Individual differences in delay discounting are associated with dorsal prefrontal cortex connectivity in children, adolescents, and adults.

Delay discounting is a measure of impulsive choice relevant in adolescence as it predicts many real-life outcomes, including obesity and academic achievement. However, resting-state functional networks underlying individual differences in delay discounting during youth remain incompletely described. Here we investigate the association between multivariate patterns of functional connectivity and individual differences in impulsive choice in a large sample of children, adolescents, and adults.

A meta-analysis of correction effects in science-relevant misinformation.

Scientifically relevant misinformation, defined as false claims concerning a scientific measurement procedure or scientific evidence, regardless of the author's intent, is illustrated by the fiction that the coronavirus disease 2019 vaccine contained microchips to track citizens. Updating science-relevant misinformation after a correction can be challenging, and little is known about what theoretical factors can influence the correction. Here this meta-analysis examined 205 effect sizes (that is, k, obtained from 74 reports; N = 60,861), which showed that attempts to debunk science-relevant misinformation were, on average, not successful (d = 0.

Bypassing misinformation without confrontation improves policy support as much as correcting it.

Curbing the negative impact of misinformation is typically assumed to require correcting misconceptions. Conceivably, however, bypassing the misinformation through alternate beliefs of opposite implications may reduce the attitudinal impact of the misinformation. Three experiments, one preregistered with a sample representative of the United States population, examined the impact of (a) directly correcting prior misinformation offered in support of restricting Genetically Modified (GM) foods (i.

Protecting the integrity of survey research.

Although polling is not irredeemably broken, changes in technology and society create challenges that, if not addressed well, can threaten the quality of election polls and other important surveys on topics such as the economy. This essay describes some of these challenges and recommends remediations to protect the integrity of all kinds of survey research, including election polls. These 12 recommendations specify ways that survey researchers, and those who use polls and other public-oriented surveys, can increase the accuracy and trustworthiness of their data and analyses.

Priming behavior: A meta-analysis of the effects of behavioral and nonbehavioral primes on overt behavioral outcomes.

Past meta-analyses of the effects of priming on overt behavior have not examined whether the effects and processes of priming behavioral or nonbehavioral concepts (e.g., priming action through the word and priming religion through the word ) differ, even though these possibilities are important to our understanding of concept accessibility and behavior.

Individual Differences in Delay Discounting are Associated with Dorsal Prefrontal Cortex Connectivity in Youth.

Delay discounting is a measure of impulsive choice relevant in adolescence as it predicts many real-life outcomes, including substance use disorders, obesity, and academic achievement. However, the functional networks underlying individual differences in delay discounting during youth remain incompletely described. Here we investigate the association between multivariate patterns of functional connectivity and individual differences in impulsive choice in a large sample of youth.

How people use information about changes in infections and disease prevalence.

Objective: To determine the influence of two representative metrics of epidemiological risk, changes in new infections, and disease prevalence, on people's risk judgments and disease-prevention behaviors.

Method: Four experiments were conducted from August 2020 to May 2021. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants were exposed to information about different directions of change (upward and downward) and varying levels of prevalence of an infectious disease.

An event-based magnetoencephalography study of simulated driving: Establishing a novel paradigm to probe the dynamic interplay of executive and motor function.

Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is particularly well-suited to the study of human motor cortex oscillatory rhythms and motor control. However, the motor tasks studied to date are largely overly simplistic. This study describes a new approach: a novel event-based simulated drive made operational via MEG compatible driving simulator hardware, paired with differential beamformer methods to characterize the neural correlates of realistic, complex motor activity.

Adolescents' own views on their risk behaviors, and the potential effects of being labeled as risk-takers: A commentary and review.

Adolescents are stereotypically viewed as risk-takers ("stereotypical risk-takers") in science, mainstream media, fictional literature and in everyday life. However, increasing research suggests that adolescents do not always engage in "heightened" risk-taking, and adolescents' own perspectives (motives) on risk-taking are largely neglected in research. Hence, this paper is a commentary and review with two aims.

Conspiratorial thinking as a precursor to opposition to COVID-19 vaccination in the US: a multi-year study from 2018 to 2021.

Despite widespread availability of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines in the US, only about 66% of the eligible US population had taken the recommended initial doses of the COVID-19 vaccines as of April 2022. Explanations for this hesitancy have focused on misinformation about the vaccines, lack of trust in health authorities, and acceptance of conspiracy theories about the pandemic. Here we test whether those with a conspiratorial mindset, which distrusts a wide range of institutions, were poised to reject COVID vaccines before the pandemic even began.

Tobacco promotion restriction policies on social media.

Tobacco promotion is prolific on social media, with each platform setting their own restrictions on tobacco promotion and sales. We evaluated the policies related to tobacco product promotion and sales on 11 sites that are popular with youth in May 2021: Discord, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Reddit, Snapchat, TikTok, Tumblr, Twitch, Twitter and YouTube. Nine of the 11 sites prohibited for tobacco products.

Misinformation about vaccine safety and uptake of COVID-19 vaccines among adults and 5-11-year-olds in the United States.

Despite increasing rates of vaccination for COVID-19 in the US, hesitancy continues to be a barrier to the full immunization of the eligible population. Hesitancy appears to be particularly pronounced among adults deciding whether to recommend that children be vaccinated against COVID-19. In this research, we tested whether embrace of misinformation about the safety of vaccination is associated with hesitancy to vaccinate oneself and to recommend vaccination of a 5-11-year-old child for COVID-19.

Predicting cigarette use initiation and dependence in adolescence using an affect-driven exploration model.

Adolescent decisions, especially in novel contexts, are often guided by affective evaluations (i.e., feelings associated with a stimulus) rather than knowledge of the risks and probabilities of different outcomes.

Cascades From Early Adolescent Impulsivity to Late Adolescent Antisocial Personality Disorder and Alcohol Use Disorder.

Purpose: The behavioral disinhibition model (BDM) posits that a liability toward impulsivity evident by early adolescence underlies the coemergence of antisocial behavior and alcohol use (i.e., problem behaviors) in early-adolescence to mid-adolescence, but that the subsequent development of these problem behaviors (rather than impulsivity itself) predicts the emergence of antisocial personality disorder (APD) and alcohol use disorder (AUD) in late adolescence.

Trust in the public health system as a source of information on vaccination matters most when environments are supportive.

Objectives: To understand whether health insurance coverage of vaccine costs and discussing vaccination with a healthcare provider are necessary for trust in CDC (Centers for Disease Control) to increase the uptake of the vaccine.

Method: A nationally representative sample of 2,549 adults from the United States answered questions about trust in CDC, insurance coverage, interactions with healthcare providers, and risk perceptions, and then provided longitudinal reports of actual vaccination against influenza during the course of the 2018-19 flu season.

Results: Trust in CDC as a source of information on vaccines was a strong precursor of vaccination.

Licensing Examination and Crash Outcomes Postlicensure in Young Drivers.

Importance: Despite US graduated driver licensing laws, young novice driver crash rates remain high. Study findings suggest comprehensive license policy that mandates driver education including behind-the-wheel (BTW) training may reduce crashes postlicensure. However, only 15 states mandate BTW training.

Supportive environments during the substance use disorder epidemic in the rural United States: Provider support for interventions and expectations of interactions with providers.

Background: Harm reduction interventions, including SSP (Syringe Services Programs) and MAT (Medications for Addiction Treatment) have demonstrated the potential to help stem the epidemic of opioid use disorder. However, for that potential to be realized, people must expect that healthcare providers will be supportive if they ever seek care for substance use.

Methods: This cross-sectional study investigated perceptions of provider support for SSP and MAT in the general population of 14 states selected specifically for 50 percent of the sample to include participants from rural counties with high rates of non-medical opioid use and injection.

Socio-behavioral factors related to PrEP non-adherence among gay male PrEP users living in California and New York: A behavioral theory informed approach.

One effective preventative measure to reduce the number of new HIV infections is through the uptake of daily oral HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Although previous clinical trials have proven the effectiveness of on-demand PrEP uptake, daily PrEP uptake is the most popular prevention method among PrEP users and is still recommended by most healthcare professionals and organizations. Informed by the integrative model of behavioral prediction, the current study examined the socio-behavioral factors associated with PrEP non-adherence.

The role of non-COVID-specific and COVID-specific factors in predicting a shift in willingness to vaccinate: A panel study.

Although declines in intent to vaccinate had been identified in international surveys conducted between June and October 2020, including in the United States, some individuals in the United States who previously expressed reluctance said, in spring 2021, that they were willing to vaccinate. That change raised the following questions: What factors predicted an increased willingness to inoculate against COVID-19? And, to what extent was the change driven by COVID-specific factors, such as personal worry about the disease and COVID-specific misinformation, and to what extent by background (non-COVID-specific) factors, such as trust in medical authorities, accurate/inaccurate information about vaccination, vaccination history, and patterns of media reliance? This panel study of more than 8,000 individuals found that trust in health authorities anchored acceptance of vaccination and that knowledge about vaccination, flu vaccination history, and patterns of media reliance played a more prominent role in shifting individuals from vaccination hesitance to acceptance than COVID-specific factors. COVID-specific conspiracy beliefs did play a role, although a lesser one.

Selection versus socialization effects of peer norms on adolescent cigarette use.

Adolescent smokers tend to have friends who also smoke. This association has been attributed to peer socialization and peer selection effects. However, evidence regarding timing and relative magnitude of these effects is mixed.

Conspiratorial thinking, selective exposure to conservative media, and response to COVID-19 in the US.

Rationale: Previous research has shown that during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US, users of conservative media were more likely to accept conspiracy theories about the pandemic and less likely to accept pandemic mitigation measures such as mask-wearing and vaccination.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that during the first year of the pandemic, viewers who were prone to conspiratorial thinking engaged in selective exposure to conservative media which served to enhance pandemic-related conspiracy beliefs.

Methods: A national 3-wave longitudinal survey of 883 US respondents running from March to November 2020 assessed media-use habits, belief in COVID-related conspiracies, conspiratorial thinking, mask-wearing, intention to accept a COVID vaccine, and trust in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Addicted to green: priming effect of menthol cigarette packaging on brain response to smoking cues.

Introduction: Mentholated tobacco cigarettes are believed to be more addictive than non-menthol ones. Packaging of most menthol cigarette brands includes distinctive green hues, which may act as conditioned stimuli (ie, cues) and promote menthol smoking. To examine the cue properties of menthol cigarette packaging, we used a priming paradigm to assess the effect of packaging on the neural substrates of smoking cue reactivity.