes aim at drinking, unsafe sex, and sexual assault on college campuses

Inability to pay for healthcare reaches record high in U.S.

Science ‘storytelling’ urgently needed amid climate and biodiversity crisis

KAIST Develops Retinal Therapy to Restore Lost Vision​

Adipocyte-hepatocyte signaling mechanism uncovered in endoplasmic reticulum stress response

Mammals were adapting from life in the trees to living on the ground before dinosaur-killing asteroid

Low LDL cholesterol levels linked to reduced risk of dementia

Thickening of the eye’s retina associated with greater risk and severity of postoperative delirium in older patients

Almost one in ten people surveyed report having been harmed by the NHS in the last three years

Enhancing light control with complex frequency excitations

New research finds novel drug target for acute myeloid leukemia, bringing hope for cancer patients

New insight into factors associated with a common disease among dogs and humans

Illuminating single atoms for sustainable propylene production

New study finds Rocky Mountain snow contamination

Study examines lactation in critically ill patients

UVA Engineering Dean Jennifer West earns AIMBE’s 2025 Pierre Galletti Award

Doubling down on metasurfaces

New Cedars-Sinai study shows how specialized diet can improve gut disorders

Making moves and hitting the breaks: Owl journeys surprise researchers in western Montana

PKU Scientists simulate the origin and evolution of the North Atlantic Oscillation

ICRAFT breakthrough: Unlocking A20’s dual role in cancer immunotherapy

How VR technology is changing the game for Alzheimer’s disease

A borrowed bacterial gene allowed some marine diatoms to live on a seaweed diet

Balance between two competing nerve proteins deters symptoms of autism in mice

Use of antifungals in agriculture may increase resistance in an infectious yeast

Awareness grows of cancer risk from alcohol consumption, survey finds

The experts that can outsmart optical illusions

Pregnancy may reduce long COVID risk

Scientists uncover novel immune mechanism in wheat tandem kinase

Three University of Virginia Engineering faculty elected as AAAS Fellows

[Press-News.org] The first step to change: Focusing on the negative