Ideological diversity of media consumption predicts COVID-19 vaccination.

This study examines the relationship between respondents' vaccine hesitancy, reported media consumption patterns, ideological leanings, and trust in science. A large-scale survey conducted in the US in 2022 (N = 1,646) assessed self-reported COVID-19 vaccination, trust in science, and reported media consumption. Findings show that, regardless of personal ideology, individuals who consumed less conservative media and had a more ideologically diverse media diet were more likely to be fully vaccinated and boosted.

Automated estimation of offshore polymetallic nodule abundance based on seafloor imagery using deep learning.

The burgeoning demand for critical metals used in high-tech and green technology industries has turned attention toward the vast resources of polymetallic nodules on the ocean floor. Traditional methods for estimating the abundance of these nodules, such as direct sampling or acoustic imagery are time and labour-intensive or often insufficient for large-scale or accurate assessment. This paper advocates for the automatization of polymetallic nodules detection and abundance estimation using deep learning algorithms applied to seabed photographs.

Doing more than expected: The role of the recipient's neediness in children's perception of their relative prosociality.

This study examined children's self-assessment of their prosociality, relative to average peers, in situations where the recipient is described as "needy" versus "not needy" (at a school of average socioeconomic level in south Israel; N = 158; aged 6-12 years; 51% males, December-May 2021). The results show that older children exhibited the better-than-average (BTA) effect by seeing themselves as more generous than peers. In contrast, younger children displayed the worse-than-average effect by expecting peers to be more generous than themselves.

Children's self-evaluation of their prosociality when comparing themselves with a specific versus abstract other.

This study examines the development of children's self-assessment of their prosociality in normative social comparisons with an average peer, who was either a concrete individual, or an abstract one, at a school of average socioeconomic level in south Israel (N = 148, Age 6-12 years, 51% females; June 2021). Results show that older children exhibited the better-than-average (BTA) effect by perceiving themselves as more generous than their average peer. Conversely, younger children exhibited a worse-than-average effect, in that they assumed that their peers would act more generously than themselves ( ).

Structured reflection increases intentions to reduce other people's health risks during COVID-19.

People believe they should consider how their behavior might negatively impact other people, Yet their behavior often increases others' health risks. This creates challenges for managing public health crises like the COVID-19 pandemic. We examined a procedure wherein people reflect on their personal criteria regarding how their behavior impacts others' health risks.

Seabed Modelling by Means of Airborne Laser Bathymetry Data and Imbalanced Learning for Offshore Mapping.

An important problem associated with the aerial mapping of the seabed is the precise classification of point clouds characterizing the water surface, bottom, and bottom objects. This study aimed to improve the accuracy of classification by addressing the asymmetric amount of data representing these three groups. A total of 53 Synthetic Minority Oversampling Technique (SMOTE) algorithms were adjusted and evaluated to balance the amount of data.

Politicians polarize and experts depolarize public support for COVID-19 management policies across countries.

Political polarization impeded public support for policies to reduce the spread of COVID-19, much as polarization hinders responses to other contemporary challenges. Unlike previous theory and research that focused on the United States, the present research examined the effects of political elite cues and affective polarization on support for policies to manage the COVID-19 pandemic in seven countries ( = 12,955): Brazil, Israel, Italy, South Korea, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Across countries, cues from political elites polarized public attitudes toward COVID-19 policies.

The Effect of the Number and Identification of Recipients on Organ-Donation Decisions.

We examined how presentations of organ donation cases in the media may affect people's decisions about organ donation issues. Specifically, we focused on the combined effect of the information about the number of recipients saved by the organs of one deceased person (one vs. four) and the identifiability of the donor and the recipient(s) in organ donation descriptions, on people's willingness to donate the organs of a deceased relative.

Sharing and belonging: Children's social status and their sharing behavior with in-group and out-group members.

The association between children's social-status within their peer-group and their prosociality was examined among fourth and sixth graders (N = 276), using sociometric nominations, and actual sharing with a fellow in-group member, or a member of an out-group. Results show an overall increase in sharing with age, and an overall correlation between children's social status among peers and their sharing behavior-however, across both age groups, this association was significant only in the in-group condition, not when the recipient child was an out-group member. Specifically, less accepted children behaved in a less prosocial manner only toward in-group members, not toward out-group ones.

Ionic liquid pretreatment of stinging nettle stems and giant miscanthus for bioethanol production.

Production of ethanol from lignocellulosic biomass is considered the most promising proposition for developing a sustainable and carbon-neutral energy system. The use of renewable raw materials and variability of lignocellulosic feedstock generating hexose and pentose sugars also brings advantages of the most abundant, sustainable and non-food competitive biomass. Great attention is now paid to agricultural wastes and overgrowing plants as an alternative to fast-growing energetic crops.

Too Lonely to Help: Early Adolescents' Social Connections and Willingness to Help During COVID-19 Lockdown.

We examined early adolescents' social connections, their emotional state, and their willingness to act prosocially during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. In two studies-comparing fourth to sixth graders during lockdown with a similar sample in pre-pandemic times, and longitudinally examining the same sample of participants, twice-we found that overall, early adolescents' emotional state during lockdown was significantly worse than in normal times (before the pandemic). This decline was explained by the participants' ratings of their loneliness, which was linked to their social (virtual) connections during lockdown.

Happy to help-if it's not too sad: The effect of mood on helping identifiable and unidentifiable victims.

People's preference to help single victims about whom they have some information is known as the identifiable victim effect. Previous research suggests that this effect stems from an intensive emotional reaction toward specific victims. The findings of two studies consistently show that the identifiability effect is attenuated when the subject is in a positive mood.

Perceived Physical Vulnerability Promotes Prosocial Behavior.

Our research examines the association between perceived physical vulnerability and prosocial behavior. Studies 1 to 4 establish a positive association between individuals' vulnerability and their prosociality. To increase generality, these studies looked at different behaviors (volunteering vs.

Who's more generous than me? Children's self-evaluation of their prosociality in normative social comparisons.

We examined the development of children's self-evaluation of their prosociality in normative social comparisons (with an average peer). Results suggest that when comparing themselves with an average other in the abstract (i.e.

The development of prosociality among Christian Arab children in Israel: The role of children's household religiosity and of the recipient's neediness.

We examined the development of sharing behavior of children (aged 6 to 12) within the unique, minority population of Christian Arab children in Israel (N = 319). Children had the opportunity to share candy with a needy or non-needy recipient. Parents' level of religiosity was assessed using the Duke University Religion Index questionnaire (DUREL).

Attitudes, knowledge, and preferences of the Israeli public regarding the allocation of donor organs for transplantation.

Background: There is a stark disparity between the number of patients awaiting deceased-donor organ transplants and the rate at which organs become available. Though organs for transplantation are assumed to be a community resource, and the organ supply depends on public willingness to donate, current allocation schemes do not explicitly incorporate public priorities and preferences. This paper seeks to provide insights regarding the Israeli public's preferences regarding criteria for organ (specifically, kidney) allocation, and to determine whether these preferences are in line with current allocation policies.

It depends: Partisan evaluation of conditional probability importance.

Policies to suppress rare events such as terrorism often restrict co-occurring categories such as Muslim immigration. Evaluating restrictive policies requires clear thinking about conditional probabilities. For example, terrorism is extremely rare.

Feel good, do good? Subjective well-being and sharing behavior among children.

The current study examined the association between children's subjective well-being (SWB) and their sharing behavior. School children (second and fifth graders) were interviewed in private and had an opportunity to share candy with a recipient under one of two between-participants conditions: Perceived-High Obligation (a recipient in poverty) and Perceived-Low Obligation (a temporarily needy recipient). Results provide initial evidence of an increased association between SWB and sharing decisions with age; whereas SWB was not significantly correlated with the incidence of sharing by younger children (second graders), it was a positive predictor of sharing behavior among fifth graders.

The association between religiousness and children's altruism: The role of the recipient's neediness.

We examined the role of the recipient's neediness as a moderator in the relation between children's household religiosity and prosocial behavior. Examining the behavior of children (2nd and 5th graders) from religious and nonreligious households in the dictator game, we found that the extent of sharing did not differ significantly between the 2 groups when the recipient was not described as needy. However, when the recipient was presented as a poor (needy) child, the religious group exhibited significantly more sharing behavior.

Altruistic behavior in cohesive social groups: The role of target identifiability.

People's tendency to be more generous toward identifiable victims than toward unidentifiable or statistical victims is known as the Identifiable Victim Effect. Recent research has called the generality of this effect into question, showing that in cross-national contexts, identifiability mostly affects willingness to help victims of one's own "in-group." Furthermore, in inter-group conflict situations, identifiability increased generosity toward a member of the adversary group, but decreased generosity toward a member of one's own group.

Effect of media presentations on willingness to commit to organ donation.

We examine how presentations of organ donation cases in the media may affect people's willingness to sign organ donation commitment cards, donate the organs of a deceased relative, support the transition to an "opt-out" policy, or donate a kidney while alive. We found that providing identifying information about the prospective recipient (whose life was saved by the donation) increased the participants' willingness to commit to organ donation themselves, donate the organs of a deceased relative, or support a transition to an "opt-out" policy. Conversely, identifying the deceased donor tended to induce thoughts of death rather than about saving lives, resulting in fewer participants willing to donate organs or support measures that facilitated organ donation.

The development of scope insensitivity in sharing behavior.

The singularity effect of identifiable victims is described as the greater willingness to help a single, identified victim than to help a group of victims with the same need (whether victims are identified or not), which occurs even when the single victim is 1 of the group's members. The current research examines the development of this phenomenon in early childhood examining children's actual sharing behavior from the ages of 3.8 to 8.

Careful Cheating: People Cheat Groups Rather than Individuals.

Cheating for material gain is a destructive phenomenon in any society. We examine the extent to which people care about the victims of their unethical behavior-be they a group of people or an individual-and whether they are sensitive to the degree of harm or cost that they cause to these victims. The results of three studies suggest that when a group (rather than a single individual) is the victim of one's behavior, the incidence of cheating increases only if the harm to the group is presented in global terms-such that the cheating might be justified by the relatively minor harm caused to each individual in the group (Studies #1 and #3).

Scope insensitivity in helping decisions: Is it a matter of culture and values?

The singularity effect of identifiable victims refers to people's greater willingness to help a single concrete victim compared with a group of victims experiencing the same need. We present 3 studies exploring values and cultural sources of this effect. In the first study, the singularity effect was found only among Western Israelis and not among Bedouin participants (a more collectivist group).

The role of perspective taking and emotions in punishing identified and unidentified wrongdoers.

We present two studies examining the effect of identifiability on willingness to punish, emphasising that identifiability of the wrongdoer may increase or decrease willingness to punish depending on the punisher's perspective. When taking the wrongdoer's perspective, identifiability increases pity and decreases anger towards the wrongdoer, leading to a lighter punishment. On the other hand, when adopting the injured perspective, identifiability decreases pity and increases anger, resulting in a severe punishment.