Climate change is currently threatening the livelihoods of farmers in developing countries. Psychological models have been developed to identify factors associated with adapting to climate change; however, little work has investigated the role of farmers’ risk attitudes in these models. We assessed perceptions of adaptation cost and adaptation intentions for five drought- specific adaptive behaviors among 550 farmers from 12 villages in the dry zone of Sri Lanka, as well as their attitudes toward risk. Results suggest that perceived adaptation cost and risk attitude are negatively associated with adaptation intentions. The conditional effect of adaptation cost on adaptation intention as a function of risk attitude was also investigated. Results showed that only farmers with risk averse attitudes were impacted by their perceptions of adaptation costs. These findings have implications for those interested in increasing adaptive practices of farmers in developing countries who face increasingly scarce water supplies.

Attitudes of male and female subjects toward a prospective social group member who did/did not have a history of mental illness were investigated. The cognitive, behavioral and affective components of subjects' attitudes were measured. Results from the cognitive measure indicated that: 1) Subjects in the experimental condition perceived the confederate less positively on personal characteristics indicative of moral character. 2) Male subjects perceived the confederate as more dependable when she had a history of mental illness, while female subjects perceived her as less dependable when she disclosed history of mental illness. On the behavioral and affective component measures, there were no significant differences between the groups.

Adolescence involves an increase in risky decisions, such as reckless driving and illicit substance use, but prosocial characteristics and peer affiliation have yet to be investigated as protective factors. The present study assessed altruistic tendencies, prosocial peer affiliation (PPA), and empathic concern as predictors and moderators of risk-taking, including both self-reported health risks and riskiness in a behavioral task. Young adults from ages 20 to 25 (M = 22.55, SD = 1.38) completed a battery of behavioral tasks (including the Balloon Analogue Risk Task and the Dictator Game) and questionnaires on Amazon MTurk, measuring risk-taking (drunk driving, texting while driving, binge drinking, illicit substance use, and tobacco use), altruistic tendencies, PPA, empathic concern, reward sensitivity, and self-regulation. Results indicated that drunk driving and texting while driving were negatively associated with all three prosocial characteristics, and binge drinking was related to PPA and empathic concern. Moderating effects included interactions between altruistic tendencies and reward sensitivity on drunk driving, altruistic tendencies and self-regulation on drunk driving, PPA and reward sensitivity on binge drinking, and empathic concern and self-regulation on binge drinking. Mediating effects, however, were not found. Overall, prosocial characteristics seemed to buffer against reward sensitivity and strengthen self-regulation in several models. The discussion centers on how prosocial individuals might be less prone to risk-taking, and how affiliating with positive peers can offset the effects of heightened reward sensitivity during this crucial developmental period.

The Wechsler Memory Scale –iii is the newest version of a six-decade old neuropsychological inventory. Since its conception, the Wechsler Memory Scale has been highly utilized by practitioners to accurately assess various memory functions in adult subjects. Revisions made within this inventory include the Faces I subtest, a facial recognition scale, which was added in order to strengthen the instrument’s accuracy at measuring episodic memory. Facial recognition, both cross-race and within-race, has been researched extensively and consistent biases have been found between race of test taker and cross-racial identification. Theories of exposure/contextual interaction (environment) and biological foundations have been the subject of study in the past in order to determine from where these racial identification deficits stem. The current study focuses on revealing bias in the Faces I subtest, regarding to an unequal distribution of racially representative faces in the testing materials. Eighty-eight college students were recruited to view forty-eight pictured faces from the Faces I subtest and determine the racial category to which the pictured face belonged. The subjects’ categorical responses were the basis for calculating a percent agreement score for racial category of each face. It was determined, using the results of subjects’ responses, that the Faces I subtest contained an unequal distribution of racially representative faces in both the Target and Interference testing material. This confirmed the presence of an inherent bias within the subscale. The implications of memory accuracy for the WMS-iii are discussed as it relates to different fields of study, but none more directly than the criminal justice system. Eyewitness testimony is a pivotal evidentiary tool in the criminal justice system, and ramifications of cross-racial identification deficits and biases in the tools to accurately assess memory are increasingly bringing this once heavily relied upon tool into question.