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To achieve ambitious 21st-century goals and deal with high-level complexity, a bio-based economy is required to cross the boundaries of a single sector and integrate tools, language and knowledge drawn from different disciplines and sub-disciplines. The present contribution highlights how life scientists, social scientists, policymakers and industrial stakeholders should work together to make this technological reversal real and feasible. Importantly, going beyond theoretical and methodological integration, the paper underlines the necessity of developing a new and more flexible educational framework that might facilitate interdisciplinary combination. Specifically, the experience of the summer school "Towards a bio-based economy: science, innovation, economics, education" organized by the University of Milano Bicocca in collaboration with Chalmers University is described. The results reveal the need for high-level education programs likely to promote and guide society towards bio-based innovation.

Il presente lavoro di tesi ha lo scopo di comprendere come l'ambiente sociale e le interazioni interpersonali influenzino la salute mentale e il benessere degli individui gender-variant, affrontando alcune delle questioni rilevanti nel campo dal punto di vista della psicologia sociale e clinica. I primi tre studi presentati nella tesi adottano la prospettiva della psicologia sociale per studiare le esperienze di discriminazione affrontate dagli individui transgender in contesti di salute mentale. Esamineremo il problema da due diversi punti di vista: quello degli psicoterapeuti e quello dei clienti transgender che si sono avvicinati ai servizi di salute mentale. Il primo studio mira a studiare il ruolo del pregiudizio anti-transgender nella valutazione psicologica dei pazienti transgender (vs. cisgender) in un campione di campione di psicoterapeute esperte. Il secondo studio è volto a indagare un campione di psicoterapeuti sia microaggressivo nei confronti di clienti lesbiche o transgender (rispetto a una cliente eterosessuale cisgender). Il terzo studio assume la prospettiva delle persone transgender che accedono ai contesti di salute mentale. Al fine di fornire una maggiore comprensione delle esperienze delle persone transgender che accedono a un servizio di psicoterapia, lo studio si propone di indagare le loro esperienze positive di microaffermazione dell’identità all'interno di una relazione terapeutica. Gli ultimi due studi saranno focalizzati sulle conseguenze del minority stress per la salute mentale e il benessere degli individui transgender. Il quarto studio è intrinsecamente clinico e si focalizzerà sull'indagine della personalità di uomini e donne transgender medicalizzati, valutando sia i domini di personalità dimensionali proposti dal Modello Alternativo di Disturbi della personalità sia le diagnosi categoriche del Disturbo di personalità DSM-IV . Il quinto studio esaminerà gli effetti delle norme sociali di genere in un diverso dominio psicol, The present work is aimed at understanding how social environment and interpersonal interactions influence the mental health and well-being of gender-diverse individuals, approaching some of the relevant issues in the field from the perspective of both social and clinical psychology. The first three studies presented in the thesis adopt the perspective of social psychology to investigate the experiences of discrimination faced by transgender individuals in mental health contexts. We will look at the problem from two different viewpoint: the one of psychotherapists and the one of transgender clients that approached mental health services. The first study aims at investigating the role of anti-transgender bias in the psychological assessment of transgender (vs. cisgender) patients in a sample of female sample of licensed psychotherapists. The second study aims at investigating whether microaggressions are perpetrated by psychotherapists when confronted to lesbian or transgender fictitious clients (vs. cisgender heterosexual). The third study assumes the perspective of transgender people accessing mental health contexts. In order to provide an understanding of transgender peoples’ help-seeking experiences, the study aimed to investigate their positive experiences of identity microaffirmations within a therapeutic relationship. The last two studies will be focused on the consequences of minority stress for the mental health and well-being of transgender individuals. The fourth study is inherently clinical and will be focused on the investigation of personality patterns of medicalized transgender men and women, by evaluating both the dimensional personality domains proposed by the Alternative Model of Personality Disorders and the categorical DSM-IV personality disorder (PD) diagnoses. The fifth study will look at the effects of societal gender norms in a different psychological domain, that is sexuality. In particular, the study will focus on sexual

Con l'espressione "attenzione sociale" ci riferiamo alla capacità di coordinare o condividere con un partner sociale il focus attentivo vero un oggetto, un evento o una terza persona. I movimenti delle mani e le azioni in generale sono potenti segnali circa le intenzioni e gli obiettivi dei partner di interazione. Tuttavia, da un lato, la maggior parte degli studi in questo campo ha esplorato principalmente come l'osservazione delle azioni altrui influisca sulla risposta motoria dell’osservatore piuttosto che sulla sua attenzione. Dall'altro lato, la letteratura sull'attenzione sociale si è concentrata principalmente sul ruolo dello sguardo piuttosto che sui movimenti delle mani. La presente tesi ha l’obiettivo di esplorare il ruolo delle azioni umane, con particolare enfasi sul ruolo dei movimenti di reach-to-grasp, nel guidare l'attenzione sociale. Nel Capitolo 1 viene presentata un’analisi approfondita della letteratura esistente sull’attenzione sociale e sul ruolo giocato dall’osservazione di azioni nelle interazioni sociali. In seguito, viene presentata una serie di studi sugli effetti dell’osservazione di azioni sull’attenzione sociale. In particolare, il Capitolo 2 si propone di chiarire se le azioni umane possano effettivamente influenzare l'attenzione sociale (Studio 1) e se tale effetto sia specializzato per gli stimoli biologici (Studio 2). Successivamente, il programma di ricerca analizza l'impatto di alcune variabili di moderazione sociale. Usando diverse risposte comportamentali (ad es., tempi di reazione e movimenti oculari), il Capitolo 3 indaga il ruolo dell'appartenenza gruppale (es. italiani vs. iracheni, Studio 1) e della minaccia sociale elicitata dalla presenza di oggetti minacciosi (es., armi, Studio 2, Studio 3, Studio 4) sull'attenzione sociale guidata dalle azioni. Il Capitolo 4 esplora attraverso tre studi l'interazione tra fattori sociali e fisiologici nel modulare l'attenzione sociale durante l'osservazione dell'azione. Nello specifico, With the expression 'social attention' we refer to the ability to coordinate or to share attentional focus with social partners on an object, event, or a third person. Hand movements and actions in general are reliable signals about the interaction partners' intentions and goals. However, on one side, the vast majority of studies have mainly explored how the observation of other individuals’ actions affects the observers' own motor program rather than their attention. On the other side, social attention literature primarily focused on the role of gaze rather than on the role of hand movements. The present thesis aims at filling this gap in literature exploring the role of human gestures, with emphasis on the reach-to-grasp movements, in driving social attention. In Chapter 1, the literature on social attention and its relationship with action observation is reviewed. Then, a set of studies on the influence of reach-to-grasp movements on social attention is presented. Specifically, Chapter 2 aims to clarify whether human actions are likely to effectively shape social attention (Study 1) and if such effects are specific for biological stimuli (Study 2). Afterwards, the research program analyzes the impact of some social moderating variables. Using different behavioral responses (e.g., reaction times and eye movements), Chapter 3 investigates the role of group membership (i.e., Italian vs. Iraqi; Study 1) and social threat elicited by objects (i.e., weapons; Study 2, Study 3 and Study 4) on social attention driven by actions. Chapter 4 explores across three studies the interplay between social and physiological factors in shaping social attention during action observation. Specifically, we addressed the influence of hormonal shift during menstrual cycle on social attention (Study 1) with a particular focus on the role of products status (high status vs. low status) and social target's gender (Study 2 and Study 3). Next, Chapter 5 presents an experimental study on the e

In two studies we analyzed whether and how social attention driven by the observation of other’s movement can be modulated by social variables. Results showed a higher level of attentional monitoring for outgroup member elicited by perceived social threat.

Social judgments are subject to systematic tendencies as the confirmation bias. The present research (N = 362) aims at exploring the combined influence of positive testing (i.e. the tendency to explore features that are expected to be present) and of the Feature Positive Effect (FPE; whereby the presence of features outweighs the absence of features) when people are gathering new data or evaluating diagnostic cues. In Study 1 and Study 2 participants were presented with a variant of Wason’s selection task (1968) concerning a criminal scenario (e.g "if the proof x is present, then Mr X is guilty") and asked to search information. Evidence on the presence or absence of clues was provided and data impact on the final judgment was assessed. The findings suggest that individuals are prone to FPE, irrespective of the hypothesis (focal vs. alternative) they are testing. In Study 3 and Study 4, instead of choosing the hypothesis testing strategy, participants were asked to evaluate the utility of all the possible queries and the impact of all diagnostic and non-diagnostic pieces of information when present or absent. Data show that people are reasonably more affected by diagnostic data than by non-diagnostic ones; however, diagnosticity is processed more accurately when cues are on the presence rather than on the absence. This tendency to neglect diagnostic absence, in conjunction with the positive testing, may lead to overestimation of the a-priori hypothesis and may prevent a reasonable falsification of our beliefs. Theoretical and practical implications of these results within and beyond the juridical context are discussed. Studies and participants: Four studies, total of 362 participants. Short Abstract: Four experiments showed that, during the social hypothesis-testing process, people are prone to positive testing and Feature Positive Effect; moreover individuals are affected by FPE when processing diagosticity. This tendency may lead to an unjustified overestimation o

Trait inference in person perception is based on observers’ implicit assumptions about the relations between trait adjectives (e.g., fair) and the either consistent or inconsistent behaviors (e.g., having double standards) that an actor can manifest. This article presents new empirical data and theoretical interpretations on people’ behavioral expectations, that is, people’s perceived trait-behavior relations along the morality (versus competence) dimension. We specifically address the issue of the moderate levels of both traits and behaviors almost neglected by prior research by using a measure of the perceived general frequency of behaviors. A preliminary study identifies a set of competence- and morality-related traits and a subset of traits balanced for valence. Studies 1-2 show that moral target persons are associated with greater behavioral flexibility than immoral ones where abstract categories of behaviors are concerned. For example, participants judge it more likely that a fair person would behave unfairly than an unfair person would behave fairly. Study 3 replicates the results of the first 2 studies using concrete categories of behaviors (e.g., telling the truth/omitting some information). Study 4 shows that the positive asymmetry in morality-related trait-behavior relations holds for both North-American and European (i.e., Italian) individuals. A small-scale meta-analysis confirms the existence of a positive asymmetry in trait-behavior relations along both morality and competence dimensions for moderate levels of both traits and behaviors. We discuss these findings in relation to prior models and results on trait-behavior relations and we advance a motivational explanation based on self-protection

Motor resonance (MR) involves the activation of matching motor representations while observing others' actions. Recent research has shown that such a phenomenon is likely to be influenced by higher order variables such as social factors (e.g., ethnic group membership). The present study investigates whether and how the perception of a social threat elicited by an outgroup member and by contextual cues can modulate motor responses while an individual observes others' movements. In an experimental study based on an action observation paradigm, we asked participants to provide answers through computer mouse movements (MouseTracker). We manipulated the agents' group membership (ingroup vs. outgroup) and the social valence of the objects present in a context (neutral vs. threatening) to elicit social menace through contextual cues. Response times and computer mouse trajectories were recorded. The results show a higher level of MR (i.e., participants started to respond earlier and were faster at responding) when observing an action performed by the ingroup members rather than by the outgroup members only when threatening objects are present in a given context. Participants seem to resonate better with their ingroup; conversely, the outgroup member movements tend to delay motor responses. Therefore, we extend prior research going beyond the general ingroup bias effect on MR and showing that the interaction between membership and contextual cues is likely to elicit threat-related stereotypes. Practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Emerging evidence revealed that honesty and trustworthiness are important drivers of the impression-formation process. Questions remain, however, regarding the role of these moral attributes in guiding real and concrete behaviors. Filling this gap, the present study investigated the influence of honesty on a nonverbal behavior that regulates social interactions: behavioral synchrony. Movements were recorded while participants interacted with a partner who was depicted as honest (versus dishonest) or as friendly (versus unfriendly). Results showed that synchrony was affected only by the honesty of the partner. Specifically, the more the interaction partner lacked honesty, the lower the perceived similarity between the self and the interaction partner, which in turn diminished the promptness to engage in behavioral synchrony. Our findings connected the literature on behavioral synchrony with that on the implication of morality for social perception, revealing the key role of the honesty facet of moral character in shaping nonverbal behaviors.

Two Experiments investigated the influence of social categorization on economic decision-making and inequity aversion. Specifically, we employed a modified version of the third party Ultimatum Game comprising three roles: 1 - a Proposer who splits resources between himself and a Receiver; 2 - a Receiver who is the final beneficiary of the offer; 3 - a Responder who make the decision about the offer acceptance or rejection. If the offer is accepted resources are split as proposed and if it is refused participants gain nothing. Since in the latter case utility is no longer maximized a violation of the standard economic theory occurs. In both Experiments participants played the role of responder and were asked to make decisions for themselves or for another person, either an ingroup or an outgroup member. Group membership varied between-participants and was induced according to the minimal group paradigm. The first Experiment (N=96) showed that people are prone to reject unfair offers that are advantageous for the proposer and to accept unfair offers that are advantageous for the receiver. Moreover, the findings revealed that participants were more likely to accept unfair-advantageous offers when the receivers were ingroup rather than outgroup members. The second Experiment (N=61) investigated weather group identification moderated the relationship between social membership, utility and economic decision-making. Moreover, we employed a design where in third party versions the utility of the participant was bounded to the receiver’s one. Thus, a rejection would affect both the receiver’s utility and the participant’s gain. Analyses on the responses to different offers of the Ultimatum Game and on reaction times consistently showed that individuals tend to be less likely to accept an advantageous offer when they play for an outgroup member than when they decide for themselves or for an ingroup member. Moreover, this effect is stronger for those who were highly identified

Previous studies have indicated that high status people are prone to use leading questions during interpersonal interaction. The present study (N = 254) aimed to investigate if asymmetry between high and low status individuals is likely to bias the social hypothesis testing toward asymmetric questions, namely queries for which the «yes» and the «no» answers are not equally diagnostic. To this purpose, after manipulating their status (supervisor vs. subordinate), participants were asked to choose questions to investigate the presence of attributes (positive or negative) in a social target. The results showed that higher status individuals are more likely to adopt asymmetric confirming strategy during the social hypothesis-testing than lower status individuals. The potential application of this research is discussed.

Recent literature shows a negative relation between psychological distance of climate change and pro-environmental behavioral intentions: when climate change is perceived as a distant phenomenon in time and space, people are less prone to worry and, thus, to act. The present study explored under which conditions psychological distance proved to be effective on ecological attitudes. More specifically the research explored the interaction between climate change psychological distance and individual's cognitive style (holistic vs. analytic) on pro-environmental attitudes. Across two studies, the results consistently showed that psychological distance is strongly related to environmental concerns when individuals adopt an analytic cognitive style. By contrast, when individuals are in a holistic mindset, psychological distance proved to be less effective on ecological attitudes and behavioral intentions. Taken together, our findings have relevant practical implications for environmental politics and communication strategies.

Psychotherapists are not immune to prejudice and stereotypes against homosexual people, although nothing is known about their direct impact on the clinical process. Objectives: The aim of the present study is to analyze the impact of homophobic prejudice on clinical formulation, and its influence on diagnosis and assessment of severity and prognosis of a fictitious patient. Methods: We recruited a sample of 152 heterosexual male psychotherapists (psychologists or psychiatrists) (Mean age = 46.04; SD = ±11.26; range: 29–71), through an online survey which was advertised by contacting the boards of psychologists and psychiatrists throughout the country. Participants were asked to read a fictitious clinical vignette and formulate an impression of the patient. We used a 2 (Sexual Orientation of the Client: heterosexual vs. homosexual) × 2 (Diagnosis: difficulties in controlling sexual urges vs. anger). Participants were randomly exposed to one of four experimental conditions, thus they read about a heterosexual (vs. homosexual) patient with difficulties in controlling rage (vs. sexual urges). The two diagnostic profiles were considered as stereotypical of heterosexuals and homosexuals respectively (Boysen et al., 2006). After reading the vignette, participants were asked to rate the patient’s: – Psychopathological severity; – Amenability to psychotherapy; – Level of functioning using the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF). Results: Results showed that stereotypes influence clinical practice, most of all in prognosis: in particular (a) therapists believe that homosexual patients can benefit less from psychotherapy when their disorder is stereotypical of their sexual orientation, and that (b) the patient’s sexual orientation has more impact on diagnosis when his disorder is stereotypical of the sexual orientation, both in homosexual and heterosexual patients. Conclusions: Our results show that psychotherapists can be biased by prejudice against homosexuals and therefo

Do people gamble more on slot machines if they think that they are playing against humanlike minds rather than mathematical algorithms? Research has shown that people have a strong cognitive tendency to imbue humanlike mental states to nonhuman entities (i.e., anthropomorphism). The present research tested whether anthropomorphizing slot machines would increase gambling. Four studies manipulated slot machine anthropomorphization and found that exposing people to an anthropomorphized description of a slot machine increased gambling behavior and reduced gambling outcomes. Such findings emerged using tasks that focused on gambling behavior (Studies 1 to 3) as well as in experimental paradigms that included gambling outcomes (Studies 2 to 4). We found that gambling outcomes decrease because participants primed with the anthropomorphic slot machine gambled more (Study 4). Furthermore, we found that high-arousal positive emotions (e.g., feeling excited) played a role in the effect of anthropomorphism on gambling behavior (Studies 3 and 4). Our research indicates that the psychological process of gambling-machine anthropomorphism can be advantageous for the gaming industry; however, this may come at great expense for gamblers' (and their families') economic resources and psychological well-being.

Climate change governance is extremely challenging because of both the intrinsic difficulty of the issues at stake and the plurality of values and worldviews. For these reasons, the ethical concerns that characterise climate change should also be meaningfully addressed through a specific version of procedural justice. Accordingly, in this article we adopt an impure notion of procedural justice. On this theoretical basis, we define relevant fairness criteria and contextualise them for climate governance systems. Then, we empirically justify fairness criteria against a critical and divisive element for the future governance of the Green Climate Fund, i.e., the no-objection procedure. The article concludes with some considerations prompted by the analysis.

When examining social targets, people may ask asymmetric questions for which the yes- and the no-answer are neither equally diagnostic nor equally likely. Although asymmetric testing was related to confirmation bias, the consequences of this strategy on impression formation are still ambiguous. The present work explored the role played by the trade-off between the informativeness of the answers and their probability of occurrence implied by the questions asymmetry. In Study 1, participants received answers related to symmetric/asymmetric questions on an anonymous social target. In Study 2, participants read answers to a specific symmetric/asymmetric question provided by different group members. Overall, the results indicated that asymmetric pools had less impact on impressions than did symmetric pools, suggesting individual’s greater sensitivity to data frequency than to diagnosticity

The search and evaluation of pieces of evidence for testing alternative hypotheses is a cognitive activity of critical importance in many human domains, including criminal investigations and judgments. The subset of gathered evidences is determined by the information search strategies that are used by the decision maker. However, some highly spontaneous and frequent information search strategies can thwart the hypothesis testing process, causing (over)confirmation biases. The yes-no format of the question is not always a guarantee of effective discrimination between alternative hypotheses. For instance, a dichotomous question can be strongly asymmetric, when affirmative replies are more diagnostic than negative ones (i.e., asymmetric confirming questions, LR(Dh)>>LR(D¬h). Although the modern forensic methodology are particularly careful about procedural accuracy and leading questions, the use of asymmetric-confirming questions could elude the cognitive control and consequently lead to an unconscious confirmation of the focal hypothesis. The present contribution explores cognitive and motivational factors affecting the use of asymmetric questions. Study 1 (N = 253) aimed at exploring if people may have cognitive control over the use of asymmetric strategy. To this goal, specific instructions in order to avoid confirmation tendencies were experimentally manipulated and their efficacy was tested. Study 2 (N = 112) focused on the effect of power on the use of asymmetric strategies. Participants will be placed in more or less powerful position than the social target and their information search process was analyzed. Overall, results showed that, under certain conditions, people may have cognitive control on questions asymmetry and that powerful people are more prone to use asymmetric questions when searching information than weaker persons. Implications for forensic psychology are discussed.