Name: post-movie subliminal measurement (pmsm), for investigating implicit social bias
Uploaded: 2020-02-29T13:00:00.000+00:00
Duration: 9 min 3 s
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Post-Movie Subliminal Measurement PMSM, for Investigating Implicit Social Bias at JoVE.com

This work was supported by Academy of Finland, grant numbers [259952, 276643]. We would like to thank Mikko Sams for the supervision and Enrico Glerean, Jussi Alho, Anna &#196;im&#228;l&#228; for helping with the data, Johan West&#246; for helping with the visualization as well as Marita Kattelus and Toni Auranen from Advanced Magnetic Imaging (AMI) Centre, Aalto NeuroImaging, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland for their help and support.

The protocol was approved by the Aalto University Research Ethics Committee.
1. Participant screening and preparation
<ol>
	<li>Match the different groups of recruited participants (here, heterosexual and homosexual groups) according to age, handedness, and level of education. Ensure that all participants can fully comprehend the language of the movie and feel comfortable watching it without subtitles. Alternatively, consider screening a movie in the native tongue of participants.
	<ol>
		<li>Exclude participants who have seen the planned movie within the past couple of years, as this can affect baseline measurements. Ideally, recruit participants who have not seen the movie previously. Do this by asking participants to indicate, from a list of movie titles (including the name of the move to be used in addition to 20 other movie titles), which movies they have seen in the past couple of years.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>Follow the specific institution&#39;s ethical guidelines for non-medical experiments with healthy participants under no psychiatric medication and no current neurological disease diagnosis. Recruit participants with normal or corrected vision for the fMRI scan. Recruit non-smokers and people that are comfortable with not moving for the duration of the experiment to avoid corruption of fMRI data due to unnecessary head motion.</li>
	<li>Scan all participants at a similar time of the day, preferably morning or early evening (9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M.), with no excessive consumption of coffee or food directly prior to scanning.</li>
	<li>Perform blinded recruitment to assure that participant responses are genuine and not emotionally regulated. Do not inform participants of the aim of the experiment (e.g., investigating implicit bias among homosexual and heterosexual subjects). For example, tell participants that the experiment is about movie viewing and that the real aim of the study will be explained only after the experiment. Exclude participants who know the aim of the study in advance.</li>
	<li>Perform a behavioral measurement such as the Implicit Association Task IAT32 to assure that the experimental groups have implicit biases. Use the measurement to assure that the groups do show biases, as strengths of implicit biases differ. Use IAT after the scan to prevent the participants from guessing the goal of the experiment.</li>
</ol>
2. Procedure outside MRI
<ol>
	<li>Upon arrival, brief participants with stages of the experiment, risks, and use of their experiment data. Conclude the briefing by asking if they have any questions regarding the experiment and that further explanation will be provided afterwards. Ask participants to read the briefing of the experiment and sign the consent form.</li>
	<li>Ask participants to remove all metal objects from their clothing or (preferably) change to a metal-free lab cloth to ensure safe access to the fMRI magnet. Scan participants using a metal detection device to assure that no metal was left behind (i.e., watch, belt, etc.). Standard contraindications to MRI should be respected33.</li>
	<li>Ask participants to enter the fMRI laboratory for configuration of the video projector and audio system. Instruct participants to lay down on the fMRI bed. Play a sample video to ensure that the picture is easily visible and audio level is comfortable and clear. If any complaints are made, adjustments should be made accordingly. Ensure that the headphones are presenting sound correctly.</li>
	<li>Connect the fMRI-compatible eye-tracking system. Tracking is used to ensure that subjects are attentive during the experiment and do not fall asleep or daydream during the scan. The eye-tracking is for data quality assurance only. Once tracking is secured, start the calibration process to begin recording eye movements.</li>
	<li>Inform subjects that the experiment is about to begin and that the scanning time will take 30 min to complete. Instruct participants to 1) relax as if they are watching a TV program in their home and 2) follow the instruction slides that will guide them through the different steps during the scan. Start the fMRI scan.</li>
	<li>Once the scanning is done, move participants to a different room, in which additional behavioral measurements will be collected (i.e., how much they identified with the character in different parts of the movie, IAT measurements to assess implicitly biases).</li>
	<li>Once all data are collected, debrief participants regarding the real goal of the experiment and answer any additional questions.</li>
</ol>
3. Procedure inside MRI
NOTE: During the fMRI session, participants are presented with a 30 min audiovisual content, which includes instruction slides, 4 min pre-movie subliminal measurement (for baseline), a 20 min movie, 4 min post-movie subliminal measurement, and concluding slides. In this section, follow the protocol to become familiar with the steps needed to create different parts of the stimuli as well as the order of presentation. Since the flash of the face during the subliminal portion has a 40 ms duration (a duration of a one video frame), it is possible to use an off-the-shelf video editing program (e.g., AVID media composer software or Adobe Premiere Pro editing software) to create the subliminal stimuli as well as edit the movie, if needed. When presenting the stimuli in the correct order using locked timing, use a software that is compatible with fMRI stimuli presentation (e.g., Presentation software, Neurobehavioral Systems Inc., Albany, California, USA).
<ol>
	<li>The 4 min periods of subliminal measurements (baseline and post-movie) are identical. Do not inform participants of their nature or purpose at this stage, and present them during the beginning of the scan with the following instruction slide: 
	&#34;Soon you will see a calibration clip. This clip is meant for calibrating the MRI scanner for your responses. The clip is only four min long and will look like white noise on a TV screen. Please keep your eyes fixated at the mark in the center of the screen until notified otherwise&#34;. 
	NOTE: The 4 min stimuli period contains white noise, virtually divided into 16 blocks of 15 s each. The 16 blocks of white noise contain two types of blocks: a rest block (white nose without subliminal flashes) followed by a condition block (white noise with flashes of the protagonist face). See Figure 1 for an illustration of the stimulus structure.</li>
	<li>To create the 4 min subliminal stimuli, start with a 15 s white noise clip. The white noise serves as a masking stimulus for the face that is being flashed. Since the brain is sensitive to face presentation, it is important to use good masking, even if the face is presented subliminally. Therefore, use a dynamic white noise clip that has large distortion and movements in difference of a homogeneous white noise (e.g., with small random white and black dots).
	<ol>
		<li>Create the 15 s condition block by inserting the 10 flashes of the protagonist&#39;s face into the dynamic white noise. The subliminal flashes should occur in 40 ms durations, starting at the onset of the condition block inserted every 1,500 ms.</li>
		<li>The face of the protagonist should be facing the camera with neutral face expression. If possible, take a frame from the movie (a close-up of the character in the movie) or search for an image of the actor/actress from the internet. Ensure that the actor/actress appears similar to his/her appearance in the movie (e.g., no significant differences in features such hair or beard or accessories). Make sure the face has a neutral face expression and is clear and well-lit.</li>
		<li>Adjust the image by centering it in the middle of the screen. Avoid using an image with a small size face and with bad resolution. Make sure there are no salient objects in the background of the face, such as other people, text, or identifiable visuals. If there are, cut them out or mask them to create a neutral image. Flip the image from color to black-and-white before inserting.</li>
		<li>Once the white noise rest-block and the condition block (with the face flashes) are ready, duplicate them to create the 4 min subliminal stimuli, ordering the blocks one after the other starting with the rest-block. By the end of the process, one should have 4 min containing 16 blocks each of 15 s (eight rest blocks and eight condition blocks).</li>
		<li>Add a fixation mark in the middle of the screen of the 4 min subliminal measurement. Make sure it is easily noticeable. Add a 2 s fixation mark before the 4 min clip to make it easy for participants to find and start the task.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>At the end of the baseline (the 4 min pre-movie subliminal measurement), insert a text slide indicating the beginning of the movie, length of the movie, and reminder to the to be relaxed and freely watch the movie. For example: 
	&#34;Thank you. The calibration was done successfully! You are now about to watch a 20 min movie. Try to relax and to enjoy the story.&#34;</li>
	<li>Choose a movie that is emotional, engaging, and character-driven (i.e., has a clear protagonist with a strong conflict). For example, a previous experiment regarding social bias was conducted on homosexual and heterosexual subjects to whom a movie about a homosexual priest was presented. The story was about a priest who struggles between his wish to serve his beliefs as a catholic priest and his desire to be loved by another man. 
	NOTE: The film can be documentary or fiction. It can be a short film or stand-alone episode from a TV series. It is important that the movie has a clear story with a beginning, middle, and end that can be easily understood and followed. It is also possible to edit a shorter version from a longer film. For example, our stimuli from the homosexual/heterosexual experiment was a 20 min version story edited by a professional filmmaker (the first author) from a longer film titled Priest (directed by Antonia Bird, 1994). The more relevant to the subject group a movie is, the more engaging the viewing will be.</li>
	<li>After the movie, the 4 min subliminal measurement for PMSM should be repeated to observe how implicit neural responses to the protagonist&#39;s face are biased after watching the movie (vs. before). To indicate this, insert the following slide: 
	&#34;Thank you! We are almost done. Before finishing the measurement, we need to recalibrate our MRI device to your response. The clip is only four minutes long and will look like white noise on a TV screen. Please keep your eyes fixated at the mark in the center of the screen until notified otherwise&#34;</li>
	<li>Finally, present the 4 min PMSM (the same 4 min used to perform the pre-movie baseline measurement).</li>
</ol>

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The authors have nothing to disclose.

This paper outlines the novel method for investigating the implicit brain using a post-movie subliminal measurement referred to as PMSM. In a recently published study, this method has shown that 1) implicit brain response is dynamic and 2) there is continuous learning from the social environment as well as formulation of judgment based on contextual knowledge (and not solely based on facial characteristics). Therefore, the proposed PMSM method can provide an alternative to the classical method when investigating implicit bias (e.g., when presenting faces that belong to different ethnical, gender, or race groups). The PMSM brings the experimental setting closer to real-life social perception, in which the results are based on naturalistic viewing.
The presented protocol uses fMRI techniques; however, it is also possible to conduct PMSM using other neuroimaging measures including electroencephalography (EEG) or magnetoencephalography (MEG). The experimental design presented here is for a two-group comparison; however, there are no limitations when using PMSM for multiple group or within group comparisons. Furthermore, it may be possible to extend PMSM to measuring the implicit response to more than one face (i.e., both the protagonist and antagonist in a movie). This can further shed light on the investigated subject group (i.e., measuring the implicit response to two characters carrying opposing world views in a movie).
Researchers interested in investigating other aspects of social perception and their interactions with memory and bias, such as attention and emotion under naturalistic conditions, can take advantage of the fMRI data collected during PMSM to run various analysis (i.e., inter-subject correlation, functional connectivity, and model-based analyses of activity elicited by various events in the movie). However, it is important to have a hypothesis to start with as this can help in collecting additional behavior data during the experiment that can be very helpful in interpreting the results.
Furthermore, by editing the videos presented in PMSM it should be possible to investigate various aspects of attitude formation towards in/outgroup members (e.g., manipulate the conversation between ingroup and an out-group character to assess how intergroup bias effects how opinions and world views of in/outgroup members are perceived). Another advantage of PMSM is its feasibility to measure implicit bias towards groups that are hard to differentiate based on appearance. For example, by showing videos of interactions of natives vs. newcomers, PMSM can measure implicit bias towards newcomers. Afdile et al. provides further reading regarding the limitation of past implicit and priming method in comparison with PMSM34.
In acknowledgement of PMSM&#39;s limitations, the representative results show that implicit bias may not be symmetrical across groups (e.g., among non-conflict social groups ingroup bias might be a stronger response than outgroup bias). This is reflected in our representative results, in which 14 homosexual subjects showed a robust ingroup implicit response to the face of the homosexual protagonist. In contrast, results from the 15 heterosexual subjects were not strong enough to survive correction.
Although this is not purely a PMSM limitation, and it is possible that using other neuroimaging methods may have shown stronger results in both groups, it is advised to use a larger number of participants when conducting PMSM with fMRI. Furthermore, a limitation in PMSM can be found in the number of faces that can be tested, as movies carry a finite number of significant characters within the story, especially in short movies. Although PMSM may be closer to life-like social perception, there must be caution in interpreting the results and drawing generalized conclusions (in comparison with more simplified task paradigms that have repeated tasks with a high number of conditions). PMSM should be chosen for cases in which it best suits testing of the hypothesis.
A critical step in the PMSM method is the choice of the movie. There are inter-individual differences in the level of how easily people identify with characters and get immersed or transported to the world of the story35,36. However, there are several approaches that can overcome this challenge. For example, movies that have been commercially successful tend to be highly structured (through cohesive editing style) and have simple and coherent inner logic to follow, which are two important factors that increase the engagement of the viewer37,38.
Furthermore, documentaries or movies depicting topics that are relevant to the viewer can further increase the transportability (see Green)39. Another strategy is choosing a movie of a genre that the experimental subjects will enjoy watching40. Successful choice of a movie can increase the efficiency of PMSM and also provide additional data for those who are interested in learning how the implicit brain formulates its judgment by analyzing brain activity during movie viewing.

Recent studies show that initial social judgment becomes formulated within the first 32&#8211;100 ms of meeting another person1,2,3,4,5,6,7. Subliminal presentation of faces has been used extensively to investigate implicit biases towards different ethnic and racial groups (e.g., by presenting Caucasian American and African American faces that differ in skin color to subjects from both groups)8,9,10,11,12,13,14. However, social groups are also characterized by factors other than physical facial characteristics15.
Facial perception has been shown to be highly sensitive to contextual cues (i.e., body posture16, eye-gaze direction of the face17, a priori knowledge about the face18, visual background of the presented face19, presentation of the face separately or with other faces20). These factors can all affect facial perception. Weiser and Brosch21, in their extensive review, suggested to investigate facial perception in more naturalistic settings by ensuring that laboratory experiment is similar to real-life environments. Indeed, even simple tasks, such as recognizing people, have been shown to be more accurate when presented with video footage closer to real-life perception than when using static images22.
During the last several decades, brain imaging studies have proven that video clips can be successfully used to study realistic social perception23,24,25,26,27,28,29. The presented method is based on results from these studies and additional findings demonstrating that movie narratives can temporarily transport viewers to the world of a protagonist30. The protocol combines movie viewing with subliminal stimulus presentation as an alternative method to investigate implicit social bias formation under naturalistic conditions.
The protocol for this novel approach, post-movie subliminal measurement (PMSM), is presented here. When watching a socially engaging movie, the spectator gains knowledge about the protagonist and becomes familiar with his/her identity and world views. In contrast with other narrative art forms, movies are unique in that they present a compelling, rich, and complex story over a short time period. Furthermore, audiovisual and cinematic properties of movies synchronize brain activity across spectators23,25,29,31. Thus, it is helpful to ensure that subjects are presented with the information in a considerably similar way.
The PMSM method shows that when the face of a protagonist is presented subliminally after the movie (vs. before), implicit neural responses are successfully evoked. These responses depend on knowledge that the viewer gains about the protagonist&#39;s character with respect to his/her implicit social views. As there is a vast number of movies available that depict a variety of social characters, the PMSM method enables investigation of the brain&#39;s complex implicit views in a manner that is close to real-life social perceptions.

<table><tbody><tr><td>3T Siemens MAGNETOM Skyra</td><td>Siemens Healthcare, Erlangen, Germany</td><td></td><td>MRI device, using a standard 20-channel receiving head-neck coil</td></tr><tr><td>Avid Media Composer</td><td>&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.avid.com/media-composer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;https://www.avid.com/media-composer&lt;/a&gt;</td><td></td><td>Video editing software used to create the stimuli.</td></tr><tr><td>EAR-tip</td><td>Etymotic Research, ER3, IL, USA</td><td></td><td>Earplugs compatible for MRI</td></tr><tr><td>FSL software</td><td>&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.win.ox.ac.uk/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;https://www.win.ox.ac.uk/&lt;/a&gt;, version 5.0.9</td><td></td><td>Software used to analyse the data.</td></tr><tr><td>Panasonic PT-DZ110X projector</td><td>Panasonic Corporation, Osaka, Japan</td><td></td><td>The stimuli were back-projected on a semitransparent screen</td></tr><tr><td>Presentation software</td><td>Neurobehavioral Systems Inc., Albany, California, USA</td><td></td><td>Software used to present stimuli during the fMRI scan</td></tr><tr><td>Sensimetrics S14 insert earphones</td><td>Sensimetrics Corporation, Malden, Massachusetts, USA</td><td></td><td>Auditory stimulation was delivered through Sensimetrics S14 insert earphones</td></tr></tbody></table>

post-movie subliminal measurement (pmsm), for investigating implicit social bias

New knowledge is continuously gained from a social environment that can influence how people respond to each other. Such responses often occur implicitly, at a subliminal perceptual level, and related brain mechanisms can be experimentally isolated by presenting the stimuli quickly. Subliminal presentation of faces that belong to different ethnicity groups, races, or gender has been shown to be successful in investigating social implicit responses. However, many implicit responses are based on knowledge previously gained about the faces (e.g., sexual orientation, political views, and socioeconomic status) and not solely on physical appearance. Here, a novel method called post-movie subliminal measurement (PMSM) is presented. When watching a socially engaging movie, a spectator gains knowledge about the protagonist and becomes familiar with his/her identity and world views. When the face of the protagonist is presented subliminally after the movie, it evokes an implicit neural response depending on what is learned about the protagonist. With a vast number of movies available, each depicting a variety of people with different identities, the PMSM method enables investigation of the brain&#39;s complex implicit biases in a manner that resembles real-life social perceptions.

Presented here are some results using PMSM from the published article by Afdile et al.34. Here, implicit bias was investigated among homosexual and heterosexual subjects (15 heterosexuals, 14 homosexuals) toward the protagonist after realizing he is homosexual in the movie, making him an &#34;ingroup&#34; to the homosexual participants and &#34;outgroup&#34; to the heterosexual participants. In line with our IAT results, this factor was shown to be significant in both groups, in which the heterosexual subjects were implicit in favor of heterosexuals over homosexuals, and homosexual subjects were implicit in favor of homosexuals over heterosexuals (mean heterosexuals = -0.26, mean homosexuals = 0.3, t = 3.72, p &#60; 0.01). Both groups were significantly different from zero (homosexual: p = 0.0059, heterosexual: p = 0.043).
Our results revealed significantly larger differences in the homosexual vs. heterosexual subjects in response to the face post-movie in the bilateral superior frontal gyrus (sFG), right temporal parietal junction (rTPJ), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), bilateral frontal pole (FP), and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Figure 2 depicts the &#34;strong&#34; and &#34;weak&#34; representative results after performing the PMSM in homosexual and heterosexual Finnish participants.
<img alt="Figure 1" class="xfigimg" src="/files/ftp_upload/60817/60817fig01.jpg" /> 
Figure 1: Illustration of the PMSM stimulus structure. (A) 4 min baseline measurement (pre-movie subliminal measurement) with flashes of the protagonist&#39;s face. (B) 20 min movie depicting the story of the protagonist. (C) 4 min post-movie subliminal measurement [replication of (A)]. (D) Illustration of a 1 min clip from the 4 min subliminal measurement consisting of four blocks (rest, condition, rest, condition). The rest of the blocks are 15 s of dynamic white noise. The condition block contains 10 flashes of the protagonist face at a duration of 40 ms with intervals of 1,500 ms of white noise. This figure has been modified from Afdile et al.34. <a href="https://www-jove-com.bdigitaluss.remotexs.co/files/ftp_upload/60817/60817fig01large.jpg" target="_blank">Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.</a>
<img alt="Figure 2" class="xfigimg" src="/files/ftp_upload/60817/60817fig02.jpg" /> 
Figure 2: Representative results. BOLD signals in response to the subliminal presentation of the homosexual protagonist&#39;s face after viewing the movie. Left side: representation of strong results from homosexual vs. heterosexual (p &#60; 0.01, cluster corrected). Right side: heterosexual vs. homosexual, significant but weak results that did not survive correction (p &#60; 0.05, uncorrected). This figure has been modified from Afdile et al.34. <a href="https://www-jove-com.bdigitaluss.remotexs.co/files/ftp_upload/60817/60817fig02large.jpg" target="_blank">Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.</a>

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Post-Movie Subliminal Measurement PMSM, for Investigating Implicit Social Bias at JoVE.com

Post-Movie Subliminal Measurement PMSM, for Investigating Implicit Social Bias

This protocol describes the use of movies to investigate brain mechanisms underlying implicit social biases during functional magnetic resonance imaging. When the face of a protagonist is presented after a movie subliminally, it evokes an implicit response based on knowledge of the protagonist gained during the movie.

Post-Movie Subliminal Measurement (PMSM), for Investigating Implicit Social Bias

New knowledge is continuously gained from a social environment that can influence how people respond to each other. Such responses often occur implicitly, ...

post-movie-subliminal-measurement-pmsm-for-investigating-implicit

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Neuroscience

5.7K Views.  Aalto University. This protocol describes the use of movies to investigate brain mechanisms underlying implicit social biases during functional magnetic resonance imaging. When the face of a protagonist is presented after a movie subliminally, it evokes an implicit response based on knowledge of the protagonist gained during the movie.

Video: Post-Movie Subliminal Measurement PMSM, for Investigating Implicit Social Bias

Perceptual and Category Processing of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis' Dimension of Human Likeness: Some Methodological Issues

Mori's Uncanny Valley Hypothesis1,2 proposes that the perception of humanlike characters such as robots and, by extension, avatars (computer-generated characters) can evoke negative or positive affect (valence) depending on the object's degree of visual and behavioral realism along a dimension of human likeness (DHL) (Figure 1). But studies of affective valence of subjective responses to variously realistic non-human characters have produced inconsistent findings 3, 4, 5, 6. One of a number of reasons for this is that human likeness is not perceived as the hypothesis assumes. While the DHL can be defined following Mori's description as a smooth linear change in the degree of physical humanlike similarity, subjective perception of objects along the DHL can be understood in terms of the psychological effects of categorical perception (CP) 7. Further behavioral and neuroimaging investigations of category processing and CP along the DHL and of the potential influence of the dimension's underlying category structure on affective experience are needed. This protocol therefore focuses on the DHL and allows examination of CP. Based on the protocol presented in the video as an example, issues surrounding the methodology in the protocol and the use in "uncanny" research of stimuli drawn from morph continua to represent the DHL are discussed in the article that accompanies the video. The use of neuroimaging and morph stimuli to represent the DHL in order to disentangle brain regions neurally responsive to physical human-like similarity from those responsive to category change and category processing is briefly illustrated.

Investigation of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis and affective experience requires an understanding of the hypothesis' dimension of human likeness (DHL). This protocol allows representation of the DHL and examination of categorical perception. Use of the same stimuli and fMRI to distinguish brain regions responsive to physical and category change is illustrated.

Mori's Uncanny Valley Hypothesis1,2 proposes that the perception of humanlike characters such as robots and, by extension, avatars (computer-generated ...

Behavior

Studying Food Reward and Motivation in Humans

A key challenge in studying reward processing in humans is to go beyond subjective self-report measures and quantify different aspects of reward such as hedonics, motivation, and goal value in more objective ways. This is particularly relevant for the understanding of overeating and obesity as well as their potential treatments. In this paper are described a set of measures of food-related motivation using handgrip force as a motivational measure. These methods can be used to examine changes in food related motivation with metabolic (satiety) and pharmacological manipulations and can be used to evaluate interventions targeted at overeating and obesity. However to understand food-related decision making in the complex food environment it is essential to be able to ascertain the reward goal values that guide the decisions and behavioral choices that people make. These values are hidden but it is possible to ascertain them more objectively using metrics such as the willingness to pay and a method for this is described. Both these sets of methods provide quantitative measures of motivation and goal value that can be compared within and between individuals.

This article describes a set of methods for the measurement of food related motivation and food related goal values in humans.

A key challenge in studying reward processing in humans is to go beyond subjective self-report measures and quantify different aspects of reward such as ...

Brain Imaging Investigation of the Neural Correlates of Observing Virtual Social Interactions

The ability to gauge social interactions is crucial in the assessment of others&#x2019; intentions. Factors such as facial expressions and body language affect our decisions in personal and professional life alike 1. These "friend or foe" judgements are often based on first impressions, which in turn may affect our decisions to "approach or avoid". Previous studies investigating the neural correlates of social cognition tended to use static facial stimuli 2. Here, we illustrate an experimental design in which whole-body animated characters were used in conjunction with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) recordings. Fifteen participants were presented with short movie-clips of guest-host interactions in a business setting, while fMRI data were recorded; at the end of each movie, participants also provided ratings of the host behaviour. This design mimics more closely real-life situations, and hence may contribute to better understanding of the neural mechanisms of social interactions in healthy behaviour, and to gaining insight into possible causes of deficits in social behaviour in such clinical conditions as social anxiety and autism 3.

This article demonstrates an experimental design in which whole-body animated characters are used in conjunction with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the neural correlates of observing virtual social interactions.

The ability to gauge social interactions is crucial in the assessment of others&#x2019; intentions. Factors such as facial expressions and body language ...

Brain Imaging Investigation of the Neural Correlates of Emotion Regulation

The ability to control/regulate emotions is an important coping mechanism in the face of emotionally stressful situations. Although significant progress has been made in understanding conscious/deliberate emotion regulation (ER), less is known about non-conscious/automatic ER and the associated neural correlates. This is in part due to the problems inherent in the unitary concepts of automatic and conscious processing1. Here, we present a protocol that allows investigation of the neural correlates of both deliberate and automatic ER using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This protocol allows new avenues of inquiry into various aspects of ER. For instance, the experimental design allows manipulation of the goal to regulate emotion (conscious vs. non-conscious), as well as the intensity of the emotional challenge (high vs. low). Moreover, it allows investigation of both immediate (emotion perception) and long-term effects (emotional memory) of ER strategies on emotion processing. Therefore, this protocol may contribute to better understanding of the neural mechanisms of emotion regulation in healthy behaviour, and to gaining insight into possible causes of deficits in depression and anxiety disorders in which emotion dysregulation is often among the core debilitating features.

We present a protocol that allows investigation of the neural correlates of deliberate and automatic emotion regulation, using functional magnetic resonance imaging. This protocol can be used in healthy participants, both young and older, as well as in clinical patients.

The ability to control/regulate emotions is an important coping mechanism in the face of emotionally stressful situations. Although significant progress ...

Continuous Theta Burst Stimulation of the Posterior Medial Frontal Cortex to Experimentally Reduce Ideological Threat Responses

Decades of behavioral science research have documented functional shifts in attitudes and ideological adherence in response to various challenges, but little work to date has illuminated the neural mechanisms underlying these dynamics. This paper describes how continuous theta burst transcranial magnetic stimulation may be employed to experimentally assess the causal contribution of cortical regions to threat-related ideological shifts. In the example protocol provided here, participants are exposed to a threat prime-an explicit reminder of their own inevitable death and bodily decomposition-following a downregulation of the posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC) or a sham stimulation. Next, disguised within a series of distracter tasks, participants' relative degree of ideological adherence is assessed-in the present example, with regard to coalitional prejudice and religious belief. Participants for whom the pMFC has been downregulated exhibit less coalitionally biased responses to an immigrant critical of the participants' national in-group, and less conviction in positive afterlife beliefs (i.e., God, angels, and heaven), despite having recently been reminded of death. These results complement prior findings that continuous theta burst stimulation of the pMFC influences social conformity and sharing and illustrate the feasibility of investigating the neural basis of high-level social cognitive shifts using transcranial magnetic stimulation.

Threats reliably evoke shifts in high-level ideological investment, but little work to date has explored the neural mechanisms underlying these dynamics. This paper describes how continuous theta burst transcranial magnetic stimulation may be employed to test the contribution of the posterior medial frontal cortex (and/or other regions) to threat-related ideological shifts.

Decades of behavioral science research have documented functional shifts in attitudes and ideological adherence in response to various challenges, but ...

A System for Tracking the Dynamics of Social Preference Behavior in Small Rodents

Exploring the neurobiological mechanisms of social behavior requires behavioral tests that can be applied to animal models in an unbiased and observer-independent manner. Since the beginning of the millennium, the three-chamber test has been widely used as a standard paradigm to evaluate sociability (social preference) and social novelty preference in small rodents. However, this test suffers from multiple limitations, including its dependence on spatial navigation and negligence of behavioral dynamics. Presented and validated here is a novel experimental system that offers an alternative to the three-chamber test, while also solving some of its caveats. The system requires a simple and affordable experimental apparatus and publicly available open-source analysis system, which automatically measures and analyzes multiple behavioral parameters at individual and population levels. It allows detailed analysis of the behavioral dynamics of small rodents during any social discrimination test. We demonstrate the efficiency of the system in analyzing the dynamics of social behavior during the social preference and social novelty preference tests as performed by adult male mice and rats. Moreover, we validate the ability of the system to reveal modified dynamics of social behavior in rodents following manipulations such as whisker trimming. Thus, the system allows for rigorous investigation of social behavior and dynamics in small rodent models and supports more accurate comparisons between strains, conditions, and treatments.

Described here is a novel automated experimental system that offers an alternative to the three-chamber test and also solves several caveats. This system supplies multiple behavioral parameters that enable rigorous analysis of small rodent behavioral dynamics during the social preference and social novelty preference tests.

Exploring the neurobiological mechanisms of social behavior requires behavioral tests that can be applied to animal models in an unbiased and ...

Creating the Minimal Group Paradigm

Source: Julian Wills &#38; Jay Van Bavel&#8212;New York University
The study of intergroup relations, such as prejudice, conflict, and discrimination, has always been a central topic in social psychology. Does discrimination stem from competition with other groups, a history of conflict, or derogatory stereotypes? Despite an abundance of real-world examples, the ingredients that lead to intergroup discrimination are often unclear. 
To help solve this problem, a group of psychologists created "minimal groups" to strip away confounds like monetary self-interest and a history of conflict that are normally involved in intergroup discrimination. In minimal groups, participants are randomly assigned to completely novel groups. Thus, any consequences emerging from this minimal group induction must stem from identifying with a social group and separating the social world into "us" and "them." Research using minimal groups has shown that, despite the arbitrary nature of group membership, participants willingly discriminate by favoring members of their in-group over members of the out-group.
The minimal group paradigm is widely used in social psychology to study the most basic elements of intergroup relations. This method was first introduced in a 1971 paper called Social Categorization and Intergroup Behaviour by Henri Tajfel and colleagues.1 Across three experiments, the authors documented the in-group favoritism that emerges from a rather minimal group induction. This video will demonstrate how to produce the minimal group induction in a manner similar to the first experiment, where groups were ostensibly created based on dot estimation tendencies.

Source: Julian Wills &#38; Jay Van Bavel&#8212;New York University
The study of intergroup relations, such as prejudice, conflict, and discrimination, has ...

Education

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Psychology

Social Psychology

The Implicit Association Test

Source: Julian Wills &#38; Jay Van Bavel&#8212;New York University
One of the core constructs in social psychology is the notion of an attitude toward an object or person. Traditionally, psychologists measured attitudes by simply asking people to self-report their beliefs, opinions, or feelings. This approach has limitations, however, when measuring socially sensitive attitudes, like racial prejudice, because people are often motivated to self-report unprejudiced, egalitarian beliefs (despite harboring negative associations). In order to bypass this social-desirability bias, psychologists have developed a number of tasks that attempt to measure implicit attitudes that are less amenable to deliberate control (and potential distortion).
The Implicit Association Test, or IAT, is one of the most influential measures of these unconscious attitudes. The IAT was first introduced in a 1998 paper by Anthony Greenwald and colleagues.1 This video will demonstrate how to conduct the IAT used in the final experiment, where European American participants (who report explicit egalitarian attitudes) exhibit implicit preferences for their own race.

The Implicit Association Test: Measuring Unconscious Attitudes

Source: Julian Wills &#38; Jay Van Bavel&#8212;New York University
One of the core constructs in social psychology is the notion of an attitude toward an ...

Nonconscious Mimicry Occurs when Affiliation Goals are Present

Source: Diego Reinero &#38; Jay Van Bavel&#8212;New York University
People are social chameleons and regularly engage in nonconscious behavioral mimicry. This occurs when an individual unwittingly imitates the behaviors of another person, such as crossing one's legs moments after a person sitting adjacent does so, or adjusting one's body posture to match a conversation partner. Rapport between two people increases behavioral mimicry, just as mimicry also increases rapport. Psychologists have posited that this mimicry is attributed to a perception-behavior link;1 seeing a person engage in a behavior activates that behavioral representation, which then makes the perceiver more likely to engage in that behavior him- or herself.
The following experiment expands on these previous findings by testing whether people, without intention or awareness, use mimicry to their advantage. Because goals activate behavioral strategies and plans of action that help people pursue those goals,2 Lakin and Chartrand hypothesized that individuals would mimic another person more when they have a goal to affiliate than when they do not.3

Effects of Affiliation Goals on Nonconscious Mimicry

Source: Diego Reinero &#38; Jay Van Bavel&#8212;New York University
People are social chameleons and regularly engage in nonconscious behavioral mimicry. ...

Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination

Humans are very diverse and although we share many similarities, we also have many differences. The social groups we belong to help form our identities (Tajfel, 1974). These differences may be difficult for some people to reconcile, which may lead to prejudice toward people who are different. Prejudice is a negative attitude and feeling toward an individual based solely on one&rsquo;s membership in a particular social group (Allport, 1954; Brown, 2010). Prejudice is common against people who are members of an unfamiliar cultural group. Thus, certain types of education, contact, interactions, and building relationships with members of different cultural groups can reduce the tendency toward prejudice. In fact, simply imagining interacting with members of different cultural groups might affect prejudice. Indeed, when experimental participants were asked to imagine themselves positively interacting with someone from a different group, this led to an increased positive attitude toward the other group and an increase in positive traits associated with the other group. Furthermore, imagined social interaction can reduce anxiety associated with inter-group interactions (Crisp &amp; Turner, 2009). What are some examples of social groups that you belong to that contribute to your identity? Social groups can include gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, social class, religion, sexual orientation, profession, and many more. And, as is true for social roles, you can simultaneously be a member of more than one social group. An example of prejudice is having a negative attitude toward people who are not born in the United States. Although people holding this prejudiced attitude do not know all people who were not born in the United States, they dislike them due to their status as foreigners.

Can you think of a prejudiced attitude you have held toward a group of people? How did your prejudice develop? Prejudice often begins in the form of a stereotype&mdash;that is, a specific belief or assumption about individuals based solely on their membership in a group, regardless of their individual characteristics. Stereotypes become overgeneralized and applied to all members of a group. For example, someone holding prejudiced attitudes toward older adults, may believe that older adults are slow and incompetent (Cuddy, Norton, &amp; Fiske, 2005; Nelson, 2004). We cannot possibly know each individual person of advanced age to know that all older adults are slow and incompetent. Therefore, this negative belief is overgeneralized to all members of the group, even though many of the individual group members may in fact be spry and intelligent.

Another example of a well-known stereotype involves beliefs about racial differences among athletes. As Hodge, Burden, Robinson, and Bennett (2008) point out, Black male athletes are often believed to be more athletic, yet less intelligent, than their White male counterparts. These beliefs persist despite a number of high profile examples to the contrary. Sadly, such beliefs often influence how these athletes are treated by others and how they view themselves and their own capabilities. Whether or not you agree with a stereotype, stereotypes are generally well-known within in a given culture (Devine, 1989).

Sometimes people will act on their prejudiced attitudes toward a group of people, and this behavior is known as discrimination. Discrimination is negative action toward an individual as a result of one&rsquo;s membership in a particular group (Allport, 1954; Dovidio &amp; Gaertner, 2004). As a result of holding negative beliefs (stereotypes) and negative attitudes (prejudice) about a particular group, people often treat the target of prejudice poorly, such as excluding older adults from their circle of friends. An example of a psychologist experiencing gender discrimination is found in the life and studies of Mary Whiton Calkins. Calkins was given special permission to attend graduate seminars at Harvard (at that time in the late 1880s, Harvard did not accept women) and at one point was the sole student of the famous psychologist William James. She passed all the requirements needed for a PhD and was described by psychologist Hugo M&uuml;nsterberg as &ldquo;one of the strongest professors of psychology in this country.&rdquo; However, Harvard refused to grant Calkins a PhD because she was a woman (Harvard University, 2019).&nbsp;Have you ever been the target of discrimination? If so, how did this negative treatment make you feel?

The discussion of stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination most often uses negative and problematic thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.&nbsp;However, people can hold positive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors toward individuals based on group membership; for example, they would show preferential treatment for people who are like themselves&mdash;that is, who share the same gender, race, or favorite sports team.

Types of Prejudice and Discrimination 

When we meet strangers we automatically process three pieces of information about them: their race, gender, and age (Ito &amp; Urland, 2003). Why are these aspects of an unfamiliar person so important? Why don&rsquo;t we instead notice whether their eyes are friendly, whether they are smiling, their height, the type of clothes they are wearing? Although these secondary characteristics are important in forming a first impression of a stranger, the social categories of race, gender, and age provide a wealth of information about an individual. This information, however, often is based on stereotypes. We may have different expectations of strangers depending on their race, gender, and age. What stereotypes and prejudices do you hold about people who are from a race, gender, and age group different from your own? Find out your implicit associations by taking an Implicit Association Test <a href="https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/" target="_blank">here</a>!

Racism 

Racism is prejudice and discrimination against an individual based solely on one&rsquo;s membership in a specific racial group (such as toward African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, European Americans). What are some stereotypes of various racial or ethnic groups? Research suggests cultural stereotypes for Asian Americans include cold, sly, and intelligent; for Latinos, cold and unintelligent; for European Americans, cold and intelligent; and for African Americans, aggressive, athletic, and more likely to be law breakers (Devine &amp; Elliot, 1995; Fiske, Cuddy, Glick, &amp; Xu, 2002; Sommers &amp; Ellsworth, 2000; Dixon &amp; Linz, 2000).

Racism exists for many racial and ethnic groups. For example, Blacks are significantly more likely to have their vehicles searched during traffic stops than Whites, particularly when Blacks are driving in predominately White neighborhoods, (a phenomenon often termed &ldquo;DWB,&rdquo; or &ldquo;driving while Black.&rdquo;; Rojek, Rosenfeld, &amp; Decker, 2012).

Mexican Americans and other Latino groups also are targets of racism from the police and other members of the community. For example, when purchasing items with a personal check, Latino shoppers are more likely than White shoppers to be asked to show formal identification (Dovidio et al., 2010).

In one case of alleged harassment by the police, several East Haven, Connecticut, police officers were arrested on federal charges due to reportedly continued harassment and brutalization of Latinos. When the accusations came out, the mayor of East Haven was asked, &ldquo;What are you doing for the Latino community today?&rdquo; The Mayor responded, &ldquo;I might have tacos when I go home, I&rsquo;m not quite sure yet&rdquo; (&ldquo;East Haven Mayor,&rdquo; 2012). This statement undermines the important issue of racial profiling and police harassment of Latinos, while belittling Latino culture by emphasizing an interest in a food product stereotypically associated with Latinos.

Racism is prevalent toward many other groups in the United States including Native Americans, Arab Americans, Jewish Americans, and Asian Americans. Have you witnessed racism toward any of these racial or ethnic groups? Are you aware of racism in your community?

One reason modern forms of racism, and prejudice in general, are hard to detect is related to the dual attitudes model (Wilson, Lindsey, &amp; Schooler, 2000). Humans have two forms of attitudes: explicit attitudes, which are conscious and controllable, and implicit attitudes, which are unconscious and uncontrollable (Devine, 1989; Olson &amp; Fazio, 2003). Because holding egalitarian views is socially desirable (Plant &amp; Devine, 1998), most people do not show extreme racial bias or other prejudices on measures of their explicit attitudes. However, measures of implicit attitudes often show evidence of mild to strong racial bias or other prejudices (Greenwald, McGee, &amp; Schwartz, 1998; Olson &amp; Fazio, 2003).

Sexism

Sexism is prejudice and discrimination toward individuals based on their sex. Typically, sexism takes the form of men holding biases against women, but either sex can show sexism toward their own or their opposite sex. Like racism, sexism may be subtle and difficult to detect. Common forms of sexism in modern society include gender role expectations, such as expecting women to be the caretakers of the household. Sexism also includes people&rsquo;s expectations for how members of a gender group should behave. For example, women are expected to be friendly, passive, and nurturing, and when women behave in an unfriendly, assertive, or neglectful manner they often are disliked for violating their gender role (Rudman, 1998). Research by Laurie Rudman (1998) finds that when female job applicants self-promote, they are likely to be viewed as competent, but they may be disliked and are less likely to be hired because they violated gender expectations for modesty. Sexism can exist on a societal level such as in hiring, employment opportunities, and education. Women are less likely to be hired or promoted in male-dominated professions such as engineering, aviation, and construction&nbsp;(Blau, Ferber, &amp; Winkler, 2010; Ceci &amp; Williams, 2011). Have you ever experienced or witnessed sexism? Think about your family members&rsquo; jobs or careers. Why do you think there are differences in the jobs women and men have, such as more women nurses but more male surgeons (Betz, 2008)?

Ageism

People often form judgments and hold expectations about people based on their age. These judgments and expectations can lead to ageism, or prejudice and discrimination toward individuals based solely on their age. Typically, ageism occurs against older adults, but ageism also can occur toward younger adults. Think of expectations you hold for older adults. How could someone&rsquo;s expectations influence the feelings they hold toward individuals from older age groups? Ageism is widespread in U.S. culture (Nosek, 2005), and a common ageist attitude toward older adults is that they are incompetent, physically weak, and slow (Greenberg, Schimel, &amp; Martens, 2002) and some people consider older adults less attractive. However, some cultures,&nbsp;including some Asian, Latino, and African American cultures, both outside and within the United States afford older adults respect and honor.

Ageism can also occur toward younger adults. What expectations do you hold toward younger people? Does society expect younger adults to be immature and irresponsible? How might these two forms of ageism affect a younger and older adult who are applying for a sales clerk position?

Homophobia 

Another form of prejudice is homophobia: prejudice and discrimination of individuals based solely on their sexual orientation. Like ageism, homophobia is a widespread prejudice in U.S. society that is tolerated by many people (Herek &amp; McLemore, 2013; Nosek, 2005). Negative feelings often result in discrimination, such as the exclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people from social groups and the avoidance of LGBT neighbors and co-workers. This discrimination also extends to employers deliberately declining to hire qualified LGBT job applicants. Have you experienced or witnessed homophobia? If so, what stereotypes, prejudiced attitudes, and discrimination were evident?

Why Do Prejudice and Discrimination Exist? 

Prejudice and discrimination persist in society due to social learning and conformity to social norms. Children learn prejudiced attitudes and beliefs from society: their parents, teachers, friends, the media, and other sources of socialization, such as Facebook (O&rsquo;Keeffe &amp; Clarke-Pearson, 2011). If certain types of prejudice and discrimination are acceptable in a society, there may be normative pressures to conform and share those prejudiced beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. For example, public and private schools are still somewhat segregated by social class. Historically, only children from wealthy families could afford to attend private schools, whereas children from middle- and low-income families typically attended public schools. If a child from a low-income family received a merit scholarship to attend a private school, how might the child be treated by classmates? Can you recall a time when you held prejudiced attitudes or beliefs or acted in a discriminatory manner because your group of friends expected you to?

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This text is adapted from <a href="https://cnx.org/contents/Sr8Ev5Og@10.24:nhpI4cUs@13/12-5-Prejudice-and-Discrimination" target="_blank">OpenStax, Psychology. OpenStax CNX.</a>

Stereotypes, Prejudice, Discrimination, Implicit Association Test

Stereotypy, uprzedzenia i dyskryminacja

Humans are very diverse and although we share many similarities, we also have many differences. The social groups we belong to help form our identities ...