The paper ‘Reasons to Ban? The Anti-Burqa Movement in Western Europe’ examines the move to legislate against, and to criminalise face-veiling which has swept across the EU recently.

The European movement against face-veiling is now widespread, with calls to implement a ban, or a ban being in place, in France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, and Germany.

This move from country to country makes it seem like a form of “political Swine Flu”, suggests the paper’s authors, Prakash Shah, Senior Lecturer at the School of Law, QM and Ralph Grillo, Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology at Sussex.

Face-veiling is capable of multiple interpretations, by those who wear it and those who do not, both Muslim and non-Muslim. Dr Shah explains: “While some claim that face-veiling is a customary rather than religious practice, others condemn it as an instance of ‘quintessential radical Islam’ – a Western extreme interpretation of Islam and Muslim practice.”

The current rush to legislate, the academics note, is set in the context of a ‘backlash’ against multiculturalism that has been developing across Europe. In France and other countries, security, identification and order have been central to legislative debates since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Despite less than one per cent of Muslim women wearing the burqa or niqab in the West, critics also argue that the veil impedes societal integration and breeds ‘dangers inherent in self-enclosed communities’. It is seen as a symbol of the failure of the Muslim women who wear the veil to visibly declare their loyalty to the nation-state where they reside.

In Britain, and other countries too, multicultural ‘diversity’ is officially welcomed, but not when interpreted as ‘difference’. “Difference”, explains Dr Shah, “is identified as beliefs and practices which contravene principles of liberal democracy that underpin governance in much of Europe.”

Dr Shah says: “What was previously thought tolerable has now become unacceptable, and moreover, subject to the law. The legislation which has criminalised face-veiling has clearly originated with the belief, that face-veiling does not fit with European society, culture and values, and has all manner of disagreeable if not downright dangerous implications, especially for women.”

Face-veiling signifies an unwelcome racial or cultural presence, making it impossible for Muslims to be treated as ‘European’ unless they adopt ‘European’ sartorial practice.

“Face-veiling is one of those issues, like public prayers or arranged marriages, affected by a ‘repressive’ liberalism of the kind advocated by numerous European leaders, including Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy and David Cameron, often with racist undertones.

“The educative role of law is brought to bear upon ethnic and religious minorities in an effort to instruct, by force if necessary, the values of liberalism,” warns Professor Grillo.

It is also clear that many opponents sincerely believe that whether a religious or cultural symbol, face veiling is a non-liberal practice that penalises and subordinates women.

If women claim that they are not coerced into face-veiling but do so because it accords with their faith, then it is countered by saying, they have been ‘brainwashed’, notes the research.

“Freeing women from what is believed to be their submission to a patriarchal society, overrides their freedom to choose and express their religious beliefs. Anti-face-veiling discourse operates like a closed system, impervious to argument,” says Professor Grillo.

Criminalisation, the researchers argue, should always be a last resort, not least when it may harm those it is supposed to assist, for example, forcing women who voluntarily adopt the face-veil to disappear from public life.

“Legislators have sought to impose a particular narrative of the face-veil, and it is unfortunate that they have taken it upon themselves to declare a position strongly against face-veiling based on a number of narrow grounds. Leaning on the law stifles what might otherwise be a ‘natural’ dialogue among Muslims and non-Muslims, about the veil’s significance and future in Europe,” Dr Shah concludes.

The full paper, ‘Reasons to Ban? The Anti-Burqa Movement in Western Europe’, is accessible, via: http://www.mmg.mpg.de/publications/working-papers/2012/wp-12-05/

Contact: Emma Lowry
e.lowry@qmul.ac.uk
44-207-882-5378
Queen Mary, University of London

“Both Buddhists and Hindus, though still relatively small compared to the large Christian groups, have grown to the point that they are beginning to exert significant influence on the key issues that most affect their lives,” said J. Gordon Melton, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of American Religious History with the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University, who was in charge of assembling the data on both groups.

The census, the most comprehensive statistical assessment of data from the 2,000-plus religious groups active in the United States, is made every 10 years by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. The complete summary may be viewed at this link: http://www.rcms2010.org/press_release/ACP%2020120501.pdf

Both Hindus and Buddhists have temples in most states, and “the groups now regularly voice their opinions on U.S. relations with predominantly Hindu and Buddhist countries,” Melton said. “Like the Muslim congregations, Hindus and Buddhists are found in every part of the country, but they are concentrated in the big cities and still have not begun to appear in the smaller cities and rural areas.”

Another significant finding was that all areas of American religion have grown, although specific groups – especially some of the larger Christian churches – have declined or stagnated.

Southern Baptists, whose ranks grew spectacularly for a generation as it became a national organization, decreased dramatically since the year 2000. United Methodist and Evangelical Lutheran membership also decreased.

Both Muslims and Mormons (Latter-day Saints) showed dramatic increases in percentages, the former from both immigration and penetration of the African-American community, the latter from movement out of its base in the Mountain states to all parts of the country. Muslims are distinct as the majority are of Indo-Pakistani background, the second largest group being African-American, with Arab Americans a distinct minority. There are now some 6 million Mormons and 2.6 million Muslims in the country.

Other findings showed that traditional patterns continue. The Baptist Bible Belt remains across the South, the older Reformation Protestant churches are strongest across the Midwest, Latter-day Saints dominate in the Mountain West, and Roman Catholics dominate in the northeast and southwest, including the southern third of Texas.

Rodney Stark, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences and co-director of the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion, said the census is unique in its attempt to: (1) gather data from participating churches on a congregation-by-congregation basis; (2) compute membership in churches (as opposed to religious preferences as measured in national polls); and (3) assess data at the state and county level. The 2010 census includes:

• Detailed reports from more than 200 of the largest American denominations, including many that did not participate in the 2000 study.
• Most exhaustive count ever of independent, nondenominational Christian churches, including many of the new mega-churches, some on their way to becoming new denominations.
• First-ever counts of Buddhist and Hindu congregations/temples and adherents by tradition.
• Detailed coverage of Eastern Orthodox Christian Churches.
• Improved coverage of predominantly African-American religious bodies.
• Counts of Jewish congregations and adherents by tradition.
• Expanded coverage of Muslim congregations.
• More comprehensive coverage of Amish, Friends and other traditions.

ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

Baylor University is a private Christian university and a nationally ranked research institution, characterized as having “high research activity” by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The university provides a vibrant campus community for approximately 15,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating university in Texas. Located in Waco, it welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 80 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 11 nationally recognized academic divisions.

ABOUT THE BAYLOR INSTITUTE FOR STUDIES OF RELIGION

Launched in August 2004, the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion (ISR) exists to initiate, support and conduct research on religion, involving scholars and projects spanning the intellectual spectrum: history, psychology, sociology, economics, anthropology, political science, epidemiology, theology and religious studies. The institute’s mandate extends to all religions, everywhere, and throughout history, and embraces the study of religious effects on prosocial behavior, family life, population health, economic development and social conflict. While always striving for appropriate scientific objectivity, ISR scholars treat religion with the respect that sacred matters require and deserve. For more information, visit www.baylorisr.org

Contact: Terry Goodrich
terry_goodrich@baylor.edu
254-710-3321
Baylor University

Many women in contemporary Western cultures are dissatisfied with their bodies, a risk factor for eating problems. Snapp and team examined factors that make women more resilient when it comes to their body image, in a bid to help those women at risk of eating disorders. They focussed on young college women who are likely to experience self-consciousness as they compare themselves with peers and become involved in social groups and organizations that place a high value on appearance.

A total of 301 first-year college women, from two universities in the US, completed questionnaires based on the Choate theoretical model. This model hypothesizes that family support and low levels of pressure to attain the thin ideal are related to the rejection of the superwoman ideal, positive views of physical competence, and effective stress-busting strategies. These factors are associated with well-being, which in turn is linked to positive body image in women. The researchers put this model to the test in a ‘real life’ situation.

They found that young women with high family support and low levels of perceived socio-cultural pressure from family, friends and the media regarding the importance of achieving a ‘thin and beautiful’ ideal had a more positive body image. These same women also rejected the superwoman ideal, had a positive physical self-concept, and were armed with skills to deal with stress.

Practical recommendations for prevention programs aimed at young women at risk of eating disorders include helping women to evaluate and become comfortable with the multiple and often contradictory expectations placed upon them in today’s society; teaching them to use effective coping skills; fostering a positive view of their physical competence through exercise and health; and promoting holistic well-being and balance in their lives.

The authors conclude: “It is particularly important for women to develop a sense of self-worth that is not solely based on appearance, and to build resilience to pressures they may receive from family, friends and the media.”

Reference

Snapp S et al (2012). A body image resilience model for first-year college women. Sex Roles; 10.1007/s11199-012-0163-1

Contact: Joan Robinson
joan.robinson@springer.com
49-622-148-78130
Springer

The new protocol, called WS-Biometric Devices (WS-BD), allows desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones to access sensors that capture biometric data such as fingerprints, iris images and face images using web services. Web services themselves are not new; for example, video-on-demand services use web services to stream videos to mobile devices and televisions.

The WS-Biometric Devices protocol will greatly simplify setting up and maintaining secure biometric systems for verifying identity because such biometric systems will be easier to assemble with interoperable components compared to current biometrics systems that generally have proprietary device-specific drivers and cables. WS-BD enables interoperability by adding a device-independent web-services layer in the communication protocol between biometric devices and systems.

Remember the last time you bought a new computer only to learn that you then had to upgrade your printer and find the appropriate drivers? For system owners, the difficulty of upgrading devices on a biometric system can mean significant costs. Using the WS-BD protocol eliminates that problem.

“This would be useful to many organizations that house biometric systems, including border control and customs agencies,” explained computer scientist Kevin Mangold. Using current biometric systems, when one biometric sensor breaks, it can be expensive and time-consuming to find a replacement because manufacturers often change product lines and phase out previous generation devices. A few broken devices could entail having to rebuild the entire system, upgrade devices and drivers that may be incompatible with host operating systems, and retrain personnel, he said.

Biometrics are playing an increasing role in security, access control and identity management. And their use is expanding – for example, some theme parks use biometrics for access control. Fingerprints are used in conjunction with passwords for computer security. Many jobs require employees to provide biometrics; using WS-BD equipment could potentially reduce costs by facilitating interoperability in biometrics devices.

A 2010 National Academies study, Biometric Recognition: Challenges and Opportunities, recognized that “Biometric systems should be designed to anticipate the development and adoption of new advances and standards, modularizing components that are likely to become obsolete, such as biometric sensors, and matcher systems, so that they can be easily replaced.”

NIST researchers recognized this need several years ago and developed a solution with the support of the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Biometric Center of Excellence and NIST’s Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative. NIST also is working with industry through the Small Business Innovation Research Program to help bring these plug-and-play biometric devices to market.

Two NIST researchers recently demonstrated the NIST-developed WS-BD system in their lab using a tablet and two biometric sensors (see video). A tap on the tablet signals the web-enabled fingerprint sensor to capture four fingerprints from the individual whose hand is on the scanner and send it back to the tablet. A tap on another button controls a camera to take a photo for facial recognition.

The new protocol, Specification for WS-Biometric Devices (NIST Special Publication 500-288) can be found at www.nist.gov/manuscript-publication-search.cfm?pub_id=910334. Additional information on this and related projects can be found at http://bws.nist.gov.

While this is a final document, NIST welcomes your feedback, comments and questions for considerations for future updates. Send your comments to the WS-BD teams by emailing 500-288comments@nist.gov.

Watch presentation on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTxIA-wkmo0&feature=player_embedded

Contact: Evelyn Brown
evelyn.brown@nist.gov
301-975-5661
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

The study was conducted by the University of Granada Department of Experimental Psychology Óscar Iborra, Luis Pastor and Emilio Gómez Milán, and has been published in the prestigious journal Consciousness and Cognition. This is the first time that a scientific explanation is provided on the esoteric phenomenon of the aura, a supposed energy field of luminous radiation surrounding a person as a halo, which is imperceptible to most human beings.

In neurological terms, synesthesia is due to cross-wiring in the brain of some people (synesthetes); in other words, synesthetes present more synaptic connections than “normal” people. “These extra connections cause them to automatically establish associations between brain areas that are not normally interconnected”, professor Gómez Milán explains. Many healers claiming to see the aura of people might have this condition.

The case of the “Santón de Baza”

The University of Granada researchers remark that “not all healers are synesthetes, but there is a higher prevalence of this phenomenon among them. The same occurs among painters and artists, for example”. To carry out this study, the researchers interviewed some synesthetes as the healer from Granada “Esteban Sánchez Casas”, known as “El Santón de Baza”.

Many people attribute “paranormal powers” to El Santón, such as his ability to see the aura of people “but, in fact, it is a clear case of synesthesia”, the researchers explain. El Santón presents face-color synesthesia (the brain region responsible for face recognition is associated with the color-processing region); touch-mirror synesthesia (when the synesthete observes a person who is being touched or is experiencing pain, s/he experiences the same); high empathy (the ability to feel what other person is feeling), and schizotypy (certain personality traits in healthy people involving slight paranoia and delusions). “These capacities make synesthetes have the ability to make people feel understood, and provide them with special emotion and pain reading skills”, the researchers explain.

In the light of the results obtained, the researchers remark the significant “placebo effect” that healers have on people, “though some healers really have the ability to see people’s auras and feel the pain in others due to synesthesia”. Some healers “have abilities and attitudes that make them believe in their ability to heal other people, but it is actually a case of self-deception, as synesthesia is not an extrasensory power, but a subjective and ‘adorned’ perception of reality”, the researchers state.

Reference:

Auras in mysticism and synaesthesia: a comparison. Consciousness and Cognition, 2012, 21(1), 258-268 de Milán, Iborra, Pastor y otros. Avalaible at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053810011002868

Contact: Emilio Gómez Milán. Department of Experimental Psychology. Phone Number: +34958 240665. e-mail address: egomez@ugr.es

Contact: Emilio Gomez Milan
egomez@ugr.es
34-958-240-665
University of Granada

Joseph Wang and colleagues explain that different versions of microengines have been developed, including devices that could transport medications through the bloodstream to diseased parts of the body. But no one has ever shown that these devices – which are about 10 times smaller than the width of a human hair – could help clean up oil spills. There is an urgent need for better ways of separating oil from water in the oceans and inside factories to avoid releasing oil-contaminated water to the environment. Wang’s team developed so-called microsubmarines, which require very little fuel and move ultrafast, to see whether these small engines could help clean up oil.

Tests showed that the cone-shaped microsubmarines can collect droplets of olive oil and motor oil in water and transport them through the water. The microsubs have a special surface coating, which makes them “superhydrophobic,” or extremely water-repellent and oil-absorbent. “These results demonstrate the potential of the superhydrophobic-modified microsubmarines for facile, rapid and highly efficient collection of oils in oil-contaminated water samples,” say the researchers.

The authors acknowledge funding from the National Science Foundation, NATO Science for Peace and Security Program, Spanish MICINN, Beatriu de Pinós (Government of Catalonia) and University of Alcalá (Madrid).

The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 164,000 members, ACS is the world’s largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

Contact: Michael Bernstein
m_bernstein@acs.org
202-872-6042
American Chemical Society

“According to terror management theory, people deal with their awareness of mortality by upholding cultural beliefs and seeking to become part of something larger and more enduring than themselves, such as nations or religions,” said Jamie Arndt, study co-author and professor of psychological sciences. “Depending on how that manifests itself, positive outcomes can be the result.”

For example, in one study American test subjects were reminded of death or a control topic and then either imagined a local catastrophe or were reminded of the global threat of climate change. Their militaristic attitudes toward Iran were then evaluated. After being reminded of death, people who were reminded of climate change were more likely to express lower levels of militarism than those who imagined a local disaster.

“The differences seen in this study resulted from the size of the group with which the test subjects identified,” said Ken Vail, lead author and psychology doctoral student. “In both cases, they responded to the awareness of mortality by seeking to protect the relevant groups. When the threat was localized, subjects aggressively defended their local group; but when the threat was globalized, subjects associated themselves with humanity as a whole and became more peaceful and cooperative.”

After real catastrophes, such as the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the Oklahoma City bombing, people’s heightened fear and awareness of death had both positive and negative effects.

“Both the news media and researchers tended to focus on the negative reaction to these acts of terrorism, such as violence and discrimination against Muslims, but studies also found that people expressed higher degrees of gratitude, hope, kindness and leadership after 9/11.” Vail said. “In another example, after the Oklahoma City bombing, divorce rates went down in surrounding counties. After some stimuli escalates one’s awareness of death, the positive reaction is to try to reaffirm that the world has positive aspects as well.”

In their personal lives, people also were influenced to make positive choices after their awareness of death was increased. Studies found that conscious thoughts of death can inspire intentions to exercise more. Other studies found that keeping mortality in mind can reduce smoking and increase sunscreen use.

Even subconscious awareness of death can more influenced behavior. In one experiment, passers-by who had recently overheard conversations mentioning the value of helping were more likely to help strangers if they were walking within sight of cemeteries.

“Once we started developing this study we were surprised how much research showed positive outcomes from awareness of mortality,” said Arndt. “It seems that people may be just as capable of doing the opposite and ‘looking on the bright side of death,’ as the Monty Python song says.”

The paper “When Death is Good for Life: Considering the Positive Trajectories of Terror Management” was published online on April 5, 2012, in Personality and Social Psychology Review, a journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP).

Contact: Timothy Wall
walltj@missouri.edu
573-882-3346
University of Missouri-Columbia

The researchers will present their finding at Conference on Lasers and Electro Optics (CLEO: 2012), taking place May 6 -11 in San Jose, Calif.

“Over the last decade a new kind of frequency standard has been developed that is based on optical transitions, the so-called optical clock,” says Stefan Droste, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics. The NIST optical clock, for example, is more than one hundred times more accurate than the cesium clock that serves as the United States’ primary time standard.

Extremely precise time keeping – and the ability to communicate the world time standard across long distances – is vital to myriad applications, including in navigation, international commerce, seismology, and fundamental quantum physics. Unfortunately, the satellite-based links currently used to communicate that standard are not up to the task of transmitting such a stable signal, so the second retains its less precise measure. Optical fiber links could work better, but had previously been tested only over short distances, such as those separating buildings on the same campus or within the same urban area.

“The average distance between institutes that operate frequency standards in Europe is on the order of a few thousand kilometers,” notes Droste. “Spanning these great distances with an optical link is challenging not only because of the additional degradation of the transferred signal, but also because multiple signal conditioning stations need to be installed and operated continuously along the link path.” Droste and his colleagues were able to overcome the challenges by installing nine signal amplifiers along a 920-kilometer-long fiber link. They successfully transferred a frequency signal with more than 10 times the accuracy than would be required for today’s most precise optical clocks.

CLEO: 2012 presentation CTh4A.1. “Optical Frequency Transfer via 920 km Fiber Link with 10−19 Relative Accuracy” by Stefan Droste et al. is at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 10 in the San Jose Convention Center.

Press Registration

A Press Room for credentialed press and analysts will be located on-site in the San Jose Convention Center, May 6 – May 11. Media interested in attending the conference should register on the CLEO website or contact Angela Stark at 202.416.1443, astark@osa.org.

About CLEO

With a distinguished history as the industry’s leading event on laser science, the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO) is where laser technology was first introduced. CLEO unites the field of lasers and electro-optics by bringing together all aspects of laser technology, with content stemming from basic research to industry application. CLEO: Expo showcases the latest products and applications from more than 300 participating companies from around the world, providing hands-on demonstrations of the latest market innovations and applications. The Expo also offers valuable on-floor programming, including Market Focus and the Technology Transfer program.

Sponsored by the American Physical Society’s (APS) Laser Science Division, the Institute of Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Photonics Society and the Optical Society (OSA), CLEO provides the full range of critical developments in the field, showcasing the most significant milestones from laboratory to marketplace. With an unparalleled breadth and depth of coverage, CLEO connects all of the critical vertical markets in lasers and electro-optics. For more information, visit the conference’s website at www.cleoconference.org.

Contact: Angela Stark
astark@osa.org
202-416-1443
Optical Society of America

Thirty smokers who were trying to quit watched television commercials from three advertising campaigns, which all ended by showing the phone number of the National Cancer Institute’s smoking-cessation hotline. They were asked which commercials they thought would be most effective; they responded that advertising campaigns “A” and “B” would be the best and “C” would be the worst.

The UCLA researchers also consulted experts who work in the anti-smoking field and who have been involved in creating anti-smoking advertisements. These experts agreed that campaigns “A” and “B” were the best and “C” was the worst.

While the smokers watched the advertisements, they underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scans at UCLA’s Ahmanson – Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, and the neuroscientists focused on part of the medial prefrontal cortex – located in the front of the brain, between the eyebrows – a region that they have found to be especially important in previous persuasion studies.

The researchers found that activity in the medial prefrontal cortex increased much more during advertising campaign “C” than it did during campaign “A,” and somewhat more than it did during campaign “B.”

“The medial prefrontal cortex predicted ‘C’ would be the best, ‘B’ would be second best and ‘A’ would be the worst – essentially the opposite of what the experts and the participants told us they thought would happen,” said the study’s senior author, Matthew Lieberman, a UCLA professor of psychology and of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences.

“We didn’t expect how radically different people’s predictions would be from the predictions we made based on their brain activity,” said Lieberman, one of the founders of social cognitive neuroscience. “We had people telling us one thing and this brain region telling us something diametrically opposed.”

Initially, Lieberman and first author Emily Falk, an assistant professor of communication studies and psychology at the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, were concerned when they saw the results from the medial prefrontal cortex.

“We were hoping the brain data would add something to the self-reports of our participants,” Lieberman said. “Given how different they were from one another, we were afraid our brain data might not end up predicting the real-world outcomes at all.”

A few months later, after the advertisements had been broadcast, the authors received the call-volume data from the National Cancer Institute’s 1-800-QUIT-NOW hotline. They compared the number of people who called the hotline the month before and the month after each of the advertising campaigns was run. All three advertising campaigns were successful in increasing the number of phone calls to the hotline. Campaign “A” more than doubled the number of calls, “B” increased the number of calls more than ten-fold and “C” boosted the number of calls a remarkable thirty-fold. (The advertisements were shown in Michigan, Massachusetts and Louisiana.)

Activity in the medial prefrontal cortex predicted which ads persuaded more people to call the hotline significantly better than the smokers’ own thoughts about how successful the ads would be.

The research is published this month in the online edition of the journal Psychological Science, the premier journal for psychological science research, with print publication to follow.

What are the implications for the advertising industry, which often relies, at least partly, on unscientific focus groups?

“If people are making decisions based on what focus groups tell them, here’s an important brain region saying, ‘No, spend your money a different way,’” Lieberman said. “If I were deciding on an advertising campaign, I would want to know which ads are activating this region the most – that is where I would want to spend my money.”

This new research represents “the first thing you could call a neural focus group,” Lieberman said.

One reason focus groups can be misleading, he said, is that people often do not know what motivates their own behavior.

“Our brain is built to generate reasons for our actions,” Lieberman said, “and we think the reasons we come up with must be true. We believe our own reasons with an intensity that is out of proportion to their accuracy. In this study, we are bypassing people’s self-reports and getting at a form of hidden wisdom in the brain.

“We wanted to determine what kind of brain activity serves as the catalyst between people seeing a message and whether they actually change their behavior,” he said. “This is the region we identified. We have tested it multiple times, and each time, it has been successful.”

John Wanamaker, a 19th-century U.S. department store pioneer, famously said he wasted half the money he spent on advertising, but “the trouble is I don’t know which half.” Many people since Wanamaker have hoped to predict which advertising campaigns will succeed or fail before committing their advertising dollars.

“We’re too late for Wanamaker, but now we have a method for figuring out which ads will succeed,” Lieberman said.

The 30 smokers in the study were between the ages of 28 and 69; half were female.

Brain regions associated with thinking analytically have not been consistently associated with whether people change their behavior in these studies, Lieberman said. The medial prefrontal cortex is associated not with analytical thinking but with self-reflection – thinking about our own identity as well as what we like and do not like.

“Persuasive advertising seems to be about getting to people’s hearts and their identity,” Lieberman said. “We are just at the beginning of this line of research. There are many more questions than answers, but the initial results have been promising.”

In research Lieberman and Falk published in the Journal of Neuroscience in 2010, greater activity in the same medial prefrontal region was predictive of who would increase their sunscreen usage after seeing persuasive messages about daily sunscreen use.

“We knew from prior studies that this brain region predicted people’s behavior change in response to a persuasive message,” Lieberman said.

With the new study, Lieberman and his colleagues wanted to know whether they could predict not only people’s own behavior but use these brain responses to predict how effective advertisements would be throughout the country.

Persuasion research has many applications, Lieberman noted, “including how teachers can communicate better so their students won’t tune out and how doctors can convince patients to stick to their instructions. We all use persuasion in some form or another every day.”

Elliot Berkman, a former UCLA graduate student of psychology in Lieberman’s laboratory who is currently an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Oregon, was a co-author of this new study. Falk earned her UCLA doctorate in psychology, conducting research in Lieberman’s laboratory, in 2010.

To view samples of anti-smoking ads, please visit:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf01Ti6bH8U
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dR6odVmNTlw
www.youtube.com/watch?v=weVp5FXVyqM

UCLA is California’s largest university, with an enrollment of nearly 38,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The UCLA College of Letters and Science and the university’s 11 professional schools feature renowned faculty and offer 337 degree programs and majors. UCLA is a national and international leader in the breadth and quality of its academic, research, health care, cultural, continuing education and athletic programs. Six alumni and five faculty have been awarded the Nobel Prize.

Contact: Stuart Wolpert
swolpert@support.ucla.edu
310-206-0511
University of California – Los Angeles

A new study published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine documents that this elusive structure does exist anatomically.

Adam Ostrzenski, M.D., Ph.D., of the Institute of Gynecology in St. Petersburg, FL, conducted a stratum-by-stratum anterior vaginal wall dissection on an 83-year-old cadaver. The dissection established the presence of the G-spot, a well-delineated sac structure located on the dorsal (back) perineal membrane, 16.5 mm from the upper part of the urethral meatus, creating a 35 degree angle with the lateral (side) border of the urethra.

Having 3 distinct regions, the G-spot emerged with dimensions of length (L) of 8.1 mm x width (W) 3.6 mm to 1.5 mm x height (H) 0.4 mm. Upon removal of the entire structure with the adjacent margin tissues, the G-spot stretched from 8.1 to 33 mm.

“This study confirmed the anatomic existence of the G-spot, which may lead to a better understanding and improvement of female sexual function,” Ostrzenski concludes.

Irwin Goldstein, editor-in-chief of The Journal of Sexual Medicine believes that research in women’s sexual health issues is important. “This case study in a single cadaver adds to the growing body of literature regarding women’s sexual anatomy and physiology.”

Contact: Amy Molnar
healthnews@wiley.com
201-748-8844
Wiley-Blackwell