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1. Positive Social-Ecological Feedbacks in Community-Based Conservation

   https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.652318  

   Quintana, Anastasia C.; Giron-Nava, Alfredo; Urmy, Samuel; Cramer, Alli N.; Domínguez-Sánchez, Santiago; Rodríguez-Van Dyck, Salvador; Aburto-Oropeza, Octavio; Basurto, Xavier; Weaver, Amy Hudson (May 2021, Frontiers in Marine Science)

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   Marine area-based conservation measures including no-take zones (areas with no fishing allowed) are often designed through lengthy processes that aim to optimize for ecological and social objectives. Their (semi) permanence generates high stakes in what seems like a one-shot game. In this paper, we theoretically and empirically explore a model of short-term area-based conservation that prioritizes adaptive co-management: temporary areas closed to fishing, designed by the fishers they affect, approved by the government, and adapted every 5 years. In this model, no-take zones are adapted through learning and trust-building between fishers and government fisheries scientists. We use integrated social-ecological theory and a case study of a network of such fisheries closures (“fishing refugia”) in northwest Mexico to hypothesize a feedback loop between trust, design, and ecological outcomes. We argue that, with temporary and adaptive area-based management, social and ecological outcomes can be mutually reinforcing as long as initial designs are ecologically “good enough” and supported in the social-ecological context. This type of adaptive management also has the potential to adapt to climate change and other social-ecological changes. This feedback loop also predicts the dangerous possibility that low trust among stakeholders may lead to poor design, lack of ecological benefits, eroding confidence in the tool’s capacity, shrinking size, and even lower likelihood of social-ecological benefits. In our case, however, this did not occur, despite poor ecological design of some areas, likely due to buffering by social network effects and alternative benefits. We discuss both the potential and the danger of temporary area-based conservation measures as a learning tool for adaptive co-management and commoning. 

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2. Masculine Contest Culture Is Associated with Less Access to, and Knowledge of, Mental Health Benefits

   Fletcher, Keaton A; Ramirez, T; French, Kimberly A; Bostwick, M (August 2025, Career development international)

   Purpose A critical aspect of understanding any culture is how it manifests in artifacts and social interactions, yet this understanding largely remains absent from the MCC literature. We explore one costly organizational artifact: the employee benefits package. Design/methodology/approach Using cross-sectional survey data (N = 486), we examine the relationships between MCC and benefit provision, communication, and knowledge confidence. Exploratory mediation analyses were conducted to explore the role of communication in MCC’s relations with employee benefit knowledge confidence. Findings MCC was significantly negatively associated with the provision of mental health benefits but showed no significant relationship with physical health benefits. MCC was negatively associated with benefits communication and confidence in mental health benefit knowledge, with communication partially mediating the relationship between MCC and knowledge confidence. Originality These findings demonstrate organizational culture is linked to access to healthcare resources, particularly benefits serving mental, but not physical, health. Benefit communication may play a pivotal role in bridging gaps in employee understanding of benefits. This research extends Schein’s framework of organizational culture by highlighting MCC’s relationship with both structural and social artifacts within organizations. MCC may be a fruitful intervention target for employee healthcare access. 

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3. Best of Both Worlds? Combining Different Forms of Mixed Reality Deictic Gestures

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3563387  

   Brown, Landon; Hamilton, Jared; Han, Zhao; Phan, Albert; Phung, Thao; Hansen, Eric; Tran, Nhan; Williams, Tom (March 2023, ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction)

   Mixed Reality provides a powerful medium for transparent and effective human-robot communication, especially for robots with significant physical limitations (e.g., those without arms). To enhance nonverbal capabilities for armless robots, this article presents two studies that explore two different categories of mixed reality deictic gestures for armless robots: a virtual arrow positioned over a target referent (a non-ego-sensitive allocentric gesture) and a virtual arm positioned over the gesturing robot (an ego-sensitive allocentric gesture). In Study 1, we explore the tradeoffs between these two types of gestures with respect to both objective performance and subjective social perceptions. Our results show fundamentally different task-oriented versus social benefits, with non-ego-sensitive allocentric gestures enabling faster reaction time and higher accuracy, but ego-sensitive gestures enabling higher perceived social presence, anthropomorphism, and likability. In Study 2, we refine our design recommendations by showing that in fact these different gestures should not be viewed as mutually exclusive alternatives, and that by using them together, robots can achieve both task-oriented and social benefits. 

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4. Impact of physical and social settings on parent engagement in learning through making

   Letourneau, S.M.; McMillan Culp, K.; Wells, D. (April 2019, American Educational Research Association)

   Previous research has documented the benefits of making for young learners, but few studies have examined how parents engage in maker activities during family visits to museums, both as facilitators of their children’s learning and as makers in their own right. In this study, we asked how caregivers participate in making and tinkering programs, how parents describe the benefits of making (for their children and themselves), and what aspects of the physical and social setting influence parents’ engagement. Data included observations of 88 family groups participating in various making and tinkering activities at a science center (including woodworking, fashion design, virtual reality drawing, circuit blocks, etc) and exit interviews with a subset of 66 caregivers. Qualitative data analysis connected observed qualities of the physical and social setting with caregivers’ observed and reported engagement. Through this analysis, we identified specific aspects of the physical environment, tools/materials, and facilitation strategies that invited family participation in general and that were associated with specific caregiver roles, including observing children’s learning, facilitation of children’s learning, and engagement as a maker alongside children. The implications of the findings for the design and facilitation of maker programs are discussed. 

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5. Competing motives in a pandemic: Interplays between fundamental social motives and technology use in predicting (Non)Compliance with social distancing guidelines

   Brown, M.; Young, S. G.; Sacco, D. F. (October 2021, Computers in human behavior reports)

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   During the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals were advised to adhere to social distancing guidelines limiting physical interpersonal contact. Humans have a suite of adaptations to satisfy belonging needs while avoiding diseased conspecifics. Competition between motivational systems may explain adherence and resistance to social distancing guidelines and how technologically mediated interactions further shape these decisions. This study is a preregistered analysis of data in a representative sample collected during the pandemic investigating how individual differences in affiliative and pathogen-avoidant motives predict interest in physical interactions (N = 2409). Germ aversion predicted disinterest in physical interactions and need to belong predicted interest. Additional analyses revealed technology use satisfied belonging motives that unexpectedly heightened interest in physical contact. Exploratory analyses further indicate that internet speed was similarly associated with greater interest in physical interactions. We frame these results through a competing fundamental social motives framework and discuss how to address future pandemics effectively. 

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