Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen

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    Substance abuse and comorbid problems in adolescents with mild intellectual disability or borderline intellectual functioning.
    (2019-06-29) Hulsman, Daan
    Adolescents with behavioural problems and mild intellectual disability or borderline intellectual functioning (MID-BIF) are at increased risk for problematic substance use (SU) and developing substance use disorder (SUD). Two interventions that targeted personality risk profiles to reduce SU and comorbid problems in MID-BIF adolescents were examined, each with a different approach: a quasi-experiment (study 1, N = 66) and a single-case study with daily diary sampling (study 2, 75 days). Intervention effects on- and interrelatedness between SU, affect, behavioural problems were examined to assess if and how SU changes over time. Both studies demonstrate intervention effectiveness in reducing SU frequency, but not in comorbid problems. Whereas study 1 does not show interactions between SU and comorbid problems, study 2 demonstrates that SUD in an MID-BIF adolescent is a complex dynamical system of continuously interacting affective states and behaviours, in which identifiable early warning signals precede sudden SU improvements or relapse. Keywords: substance use, substance use disorder, intellectual disability, adolescent, intervention studies, complex systems.
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    Does empathy moderate the association between psychopathy and pain identification in others?
    (2019-02-24) Helm, van der, Laura
    Psychopathic traits are linked with deficits in affective empathy and pain identification in others. The link between psychopathy, empathy and pain identification in others is currently unclear. This study tested two independent models examining the moderator effects of cognitive empathy and affective empathy on pain identification in painful pictures for psychopathic-offenders (n = 24), non-psychopathic offenders (n = 34) and healthy controls (n = 61). Results suggest that neither cognitive empathy nor affective empathy moderate how psychopathic-offenders, non-psychopathic offenders and healthy controls judge pain in others. Furthermore, psychopathic offenders scored significantly higher on pain identification compared to non-psychopathic offenders, regardless of level of cognitive or affective empathy. Results are discussed in light of existing literature. Keywords: psychopathy, offenders, cognitive empathy, affective empathy, pain identification
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    Dark patterns in consent statements
    (2019-08-29) Grassl, Paul
    Dark patterns are design nudges that steer peoples’ behaviour in an unconscious way through persuasive interface design. Increasingly found in privacy consent statements, they possibly undermine principles of the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the EU, which aim at giving users control over their personal data, assuming that people engage in consent statements in a rational and deliberate manner. This online study (N = 228) investigated whether three of the most common dark patterns (default, aesthetic manipulation, obstruction) lead users to choose a privacy-unfriendly option over a privacy-friendly one, even if the latter one is rationally superior. Further, it was examined if the aforementioned dark patterns decrease users’ perception of control over their personal data in consent statement situations. Although the majority of participants always chose the privacyunfriendly option and reported a lack of control over their personal data, we did not find clear support for this being due to the design nudges. Using mixed-effects modelling, only obstruction showed a marginally significant effect in the expected direction on the consent decision. Regarding perceived control, again only obstruction displayed a significant effect, however, this time in the opposite direction as expected. Overall, our findings support the notion that the current consent model does not work as intended and give insights into why this might be the case. Keywords: dark patterns; privacy; design nudges; GDPR; consent statements
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    Perspective-taking to reduce prejudice: A Colombian field study
    (2019-06-30) Geisser, Christopher
    The present study investigated whether perspective taking could positively affect Colombians’ evaluations of and behavioral intentions towards Venezuelan refugees. Another aim of this project was to explore mediators of perspective-taking, namely increased empathy and trust as well as reduced anxiety (Aberson & Haag, 2007; Tam et al., 2009). The results show that our intervention was not significant but higher self-reported levels in perspective-taking lead to more positive explicit evaluations and marginally more positive behavioral intentions. This effect was mediated by empathy but the link to explicit evaluations was mediated by trust and anxiety as well. Still, besides empathy, no mediators are well established in the scientific literature. Future studies should try to replicate the discovered role of trust and anxiety in perspective-taking as well as find other mediators that clarify how perspective-taking works. Knowledge on the mechanism should help to improve perspective-taking interventions in future studies. Our study shows that individual differences in perspective-taking play a significant role in reducing prejudice towards out-group members so inducing higher levels of perspective-taking might help in spreading more positive views on immigrants, refugees, and foreigners. Keywords: prejudice, perspective-taking, intergroup conflict, Colombian, Venezuelan