Explore the vast range of titles available.

Online intergroup hostility is a pervasive and troubling issue, yet experimental evidence on how to curb it remains scarce. This study examines counterspeech as a user-driven strategy to reduce hate speech. Drawing on theories that suggest adopting the perspective of minority groups can reduce prejudice, we randomized four counterspeech strategies across the senders of 2102 xenophobic Twitter messages. Compared to a passive control group, we find that the pooled effect of the three perspective-centered strategies—traditional perspective-taking, analogical perspective-taking, and perspective getting—increased the likelihood that the sender deleted their xenophobic message by +0.14 SD ( ), decreased the number of likes the xenophobic message received by others (− 0.133 SD, ), but yielded a limited and not statistically significant estimate for the share of xenophobic messages the sender posted over the following four weeks (− 0.084 SD, ). Differences between the three perspective-centered strategies were generally small and not statistically significant, though analogical perspective-taking—encouraging senders to compare their own experiences of being attacked online with their discriminatory behavior toward outgroups—appears to have slightly larger effects across multiple outcomes. Disapproval messages without a perspective shift produced smaller and non-significant estimates. These findings advance our theoretical understanding of how counterspeech works and provide actionable insights for how users can contribute to reducing intergroup hostility and its amplification online—especially at a time when many platforms are scaling back content moderation.

After attending a powerful protest, Shayla starts wearing an armband to school to support the Black Lives Matter movement, but when the school gives her an ultimatum, she is forced to choose between her education and her identity.

BackgroundObesity is a rising social and economic burden. Patients with obesity often suffer from stigmatization and discrimination. Underrecognition of obesity as a disease could be a contributing factor. The present study aimed to compare attitudes towards obesity with other chronic diseases and to evaluate the recognition of need of professional treatment.MethodsNine hundred and forty-nine participants (subgroups: general population, patients with obesity, nurses in training, nurses, medical students, physicians) were randomized to video teaching on obesity and control. Questionnaires on the burden and influence of obesity on daily life compared to other chronic diseases and the fat phobia scale (FPS) were answered.ResultsBurden of obesity was rated low (4.2 ± 1.3; rank 9 of 11) compared to other diseases. Bowel cancer (5.5 ± 0.9) had the highest and caries the lowest (2.7 ± 1.4) estimated impact. Females (p = 0.011) and older people (p < 0.001) rated burden of obesity high whereas general population (p < 0.001) and control (p < 0.001) rated it low. Females (p = 0.001) and people with higher BMI (p = 0.004) rated the influence of obesity on daily life high; the general population (p < 0.001; reference physicians) and the control group (p < 0.001) rated it low. FPS was lowest in patients with obesity (3.2 ± 0.7) and highest in the general population (3.6 ± 0.4) and medical students (3.6 ± 0.5; p < 0.001; compared to physicians).ConclusionsObesity is underestimated as a disease compared to other chronic diseases and attitudes towards obesity are rather negative in comparison. Video teaching showed positive effects so a focus in medical education and public campaigns should aim to improve prevention and treatment of obesity.

\"Working on an assignment for her journalism class, Brianna Justice learns about coding, and the difference between herself and a group of inner city girls\"-- Provided by publisher.

One of the ways in which therapists treat anxiety disorders is to expose patients to a fear-evoking stimulus within a safe environment before encouraging more positive stimulus-related thoughts. In the study reported here, we adapted these psychotherapeutic principles of exposure therapy to test the hypothesis that imagining a positive encounter with a member of a stigmatized group would be more likely to promote positive perceptions when it was preceded by an imagined negative encounter. The results of three experiments targeting a range of stigmatized groups (adults with schizophrenia, gay men, and British Muslims) supported this hypothesis. Compared with purely positive interventions, interventions in which a single negative encounter was imagined just prior to imagining a positive encounter resulted in significantly reduced prejudice. Furthermore, reduced anxiety uniquely derived from the mixed-valence imagery task statistically explain enhanced intentions to engage positively with the previously stigmatized group in the future.

\"Alejandra Kim doesn't feel like she belongs anywhere. At her wealthy Manhattan high school, her super Spanish name and super Korean face do not compute to her mostly white \"woke\" classmates and teachers. In her Jackson Heights neighborhood, she's not Latinx enough. Even at home, Ale feels unwelcome. And things at home have only gotten worse since Papi's body was discovered on the subway tracks. Ale wants nothing more than to escape the city for the wide-open spaces of the prestigious Wyder University. But when a microaggression at school thrusts Ale into the spotlight--and into a discussion she didn't ask for--Ale must discover what it means to carve out a space for yourself to belong.\"-- Provided by publisher.

Transphobia and stigma remain barriers to seeking mental health care for gender-diverse adolescents. To examine the utility of brief social contact-based video interventions of transgender protagonists with depression to reduce transphobia and depression-related stigma and increase treatment-seeking intentions among adolescents in the general population. During August 2021, a total of 1437 participants were recruited and randomly assigned to 1 of 4 video-based conditions in a 2:2:1:1 ratio: (1) transgender adolescent girls, (2) transgender adolescent boys, (3) cisgender adolescent girls, or (4) cisgender adolescent boys. In each of the approximately 110-second videos, an empowered presenter shared their personal story about coping with depression and reaching out for help. The primary outcome was the score on the Attitudes Toward Transgender Men and Women (ATTMW) scale. Secondary outcomes were (1) a \"gender thermometer\" rating for warmth in transgender perception, (2) the Depression Stigma Scale (DSS) score, and (3) the General Health-Seeking Questionnaire (GHSQ) score. Of the 1437 randomized participants, 1098 (76%) completed the postintervention assessment and passed all the validity tests (mean [SD] age, 16.9 [1.2] years; 481 [44%] male; 640 [58%] White). A significant change in attitudes toward transgender youth was found within the intervention group only (mean [SD] ATTMW scores: intervention group, 34.6 [23.1] at baseline to 32.8 [24.2] after intervention; P < .001; control group, 33.5 [23.4] at baseline to 32.4 [24.1] after intervention; P = .01). The mean (SD) total DSS scores decreased significantly across study groups (intervention: 1.3 [3.3]; control: 1.7 [3.3]; P < .001). A significant increase in intention to seek help from a parent was found in the intervention (mean [SD] GHSQ score, 0.2 [1.1]) and control (mean [SD] GHSQ score, 0.3 [1.2]) groups (P < .001), as was a decrease in those not wanting to seek help from anyone (mean [SD] GHSQ score: intervention, 0.2 [1.6], P = .009; control, 0.3 [1.2], P < .001) Secondary analyses revealed significant differences in baseline ATTMW scores and intervention effects between transgender and gender-diverse and cisgender participants and between lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer (LGBQ) and straight participants (F = 36.7, P < .001) and heterosexual participants (F = 37.0, P < .001). A significant difference was also found in mean (SD) transgender warmth scores from baseline to after intervention between groups (2.6° [13.1°] in the intervention group vs 0.4° [8.3°] in the control group; P < .001). In this randomized clinical trial, brief social contact-based videos proved efficacious in reducing transphobia and depression-related stigma and in increasing treatment-seeking intentions among adolescents in the general population. By personifying, individualizing, and providing face and voice to the experience of transgender youth, other adolescents, especially those who are cisgender and/or of a heterosexual orientation, can gain empathetic insights into the lives of their often marginalized and stigmatized fellow youth. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04969003.

In 1932, twelve-year-old Cal must stop being a hobo with his father and go to a Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school, where he begins learning about his history and heritage as a Creek Indian.

Background: There is concern that diagnostic labels for psychiatric disorders may invoke damaging stigma, stereotypes and misunderstanding. Aims: This study investigated clinicians’ reactions to diagnostic labelling by examining their positive and negative reactions to the label borderline personality disorder (BPD). Method: Mental health professionals (n = 265) viewed a videotape of a patient suffering from panic disorder and agoraphobia undergoing assessment. Prior to viewing the videotape, participants were randomly allocated to one of three conditions and were given the following information about the patient: (a) general background information; (b) additional descriptive information about behaviour corresponding to BPD; and (c) additional descriptive information about behaviour corresponding to BPD, but explicitly adding BPD as a possible comorbid diagnostic label. All participants were then asked to note things they had seen in the videotape that made them feel optimistic or pessimistic about treatment outcome. Results: Participants in the group that were explicitly informed that the patient had a BPD diagnostic label reported significantly fewer reasons to be optimistic than the other two groups. Conclusions: Diagnostic labels may negatively impact on clinicians’ judgments and perceptions of individuals and therefore clinicians should think carefully about whether, and how, they use diagnoses and efforts should be made to destigmatize diagnostic terms.