Reactions to the O. J. Simpson Verdict: "Mindless Tribalism" or Motivated Inference Processes?

The difference in opinion between White Americans and Black Americans as to whether O. J. Simpson is guilty of murder can be understood within the context of the literature on motivated inference. Both self-serving and group-serving motives can lead to bias in how people gather, interpret, and integrate evidence. The current study revealed that the relative salience of race and gender in women's self-concepts (measured by the Twenty Statements Test) was associated with different beliefs about Simpson's innocence or guilt. Although Black women were more likely than White women to believe that Simpson was not guilty, this was more true for Black women who spontaneously self-identified in terms of race. Similarly, when gender was an accessible aspect of identity, women were more likely to believe that Simpson was guilty. High need for cognition (i.e., the tendency to engage in effortful cognitive activity) actually magnified some of these differences.     

A tale of four cities: the boundaries of blackness for Ethiopian immigrants in Washington,DC, Tel Aviv,Rome, and Melbourne

ABSTRACT

Scholars increasingly view urban areas as fragmented spaces where migrants are policed in ways that promote differential access to mobility, but the glocal meanings of race are often undertheorized. This paper explores the mobility experiences of Ethiopian migrants in four cities: Washington, DC, Tel Aviv, Rome, and Melbourne. Using a textual analysis of newspaper coverage in each city, the analysis finds that media and police often act as agents who racialize Ethiopian migrants relative to native minorities and other migrants. The paper concludes that the experiences Ethiopian immigrants faced in urban areas were informed by glocal meanings of race (blackness); they were shaped in relation to not only other migrants and native minorities, but also a globalized discourse on immigration.     

Scheduling and packing malleable and parallel tasks with precedence constraints of bounded width

We study the problems of non-preemptively scheduling and packing malleable and parallel tasks with precedence constraints to minimize the makespan. In the scheduling variant, we allow the free choice of processors; in packing, each task must be assigned to a contiguous subset. Malleable tasks can be processed on different numbers of processors with varying processing times, while parallel tasks require a fixed number of processors. For precedence constraints of bounded width, we resolve the complexity status of the problem with any number of processors and any width bound. We present an FPTAS based on Dilworth’s decomposition theorem for the NP-hard problem variants, and exact efficient algorithms for all remaining special cases. For our positive results, we do not require the otherwise common monotonous penalty assumption on the processing times of malleable tasks, whereas our hardness results hold even when assuming this restriction. We complement our results by showing that these problems are all strongly NP-hard under precedence constraints which form a tree.     

Identifying factors for poorer educational outcomes that may be exacerbated by COVID-19: A systematic review focussing on at-risk school children and adolescents

School closures across Australia in response to COVID-19 have persisted since 2020, with rising mental health problems in children and adolescents, alongside rising negative family health and socioeconomic outcomes. Further, some children and young people who were already experiencing disadvantage pre-pandemic may be at heightened risk of poorer educational outcomes. Therefore, the aim of this study was to conduct a systematic review of the literature to identify the factors for poorer educational outcomes that may be exacerbated by COVID-19 amongst disadvantaged school students. Key development stages of disadvantage were identified: young children who started school behind, older students already at risk of disengagement from school and children and young people who have had contact with the child protection system. Five databases were systematically searched, across two search periods. A total of 69 Australian, peer-reviewed articles, published in 2005–2021, examining risk factors for poor educational outcomes for children attending school met the inclusion criteria and were included in final analyses. Our findings provide evidence of key risk factors that make these populations susceptible to worsening outcomes resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, and of the critical importance of ongoing research to guide policy and practice support for these at-risk groups.     

Sexual orientation and self-employment: New evidence

Early studies and theory suggest sexual minorities are drawn towards the relative independence of self-employment to avoid discrimination in paid employment. However, recent evidence is mixed, suggesting that a higher propensity for self-employment (relative to heterosexual people) is found only among lesbian women relative to heterosexual women. This study overcomes the data limitations of prior research by using data pooled from 2007–2017 cycles of the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) and multivariate logistic regression to provide new evidence on LGB self-employment. The results show that self-employment is particularly high for bisexual people, especially bisexual women—but not for gay men or lesbian women. Overall, this study examines the enduring but nuanced relationship between self-employment and sexual orientation and discusses countervailing factors related to socio-economic resources, gender, and family structure.     

The intersections of race,immigrant status,and university confirmations in Toronto

Although the number of students attending university has been steadily increasing over the past 20 years, discrepancies remain across racialized student groups. Students who immigrate to Canada also face a number of barriers to university participation. However, few studies investigate variations in university participation across racialized immigrant student groups. We draw on an intersectional approach to analyze student data from the Toronto District School Board. We employ multilevel logistic regression to examine if there are interactive effects of being both racialized and having an immigrant status on confirming a university enrollment. Looking at self-identified race and immigrant status of students in combination reveals that there are important differences in the likelihood of confirming and offer of university admission between several self-identified racial categories, depending on if they were foreign-born.     

Rainbow Research: Challenges and Recommendations for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression (SOGIE) Survey Design

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - A growing number of people around the world identify, in some way, as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer...     

The reflection of desire for revenge and revenge fantasies in drawings and narratives of sexually abused children

Whereas the desire for revenge for an unjust deed is considered natural, its use within the therapeutic setting is scarce, specifically in sexually victimized children. The study aimed to find how experiencing sexual molestation during childhood and the revenge fantasy is reflected in drawings and narratives of sexually victimized children. Following ethical approval and signing a consent form, 14 children who experienced sexual abuse and were psychologically treated (ages 11–18) were recruited. They were asked to draw two drawings: “draw an unjust event that had happened to you” and “draw what you would have liked to happen to the person that unjustly treated you.” At completion, participants were asked to give a narrative to each drawing. Phenomenological analysis of the drawings and narratives indicated that most participants refrained from using more than two colours, did not draw the perpetrator and drew schematic figures. The main themes that emerged in the drawings and the narratives were feeling of loneliness, aloneness, and the desire for role reversal.     

Bacterial communities in peat swamps reflect changes associated with catchment urbanisation

Urban Ecosystems - Like many peat wetlands around the world, Temperate Highland Peat Swamps on Sandstone (THPSS), located in the Sydney Basin, Australia, have been impacted by urban development. In...