This study explored gender differences in the psychosocial backgrounds of individuals convicted of arson in Sweden between 2000 and 2010. A total of 100 women and 100 men who had undergone forensic psychiatric investigation were randomly selected. Data covered childhood environment, institutional care, psychiatric history, experiences of victimization, and parenting. While both groups showed substantial psychosocial strain, women exhibited notably higher levels of victimization, more frequent psychiatric inpatient care, and greater involvement with social services concerning their children. These findings underscore the need for trauma-informed and gender-sensitive approaches in forensic assessment, risk evaluation, and treatment of arson offenders.

Considering the rise of far-right groups in Western countries, we examined whether exposure to media coverage on the far-right is associated with attitudes toward it, using surveys in 15 Western democratic countries (total N = 2,576). We hypothesized that greater media exposure to the far-right will be associated with greater perceived prevalence and acceptability of it, which will in turn be associated with divergent attitudes. On the one hand, greater perceived prevalence may be associated with more unfavorable attitudes toward the far-right (a threat response). On the other hand, greater perceived acceptability may be associated with more favorable attitudes toward the far-right (a normalization response). Overall, there was more evidence for a threat response than a normalization response: media exposure was consistently related to greater perceived prevalence (but not acceptability) of the far-right. This research underscores the importance of studying the consequences of the rise of the far-right.

Purpose: This study examined how the language of eyewitnesses (native vs. non-native) and their perceived credibility influence the interrogation questions posed to them.

Method: In a previous study (Raver et al., Frontiers in Psychology, 2023, 14, 1240822), participants, assuming the role of interrogators, watched either a native or non-native speaking eyewitness testify and were then asked to formulate interrogation questions to gather more information, as well as rate the witness’s credibility. In the present study, a new set of participants (N = 207) evaluated a subset of these interrogation questions in terms of (1) how leading they were, (2) whether the interrogator cast doubt on something the witness had said and (3) how open-ended they were. The moderating role of witnesses’ perceived credibility on question framing was also examined.

Results: Results showed no main effect of language (native vs. non-native) on any question type. For native speakers, lower (vs. higher) credibility led to more expressions of doubt. For non-native speakers, credibility levels (high vs. low) had no effect on question framing.

Conclusion: These findings highlight complex patterns in interrogation questioning that vary by witness language and perceived credibility, revealing a critical area for further exploration to mitigate potential cross-linguistic biases. We discuss the study’s limitations and advocate for future research in diverse legal contexts to ensure fairness and uphold the integrity of witness testimonies across languages.

An informed public is essential to democratic representation, and the news media have traditionally played a central role in supporting this ideal. However, the changing media environment and a rise of misinformation have raised new questions about how citizens acquire and retain political knowledge, prompting distinctions between the uninformed and those holding directional or evidence-resistant misbeliefs. We extend this discussion by arguing that even individuals who are factually accurate may not necessarily be politically knowledgeable, as directional beliefs can sometimes coincide with correct information. We address this both theoretically—by integrating concepts of certainty and attitudes toward evidence—and empirically, by analyzing belief patterns across political issues using Swedish survey data (N = 2,268). Our findings suggest that individuals can be knowledgeable on some issues yet holding directional (mis)beliefs on others, selectively aligning with facts that support their views. These belief patterns are not associated with traditional news use but correlate with alternative news consumption.

Love is commonly hypothesized to function as an evolved commitment device, disincentivizing the pursuit of romantic alternatives and signaling this motivational shift to a partner. Here, we test this possibility against a novel signaling-to-alternatives account, in which love instead operates by dissuading alternatives from pursuing oneself. Overall, we find stronger support for the latter account. In Studies 1 and 2, we find that partner quality relative to alternatives positively predicts feelings of love, and love fails to mitigate the negative effects of desirable alternatives on relationship satisfaction—contradicting the classic commitment device account. In Study 3, using a longitudinal design, we replicate these effects and find that changes in partner quality relative to alternatives predict changes in love over time. In Study 4, we replicate the relationship between love and relative partner quality across 44 countries. In Study 5, we find a nearly one-to-one correspondence between the extent to which partner-directed actions are diagnostic of love and reductions in romantic alternatives' attraction to the actor. These results suggest that love may not act as a commitment device in the classic sense by disincentivizing the pursuit of alternatives but by disincentivizing alternatives from pursuing oneself.

In a questionnaire, participants judged the increase in SARS-CoV-2 virus exposure when moving closer to an infected person. Earlier studies have shown that the actual increase in virus exposure is underestimated and the present study replicated and extended these studies. The primary purpose was to investigate to what extent questionnaire judgments about hypothetical situations can predict judgments and actual behavior in real physical space. Participants responded to a questionnaire and the same participants also took part in a parallel study that was conducted in a room with a mannequin representing a virus infected person. The earlier reported bias in the perception of exposure as a function of distance to a virus source was replicated in the questionnaire and the physical laboratory study. A linear function connected median exposure judgments at the same distances from a virus source in the questionnaire and in the laboratory, R2 = 0.99. When asked to move to a distance that would give a prescribed exposure level, a linear function described the relationship between questionnaire distance judgments and moves to distances in the physical space, R2 = 0.95. We concluded that questionnaire data about perceived virus exposures are reliable indicators of real behavior. For health reasons, the significant underestimations of the steep increase of virus exposure during an approach to a virus source need to be stressed in communications to policy makers, the public, professionals working close to clients, nursing staff, and other care providers.

Participants judged the risk of an infection during a face to face conversation at different interpersonal distances from a SARS-CoV-2 infected person who wore a face mask or not, and in the same questionnaire answered questions about Corona related issues. Keeping a distance to an infected person serves as a protective measure against an infection. When an infected person moves closer, risk of infection increases. Participants were aware of this fact, but underestimated the rate at which the risk of infection increases when getting closer to an infected person, e.g., from 1.5 to 0.5 m (perceived risk increase = 3.33 times higher, objective = 9.00 times higher). This is alarming because it means that people can take risks of infection that they are not aware of or want to take, when they approach another possibly virus infected person. Correspondingly, when an infected person moves away the speed of risk decrease was underestimated, meaning that people are not aware of how much safer they will be if they move away from an infected person. The perceived risk reducing effects of a face mask were approximately correct. Judgments of infection risk at different interpersonal distances (with or without a mask) were unrelated to how often a person used a mask, avoided others or canceled meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic. Greater worry in general and in particular over COVID-19, correlated positively with more protective behavior during the pandemic, but not with judgments of infection risk at different interpersonal distances. Participants with higher scores on a cognitive numeracy test judged mask efficiency more correctly, and women were more worried and risk avoiding than men. The results have implications for understanding behavior in a pandemic, and are relevant for risk communications about the steep increase in risk when approaching a person who may be infected with an airborne virus.

Previous studies have found a negative relationship between creativity and conservatism. However, as these studies were mostly conducted on samples of homogeneous nationality, the generalizability of the effect across different cultures is unknown. We addressed this gap by conducting a study in 28 countries. Based on the notion that attitudes can be shaped by both environmental and ecological factors, we hypothesized that parasite stress can also affect creativity and thus, its potential effects should be controlled for. The results of multilevel analyses showed that, as expected, conservatism was a significant predictor of lower creativity, adjusting for economic status, age, sex, education level, subjective susceptibility to disease, and country-level parasite stress. In addition, most of the variability in creativity was due to individual rather than country-level variance. Our study provides evidence for a weak but significant negative link between conservatism and creativity at the individual level (β = −0.08, p < .001) and no such effect when country-level conservatism was considered. We present our hypotheses considering previous findings on the behavioral immune system in humans.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the introduction of unprecedented safety measures, one of them being physical distancing recommendations. Here, we assessed whether the pandemic has led to long-term effects on two important physical distancing aspects, namely interpersonal distance preferences and interpersonal touch behaviors. We analyzed nearly 14,000 individual cases from two large, cross-cultural surveys – the first conducted 2 years prior to the pandemic and the second during a relatively stable period of a decreased infection rate in May-June 2021. Preferred interpersonal distances increased by 54% globally during the COVID-19 pandemic. This increase was observable across all types of relationships, all countries, and was more pronounced in individuals with higher self-reported vulnerability to diseases. Unexpectedly, participants reported a higher incidence of interpersonal touch behaviors during than before the pandemic. We discuss our results in the context of prosocial and self-protection motivations that potentially promote different social behaviors. 

Military organizations often emphasize the importance of loyalty. It has been suggested that loyalty enhances motivation to take great risks and strive to accomplish a mission. However, research into what influences loyalty among military personnel is scarce. Hence, the aim of this study was to examine how leadership and social identity fusion relate to loyalty, using data from a sample consisting of a Swedish military unit on a United Nation mission (N = 152) in Mali. Hierarchical multiple regression results generally showed that social identity fusion and leadership were positively related to a willingness to show loyalty to the closest workgroup, one’s own unit, and the mission. The findings indicate that leadership and high levels of social identity fusion may influence the willingness to be loyal to organizational goals. The practical implication of this study is increased knowledge about the importance of leadership and social identity in developing relevant loyalties.