Kaleidoscope

This document from 2021 discusses several studies. Gelfand et al. explored the concept of ‘cultural tightness–looseness’ and its impact on COVID-19 guideline adherence. They found that nations with high levels of ‘cultural looseness’ had almost five times the number of cases and over eight times the number of deaths per million people of those with ‘cultural tightness’. Koller & Cannon explored novelty detection and confidence in recognition in a sample from the general population. They found that paranoia was specifically associated with thinking a novel stimulus was familiar – the essence of false memory. A study by Francey et al. compared the intensive psychosocial intervention of cognitive–behavioural case management (CBCM) and placebo medication with CBCM and antipsychotic medication in a first-episode psychosis cohort of 90 young people aged 15–25 years. They found that both groups showed significant improvements in social functioning, with no meaningful differences between groups. Henson et al reported on ‘anomaly detection’ via the use of smartphones. They found that ‘digital phenotyping’ of patterns of behaviour could pick up subtle changes in individuals with an 89% sensitivity and 75% specificity for illness relapse. Finally, Hangartner et al explored covert signals of bias using data capturing the behaviour of recruitment agents in an online employment platform. They found evidence of regional preference and gender biases in the recruitment process.