Attributing human uniqueness and human nature to cultural groups : distinct forms of subtle dehumanization

Research on subtle dehumanization has focused on the attribution of human uniqueness to groups (infrahumanization), but has not examined another sense of humanness, human nature. Additionally, research has not extended far beyond Western cultures to examine the universality of these forms of dehumanization. Hence, the attribution of both forms of humanness was examined in three cross-cultural studies. Anglo-Australian and ethnic Chinese attributed values and traits (Study 1, N = 200) and emotions (Study 2, N = 151) to Australian and Chinese groups, and rated these characteristics on human uniqueness and human nature. Both studies found evidence of complementary attributions of humanness for Australians, who denied Chinese human nature but attributed them with greater human uniqueness. Chinese denied Australians human uniqueness, but their attributions of human nature varied for traits, values, and emotions. Study 3 (N = 54) demonstrated similar forms of dehumanization using an implicit method. These results and their implications for dehumanization and prejudice suggest the need to broaden investigation and theory to encompass both forms of humanness, and examine the attribution of both lesser and greater humanness to outgroups.

Strategies for the suspension and prevention of disconnection: Rendering disconnection as socioecenomic lubricant with Facebook

This paper attends to the idea of disconnection as a way of theorising people’s lived experience of social networking sites. Enrolling and extending a disconnective practice lens we suggest that the disconnective strategies of suspension and prevention are operational necessities for those we might see as the users and owners of sites such as Facebook. Indeed, our work demonstrates that disconnection in these contexts need not be associated only with modes of resistance and departure, but can also act as socioeconomic lubricant.

The David and Goliath principle: Cultural, ideological, and attitudinal underpinnings of the normative protection of low-status groups from criticism

Two studies documented the “David and Goliath” rule—the tendency for people to perceive criticism of “David” groups (groups with low power and status) as less normatively permissible than criticism of “Goliath” groups (groups with high power and status). The authors confirmed the existence of the David and Goliath rule across Western and Chinese cultures (Study 1). However, the rule was endorsed more strongly in Western than in Chinese cultures, an effect mediated by cultural differences in power distance. Study 2 identified the psychological underpinnings of this rule in an Australian sample. Lower social dominance orientation (SDO) was associated with greater endorsement of the rule, an effect mediated through the differential attribution of stereotypes. Specifically, those low in SDO were more likely to attribute traits of warmth and incompetence to David versus Goliath groups, a pattern of stereotypes that was related to the protection of David groups from criticism.

Heavy vehicle safety in Oman: Police interviews and heavy vehicle driver survey and focus groups. Third Report of the Heavy Vehicle Safety Research in Oman Project for The Research Council of Oman.

Over the past six months the project has undertaken three key, separate, data collection rounds. Each of these rounds focused on essentially different issues within the broader common construct of heavy vehicle road safety. This document will initially report on a series of two key qualitative data collections rounds. Firstly it will detail findings and report on discussions held in focus groups with 43 heavy vehicle drivers. The second qualitative study involved a series of interviews undertaken with 19 police officers from various levels of command and operations within the Royal Oman Police. The final data collection round reported on in this document is a roadside survey questionnaire undertaken with 400 heavy vehicle drivers.

Tailoring surface properties and structure of layered double hydroxides using silanes with different number of functional groups

Four silanes, trimethylchlorosilane (TMCS), dimethyldiethoxylsilane (DMDES), 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) and tetraethoxysilane (TEOS), were adopted to graft layered double hydroxides (LDH) via an induced hydrolysis silylation method (IHS). Fourier transform infrared spectra (FTIR) and 29Si MAS nuclear magnetic resonance spectra (29Si MAS NMR) indicated that APTES and TEOS can be grafted onto LDH surfaces via condensation with hydroxyl groups of LDH, while TMCS and DMDES could only be adsorbed on the LDH surface with a small quantity. A combination of X-ray diffraction patterns (XRD) and 29Si MAS NMR spectra showed that silanes were exclusively present in the external surface and had little influence on the long range order of LDH. The surfactant intercalation experiment indicated that the adsorbed and/or grafted silane could not fix the interlamellar spacing of the LDH. However, they will form crosslink between the particles and affect the further surfactant intercalation in the silylated samples. The replacement of water by ethanol in the tactoids and/or aggregations and the polysiloxane oligomers formed during silylation procedure can dramatically increase the value of BET surface area (SBET) and total pore volumes (Vp) of the products.

Designing hubs for connected learning: social, spatial and technological insights from Coworking, Hackerspaces and Meetup groups

Connected learning, as a design approach, does not restrict learning to a dedicated learning space (school, university, etc.), but considers it to be an aggregation of individual experiences made through intrinsically motivated, active participation in and across various socio-cultural, every-day life environments. Urban places for meeting, interacting and connected learning with people from diverse backgrounds, cultures and areas of expertise are highly significant in the knowledge economy of our 21st century. However, little is yet known about best practices to design and curate such hubs that attract and support interest-driven and socially embedded learning experiences. The research study presented in this paper investigates design aspects that contribute to successful place-based spaces for connected learning. The paper reports findings from observations as well as interviews with users and managers of three different types of local, community-led learning environments, i.e., coworking spaces, hackerspaces, and meetup groups across Australia. The findings reveal social, spatial and technological interventions that these spaces apply to nourish a culture of connected learning, sharing and peer interaction. The discussion suggests a set of design implications for designers, managers and decision makers that have an interest in nourishing a connected learning culture among their user community.

Focusing on what counts: Using exploratory focus groups to enhance the development of an electronic survey in a mixed-methods research design

This paper describes the use of exploratory focus groups to inform the development of a survey instrument in a sequential phase mixed methods study investigating differences in secondary students’ career choice capability. Five focus groups were conducted with 23 year 10 students in the state of New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Analysis of the focus group data informed the design of the instrument for the second phase of the research project: a large-scale cross-sectional survey. In this paper, we discuss the benefits of using sequential phase mixed method approaches when inquiring into complex phenomena such as human capability.

Online self-disclosure across cultures: A study of Facebook use in Saudi Arabia and Australia

This research aimed to gain a sophisticated understanding of self-disclosure on Facebook across two distinctive cultures, Saudi Arabia and Australia. This study utilised an explanatory sequential mixed methods design, consisting of a quantitative phase followed by a qualitative phase. Findings from both quantitative and qualitative data provide a broad understanding of the types of information that people self-disclose on Facebook, identifies factors that have a significant influence (either positive or negative) on such disclosure, and explains how it is affected by one's national culture.

Facebook: A basis for forming a peer learning community for nursing students in a bioscience unit

First year nursing students commonly find bioscience to be challenging. A Facebook community site was established to support and engage these students. The site was facilitated by virtual peer mentors and the unit coordinator. The high participation rate and the strong recommendation to future students indicated that the site successfully enabled student interaction and engagement with their learning. The students found it to be a readily accessible network and valued the useful resources and learning strategies provided by their peers. The sharing of both learning challenges and successful learning practices can help students build a sense of belonging and an understanding of academic practices and behaviours that can contribute to their learning success at university.

Facebook and Google have a moral duty to stop online abuse

It’s the stuff of nightmares: your intimate images are leaked and posted online by somebody you thought you could trust. But in Australia, victims often have no real legal remedy for this kind of abuse. This is the key problem of regulating the internet. Often, speech we might consider abusive or offensive isn’t actually illegal. And even when the law technically prohibits something, enforcing it directly against offenders can be difficult. It is a slow and expensive process, and where the offender or the content is overseas, there is virtually nothing victims can do. Ultimately, punishing intermediaries for content posted by third parties isn’t helpful. But we do need to have a meaningful conversation about how we want our shared online spaces to feel. The providers of these spaces have a moral, if not legal, obligation to facilitate this conversation.

Biomonitoring of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons exposure in small groups of residents in Brisbane, Australia and Hanoi, Vietnam, and those travelling between the two cities

Exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) has been associated with adverse health outcomes. Concentrations of urinary PAH metabolites (OH-PAHs) provide an integrated measure of human exposure to PAHs but measurement of urinary OH-PAHs has not been done in Australia and rarely in Vietnam, where air pollution is of concern. In this study, we assessed exposure to PAHs in 16 participants living in Brisbane, Australia and Hanoi, Vietnam, with 4 participants travelling between the two cities during the monitoring period. A total of 312 first morning urine samples were collected over 10 weeks and were analysed for nine OH-PAHs. Concentrations of the urinary OH-PAHs were 2–10 times higher in participants from Hanoi than those from Brisbane. For example, the median concentrations of 1-hydroxypyrene were 292 pg/mL in Hanoi, compared to 64 pg/mL in Brisbane. For participants travelling from Brisbane to Hanoi and back, differences in exposure to PAHs in these two cities resulted in corresponding changes of urinary OH-PAH concentrations, demonstrating that the more polluted environment in Hanoi was likely the source for higher PAH exposure there.

Using environmental criminology theories to compare ‘youth misuse of fire’ across age groups in New South Wales

Youth misuse of fire is a substantive community concern. Despite evidence which indicates youths account for a significant proportion of all deliberately lit fires within Australia, an absence of up-to-date, contextually specific research means the exact scope and magnitude of youth misuse of fire within Australia remains unknown. Despite research suggesting com- monalities exist between youth misuse of fire and juvenile offending more broadly, misuse of fire is rarely explained using criminological theory. In light of this gap, a descriptive analysis of youth misuse of fire within New South Wales was performed. Routine Activity Theory and Crime Pattern Theory were tested to explain differences in misuse of fire across age groups. Results suggest these environmental theories offer useful frameworks for explaining youth misuse of fire in New South Wales. It is argued that the Routine Activity Theory and Crime Pattern Theory can be employed to better inform youth misuse of fire policy and prevention efforts.

Identifying opportunity spaces for design research in South America: Working with grassroots and community groups

As design research continues to gain momentum in South America, design researchers and practitioners in the region have begun to consider how to the field may address regionally-specific issues, including on-going political struggles. By bringing approaches such as Participatory Design and Adversarial Design that consider political aspects of design, local researchers have explored various forms that these two approaches could take that are tailored to the needs and values of different communities across the region. This paper focuses on identifying opportunities for developing design research projects in community-based and grassroots-oriented contexts. The paper presents the findings of our study about the understanding and experience of design researchers and experts who have been working closely with community groups and grassroots organisations in South America. Five themes emerged, highlighting opportunities and challenges related to positioning contemporary design research in the region, integration of adversarial perspectives into design processes, leveraging local obstacles through creativity, and the potential of building capacity within community groups and grassroots organisations for sustainability and autonomy.

Revisiting the CO oxidation reaction on various Au/TiO2catalysts: Roles of the surface OH groups and the reaction mechanism

This work aims to understand the influence of TiO2 surface structure in Au/TiO2 catalysts on CO oxidation. Au nanoparticles (3 wt%) in the range of 4 to 8 nm were loaded onto four kinds of TiO2 surfaces, which had different surface structures and were synthesized by calcining hydrogen titanate nanotubes at various temperatures and in different atmospheres. The Au catalyst supported on anatase nanorods exhibited the highest activity in CO oxidation at 30 °C among all the five Au/TiO2 catalysts including the reference catalyst of Au/TiO2-P25. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and infrared emission spectra (IES) results indicate that the anatase nanorods have the most active surface on which water molecules can be strongly adsorbed and OH groups can be formed readily. Theoretical calculation indicates that the surface OH can facilitate the O2 adsorption on the anatase surface. Such active surface features are conducive to the O2 activation and CO oxidation

Measuring source credibility of social engineering attackers on Facebook

Past research has suggested that social networking sites are the most common source for social engineering-based attacks. Persuasion research shows that people are more likely to obey and accept a message when the source’s presentation appears to be credible. However, many factors can impact the perceived credibility of a source, depending on its type and the characteristics of the environment. Our previous research showed that there are four dimensions of source credibility in terms of social engineering on Facebook: perceived sincerity, perceived competence, perceived attraction, and perceived worthiness. Because the dimensionalities of source credibility as well as their measurement scales can fluctuate from one type of source to another and from one type of context to another, our aim in this study includes validating the existence of those four dimensions toward the credibility of social engineering attackers on Facebook and developing a valid measurement scale for every dimension of them.