Rui Gaspar

Analogies, metaphors, and wondering about the future: Lay sense-making around synthetic meat.

Drawing on social representations theory, we explore how the public make sense of the unfamiliar, taking as the example a novel technology: synthetic meat. Data from an online deliberation study and eighteen focus groups in Belgium, Portugal and the UK indicated that the various strategies of sense-making afforded different levels of critical thinking about synthetic meat. Anchoring to genetic modification, metaphors like ‘Frankenfoods’ and commonplaces like ‘playing God’ closed off debates around potential applications of synthetic meat, whereas asking factual and rhetorical questions about it, weighing up pragmatically its risks and benefits, and envisaging changing current mentalities or behaviours in order to adapt to scientific developments enabled a consideration of synthetic meat’s possible implications for agriculture, environment, and society. We suggest that research on public understanding of technology should cultivate a climate of active thinking and should encourage questioning during the process of sense-making to try to reduce unhelpful anchoring.

Consumers’ avoidance of information on red meat risks: information exposure effects on attitudes and perceived knowledge

In accordance with cognitive dissonance theory, individuals generally avoid information that is not consistent with their cognitions, to avoid psychological discomfort associated with tensions arising from contradictory beliefs. Information avoidance may thus make risk communication less successful. To address this, we presented information on red meat risks to red meat consumers. To explore information exposure effects, attitudes toward red meat and perceived knowledge of red meat risks were measured before, immediately after, and two weeks after exposure. We expected information avoidance of red meat risks to be: positively related to (1) study discontentment; and (2) positive attitudes toward red meat; and negatively related to (3) information seeking on red meat risks; and (4) systematic and heuristic processing of information. In addition, following exposure to the risk information, we expected that (5) individuals who scored high in avoidance of red meat risks information to change their attitudes and perceived risk knowledge less than individuals who scored low in avoidance. Results were in line with the first three expectations. Support for the fourth was partial insofar as this was only confirmed regarding systematic processing. The final prediction was not confirmed; individuals who scored high in avoidance decreased the positivity of their attitudes and increased their perceived knowledge in a similar fashion to those who scored low in avoidance. These changes stood over the two-week follow-up period. Results are discussed in accordance with cognitive dissonance theory, with the possible use of suppression strategies, and with the corresponding implications for risk communication practice.

Lisbon Emoji and Emoticon Database (LEED): Norms for emoji and emoticons in seven evaluative dimensions

The use of emoticons and emoji is increasingly popular across a variety of new platforms of online communication. They have also become popular as stimulus materials in scientific research. However, the assumption that emoji/emoticon users’ interpretations always correspond to the developers’/researchers’ intended meanings might be misleading. This article presents subjective norms of emoji and emoticons provided by everyday users. The Lisbon Emoji and Emoticon Database (LEED) comprises 238 stimuli: 85 emoticons and 153 emoji (collected from iOS, Android, Facebook, and Emojipedia). The sample included 505 Portuguese participants recruited online. Each participant evaluated a random subset of 20 stimuli for seven dimensions: aesthetic appeal, familiarity, visual complexity, concreteness, valence, arousal, and meaningfulness. Participants were additionally asked to attribute a meaning to each stimulus. The norms obtained include quantitative descriptive results (means, standard deviations, and confidence intervals) and a meaning analysis for each stimulus. We also examined the correlations between the dimensions and tested for differences between emoticons and emoji, as well as between the two major operating systems—Android and iOS. The LEED constitutes a readily available normative database (available at www.osf.io/nua4x) with potential applications to different research domains.

Crisis as seen by the individual: the Norm Deviation Approach / La crisis vista por el individuo: el Enfoque de la Desviación de la Norma

Abstract This paper presents a conceptual proposal applied to social, environmental and health crisis appraisal and coping: the Norm Deviation Approach. It is focused on the individual level and its interaction with the context within which a threat (or threats) has emerged. Thus far our understanding of the psychosocial processes that occur at the individual level during crises is a clear lacuna in the risk and crisis perception literature. As a first step for this understanding, we present a definition of crisis as perceived by the individual, based on three necessary components: (1) norm deviation; (2) appraisal; (3) coping. Despite the individual focus, the model is also cognizant of the social level, considering the system in which transactions between individuals and their social environment occur. This approach may be an initial step for developing experimental and computer modelling of societal crises, with practical implications for crisis prevention and monitoring, through social media analysis and other methods. Evidence from research focusing on specific aspects of the model and implications for crisis management and communication are also presented.

Energy efficiency and appliance’s characteristics considered prior to purchase: differences and similarities between Ireland, Germany, Portugal, Greece, Poland, Spain and Italy.

ABSTRACT This article reports country differences in the consumer’s most considered characteristics when choosing electrical appliances, including but not restricted to the energy efficiency aspect. A survey was performed to store customers from 7 countries: the United Kingdom; Germany; Portugal; Greece; Poland; Spain; Italy. Results showed consistency between countries in the top three characteristics considered: cost; quality; and a balance between price and quality. Differences were found for reported environmental attitudes and behaviours, purchase motives, and store employees evaluation. The results may support national policies and store level energy efficiency interventions. Specifically, they can provide input for store employee’s training, in persuading customers towards the purchase of energy efficient appliances.

Understanding Climate Change Adaptation: The Role of Citizens’ Perceptions and Appraisals About Extreme Weather Events

Climate change is driving dramatic environmental changes and posing new demands to citizens, health authorities, and policy makers worldwide. This is due to an increased frequency, intensity, and duration of associated extreme weather events. Recent calls for better understanding of how citizens adapt to such demands and the role that psychological processes’ play in that adaptation, have been put forward. We contributed in this regard by (1) applying the Biopsychosocial Model of Challenge and Threat (e.g. Blascovich 2008) to the study of human responses (psychological, physiological, and behavioural) to extreme weather events; (2) using it as the conceptual basis for a mixed methods study aimed at exploring citizens’ perceptions, beliefs, and appraisals of the demands posed by such events and available resources to cope with them. Preliminary qualitative results are presented and potential implications for stakeholders and policy makers in the climate change domain are discussed. An example of how such conceptual and methodological approaches may contribute to developing evidence-based strategies for incrementing citizens’ resilience and adaptation to climate change, will be provided. This allow a better understanding of citizen appraisals and perceptions’ role in shaping adaptive behaviour, in order to provide them with the necessary personal and social resources to cope with extreme weather events and increment future resilience.

A changing world: coping with environmental, social and economic risks / Un mundo en transformación: afrontando riesgos ambientales, sociales y económicos

‘At a time when disaster potential is on the increase, the coping mechanisms of many societies appear to have become less effective. In parallel with a rise in hazard potential, vulnerability has increased [...]. Given these recent challenges, the world is in urgent need of organizing a concerted effort to deal with systemic risks’ (Renn, 2008, p. 62). Today’s complex and systemic nature of risks has increasingly dissipated the traditional boundaries between risk assessment, risk perception and social coping mechanisms (Renn, 2008). Individuals and societies are now faced with multiple risks in their everyday lives, that although being different in nature — environmental, social, economic, ... — may demand integrated individual and social responses to cope with them. In accordance, changes in one dimension (e.g., environmental) may determine changes in other dimensions (e.g., social, economic) and associated risks can emerge. However, the effect of these changes goes beyond a simple additive effect of each of them. Given that changes occur in a system, a risk that emerges in one dimension may pose a threat or a challenge to the entire system and may interact with processes that may take place at other dimensions, motivating responses in the form of individual and social coping. On one side, looking at these individual and social coping responses to risks provides a ‘snapshot’ of the way individuals and society deal with everyday risks and what type of resources can be provided, to potentiate successful coping. In fact, these responses are diagnostic of the entire system, being informative of the current and future ways of dealing with demands, through a multi-level process that takes place across several time scales (Skinner, 2007). On the other side, looking at coping responses to risks also allows us to assess the way risks are perceived and the resources individuals and society perceive to have, to cope with