Implicit Racial Attitudes and Associations Among Obstetricians in Hawaiʻi: a Pilot Study

Introduction Pacific Islanders living in Hawai‘i with ancestral ties to islands in the western Pacific region of Micronesia are common targets of uninhibited forms of prejudice in multiple sectors, including healthcare. Whether the explicit societal-level attitudes toward this group are reflected in implicit attitudes among healthcare providers is unknown; therefore, we designed a pilot study to investigate this question. Our study measures implicit racial bias toward Pacific Islanders from Micronesia among Obstetrician-Gynecologists (OB-GYNs) in Hawai‘i. Methods We developed 4 new implicit association tests (IATs) to measure implicit attitudes and associations (i.e., stereotypes) toward Pacific Islanders from Micronesia in 2 conditions: (1) Micronesians vs. Whites and (2) Micronesians vs. Japanese Americans. Participants were practicing OB-GYNs in Hawai‘i. The study was conducted online and included survey questions on demographic and physician practice characteristics in addition to IATs. The primary outcome was the mean IAT D score. Associations between IAT D scores and demographic and practice characteristics were also analyzed. Results Of the 49 OB-GYNs, 38 (77.6%) were female, mean age was 40 years, 29.5% were Japanese, 22.7% were White, and none were from a Micronesian ethnic group. The mean IAT D score in the Micronesian vs. White condition (N = 29) was 0.181, (SD: 0.465, p < 0.05) for the Attitude IAT and 0.197 (SD: 0.427; p < 0.05) for the Stereotype IAT. Conclusion The findings from this pilot suggest a slight degree of implicit bias favoring Whites over Micronesians within this sample of OB-GYNs and warrant a larger investigation into implicit biases toward this unique and understudied Pacific Islander population.

Shagar’s Mystical Space: Moving between the Languages of Kabbalah, Hasidism, and Rav Kook

This paper presents an analysis of the conflictual relationship between Shagar’s [Shimon Gershon Rosenberg] use of kabbalistic and Hasidic traditions and his search for mysticism via psychoanalysis and Continental philosophy. The study will shed light upon the tension between how Shagar defined and understood mysticism and how he defined kabbalistic language and the gap between his explicit and his implicit attitudes towards Kabbalah. I propose that mysticism was the central religious space that Shagar sought to create from his conflicting stance. Nonetheless, despite Shagar’s attempt to present himself as a direct theological descendant of the kabbalistic tradition, by way of his use of terms such as “the shattering of the vessels”, “Nothingness”, and “silence”, I will attempt to expose the dissonance between his yearning for this language and his rejection of it. My main analysis, at the heart of the article, will be based on the not-yet-released recording of his introductory lecture on Da’at Tevunot. It will be accompanied by a variety of sources from his books (edited by his pupils) to complete the picture.

The Golden Rule as a Paradigm for Fostering Prosocial Behavior With Virtual Reality

The Golden Rule of ethics in its negative form states that you should not do to others what you would not want others to do to you, and in its positive form states that you should do to others as you would want them to do to you. The Golden Rule is an ethical principle, but in virtual reality (VR), it can also be thought of as a paradigm for the promotion of prosocial behavior. This is because in VR, you can directly experience harm that you inflicted or were complicit in inflicting from the embodied perspective of the victim. This use of what we refer to as the Golden Rule Embodiment Paradigm (GREP) relies on participants in VR having the illusion of body ownership over a virtual body. In this article, we introduce virtual embodiment and the consequent illusion of ownership over the virtual body, and describe how this phenomenon has been utilized to influence implicit attitudes. We then introduce the GREP and give examples of studies in which it enhanced helping behavior.

School and Home as Study Spaces: Attitudes of Teachers, Parents, and Students to E-learning During the COVID-19 Period: The Case of Israel

<p style="text-align: justify;">During the period of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the boundaries between the home and the school as study spaces were blurred. School studies entered the home, with the parents present and observing their children’s e-lessons and the teachers’ teaching methods. The purpose of the current study was to explore the explicit and implicit attitudes of the lesson partners: teachers, parents, and students, to e-learning. The study explores whether and to what degree the attitudes of teachers, students, and parents to e-teaching are compatible, and what are the implications for the future. The study shows that although in recent years the relationships between parents and the school and between teachers and students have waned, with regard to the separation of authorities between the home and school, the period of the COVID-19 crisis clarified the need to enhance the relationship and cooperation between the home and the school as two meaningful study spaces for independent learners. The research findings raise the paradox that not only does technology not increase the distance rather it has the potential to strengthen the relationships between parents, teachers, and the school. The study points to the need to prepare holistic guidance sessions and professional development courses.</p>

Explicit and implicit attitudes toward people with COVID-19: Need for community mental health services

During the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, social stigmatization of people who have been infected with the virus has been observed. This study measured the degree of social stigma by examining implicit and explicit attitudes toward people with COVID-19. Explicit attitudes were measured through self-reporting, taking into account the three components of behavior, cognition, and emotion, and we used the Single-Category Implicit Association Test to assess implicit attitudes. The findings show that explicit attitudes toward people with COVID-19 were positive, whereas implicit attitudes trended toward being negative. The results suggest that mental health services and policies are needed to reduce social stigma and prevent the risk of mental health problems among people who have been infected with COVID-19.