The self-interest bias describes an inclination of people to evaluate transgressors morally better when the latter’s actions serve the former’s interests. Effective interventions to mitigate this type of self-serving bias remain underexplored. The current research investigates education and accountability as potential moderators of this bias. In preregistered Study 1 (N = 668), as predicted, educating participants about the self-interest bias eliminated its effect on their moral character judgments. However, across three preregistered accountability studies (N = 2,239), holding participants accountable for their judgments did not attenuate the bias. Similarly, in preregistered Study 5 (N = 641), we found no evidence of a combined effect of education and accountability on reducing the bias. These findings suggest that while increasing awareness through education may effectively reduce biased moral judgments, accountability, especially when lacking external scrutiny or consequences, does not. Theoretical implications, methodological limitations, and future research opportunities are discussed.
Women are greatly underrepresented in positions of political leadership around the world. In seeking to explain this underrepresentation, some researchers have pointed to people's tendencies to stereotype leaders as more similar to men than women as these tendencies can support the belief that women are unsuited to leadership. This project aimed to test whether a subtle linguistic intervention was able to ameliorate this gender bias in political leadership stereotypes across different languages and national contexts (country/region N = 42, language N = 30, sample N = 22,996). Specifically, this project examined whether gender-fair language (e.g., the use of paired pronouns ‘he or she’) can reduce the tendency for people to stereotype political leaders as more similar to men than women. To increase the rigor with which these stereotypes were measured, this project complemented the dominant ‘cheap talk’ measure of personal stereotype content with an incentivised community measure of this content. As expected, participants stereotyped political leaders as more similar to men than women; this pattern was stronger on the incentivised measure of community stereotypes. Unexpectedly, there was no evidence that paired pronouns reduced this bias (there was weak exploratory evidence that paired nouns increased participants' tendencies to stereotype political leaders as more similar to women). This project suggests that the ability of gender-fair language interventions to ameliorate gender bias in the political leadership domain may be limited.
Background: Morally challenging situations may lead to moral distress, when healthcare workers feel unable to act in line with their professional or ethical values. Moral distress among birth unit workers affects well-being and safety of care. Understanding how workers cope is essential for developing preventive strategies. Aim: To explore how healthcare workers on birth units use personal and organisational strategies to manage morally challenging situations, and how this can be interpreted through the Theory of Collective Capacity for Emotionally Charged Work.
Methods: Twenty semi-structured interviews were conducted with healthcare workers from seven birth units, including two university and five non-university hospitals. Participants included midwives (n = 10), physicians (n = 6), and assistant nurses (n = 4). The deductive content analysis was informed by the Theory of Collective Capacity for Emotionally Charged Work.
Results: Participants described interpersonal rather than organisational strategies for managing morally challenging situations. When strategies and conditions aligned, participants managed these situations, improving well-being and care safety. All components of the original model were identified, although some required expansion to fit the context of moral distress. Additional conditions, including personal resources and long-term adaptation, were identified.
Conclusions: Birth unit workers mainly managed morally challenging situations through collegial and interpersonal strategies, while structured organisational support was limited. The Theory of Collective Capacity for Emotionally Charged Work was useful for understanding these strategies and the conditions that enabled them, but required extension to reflect the specific emotional, moral, and organisational features of moral distress in birth units.
Key message: Managing moral distress in birth units relies on strategies of seeking confirmation, building collegiality, and creating space for emotional recovery and is supported by conditions such as task quality, influence on the core task, organisational resources, personal resources, and long-term adaptation. However, the findings indicate a lack of organisational support structures to enable these strategies.
Objectives
This study examined the key factors associated with psychotherapists' attitudes toward online therapy, with particular focus on therapeutic orientation, age, years of professional experience, prior technological experience, and perceived patient openness. Conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, the study was based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology for Therapists (UTAUT-T) framework to better understand therapists' acceptance of online therapeutic modalities.
Method
The study involved 387 psychotherapists representing various therapeutic approaches, who completed an online self-report questionnaire. The instruments used included the UTAUT-T questionnaire, a custom use behavior questionnaire, and a demographic survey.
Results
The final sample included 387 psychotherapists. The multivariate test showed significant differences between therapeutic orientations, F(24, 1468) = 3.39, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.05 [0.02, 0.06]. Psychodynamic therapists consistently reported a more negative attitude toward therapy than cognitive-behavioral, systemic, humanistic, or therapists representing other therapeutic orientations. These differences were particularly pronounced for Professional Support (e.g., psychodynamic vs. CBT, t = −7.75, p < 0.001, d = 1.20[0.86; 1.52]) and for the total UTAUT-T score (e.g., t = −5.48, p < 0.001, d = 0.87[0.54; 1.18]). Prior technological experience and perceived patient openness were both positively associated with therapists' attitudes toward online therapy (both p < 0.001), whereas age and years of professional experience were not significantly associated with technology acceptance.
Conclusions
The study highlights the crucial role of therapeutic orientation, prior experience with technology, and perceived patient openness in shaping therapists' acceptance of online therapy. These results underscore the need for targeted training and support to facilitate the successful integration of digital technologies into routine psychotherapeutic practice. Future research should continue to explore these dynamics under non-crisis conditions to ensure the sustainable development of online therapy services.
Pozostałe osiągnięcia naukoweArtykuły (zamknięty dostęp)Journal article
The article focuses on the analysis of the “production turn” in Polish film studies, discussing its consequences for ontology and epistemology and situating it within the broader, international context of the subdiscipline. Drawing on an analysis of the existing literature and empirical research experience, the article postulates the deepening of theoretical frameworks through the application of Actor-Network Theory (ANT), utilizing Marcin Adamczak’s proposed extended production chain. The goal here is to indicate a potential development path for the subdiscipline that avoids the pitfalls of pure market pragmatism and the descriptiveness of individual experiences, while simultaneously attempting to give it broader, social significance, connecting the analysis of production practices with reflection on reception and its cultural determinants, within clearer humanities perspetive.
