Israeli airstrikes killed dozens of people including two families in both Gaza and Lebanon, while Hezbollah fired a volley of 55 rockets into northern Israel in response....
Could you name a country that would not qualify as an ethnostate by your definition? We’re clearly using different definitions of ethnostate, and I’m trying to understand yours, although the definition you linked includes a key word that I think supports my position: dominate. I also think that my definition isn’t absurd, but whatever you want to call it, any state that explicitly identifies one or more ethnic groups over others should not exist. America is flirting with this now, and probably every nation on earth has at least some tendency towards it, which is why we must be on guard and oppose it wherever it shows its ugly head.
I don’t see how merely having an ethnicity or culture as the predominant group in a country would qualify it as an ethnostate unless the government uses it as an excuse to oppress those that are not in that selected group(s).
When you agreed that “All ethnostates should be dismantled” which ones came to your mind?
If I said “all murder should be illegal”, do I have to have every conceivable instance in mind before I can make that declaration? We can whittle down my opinions through argument, for example to see if I think non-human animals should be included, or if killing in self-defense should be considered murder, but those kinds of things would not negate the original declaration, unless in doing so I changed my mind. And it’s fair that you’re trying to get me to do just that, but so far you haven’t been very persuasive.
I have not said anything that argues what is happening over their needs to continue. Just that I’d also take issue if you were arguing American Politics is immoral and so democracies need to be dismantled.
I think you’re conflating things a little bit here. I think a more apt analogy would be saying if the American government took the position that Mexico was US territory and invaded with the military, or settlements, or used its power to disenfranchise American citizens of Mexican heritage, I would agree that that government should be abolished. That doesn’t mean democracy has failed, and the same form of government could be reinstated without the oppression, or even just voting out the people that put those measures in place. These kinds of things all have the same result, and all could be called dismantling the government, or the patriarchy, or whatever else is the problem.
America, Belgium, Israel, Russia, the Vatican… anywhere people are oppressed with official backing for things that are out of their control, cannot be just, and those systems (be it the whole government, a department, a policy, etc.)
Again, I think our disagreements hinge on this definitional difference. I think your definition for ethnostate (as I understand it) is too broad to have bearing in the discussion. I think you’re conflating an ethnostate with an ethnicity. Having a nation made up of exclusively (for argument’s sake) one ethnicity isn’t necessarily an ethnostate, but a nation exclusively for one ethnicity is.
That’s what I’m arguing against. Using “ethnostate” in the broader meaning you seem to be advocating for unnecessarily complicates the arguments and allows the potential for racism into a place it shouldn’t be. It gives the people that would seek to use racism as a weapon a foothold into a discussion they should be excluded from.
People arguing against Israel’s government (or the government’s actions or whatever else) are not necessarily arguing against the concept of Israel (and if they were, I’d be against that), and using this broader definition allows bad actors to disrupt efforts to reduce the harm being perpetrated by interjecting a very emotionally charged element where it doesn’t belong. Racism may be (I think it is) the root of the problem, but focusing on the “ism” here is like fighting the idea of fire rather than the flames. We’re trying to stop people from being burned first, and then deal with the flames after.
I have other things I need to be doing, so I’m done here for now. Thanks for taking the time to engage with me.
Could you name a country that would not qualify as an ethnostate by your definition
Yes, easily. Canada. You would be hard pressed to find someone outside of Canada that says they ‘identify as Canadian’ that isn’t a citizen or just trying to conceal their actual citizenship.
I don’t see how merely having an ethnicity or culture as the predominant group in a country would qualify it as an ethnostate unless the government uses it as an excuse to oppress those that are not in that selected group
This is where the fundamental issue is imo. You presuppose oppression as part of your definition and that is not included in what dictionaries define it as. Yes, differing ethnicities are often a source of… ‘conflict’, but that is not necessarily the case and this is what I’m trying to emphasize. There are numerous nations who have an ethnic identity that aren’t oppressive to others as I already listed.
IMO you meant to declare “oppressive regimes” as demanding dismantling which I absolutely agree with, and currently most Theocracies and Ethnostates in the Middle East region qualify.
do I have to have every conceivable instance in mind before I can make that declaration?
No, and I didn’t ask you too. But, I think due to the clear issue with how we are each defining ‘Ethnostate’ you providing one other example aside from Israel is reasonable.
I think you’re conflating things a little bit here…
No, I was showing how you are conflating things with that example. In your breakdown you state that which I exactly agree with: “I would agree that that government should be abolished. That doesn’t mean democracy has failed” but you are saying exactly that when you use ‘Ethnostates’. Israeli government failed so Ethnostates should be dismantled.
In conclusion, there are many justifiably proud ethnicities out there, some of which governments identify as, who aren’t oppressive so we should be careful not to generalize to the point cultural identification as a whole becomes the Bad.
DATE: August 17, 2024 at 06:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG
** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
TITLE: How narcissistic CEOs steer boardroom conversations toward risk-taking
In a new study published in the Strategic Management Journal, researchers have unearthed a critical dynamic in the corporate world: narcissistic CEOs, particularly those who also hold the position of board chair, have an uncanny ability to shape board discussions to favor risk-taking. The study sheds light on the subtle yet powerful influence that these CEOs wield, offering insights into how personality traits can significantly affect corporate decision-making and strategy.
Previous research has established a connection between CEO narcissism and increased risk-taking, but the mechanisms through which this happens have remained largely unexplored. The researchers aimed to fill this gap by examining how narcissistic CEOs might manipulate board discussions to serve their interests, especially when they also serve as board chair. This understanding is particularly vital in light of past regulatory reforms that have struggled to curb excessive corporate risk-taking.
The research team — led by Christopher S. Tuggle of the University of Central Arkansas — collected and analyzed board meeting transcripts from 88 publicly traded U.S. firms over a span of more than two decades, from 1994 to 2015.
These firms were selected from a larger pool of over 1,900 companies, and the final sample included 197 CEOs. The selection process focused on firms with sufficient data to examine the interactions between CEOs and their boards in depth.
To measure CEO narcissism, the researchers used a well-established method that considers multiple indicators: the prominence of the CEO’s photograph in the company’s annual report, the frequency of the CEO’s name in press releases relative to other top executives, and the CEO’s compensation compared to other members of the top management team. This multifaceted approach ensured a comprehensive assessment of each CEO’s narcissistic traits.
The researchers then turned their attention to the tone of board discussions, particularly those concerning risk-taking. They utilized text analysis software to evaluate whether these discussions were framed in a positive or negative light. The aim was to determine if narcissistic CEOs were able to steer these conversations in a way that highlighted the potential benefits of risk-taking, thereby influencing the board’s decision-making process.
Narcissistic CEOs were indeed more likely to drive board discussions about risk-taking toward a positive tone. This influence was particularly strong when the CEO also held the role of board chair, a condition known as CEO duality. The dual role allowed these CEOs to control the agenda, manage who spoke during meetings, and even influence the setting and context of the discussions. As a result, firms led by narcissistic CEOs, especially those with CEO duality, were more inclined to allocate significant resources toward risky ventures.
The study also found that this positive framing of risk-taking discussions led to increased spending on these ventures. Boards that engaged in more positively toned discussions about risk-taking, driven by their narcissistic CEOs, were more likely to approve and fund riskier strategies. This finding underscores the powerful influence that CEO personality traits can have on corporate decision-making, particularly when the CEO holds significant structural power within the organization.
The study offers several practical takeaways for boards of directors. One of the most significant is the need for caution when combining the roles of CEO and board chair, especially when the CEO exhibits narcissistic traits. While some degree of risk-taking is necessary for innovation and growth, excessive risk driven by a single individual’s agenda can be detrimental to the firm and its shareholders.
Boards might consider implementing stronger internal governance mechanisms, such as enhanced oversight by independent directors or more rigorous checks and balances on the CEO’s power. Additionally, providing directors with training on personality dynamics and their impact on decision-making could help them better navigate their interactions with narcissistic CEOs.
As Borgholthaus pointed out, “Boards need to be careful of when and when they don’t have duality; when they do and don’t give CEOs the title of board chair. It can be a good thing, but at the same time a lot of government reforms were done to put more responsibility on the board to ensure they wouldn’t be manipulated.”
While the study provides valuable insights, it also has limitations. For instance, the researchers focused exclusively on publicly traded firms in the United States, potentially limiting the generalizability of the findings to other contexts, such as private companies or firms in different countries. Moreover, while the study used comprehensive measures to assess CEO narcissism and the tone of board discussions, it could not fully capture the quality or depth of these conversations.
Future research could expand on these findings by exploring how narcissistic CEOs might influence other types of strategic decisions beyond risk-taking, such as corporate social responsibility or geographic expansion. Additionally, investigating how these dynamics play out in different cultural or regulatory environments could provide a more nuanced understanding of the role of narcissism in corporate governance.
The study, “Setting the tone to get their way: An attention-based approach to how narcissistic CEOs influence the board of directors to take more risk,” was authored by Christopher S. Tuggle, Cameron J. Borgholthaus, Peter D. Harms, and Jonathan P. O’Brien.
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They’re just shutting down their local offices in Brazil, which are primarily used to represent X legally.
This is happening because a Supreme Court judge is conducting an inquiry to persecute those he deems propagators of fake news. In most legal systems, it would be considered highly illegal for a judge to conduct an investigative inquiry. It is also illegal in Brazil, but the other members of Supreme Court authorized this inquiry (“in the name of democracy”) and turned a blind eye for all its absurd consequences.
This judge doesn’t need the prosecutor’s office or any private individual to initiate the proceedings. The scope of this inquiry is very broad (fake news as a whole) and has no expiration date, making it potentially eternal. In some cases, he himself is supposedly a victim of fake news, which means this judge potentially occupies three roles: judge, prosecutor, and victim. As a result, ordinary citizens in Brazil can be “summoned” to the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction immediately if the accusations are connected to this Fake News inquiry. Since the Supreme Court is the final jurisdiction for appeals, people unfortunate enough to get caught in this arbitrariness lose the right to appeal the decisions of a judge that is also the de facto prosecutor.
A few days ago, there were some leaks showing this judge’s assistants being asked to write reports against some individuals and news organizations that the judge wants to prosecute. In one instance, where there was no wrongdoing to report about a certain right-wing newspaper, the judge replied to his assistant: “Just look for some spicy allegations and be creative”. So this judge is using his superpowers to direct the investigation to serve his own ends, which mostly involves silencing critics of the Supreme Court and himself.
His most recent power trip involves sending secret orders to X’s Brazilian legal offices, demanding some accounts be blocked, and asking for all information related to these accounts. The judge stipuled daily fines for disobedience. But X’s Brazilian workers don’t have direct control of which accounts are blocked or not, so they tried to appeal to the full Supreme Court judges (which so far has not responded), and no account was blocked or doxxed. The judge then raised the daily fines further and threatened to jail X’s chief lawyer in Brazil, even though this lawyer has no control over what happens to X’s accounts. It’s as if he were threatening to arrest a lawyer for the supposed crimes of his client. To protect these workers from unfair arrests, Elon Musk laid off all workers from X’s local offices in Brazil, effectively closing all operations in the country.
The site and the app will continue working until the judge comes up with some bullshit reason to order all Brazilian ISPs to block access to X’s servers.
There’s a hope that if you out-white the white people, maybe you’ll be safe. And the extremist right loves nothing more than a self-loathing minority willing to voice the master narrative. It helps them politically and it viscerally demonstrates ideological domination over a person.
For instance, a man saying women belong in the home as breeding vessels under the domination of a man is not as powerful as a woman saying the same thing. Roughly equivalent when it’s a racial/ethnic minority voicing white nationalist/anti-immigrabt/racist rhetoric.
The fact is, when you feel forced to choose between physical violence committed against you and/or your loved ones and structural oppression being enacted against the same, it’s not an easy choice.
It is the goal of fascism to attempt to replace political discourse with the rhetoric of real or threatened violence, which then creates the conditions where that seems like the only available options.
People toss around the word fascism haphazardly all the time, especially online. But this is fundamentally what it means: oppress yourself and/or consent to your own oppression under threat of violence in the name of the State, which is itself directed with absolute authority by a singular or concentrated ruler or authority.
So I’ve rented a server for years. It’s in the US and it’s a couple bucks a month. It’s fun to play with and I use it however I want. I’ve had an email server, a next cloud instance, and an open VPN instance to name a few things on it. Well I decided to connect a torrent client from my home to the openvpn instance on my server to see if I could do it. It worked really well until the company I rent from forwarded the DMCA hit back to me for downloading Rick and Morty. I should’ve known better but I thought a nameless faceless server farm wouldn’t be worth the hassle of a DMCA but I was wrong.
I’ve been seeing more often (and others have posted the same) that some of the elements of “Reddit etiquette” seem to be taking over here. Luckily I can still find discussion comments but it seems the jokes and general “downvote because I disagree” are slowly taking over....
i was wondering if i was the only one that felt this way; since i keep getting banned and named called on lemmy.world and shitjustworks every time i try to let newbie leftists posters know that lemmy.world doesn’t not represent the lemmyverse and that they’ll get a much better experience if they try almost any other instance.
TL;DR: for me it’s current russian warsongs and covers of 80-90s classics that put the opposite meaning into them. Polina Gagarina, Shaman are the most known artists due to being banned from YT, but there are dozens of them. What and why - I’d try to explain in following paragraphs.
They don’t feel either inspired or honest, most of the worthy artists don’t want that mark in their resume so it’s left either for newbie artists or oldies who fear they are losing relevance. The western-in-everything ‘Я русский’ is the only catchy tune local media empires could produce, others are even more cringe like ‘333’, they don’t even compare to what repressed guys did and do.
Surprisingly, the same notion is shared with my relatives who do support the war (unlike me) or at least our men there. We still have a tradition of singing along the songs of old over the table when we meet with our elders, or over the fire if camping or meeting in the countryside, mostly soviet songs with inclusion of 90-00s. And itso happens there’s none of the promoted ones in the menu.
But that also tracks with the concerts on the TV we sometimes put on. It’s all older stuff by mostly aging artists. The contemporary russian music culture, as I suppose, was castrated by some sort of negative selection and I can’t think otherwise.
And what is really embarassing for me personally to hear is appropriation of songs that are either anti-war or asking for changes (namely KINO’s ones) sang in this day and this year by those who support both the regime and the war on state TV. That’s like this one republican guy just one hair width from discovering what RatM’s songs are about. There’s some second-hand shame you want to wash off in a bathroom right after hearing.
I block about 20 or so communities. A few are ideological ones that although I don’t dislike/disagree with, I just don’t want to hear about, a couple of the star trek ones, pretty much anything with “news” or “politics” in the name, since that tends to be very American centric, or in the case of world news, mostly things only Americans would care about, and I also blocked the Baldur’s gate and helldivers communities because they were constantly in my /all feed a while ago. I also block lemmit.online or whatever it is (an entire instance), because it was just reposts of Reddit posts made by a bot which annoyed me when I wanted to search for things
My instance federates with Lemmy World, but because of some technical issue with server lag, we don’t see posts from lemmy.world for about a week (posts in LW communities from non LW users do pop up, but upvotes and sometimes comments don’t federate, so they won’t appear in all unless I scroll really deep). That has the effect of essentially meaning I don’t see any posts in LW communities in /all unless I sort by top month or new
I am a reddit refugee. Keep seeing that this is supposed to be somehow better than Reddit. As far as I can tell, it follows a similar format, less restrictive on posts being removed I suppose. But It looks like people still get down vote brigaded on some communities. So I’m curious, how it’s better?
I wouldn’t say “better”, because then people will assume, as you have, that it solves all of the problems with Reddit. Lemmy solves certain specific problems that are evident on Reddit. Namely the centralized ownership of the platform and the enshittification that can result from that.
It doesn’t solve the problem of certain bad-faith user behaviours like downvote brigading, trolling, etc. If anything, those problems are a bit worse in the fediverse since ban evasion is really easy. We recently had a problem with a troll who spent two months posting incel stuff to a variety of different communities, and when he got banned from one instance he would just create a new account with a different instance. He went through like 15 accounts, though he does appear to have finally given up as of a week ago.
Ran into two bad mods the other day (related to the same convo). But, gist of the story is, I got into a discussion with someone who heavily exaggerated and claimed I wanted to kill an entire minority, as I only 80% agreed with them (they were basically demanding government benefits which would cause a huge issue if applied to other communities which was required to be fair , and they couldn’t even set the parameters of the rules for it). A Beehaw admin freely ignored the outrageous comment that the other mod made, and branded me instantly as “starting a fight”.
As I was deleting my Beehaw account, I noticed that same non-beehaw mod had actually been in a thread I had also posted in a month ago which was discussing more conservative people moving to Lemmy (I’m VERY left). They basically said in the discussion they were constantly needing to remove “conservative” and people who were trying to start fights . This was ironic because doing the huge exaggeration thing and calling someone a derogatory name is basically out of the conservative playbook (and they were certainly the only ones fighting), and anywhere else it would be seen as rediculous behavior.
People in that thread though also made it sound like the rest of Lemmy was a cesspool. This colored my opinion of Lemmy and I realised my opinion came from that same thread, so, I didn’t want to leave beehaw, and only took the leap recently.
I was actually hugely surprised by Lemmy World. Everyone is a lot more respectful here than I expected and I think its even a better safe space than beehaw, where . There are a lot more connected instances, so the bad actors get drowned out easier, and it promotes a healthy discussion, where science is encouraged. We might not all agree, but it’s a lot easier to avoid echo chambers. The science memes community is also AWESOME on Lemmy and beats anywhere else imho.
Reddit on the other hand, doesn’t seem to have good moderation (most mods are unpaid and the power hungry ones will try to manage hundreds of communities). It has degraded into people fishing for karma , and has a higher percentage of abusive people who also likely abuse others on facebook (many aussie subs have degraded into far right wing where science is discouraged and people purposely try to push an echo chamber). THere are a lot of good mods here though, and if you don’t like a community, you can block it and find another one… The cool part is that I suspect over time, this will eventually keep mods honest.
The biggest problem is that Reddit SHOULD have acted on FatPeopleHate, the Donald and Female Dating strategy. They didn’t act on jailbait either apparently. Those people established themselves permanently into the community, grew to some of the largest communities and the moment mods left, many of those same communities likely did a power grab too. Reddit staff don’t really care either, and since the people running the servers don’t seemingly care (similar to facebook), it simply encourages them
What? Huh? The fuck are you even trying to say with that first paragraph and what connection does it have with my comment?
My point was that for someone calling people still willing to use Windows stupid, your lack of knowledge about the actual cost (and how almost no user is paying the full cost) makes you look incompetent at best.
There was precisely zero there lamenting Microsoft missing out on money. Check my host lemmy instance, it’s the piracy one. There’s a reason I name dropped the best open source tool for tricking Windows into thinking you have a valid license. Steal your OS, I don’t give a fuck. The only “validly” licensed personal machine I have is my main desktop, and only because it was my first time doing a manual customized Win 10 install so I didn’t want to fuck around with faking the license to save myself $20 for an OEM license.
…
Which brings me to my next point. For someone being so bull headedly elitist about how bad Windows is, and how smart they are, you’re completely unaware of how easy it is to make Windows work for you and disable all the user hostile shit like ads.
It’s called install the Pro version of the OS and use Group Policy manager. 90% of the settings are clearly labeled in there too, like “Disable Cortana Internet Search”, “Disable OneDrive integration”.
There are some “free speech” focused instances of different Activity Pub based platforms. You all can go there. I don’t remember the names of them but I’m sure some other Lemmy user can help you with that.
Hey I figured I’d make a post and see the state of current lemmy appage, since I’m looking for a good one. So far I’ve used Jerboa, Thunder, Eternity, and Voyager....
My favourites are Eternity and Thunder. Eternity is the only app I’ve found with “swipe between posts” navigation. Thunder has the best remote instance link handling, and its tools for inserting usernames and community names are better than even the Lemmy web UI.
anyone have any guesses as to why lemmy.world is so big? Scale/size advantage? Reliability advantage? Name recognition? What do we think is the culprit here.
And whilst i’m here, anybody want to explain the source of lemmy.ml to me? I only know it as the instance where mad people yell at me from lol.
perhaps a more “ambiguous” federation system would be better. having community instances is nice and all, but having one literally just be lemmy.world seems a little bit antithetical to me.
It’s solidly managed, and the second largest instance, so All feed is going to be as populated as the LW one. Also, neutral name (sorry sh.itjust.works)
A mother of two has been left paraplegic after being shot by Iranian police over an alleged violation of the country’s strict hijab rules, a source with knowledge of the case has told the BBC....
I’m not a communist. I don’t agree with communism. I’m European. We hate communism. I joined ML because people said it doesn’t matter what instance you join in the tutorials but mentioned one should avoid lemmy.world because it was oversaturated with reddit refugees and lemmy.ml was at the top. I never knew there was this much instance bigotry and tribalism on lemmy, but i am honestly apalled by this culture. That’s the only reason. My post history is public, go read if you see anything about communism, bot propaganda activity or whatever strawmen you’re building there because your arguments are insufficient.
And yes, things in the middle east would have been considerably better without CIA interventions. Americans want to wash their hands off it because what, it happened 50 years ago, when it was proven in 2020 by dna of a US green beret the US had special forces try the same in Venezuela ?
Look at Afghanistan right now, it would have been leagues better if the US hadn’t been there for 20 years. Now it’s under the US (previously, when known as Mujahideen) funded taliban. If you know your history, none of this should come as a surprise. But yeah, it was the headscarf and profit and America bad for sure. Everything but taking responsibility for what the US is still doing right now. I’m not anti American culture and people or even economic doctrine, I’m anti policy. Creating an implication between capitalism and instigating officially unsanctioned political destabilization of foreign governments is an intellectually lazy and dishonest argument.
What the CIA has done and is doing is wrong and brought us here, and it’s acting vastly with impunity and being excused by people like you. I’m not against you. I’m against people giving the place you live in a bad name with your taxes. Acting all defensive and petulant like I’m attacking your culture personally is just silly, when you know many patriotic Americans would agree with my criticism of the actions of the CIA and military interventions overseas.
Basically, the title. After years of inactivty, I’ll be taking music (cello) lessons again, with my teacher of yesteryear, from whom I’ve moved half a country away....
If you use the public instance you don’t need to set up or host or install anything. You can selfhost it if you want, but the public instance works just fine.
One person goes to the web page and starts a room. The other can join the same room by knowing the name of the room. (It will generate a link when you create a room to make it easy to send to someone so they can join by just clicking the link.)
It’s not a troll. Do not engage, do not rile them up. Block them, every one of their users, and their entire instances, because you will never win and they will only ever just call you names and repost propaganda/misinformation to “prove you wrong”.
There is no helping that astroturfed hellhole, you MUST cauterize it and ignore it.
DATE: August 11, 2024 at 08:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG
** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
TITLE: Study finds “dream sleep” can predict students’ test-anxiety levels weeks in advance
New research published in the Journal of Sleep Research suggests that a specific type of sleep, known as rapid eye movement (REM) sleep or “dream sleep,” can predict how stressed college students feel before an important exam. The study found that students who experience more REM sleep earlier in the semester tend to have higher levels of anxiety as final exams approach. These findings add a fascinating layer to our understanding of how sleep affects emotional processing and stress in everyday life.
REM sleep is one of the five stages of the sleep cycle that our bodies naturally progress through during the night. REM sleep is characterized by rapid movement of the eyes, increased brain activity, and vivid dreams. Unlike other sleep stages, REM sleep is when the brain is most active, almost as if it were awake, even though the body remains in a state of temporary paralysis.
This stage of sleep is believed to play a crucial role in emotional regulation, memory consolidation, and processing of experiences and emotions. The duration and quality of REM sleep can significantly influence how we cope with stress and handle emotional challenges in our daily lives.
Given the established connection between sleep, particularly REM sleep, and emotional regulation, the researchers behind this study were motivated to explore whether habitual REM sleep could predict stress responses in everyday life situations. While much of the previous research focused on the effects of sleep on emotional processing in clinical populations or in response to traumatic events, this study sought to understand how REM sleep might influence stress in a more common and relatable context: academic stress among college students.
“Many studies examine the relationship between sleep and emotional and cognitive processing; however, the majority of studies do one of two things: they either evaluate how performance in cognitive and emotional tests is affected by sleep and its physiology measured for only a single night prior to test; or they test the relationship over longer periods but using subjective measures of sleep or, at best, objective measures that only probe sleep in its most general sense (total sleep time, sleep quality) rather than its detailed physiological properties,” said study author Itamar Lerner, an assistant professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
“My research work attempts to capitalize on new advances in mobile sleep monitoring to combine detailed evaluation of sleep physiology over multiple nights with measurement of emotional and cognitive processing. As part of this research agenda, I am looking at how habitual sleep and its physiology affect the management of stress and that’s how I came to examine one instance of this relationship, namely, how habitual sleep affects test anxiety in college students.”
The study involved 52 undergraduate psychology students from the University of Texas at San Antonio. These students were monitored over a full semester, either in the fall or spring. To participate, students needed to commit to the study period, report getting at least six hours of sleep per night, and maintain regular alcohol and caffeine consumption. The researchers excluded students with pre-existing neurological or medical conditions that could affect sleep, those using medications influencing sleep, and anyone diagnosed with a sleep disorder.
Participants were trained to use a mobile sleep-monitoring device, which recorded their sleep at home for five consecutive nights early in the semester. This device, the Zmachine® Insight+, uses three electrodes placed on the head to monitor different stages of sleep, including REM sleep. Students also kept a sleep diary to record when they went to bed, when they woke up, and any nighttime awakenings.
In addition to monitoring sleep, the researchers assessed students’ stress levels and related factors using a variety of online questionnaires. The main focus was on test anxiety, measured with the Test Anxiety Inventory. This tool evaluates both the cognitive aspect of anxiety (worry) and the physical responses (emotionality) that students experience when faced with exams. Other factors like depression, resilience, sleep quality, and exposure to stressful life events were also measured to control for their potential influence on test anxiety.
The sleep data collected early in the semester was compared with the students’ stress levels just before final exams, when academic pressure was at its peak.
The researchers found that more REM sleep early in the semester predicted higher levels of test anxiety as exams approached. Specifically, students who spent more time in REM sleep, as well as those who had a higher percentage of their total sleep time in REM, reported greater increases in anxiety before finals. This was contrary to the researchers’ initial hypothesis, which predicted that more REM sleep would be associated with lower anxiety.
Further analysis showed that this increase in anxiety was particularly related to the emotionality dimension of test anxiety — the physical symptoms like a racing heart or sweaty palms that students might experience when they think about their exams. In contrast, the cognitive dimension of anxiety, which involves worrying about performance, did not seem to be as strongly affected by REM sleep.
Interestingly, the study found no significant relationship between REM sleep fragmentation — the number of times REM sleep is interrupted during the night — and test anxiety. This suggests that it is the amount of REM sleep, rather than its quality or continuity, that plays a more critical role in influencing stress levels before exams.
“The main results suggest that habitual REM sleep or ‘dream sleep’ as it is better known might influence how we process stress, and particularly how anxious we become before a test,” Lerner told PsyPost. “The results suggest that more REM sleep could actually contribute to maintaining some level of stress before the test; however, previous studies suggest that habitual REM sleep could also alleviate stress. The bottom line is that we need an adequate amount of sleep to have the right balance between a calm, non-anxious demeanor and a healthy anticipation before events that require our attention.”
Future research could expand on these findings by including a larger, more diverse sample of students and by exploring how REM sleep might influence stress in other real-world situations. “The long term goals are to examine how habitual sleep particularly REM sleep affect stress response in more extreme situations, such as emergency responders (firefighters, police officers, paramedics) responding to calls during their regular work,” Lerner said.
The study, “Habitual rapid eye movement sleep predicts changes in test-anxiety levels weeks in advance,” was authored by Emerson Larios and Itamar Lerner.
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Mainly aimed at those who use Spotify, Tidal, or any other streaming service like myself, but those who pirate music should still feel free to answer!...
Somewhat haphazardly. I typically listen to multiple genres in one session as well. What I usually do is if I hear a song I like that’s not already in a playlist (or if I like it enough that I want it in multiple playlists), I’ll chuck it in at the end of one. Then when I have downtime I play around with the song order so that I like how each song transitions to the next. I enjoy doing that as a way to unwind. This method isn’t great if you’re the type that needs everything organized all the time though since my playlists are usually in some level of a work in progress state! The names are very boring - P01, P02, etc. I also have some playlists that are more themed, for instance a road trip playlist with more upbeat songs. I’ll usually play around with that one based on who is road tripping with me and what type of music I think they’ll enjoy.
So my understanding is that KBin.social is now gone from the internet for the indefinite future. Ernest, who meant well, simply could not keep up with the demands due to his personal life and the development issues that were cropping up all the time. Let me get ahead of any replies and say that it’s perfectly reasonable to...
Hey, I remember your name from kbin.social and I have not seen you in awhile, nice to see you're still up and kicking on the Fediverse.
I just lucked out. As soon as I figured out what I was doing I wanted off of the flagship instance to help with decentralization, went to kbin.cafe whose admin abandoned it so I went to kbin.run, and kbin.run happened to make the switch to Mbin.
'They've just killed innocent people': Anger in Lebanon after Israeli strike - as teddy bears and children's shoes among rubble (news.sky.com)
Israeli airstrikes killed dozens of people including two families in both Gaza and Lebanon, while Hezbollah fired a volley of 55 rockets into northern Israel in response....
X to close operations in Brazil 'effective immediately' (www.reuters.com)
JD Vance Cites ‘Gangs Of New York’ Movie While Claiming ‘Ethnic Enclaves’ Lead to Higher Crime Rates (www.mediaite.com)
ISP to Supreme Court: We shouldn’t have to disconnect users accused of piracy (arstechnica.com)
It feels dirty to agree with an ISP on something. But even the worst corporations are on the right side of something from time to time I suppose.
What factors do you think contributed to the "Reddit Hivemind"? How do you believe it can be avoided?
I’ve been seeing more often (and others have posted the same) that some of the elements of “Reddit etiquette” seem to be taking over here. Luckily I can still find discussion comments but it seems the jokes and general “downvote because I disagree” are slowly taking over....
What was the worst band or singer you’ve ever listened to?
deleted_by_author
How is Lemmy better than Reddit?
I am a reddit refugee. Keep seeing that this is supposed to be somehow better than Reddit. As far as I can tell, it follows a similar format, less restrictive on posts being removed I suppose. But It looks like people still get down vote brigaded on some communities. So I’m curious, how it’s better?
Microsoft is enabling BitLocker device encryption by default on Windows 11 (www.theverge.com)
Putin pulls units out of Ukraine to defend Russia, Kyiv says (www.politico.eu)
Current best lemmy clients
Hey I figured I’d make a post and see the state of current lemmy appage, since I’m looking for a good one. So far I’ve used Jerboa, Thunder, Eternity, and Voyager....
The circle of life
Spreading of the 100 biggest Lemmy communities (media.gehirneimer.de)
https://gehirneimer.de/media/cache/resolve/entry_thumb/3f/93/3f93a1af4263b9bf619fdb8678fd0ab2e3df765c83e302fcacc479fb5fe11907.png...
Iran: Woman left paraplegic after being shot by police over hijab (www.bbc.com)
A mother of two has been left paraplegic after being shot by Iranian police over an alleged violation of the country’s strict hijab rules, a source with knowledge of the case has told the BBC....
Self-Hosted setup for remote music lessons?
Basically, the title. After years of inactivty, I’ll be taking music (cello) lessons again, with my teacher of yesteryear, from whom I’ve moved half a country away....
I hope tgis is a troll, but it probably isn't (lemmy.world)
Just tryna be human out here sucks
Update: I got banned from hexbear and grad lmao
How do you organise your music playlists?
Mainly aimed at those who use Spotify, Tidal, or any other streaming service like myself, but those who pirate music should still feel free to answer!...
Thoughts Around KBin's Current Status and the Importance of Community Migration Features
So my understanding is that KBin.social is now gone from the internet for the indefinite future. Ernest, who meant well, simply could not keep up with the demands due to his personal life and the development issues that were cropping up all the time. Let me get ahead of any replies and say that it’s perfectly reasonable to...